A love letter to smell

A love letter to smell

In this eye-opening episode, you'll learn about how our sense of smell quietly shapes emotion, memory, identity and even who we fall for. All In The Mind turns its attention from addiction and AI to something far more intimate: the scents that colour everyday life. Cognitive scientist and philosopher Dr Anne-Sofie Barwich argues that smell is far more capable than most people think.

She points out that "the human nose is one of the most accurate biosensors on the face of the earth", explaining how we can detect a teaspoon of a cork-tainting compound spread through an entire year's worth of Australian red wine production. She breaks down how airborne molecules become electrical signals in the brain, and why odours feel so contextual and hard to pin down. Barwich also tackles the big question of subjectivity.

Why does coriander taste fresh to some and like soap to others? Her answer leans on genetics, receptor sensitivity and experience rather than vague talk of "personal preference", showing how variation in smell perception can have solid biological roots. Perfumer and scent branding specialist Dawn Goldworm brings a very different angle. With synaesthesia, she literally sees colours, textures and shapes when she smells, and uses this to design fragrances for brands such as Valentino and Cadillac.

She describes the Valentino scent "built like a couture gown" and admits that describing smell is as hard as describing love: "Describing a smell is like trying to describe falling in love. You know, it's almost impossible." For her, scent is a bridge to emotion and human connection, from the comfort of a baby’s smell to the disorienting odour of a new city.

Together, Barwich and Goldworm tease out how smell can be trained, why it bypasses language, and how it can both comfort and unsettle. If scent can quietly shape memory, mood and relationships, what might change if you started paying closer attention to the smells in your own life?