This episode makes me cry every single time I hear it. It centers on a man who makes a career of pretending. Pretending to be distinctive, important, powerful. But the skill eventually proves his undoing. We meet him working the nightshift at a nondescript motel.
For the past seven years I've spent almost every spare moment listening to, searching for, and thinking about podcasts. It's something I enjoy sharing with others, and it's the single biggest reason I work in public radio. The Memory Palace is one of the very first podcasts I recommend to new listeners. The episodes are short but potent--sort of like washing your hands with concentrated dish soap. DiMeo keeps finding stories that brush up ever so gently on the familiar, giving the episodes depth and adding new, surprising layers to stories you thought you knew.
The Memory Palace is hardly ever short of magical. Episodes like "I Have Not Yet Begun To Rot," about American Revolutionary War Admiral James Paul Jones and "Six Scenes In The Life Of William J. Sidis, Wonderful Boy" are also major highlights.
The main thing to remember is take it slow. Episodes come out way more frequently now, but they still won't keep up with what you'll want. One evening riding around in Rotterdam I loaded up every episode I had. After spending years working through the catalog slowly I was shocked when I realized i was down to only five left.