Only Smell One Thing

Why do we love smells? And why do they sometimes fade? This week on the Question Booth, we hear about people's personal connections to their favorite scents and go on a field trip to a candle shop.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, you must have such a fun time with getting
to interview people and talk about life and share stories.
M hm m hm. Hi and welcome to the Question Booth.

(00:25):
I'm Dylan Fagan and I'm Kathleen Coulian and thanks for
joining us today. The Question Both is both a real
place where people answer a big question each week and
a podcast where we take those answers and find out
ways that people are more alike than different. But before
we get started this week, how's it going, Kathleen, I'm
pretty pumped. Do you smell that smell? What it smells like?

(00:48):
The Question Booth to me? Okay, I think you're going
to have to explain this one well, Dylan. Today we're
listening to the answers to the question if you could
only smell one thing, what would it be? And to
start things off, I'm wondering what you would be cool
with smelling for the rest of your life? Garlic? Garlic everywhere.
Sometimes I keep my work bag next to my stove

(01:10):
at home, and when I open my bag up here
at work, it still smells like delicious, pungent garlic. I
love when that happens. The more garlic, the merrier. How
about you I love the smell of onions sizzling in
a hot pan. Well, garlic and onions go well together,
So that's probably why we're such a good co hosts exactly.
That's it. Okay, so we like food smells. But what

(01:33):
did people in the booths say this week? This week,
people were surprised to find out how much smell meant
to them on an emotional level. There's also a lot
of nostalgia that's connected to smell. These two things combined
bring us this week's pattern. We'll also visit a candle
shop to learn more about people's favorite sense. But this
candle shop has a twist. It does lead to like

(01:54):
a lot of interesting conversations about sense. As you're helping
people find like what sense, they like like, oh this
smells like my ex boyfriend and you're like, oh so yes. No,
but let's start today with Mike and Sydney, who would
be okay with smelling some interesting sense for the rest
of their lives. M Hm, hot cheetos, Hot Cheetos, that's

(02:17):
a good smell? Does it really have a smell? It?
Does it? Does it? Does? Corn and spice? Salt deliciousness? Nostalgia,
nostalgia one smell my entire life, one that means a
lot to you, one that you just would hate to lose.

(02:37):
I like the smell of like this peppermint um. Like
my grandma's house used to smell like that. I think
that'd be a good smell to always have. Was it
like a certain candle or just was her house smell?
I don't know if it's just because she ate a
lot of peppermints or just if she had that smell,
But maybe it was a candle, maybe something I should

(02:59):
you look into. You you consider yourself a super smeller,
super so I am a super smeller. I will say that, well,
I'm never have a super taster. I have a very
strong sense of smell. Um. Is there one smell that
makes you extremely nostalgic? The hot Cheetos is one. There's
a certain brand of hand soap that reminds me. I

(03:21):
don't know why, but it reminds me of being a kid.
It might have been what was in my house as
a kid. But there's a certain smell, a certain probably
chemical that's in a certain brand of hand soap, And
when I smell it, I'm like it all of a
sudden brings back a whole Russian memories. So do you
someone sometimes just in a random public bathroom, do you smell?
I mean, like if it's in my I mean, I'm

(03:42):
not going to sit there and like huff it, but
I'll get a good whip. So yeah, you come across
it randomly. Yeah, it's it's always exciting when I do,
because it's not like I sit there a note like,
oh this bathroom has it. When I do, I'm like,
I like that smell. Yeah, you just take it in,
take that moment exactly when it brings you back to

(04:02):
go back to It's crazy. It's weird how certain things
bring back memories of the past. Wow. I just a
lot to take in from that one. Cheetoh's hand soap,
Peppermint being a super smeller. I'm speaking of being a
super smeller. It kind of reminds me that I've heard
some things about smell that I've never really questioned, But

(04:23):
in doing research for this episode, I remember that old
line I've heard time and time again about how some
animals have a fast supperior sense of smell. The grizzly
bear is widely known as one of the most massive
and ferocious predators in the natural world. It may also
have one of the most powerful senses of smell on Earth,

