Oh, hey, it's the ashtray you used during the quarantine years that you repurposed as a watercolor paint dish. Allie Ward, this is Ologies. This is a subject that none of you know jack shit about because what even is it? It's great. That's what it is. So this Ologist came to my attention after a very, very weird, very public thing that happened to them last fall. And I had so many messages begging me to interview them.

And it was not a hard sell. I waited until life calmed down a bit and then got them on the line

to chat about what they do. Now, smell and culture, scent descriptions in novels, fragrances and

class, stink, stigmas. We cover it all, including their very weird and gripping backstory.

So they have a bachelor's in English literature from the University of Exeter and a master's in

issues in modern culture from the University College London. They recently completed a PhD at

Cambridge University. They're now a supervisor in English lit at Cambridge.

We talk about all kinds of smells and a fewer gross, but just hang in there. That's kind of the

whole point of this. Also, this isn't our primary olfactology episode. We still need a whole

episode about how a smell works, but this is a social science, academic, deep, weird dive into how we talk about smells,

and I love every minute of this. Boy, howdy, this is a wild ride. It's an instant classic. So we're going to get into it in a second, but first thank you to patrons who support the show for a dollar a month or more at patreon.com slash ologies. Thanks to everyone walking around in ologies merch from ologiesmerch.com. And for no dollars,

you can leave a review of which I read all, including this one from Mejah D-79, who wrote that ologies is a perfect example of the ability of passionate, knowledgeable people to make any

subject fascinating. Things that I would never have thought could keep my attention. They say are

made into a delicious cocktail full of facts, stories, and humor for my thirsty brain, from string

theory to asking if scallops have butholes. Mayha, D79, thank you for celebrating our essence.

Also, if you don't celebrate it because you don't like swear words or you need to listen with

your kids, we have shorter classroom safe, G-rated episodes in a spin-off show called Smologies. It's hours and hours of free entertainment

wherever you get podcasts. Also, you can find a whole catalog of our 400-plus regular Ologies

episodes anywhere you get podcasts or just by hitting up Oogies.com where they're all organized.

Okay, so let's get into this episode and wait around for their absolutely bonkers life

story. And toward the end, they make a revelation about them that shocked me. It left me gagged.

So hang tight, breathe in deep, the fowl, the fragrant, the peppermint, the tobacco,

...