Christina Kim

In an overwhelming 7-to-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against Homer Plessy, laying out the legal foundation for segregation in the United States. There's little objectivity to how we interpret what we're smelling. Most smells aren't innately good, delicious, putrid, or even foul. And yet?

In an overwhelming 7-to-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against Homer Plessy, laying out the legal foundation for segregation in the United States. There's little objectivity to how we interpret what we're smelling. Most smells aren't innately good, delicious, putrid, or even foul. And yet?

In an overwhelming 7-to-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against Homer Plessy, laying out the legal foundation for segregation in the United States. There's little objectivity to how we interpret what we're smelling. Most smells aren't innately good, delicious, putrid, or even foul. And yet?

So next time you really like how something smells, ask yourself why. Start thinking about where you learned to like that smell and what that tells you about your history and identity. Coming up, how our sense of smell can help us understand what we can't always see, both in the past and the present.

So next time you really like how something smells, ask yourself why. Start thinking about where you learned to like that smell and what that tells you about your history and identity. Coming up, how our sense of smell can help us understand what we can't always see, both in the past and the present.

So next time you really like how something smells, ask yourself why. Start thinking about where you learned to like that smell and what that tells you about your history and identity. Coming up, how our sense of smell can help us understand what we can't always see, both in the past and the present.

This is Ernestine Dean. She's a South African musician and medicine woman who lived for a few years in Germany. That's where she smelled those roasted almonds, a scent that took her on a journey.

This is Ernestine Dean. She's a South African musician and medicine woman who lived for a few years in Germany. That's where she smelled those roasted almonds, a scent that took her on a journey.

This is Ernestine Dean. She's a South African musician and medicine woman who lived for a few years in Germany. That's where she smelled those roasted almonds, a scent that took her on a journey.

Ernestine may have been thousands of miles away from her childhood home in Cape Town. But in that moment, the smell of roasted nuts transported her.

Ernestine may have been thousands of miles away from her childhood home in Cape Town. But in that moment, the smell of roasted nuts transported her.

Ernestine may have been thousands of miles away from her childhood home in Cape Town. But in that moment, the smell of roasted nuts transported her.

It's something that's happened to a lot of us. We smell something and all of a sudden we're jolted out of where we are into a memory of a place or a person that almost feels real.

It's something that's happened to a lot of us. We smell something and all of a sudden we're jolted out of where we are into a memory of a place or a person that almost feels real.

It's something that's happened to a lot of us. We smell something and all of a sudden we're jolted out of where we are into a memory of a place or a person that almost feels real.

This is Rachel Herz again. She says the reason our smell memories are so evocative goes back to how our brain processes what we smell. When we smell something familiar, my grandma's perfume, say, or those almonds Ernestine Dean smelled in the German Christmas market, the parts of our brain that light up are also the areas that process our emotions, the amygdala, and our memories, the hippocampus.

This is Rachel Herz again. She says the reason our smell memories are so evocative goes back to how our brain processes what we smell. When we smell something familiar, my grandma's perfume, say, or those almonds Ernestine Dean smelled in the German Christmas market, the parts of our brain that light up are also the areas that process our emotions, the amygdala, and our memories, the hippocampus.

This is Rachel Herz again. She says the reason our smell memories are so evocative goes back to how our brain processes what we smell. When we smell something familiar, my grandma's perfume, say, or those almonds Ernestine Dean smelled in the German Christmas market, the parts of our brain that light up are also the areas that process our emotions, the amygdala, and our memories, the hippocampus.

Which is why today researchers are looking at whether or not smell can improve cognition, address PTSD, and stave off dementia. And it's also why smell triggers such emotional memories that enable us to momentarily travel across time and place.

Which is why today researchers are looking at whether or not smell can improve cognition, address PTSD, and stave off dementia. And it's also why smell triggers such emotional memories that enable us to momentarily travel across time and place.