Podcast listeners may have come across The Memory Palace, the longrunning series comprising bite-size vignettes about forgotten moments in history, set against a gently tinkling soundtrack. Written and hosted by Nate DiMeo, it eschews the long-winded approach of many audio historians, instead zooming in on small details and stories, from a teenage human cannonball to a small-town alien hoax to the day Niagara Falls stopped falling.

Now, DiMeo has turned his podcast into a book, which has in turn spawned an audiobook version. This might seem a little superfluous given the project stems from a podcast, but the audiobook has a slightly different flavour, featuring a cast of narrators comprising podcasting and acting royalty. They include Latif Nasser, of Radiolab fame, bringing his customary sense of wonder to A History of Martian Civilisation 1877-1906, about the Italian astronomer who claimed to have discovered human-made canals on Mars; Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds reading The Nickel Candy Bar, about a publicity stunt involving scores of chocolate bars attached to tiny parachutes being dropped on American towns and cities, causing havoc as they landed; and Dominic Hoffman delivering one of my favourites, The Glowing Orbs, about the 1960s astronaut John Glenn who thought he saw angels in space; in fact, the floating yellow seraphim were small droplets of urine that had been ejected from his space capsule.

Elsewhere, Carrie Coon, Lili Taylor, Betsy Brandt and Song Exploder’s Hrishikesh Hirway narrate assorted tales of mishap, invention and adventure. These brief historical lessons read like exquisite short stories, each of them revealing something profound about history and humanity.

• Available via Random House Audio, 8hr 41min

Further listening

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
4th Estate, 14hr 33min
Three estranged sisters are reunited following the death of another sibling in Mellor’s tale of grief and addiction. Narrated by Kit Griffiths.

What I Ate in One Year (And Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci
Penguin Audio, 7hr 48min
The actor turned sex symbol spills more secrets of his cooking and eating habits in the follow-up to his mega-selling Taste. Read by the author.