logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
28m 3s

The Stories of Smell — Sissel Tolaas

FUTURE OF STORYTELLING
About this episode

Sissel Tolaas is an expert on the art and science of smell. Her endeavor to help people rediscover this essential sense and understand its importance has led her to collaborate with some of the world’s top research institutions, cultural organizations, and brands. Today on the FoST Podcast, she shares her learnings from thirty years of research on smell and how she imagines it could shape the future.

To learn more, visit our website at fost.org

--

© 2024 Future of StoryTelling, Corp.


Produced by Future of StoryTelling, Corp.

124 West 13th Street

New York, NY 10011

Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher

Director, Carolyn Merriman

Assistant Producer, Madison Brown


in collaboration with Charts & Leisure

Founder, Jason Oberholtzer

Producer, Meghal Janardan

Editor, Garrett Crowe 

Mix and Music, Michael Simonelli


With special thanks to Sissel Tolaas, David Gray, Amy Snook, Bonnie Eldon, Michael Bass, Eitan Wolf, and Megan Worman.

Up next
Today
Directing the Machine — Eliza McNitt
Today’s guest is Eliza McNitt, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker working at the intersection of technology, science, and film. From her groundbreaking VR trilogy SPHERES to her latest AI film Ancestra, Eliza embraces emerging technologies to tell deeply personal and cosmic stories. In ... Show More
31m 16s
Sep 25
How SFMOMA Centers the Audience — Christopher Bedford
Today’s conversation is with Christopher Bedford, the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Chris is leading a bold vision to make the museum community-centered, inclusive, and reflective of San Francisco’s cultural identity. In this episode ... Show More
29m 34s
Sep 11
Meta's Wearable Revolution — Shachar Scott
Today’s conversation is with Shachar Scott, VP of Global Marketing at Meta Reality Labs. Shachar has played a key role in introducing the world to immersive, wearable technology, like the Meta Quest headset and the wildly popular Ray-Ban Meta glasses. In this episode, she shares ... Show More
28m 1s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2025
Vertigogo
In this episode, first aired in 2012, we have two stories of brains pushed off-course. We relive a surreal day in the life of a young researcher hijacked by her own brain, and hear from a librarian experiencing a bizarre and mysterious set of symptoms that she called “gravitation ... Show More
25m 48s
Sep 26
Voice
Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial information about who we are–and we rely on them to push ourselves up and out into the physical world.This week, we’re on a journey to understand h ... Show More
1h 6m
Feb 2025
Versailles: Science & Splendour
The opulent halls of 17th and 18th-century Versailles were not just filled with dazzlingly dressed courtiers and royal intrigue. They also positively buzzed with scientific discovery and innovation, making the French royal court a crossroads of science and power.  Professor Suzan ... Show More
33m 56s
Feb 2025
Revenge of the Miasma
Today we uncover an invisible killer hidden, for over a hundred years, by reasonable disbelief. Science journalist extraordinaire Carl Zimmer tells us the story of a centuries-long battle of ideas that came to a head, with tragic consequences, in the very recent past. His latest ... Show More
35m 31s
Aug 19
Jaguar with Laura Ries and James Morris
One of the most sensational rebrands of 2024 was Jaguar, the British luxury car brand that seemed to leave their legacy on the side of the road. While the uproar of negative reactions felt unanimous, a few brave souls dared to call it genius. In this episode we hear from brand po ... Show More
56m 28s
Sep 26
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s
Aug 29
Music Hat
With this episode, we’re putting on our music hat. For a program that relies so much on scoring and sound, it’s not often we talk about the musicians and the music they make that inspire us. Today, that changes. Today, we bring you two stories. Each about musicians that our forme ... Show More
31m 24s
Dec 2024
Michael Garfield — Play the (Mind) Jazz (EP.246)
My guest today is Michael Garfield, a paleontologist, futurist, writer, podcast host and strategic advisor whose “mind-jazz” performances — essays, music and fine art — bridge the worlds of art, science and philosophy. This year, Michael received a $10k O’Shaughnessy Grant for hi ... Show More
1h 19m
Sep 3
Living stories: art, space and memory
What does it mean to tell stories through the spaces we live in? And how can architecture be a source of memory and repair?In this bonus episode of Our World, Connected, host Christine Wilson revisits a powerful conversation with Kabage Karanja, architect, researcher, and co-foun ... Show More
15m 10s
Mar 2025
3. How to Have the Hardest Conversations
The final installment of our series explores the conversations that most of us dread, like frank discussions of our differences or a negative performance review at work. We often anticipate that these chats will go badly—and end in hurt feelings or embarrassment—but there are pro ... Show More
30m 40s