The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast · Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

PEL Presents PvI#110: Memories of 2026 w/ Mark and Mary

·47 min·2 clips

Mary explains her father’s stroke, newspaper hoarding, and how she stops pushing when his body starts stuttering.

1. The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast episode “PEL Presents PvI#110: Memories of 2026 w/ Mark and Mary” centers on memory, possessions, and improv scenes. 2. Mark Linsenmeier hosts with Mary Hines, and both matter because Mark brings the philosophy-and-life framing while Mary drives the improvisational characters. 3. The episode asks what objects, recordings, and performances preserve when people move, age, or change roles. 4. Mary describes a five-story Victorian mansion from her childhood and says the house was treated as a historical stewarding responsibility. 5. Mark responds with his father’s move from a giant house in Madison into a one-room memory care room. 6. The discussion gets specific about the memory care rules, including clothes for six days, under-bed storage, and seasonal items stored off-site. 7. Mary connects that downsizing to her own move to Los Angeles with two suitcases and a one-way ticket. 8. Mark and Mary compare physical keepsakes like a rose scarf, a jewelry box, and childhood trinkets with digital records and photo files. 9. Mary says she photographed most of her childhood desk contents and then threw almost all of them away. 10. They also talk about old Rolodex cards, index-card phone files, and the way photos turn into a lens for remembering events. 11. One of the most personal sections involves Mary’s father keeping notebooks of marathon runs and now using a walker. 12. Mark brings up his father’s newspaper habit, and Mary describes how she reads his stuttering body language when she pushes too far on discarding stacks. 13. Mary says she is “his clown” and uses humor to lighten the strain of his stroke and speech issues. 14. The performance side of the episode opens up through baby characters arguing about womb sounds, rain sounds, and footie pajamas. 15. The band-reference section lands on Metallica, Pink Floyd, and a correction about the Dark Side of the Moon prism. 16. Later, Mary explains that improv means flying close enough to the sun to “singe your wings just a little bit.” 17. The tone stays playful even while the subject matter includes dementia, memory care, and family caregiving. 18. The format shifts between candid conversation, character work, and self-conscious improvisation about what each performer is thinking in the moment. 19. People interested in improv, caregiving, and memory objects will get the most out of it. 20. People wanting a tightly argued philosophy lecture or no character play may skip it.

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