(04:45):
but according to a recent study from Ruckerds University, humans
can actually discriminate around one trillion different odors, and supposedly
the myth about our poor sense of smell can be
traced back to Paul Broca, a nineteenth century brain search,
and Sigmund Freud even thought that are supposed its scent
deficiency made humans more susceptible to mental illness. Yes, and
it's true that our old factory bulb, which is the

(05:07):
structure that receives information about the odors that are picked
up by cells in the nasal cavity, is smaller in
scale than it is in certain animals. Also, for example,
mice have one thousand different kinds of receptors while humans
only have around four hundred. But this is an instance
where size and numbers don't matter that much. And smell

(05:27):
is a major influence on what we decide to eat, obviously,
but it can also impact how we interact with others.
A smell can even trigger a traumatic response. But in
this episode, we're really focusing on our positive feelings towards
sense and the nostalgia that they can evoke. And how
about we hear from another question bother. Here's Vivian. I
think I would smell the smell of jack fruit. The

(05:50):
smell of jackfruit is so distinct. So I've been living
in Uganda and they call it fine in the region
that I'm from, um, in the in the bus kingdom,
and the smell of a just floods everywhere, floods the
streets because there are these vendors who sell jack fruit
and you can get a delicious meal of jackfruit for

(06:11):
about ten cents that will fill you up for hours.
And um, I think the smell of jack fruit is
synonymous with community because a huge jackfruit, one the size
of a human or a small baby, is one that
you can't eat alone, and so you have to share
it with people. And so this idea of sharing and

(06:32):
being in community and being with people, I think is
captured in that smell of jackfruit. And so when you
smell jackfruit, you always are like, oh, there's tons of
people around, and you know that people are sharing, and
you know that people are coming together and sharing stories. Um.
So I think that's the smell I would pick. That's

(07:02):
a lovely story. I love that yeah, because those things
are huge and you can't eat them by yourself, and
it kind of takes a team to pick apart a
little bit. So it's a very it's an active community
for sure. Um. I remember a lot of my friends
would call on their brothers and sisters and say, oh,

(07:23):
just climb that tree, and they'll call a little a
little um boy, a little girl to climb the tree,
grab and pick a jackfruit and bring it down. And
so then we'll sit and just cut open jack fruit
and it gets sticky all over your hands, like there's
the sap dripping down your wrists. So it's just this
really fun experience of being together and eating this fruit together.

(07:46):
Then at the end you you kind of get some
sort of oil or something to to wipe off the
sap from your hands. And it's just really fun being
around people who share and not just share food, but
share story and share their vulnerabilities and share what's going
on in their life. That was Vivian and the Question Booth.

(08:11):
After the break, we'll hear some more interviews about the
power of smell. We'll be right back m hm. And

(08:32):
we're back. Thanks for joining us, and let's jump into
the question booth to hear from Frieda. I would smell
the roses from my childhood, and uh, I remember when
I was a child, roses had this really powerful, powerful
smell when I whenever I walked around, I would I
would see roses and take a deep, deep breath, and

(08:53):
it was really transporting. And now when I see roses,
I approach and I prepare, and it's only disappointment. For
some reason, roses have lost that beautiful, beautiful aroma and
I missed that from my childhood. I wish they would
come back. That's so interesting. Do you think it's the
kind of rose or do you think it was like

(09:14):
that first moment of smelling a rose. No, No, something
has changed. I think the way they breathe them or something.
I'm I'm not exactly sure, but uh, it's not my imagination.
It's not just a trick from my memory. It's it's real.
Same thing with bananas, by the way. Oh yeah, So
my next question was if you had any other nostalgic smells. I.

(09:34):
I have nostalgic flavors from from the fruits of my childhood.
I grew up in the tropics, eating tropical fruits, and
the smells and the tastes were very, very powerful. They
sort of exist, but it's just not the same. I
don't know what happens. I'd rather not know too much.
I think they spend a lot of time and storage
and transportation. But there is the cheety moja of my childhood.

