What are memories and what's the brain doing with them?

Whenever we think about the past it brings back so many memories.

But what are memories, exactly?

According to Dean Martin, memories are made of this:

Early humans believed memory resided in the heart, but now we know that memories live inside our 3 pound brains. And like Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, we are thankful:

We learned some simple but essential facts about the brain from this short lesson taught by Monty Python’s John Cleese. He is not a doctor, but plays one on TV:

Some people use mnemonics to remember things, like “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles” for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Lettuce, Tomatoes and Mayonnaise.

If you want to remember something it really helps to make a video. Johnny Cash did just that:

Every week on “Record bin Roulette,” KPLU’s John Kessler and John Maynard put an insightful and fun spin on a century's worth of discarded vinyl. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Thursday during Morning Edition, All Things Considered and on Weekend Saturday Edition.