How Smell Guides Our Inner World
The Quanta Podcast
Quanta Magazine
4.7 β’ 638 Ratings
ποΈ 5 August 2025
β±οΈ 22 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
When some people smell the molecule benzyl acetate, they identify a distinctly banana-y scent. But when others sniff the same compound, they get hints of nail polish remover. How can this be? Smell is a tricky sensory process to pin down. Our perception of scents is wide-ranging and often depends on lived experience. But researchers are building a deeper understanding of the processes underlying our nosesβ elusive machinery.Β
In this episode, host Samir Patel and ππΆπ’π―π΅π’ biology staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu explore the invisible sense that shapes our reality, from nostalgic childhood fragrances β lavender, old books β to familiar irksome odors β skunks, garbage. This topic was covered in a recent story for ππΆπ’π―π΅π’ ππ’π¨π’π»πͺπ―π¦.
Each week on ππ©π¦ ππΆπ’π―π΅π’ ππ°π₯π€π’π΄π΅, ππΆπ’π―π΅π’ ππ’π¨π’π»πͺπ―π¦ editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How would you describe the smell of a freshly moan lawn? |
| 0:07.2 | Grassy, right? Or like a freshly moan lawn? In most cases, in English at least, we refer to smells |
| 0:14.6 | as like the things that make them, rose or vanilla or garbage. But in the language spoken by the Jaha'i people who live around the |
| 0:22.8 | border between Malaysia and Thailand, there are abstract words for categories of smells, like one that |
| 0:29.9 | generally refers to the smell of ripe fruit and flowers, or another one that encompasses wild mango |
| 0:35.7 | and smoke in the caves that bats live in, it's like being |
| 0:39.3 | able to describe a family of smells the way we might say red or loud in English. |
| 0:46.1 | Smell is an important sense and an ancient one, and it's deeply tied with memory, but we |
| 0:51.1 | don't particularly have a good language for it. |
| 1:01.6 | Welcome to the Quanta podcast where we explore the frontiers of science and math. |
| 1:04.4 | I'm Samir Patel, editor-in-chief of Quantum Magazine. |
| 1:10.7 | It seems like science had long overlooked the sense of smell because it didn't seem important to human survival or |
| 1:12.3 | it was hard to describe or the molecular sources of it are hard to study. |
| 1:16.8 | But there are a number of efforts afoot today to bring some order to the world of smell |
| 1:21.9 | and understand how the sense works at a neurological level. |
| 1:25.9 | Quanta staff writer Yasmin Saplakolu recently reported on the latest |
| 1:29.3 | in this field in a piece titled How Smell Guides Our Inner World, and she's here with us to talk it |
| 1:35.9 | through. Welcome back, Yasmin. Hi, thanks for having me back. So what's the big idea of the story? |
| 1:42.4 | The big idea is figuring out different ways |
| 1:44.9 | to understand something like smell that is so abstract |
| 1:48.6 | and so intangible and how scientists are finding |
| 1:52.4 | creative ways to understand it better and to figure out |
... |
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