Rick Steves (best known for Europe Through The Back Door) talks to Celia Lyttelton, author of The Scent Trail:
Celia Lyttelton shares her story of how she traveled the world to collect the ingredients for her own perfect personal perfume — the perfect souvenir for the person who already has everything — and explains the powerful connection fragrances hold between places, memories, and our emotions.
You can listen here; many thanks to Vickyjane for the link!
In the south of France, the city of Grasse has been the center of the French perfume industry since the 16th century. After four years of renovations, a museum dedicated to explaining and celebrating perfumery has reopened in this historic city of scent.
— A short piece on NPR talks about the recent reopening of the International Perfume Museum in Grasse. About 4 minutes long; near the end, they talk to perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. Listen at French Perfume Museum A Bouquet Of Scents.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, he says, various compounds were proposed as being human pheromones, including a family of steroids related to testosterone. "But there is no good evidence that these actually are the human pheromones," Wyatt says. "The evidence is always circumstantial and rather poor."
Wyatt says if you bought a jar of something called human pheromones, it would be "wasted money."
— Tristram Wyatt of the University of Oxford talks to NPR about pheromones. Read more (or listen to the radio spot) at Pheromones: No Love Potion No. 9.
Since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, poppy production has skyrocketed in the country. The Afghan heroin industry is by far the largest in the world. For the past several years, a group of Afghan and foreign businessmen has been trying to offer an alternative, by urging farmers to grow flowers for perfume instead of for drugs. But it has been a frustrating and costly project.
— From Promoting Perfume, Not Poppies, in Afghanistan at NPR. Click on the link to read more or listen to the broadcast (about 5 minutes long). Thanks to both Anita and Oedipa for sending the link!
Kurt Anderson of Studio 360 takes Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez of Perfumes: The Guide to a Duane Reade pharmacy to smell things. Perfumistas, take heart, you won't have to hear another long discussion of Eau de Toilette vs. Eau de Parfum, etc etc etc. About 11 minutes long. You can listen below, or download an MP3 file at the website.
Update: I had trouble getting the embedded whatchamacallit above to work in Firefox; it worked perfectly for me in Internet Explorer. Your mileage may vary.
Another corpse flower has bloomed at Western Illinois U, & they're expecting 2 more... http://t.co/oRnROz6j (& they've got live video)