This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

What comes to your mind when I say the words,

holophame?

Maybe the rock and roll holophame and Cleveland, Ohio?

Or the NASCAR holophame and Charlotte North Carolina?

Music, sports, these make sense.

For today's show, I want to take you to an unusual holophame.

It's a New York City, it pops up only once a year,

and it's the kind of attraction you might smell before you see it.

And this year, what you're looking at with all the danger tape all over it is the holophumes.

The holophumes is located in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum and Times Square.

To be honest, it's not really a hol.

It's a metal rack holding up dozens of tattered, stinky sneakers.

And these are the winners from all the past 42 years up until now.

This is Rachel Hurst.

And I'm here judging the 43rd Rotten Seeker contest as the odor judge,

because for the past 11 years, I have been the celebrity knows

who gets to smell the stinkiest feet in the country.

Contestants have to be between the ages of 8 and 15.

Let's bring up our crazy judges, come along.

The six finalists are the 2018 competition qualified

after winning similar contests at State Faires.

...