(09:56):
It's this uh, this beautiful green on the outside fruit
and when you open it, it's it's stark white with shiny,
small black pebbles in it, and and the texture and
the flavor and the and the aroma is like it's
really like a dream. I remember thinking of that when
I had awareness as a child of flying above the clouds.

(10:20):
And I remember thinking looking down upon the clouds as
a child, thinking, wow, that looks like the inside of
a chirimoya. Not being able to pick up on an
aroma anymore can be a blessing and a curse. On
one hand, maybe the flowers smell a little less sweet,
But on the other maybe your house smells a little
less musty. Actually, you might have seen a Fabreeze commercial

(10:43):
or two based around the idea of nose blindness. You
get used to room smelling of sweaty odors. Yep, you've
gone nose blind. You think it add campaigns aside. There
really is a reason that our sniffers seem to lose
a cent sometimes. And here's an example. So I love
those fancy candles from the Store Ofthropology, you know those, Kathleen.

(11:03):
They're in those cool blue and silver containers there. They're
the best. Absolutely well. When you bring it home and
light it, that citruacy, sugary smell hits your odor receptors
and makes its way to your old factory bulb where
your brain decides what to do about it. Your brain
is kind of wondering, you know, is this smell pleasant
or threatening? And if you think it's pleasant, like I do,
the bad news is that after a couple of sniffs,

(11:26):
the receptors kind of switch off in the smell face
because you've decided the scent isn't one that's putting you
in danger. All right, we've heard about cheetos, fruit and roses,
but how about we hear a bit about the smell
of people. Here's Kate. Now, am I smelling it constantly?
I kind of want to know the most important smell

(11:47):
to you or something that really just my husband's armpits,
I am would just bury myself in there if I could.
Sometimes I go into perfumes ops and I like try
to smell cologne because he doesn't wear cologne, and I
always try to find one that smells like his own,
you know, his own smell because he travels a lot

(12:10):
for work that I could just spray on my pillow.
But yeah, mostly I would set up camp in his
armpit for the rest of the time. Yeah, that's so
interesting that a lot of people just love people's own smell,
like own musk. Many people are attracted to the natural smell.
But going backwards, like I love the smell of my husband,
and I love the smell of us, and I love

(12:31):
our bedroom. But when I remember being in a dorm
in college or living with roommates and you go into
someone else's room, especially in the morning when they've slept
in there all night, and it just had such an
intimate feel because I wasn't in any way, you know,
connected to that smell. I just remember the intimacy was overwhelming.

(12:58):
Wow smell. And it's really aationship to attraction, maybe one
of the most interesting angles of all for me. Yeah,
and I read this really cool article in Time magazine
about Denise Chin She's an associate professor of neurology at
Baylor College of Medicine, and she's done a lot of
research around how human odors influence the behavior of other humans.

(13:18):
She does this by making people sweat. She collects sweat
after they watch a scary movie or have sex or laugh.
But the most interesting thing about it was how people's
partners were better than strangers at guessing the emotion behind
their partner's sweat, And the longer two people had been together,
the better they were at picking up on the emotion. Wow,

(13:38):
it's incredible. Smell is so complex and in many ways
this episode has made me feel like it can also
be very personal. It seems like everyone has their own thing.
And we'll explore scent preference more. After this break, we're
going on our first field trip. That's right, we'll be
right back. M hm. And we're back. And as we mentioned,

(14:14):
we did an interview in the field this week. I mean,
we didn't have to go far, but we thought a
shop in our home base of Atlantis, Pond City Market
would be the perfect place for an episode all about smells.
So Candlefish is a store that has one hundred different
scented candles. But the catch is that none of the
scents are labeled. Instead, they're numbered one to a hundred

(14:35):
to get rid of any smell by as someone might have.
It's a really cool concept and we thought it might
help us understand our connection to smell a little bit better.
Hello Kenley, Sorry, we were taken through a smell test
by Ada Harris. People regularly surprised by a scent that

(14:57):
they end up liking. Yes, all the time, people like,
oh my gosh, I never knew I liked woods the sense,
or they'll just be so adamant about not liking floral sense.
And as crazy as we have classes here, so people
are regularly in here just smelling all the candles to
figure out what sense they want to use to make
their candles with. So they'll just be taking forever trying
to figure out what they want because they're just so

