The Now

For Tejal Rao, a restaurant critic for The Times, a sense of smell is crucial to what she does. After she contracted the coronavirus, it disappeared. It felt almost instant.

“If you’re not used to it, you don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “It’s almost like wearing a ...

Les Milne was a consultant anesthesiologist, and his wife, Joy, typically found that he came home smelling of anesthetics, antiseptics and blood. But he returned one August evening in 1982, shortly after his 32nd birthday, smelling of something new and distinctly unsavory, of ...

How do we smell? What role does our sense of smell play in our closest relationships? And how are brands creating scents to keep us coming back for more? In this episode of How We’re Wired, join evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin as she unpicks the science of smell, from ...  Show more

Smell can trigger memories and influence emotions. New research is giving us insight into how that happens, including why some people can "smell" music and why losing the sense of smell can alert us to what might make us sick. *** Thank you for listening. Help power On Point by m ...  Show more

International Flavors & Fragrances master perfumer Stephen Nicoll talks about a side of the fragrance industry that doesn’t get a lot of publicity: scenting household products. He explains how he creates fragrances for fabric detergents, cleaning sprays, and dryer sheets; what en ...  Show more