Welcome to Emergence Magazine's podcast.

I'm Emmanuel Vaughn Lee, executive editor of Emergence Magazine.

Each week we feature a new interview, narrated essay, or story, exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality.

Thank you. culture, and spirituality. David George Haskell is the author of the Songs of Trees,

stories from nature's great connectors,

and the forest unseen, a year's watch in nature.

In this multi-sensory essay, we are invited to travel with David

to visit and smell trees from around the world, accompanied by original musical compositions

from violinist Catherine Lehman, executive director of the Boulder Philharmonic. The scent of

trees is described in both prose and melody. From

fresh-cut wood to a fallen limb, David and Catherine take us on a journey into the unique

and sometimes surprising aromas of 11 different species of trees.

1. American Basswood. Harlem, New York City. Vintage 1908 We crack the windows on summer's first warm days. I taste diesel smoke, acid and oily.

The fumes rise from the bus stop directly under the fourth floor apartment.

The odour sinks to my gut, a thin sheen.

The ice cream truck across the street runs its generator all day into the night.

Its exhalations cling high in my nose, a bitter sinus cloud. Then, one morning in the night. Its exhalations cling high in my nose a bitter sinus cloud. Then, one morning in June,

honey and wild rose reach through the window. Combustion odors flee, a hint of lemon rind rolls

close behind. All week, the street air is drunk on basswood flowers. The knots inside us

loosen. The tree is a giant, rooted in a roadside park across four lanes of gunning engines

from our window. From tens of thousands of tiny creamy mouths, the tree

exhales its spell. Herbalists and biochemists agree, tinctures and teas made from the

...