(15:19):
so stuck on the sense that they think they like.
You have to like slowly break them down to like
open up like their minds and their noses to like
other sense. And they were like, wow, this would have
been so much easier if I wasn't so resistant, so like,
you know, potentially liking something else. It does lead to
like a lot of interesting conversations about sense as you're
helping people find like what sense they like. They're like, oh,

(15:41):
this smells like my ex boyfriend and you're like, oh,
so yes, no, it would be great to maybe play
a guessing game. So, um, if you guys want to
just go down of the candle array, you can smell
inside of these bell jars. It actually picks up all
the notes. Um, so little candle science here. There's different

(16:01):
notes in each candle on They're called top, middle, dry.
So the top notes are usually the notes she'll smell first.
They're usually the lighter notes that are the first to
rise with the candle after you start burning it. Usually
even like when you smell it dry. The middle notes
are a little heavier. They start to come out slowly
as the candle has gotten a good burned time to it.
And then the dry notes are like the most prominent

(16:23):
notes that you smell when the candles towards the end
of its burn life or even like when you um
blow it out. So there definitely you're usually heavier. The
DIA had ten jars lined up for us to try
that represented the different fragrance categories of candle, stay sell.
We spent some time with all ten of them trying
to guess the sense they liked. Some of them really liked,

(16:44):
a few and a couple we weren't so big on.
Here's some of our reactions. When I first smelled, it
smelled like woodsy pine. That one was mostly lemon grass.
This one smells very clean to me, strong man deodorant,
kind of smest played dot each me. That one had
rose and lilac in it. I do not know if
I like this. This smells like beach house. It smells

(17:07):
like my girlfriend. Really, I don't know what it is.
That one was juniper berry, Lily of the Valley, amber, patuli,
and Tonka bean to self. And that's actually really funny
that she said this smells like my girlfriend, because sometimes
people will smell a candle and they'll be like next

(17:27):
to their friend and they'll be like, it smells like you,
and then their friends like what they're like, is this good?
They're That's the thing is you don't know what you
smell like. Sometimes. Actually, when people get a little overwhelmed
when they're up here, um, you know, just with all
the sense, we always tell them to smell something familiar
to them, which is often like the crook at your
arm or your hair or just any article of clothing

(17:49):
because that's what your nose is most familiar with. So
it kind of like relaxes your nose palad again so
you can smell other things more clearly. Do you feel
like people usually go to something specific more than just
saying like, oh, this smells like lavender when you tell
them is is reaction usually more like, oh, this is
an emotional There's two like different kinds of people. There's
the people who want you to tell them what's gonna

(18:11):
make them feel like good, Like I want to be relaxed,
so tell me. And I'm like, well, these are the
quote unquote essential oils and things that you know people
generally associate with these feelings. But then some people they
already know what engenders like difference feelings for them, so
they're like looking for it. There's definitely been times when
people are like, no, I'm not like offended, and they're like, oh,

(18:31):
I'm so sorry. I'm like it's your nose and smells.
I did not grow these smells with my own two hands.
So and some people love those candles, so it's like no,
bias either way towards what people like. Yeah, there's something
for everybody. There is something for everybody. And it's crazy
how different people's noses are because people will come together

(18:52):
with their friends and like you like that. Oh my gosh,
I can't believe that. Who are you? We're not friends anymore.
There's so many things that I didn't know translate into candles,
so many different sense I mean, like I said, sense
is definitely a science. I couldn't tell you how to
translate those sense. Some of them are like actually like
man made to smell like those things, which is really

(19:14):
crazy to me. Like there's some scientists that knows things
that will fit together to like imitate a certain smell.
One interesting thing to note here is that smells only
really exist in our heads. The molecules are in the air,
of course, but we can only pick up some of
them as smells. So it's surprising that we're all very
particular in what sense we like. And you might be

(19:35):
wondering what gives candles their sense. Most a combination of
natural and synthetic fragrances like a da mentioned and are
made from essential oils or aroma chemicals. Okay, back to
our field trip Um, do you think your sense of
smell has become stronger since working in this field or
being around it. It's weird. It's funny because I'm actually

(19:56):
nos blind to this store. Like I come in and
I don't smell the store, people smell it, people walking.
I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't. Like I might
smell a little bit like when I come in first
thing in the morning, and then like maybe when I'm
in my car, and I like smell like everything. But
in terms of being able to distinguish between different sets, yeah,
probably this has made me like pick up different sense.

