Perhaps the weirdest experience you’ll have sober, what exactly is déjà vu?
Video by BBC Ideas
Memory and nostalgia
The voices that stick in our minds
Are the most memorable voices just the ones we hear frequently? Or is there some other quality they have?
by Matt Huston
Why our flawed, flexible memories come with social benefits
Though relationships are grounded in shared memories, some gaps and inaccuracies can help us live well in a social world
by Gillian Murphy & Ciara Greene
How do transgender people remember their earlier selves?
Research with transgender people sheds light on the memory processes that allow any of us to navigate periods of change
by Caleb Schlaupitz
An Aboriginal painter depicts scenes from her youth in this beautiful short
A film by Grace Kemarre Robinya and Jonathan Daw
Discarded
The end of a friendship cracked me apart, triggering hidden memories – and helping me heal old wounds
by Antonia Malchik
When memories from fiction become part of who you are
Scenes from books, movies and games sometimes carry as much weight as events from people’s own lives. We’re finding out why
by Osman Görkem Çetin
Forgetting in ancient Greece and China
Forgetting can be frustrating, even scary. The ancient Greeks certainly thought so. But Daoism offers a more hopeful view
by Sam Dresser
Before it was ‘bittersweet’, nostalgia was seen as a parasite
Early modern ideas about nostalgia, infused with the elements of horror, invite us to think more deeply about human longing
by Jac Lewis
How to get better at remembering
Frustrated by elusive names and misplaced phones? The science of memory reveals ways to improve your powers of recall
by Elizabeth Kensinger & Andrew Budson
It’s not just youth’s happy memories that have a special weight
Mixed in with the highly memorable rites of growing up are more troubling highlights. But these, too, can have enduring value
by Çağlayan Özdemir, Michelle D Leichtman & David B Pillemer
Some 40 years on, actors revisit the toil and trouble of a Macbeth fiasco
Directed by James Solden
What is it like to remember all the faces you’ve ever seen?
They’ve been studied by researchers and recruited by police forces, but what’s it actually like to be a super-recogniser?
by Shayla Love
What my mother’s sticky notes show about the nature of the self
Dementia accelerates a process we all experience, as our memories become increasingly externalised into the world around us
by Crispin Sartwell
The clutter of a used bookshop forms an evocative metaphor for memory
Directed by Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
How one man saved 160 lives with an extended hand and a warm cup of tea
Directed by Alec Green and Finbar Watson