The Power of Memories | A Bit of Optimism #podcast

1 Aug 2024 · 0 min

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A short transcript excerpt from the YouTube podcast "The Power of Memories | A Bit of Optimism" featuring Simon Sinek and another speaker discussing the link between smell and memory. They note that smell is closely tied to memory, that cultural and environmental background conditions scent associations (e.g., cows vs. garbage), and they raise whether any scents are universally liked.

The sense most closely connected to memory is smell.
It's conditioned. Right. So depending on your culture, your generation, and your living environment, you smell different ingredients, different fragrances, and they're linked to different emotional experiences you're having. So, like the smell of cow, for instance. If someone lives in a rural environment, they don't think anything of it, but other people are like, oh, my God, what's that smell?
Whereas as a New Yorker, the smell of garbage I find unoffensive, but the smell of cows, absolutely awful.
Yeah, exactly.
Are there particular scents that are universally around the world liked?
Yes. Vanilla. Vanilla is the chemical sister of an ingredient called vanillin, and vanillin occurs in breast milk. So the first time your mother is holding you, you feel safe, you feel loved, and you're smelling her breast milk, you're smelling maybe some kind of baby product. It reminds us of being coddled in safety and comfort and mommy and all the good things.