Scent & The Mind

Today, I welcome Linda Song to the podcast. She's a female nose at the storied fragrance and flavour house of Givaudan, and lifts the lid on the rarefied and secretive world of creating perfume. What's a nose, you may ask? It's a term used to describe a perfume artist if you will, a creator of moods, memories, and scene-setting. Put simply, scent is pretty much everything; it somehow wraps up the entirety of our human experience. It’s not a stretch to say that how we consume fragrance, says a lot about our society, and where that's leading us. It's also not a stretch to say that we all want a smell that's going to hit us in the face (in the best sense) like an adventure. Ideally, if that's wrapped up in a millennia's worth of whispers, say on a hot dirt track if that's your jam, then even better! I met Linda in the summer, and it was like falling in platonic fragrant love, which is always a thrill. Linda joins me to talk about the world of a nose, what goes on behind the scenes, the constant push for explorat