(20:18):
So Adia works with smells all day and she's constantly
taken in all these varied sense That meant that, of course,
we had to ask her our big question from the
booth about what one thing she would want to smell
for the rest of her life. I mean, I feel
really I guess simple or basic we're saying this, but
probably lavender. I'm always like in the constantly for like

(20:38):
just calming, you know, everything's all right, And for me,
that's just like a go to scent for that. So anything,
I definitely have different lavender candles and it always just
like is like a scent I can come home to
everything just feels all right, and I smell like it's
my it's my safe set. So I think everybody should
have a safe set. Yes, it's I think it's very
personal and so specific to each peryer Sin. So that's

(21:00):
why I went to Dylan and I just smell different
things and see if we enter with them differently. Like
that's definitely why I liked this job, because it's like
it's not just selling somebody candle it's just like you
get to have like a discussion with them about that
and like people's thoughts, and like you get to know
kind of people, which is in a wey a way
that you would normally get to know somebody just like
having a regular conversation with them. So you can have
a personal conversation with people. Going to candlefish and smelling

(21:33):
all these scents really reinforce the pattern that emerged in
the booth. For me, it was interesting that so many
of our reactions were not based around guessing a fruit
or flower that we thought might be in the candle,
but rather stirred up a memory of a time or
a place. And it might seem obvious, but when you're
talking about triggering a certain emotion or whipping up a
nostalgia for smell. There are a few things that match
the power of a candle. And I've added a new

(21:55):
phrase to my vocabulary, a safe scent. You know what
surprised me this week that people in the question booth
were really delighted to talk about their favorite smell. It

(22:17):
almost seemed like everyone was gritting from ear to ear
when they were talking about the sense that they would
be okay with smelling for the rest of their lives.
And while people's answers were varied, their connections to smell
were undeniably strong. And I want to end this week
with another clip from Mike and Sydney, who are full
of surprising answers. Um, you can buy a cologne that

(22:39):
smells like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride a Disney World.
Oh my god, it does have a certain smell, a
great smell. I wish I had the money for it,
but I don't. I would love to smell like that ride.
It reminds me of like water parks because it's like
kind of chlorine. But then it's like a cave, a
fake cave, and it smells like I don't know, yeah, yeah, yeah,

(23:07):
there's a good musk, there's a bad musk, and there's
a good musk, but a cold cave musk that's a
good musk. And of course we want to know what

(23:36):
you think if you could only smell one thing, what
would it be? You can write to us at the
Question Booth at how Stuff forks dot com retweeted us
at Question Underscore Booth with your answer, and seriously, we'd
really love to hear from you. We'd like to give
us special thanks this week to our executive producer Julie Douglas,
thanks as well the senior producer, Annie Reese, and to
Candlefish and Adia Harris for speaking with us. We'd also

(23:59):
like to say Pont City Market for hosting the Question Booth.
The Question Booth is written, edited and scored by me,
Dylan Fagan, and my co host Kathleen Quillian. Smell you later, Kathleen,
I knew you were going to go there. And thanks
to everyone who came into the booth and spoke to
me about this question. And if you're in Atlanta, you

(24:19):
can visit the Question Booth too. We're on the second
floor Pont City Market twelve to five pm Friday through Sunday. Okay,
so before we go, what are we talking about next week?
We're listening to the answers to the question when was
the last time you felt lost? I think sometimes that's
what life's about, is wandering around and not knowing. But
then you know, you find more of who you are,

(24:42):
more of what you were looking for than you even realized.
That one's going to be a good one. I can
feel it. But until then, see you in the Question
Booth