In 2006, Foer won the USA Memory Championship, and set a new U.S. record in the "speed cards" event by memorizing a deck of 52 cards in 1 minute and 40 seconds.[4] Foer's interest in competitive memory started a year earlier (2005) when he attended the USA Memory Championships as a journalist.[4] He then studied under a British grandmaster of memory, Ed Cooke.[5] Foer credits his sharp memory to creating memory palaces and the use of mnemonics, a learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory. Foer participated only in the 2006 USA Memory Championships.[4][6]
Foer's first book, Moonwalking with Einstein, was published by Penguin in March 2011.[7] The book describes his journey throughout the world of competitive memory and attempts to delineate the capacity of the human mind.[7] He received a $1.2 million advance for the book.[2] Film rights were optioned by Columbia Pictures shortly after publication.[8] The book was a finalist for the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.[9]
Foer co-founded Atlas Obscura in 2009. The company's mission is to inspire wonder and curiosity about the world.[17] Foer is also the co-author of the #1 NYT bestselling book, Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders.[18]
Other organizations
Foer has founded several organizations, several of them dedicated to preserving Jewish traditions. In 2013, Foer co-founded the website Sefaria with Google developer Brett Lockspeiser, in order to transcribe, translate and digitize the core texts of Judaism.[19] Since then, the website has grown to include a full digitization of the Talmud with a focus on connecting links to related texts within the Jewish faith.[20] The organization recently announced plans to build similar website archives, starting with the preservation of central texts surrounding the American Revolution and United States democracy.[21]
Foer's other ventures include the organization of Sukkah City, a public art exhibition in Union Square, New York City that challenged artists and architects to reimagine the Jewish holiday tradition of building a sukkah in 2010.[22] A documentary film directed by Jason Hutt was also made to depict and commemorate the event.[23] Foer is also a board member of the Jim Joseph Foundation for Jewish education.[24] In 2013, Foer was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.[25]