The World of Taste & Smell

What happens when your career depends on your senses—and suddenly, you can’t rely on them?
In this episode of the World Taste and Smell Association Podcast, we sit down with Marie Wright, flavorist and co-founder of Mystic Flavours, for a candid conversation about the experience of losing her sense of taste and smell. Marie shares what it means to navigate sensory loss as a flavor professional, the challenges it creates in both her personal and professional life, and how losing these senses can fundamentally change the way you think about flavor.
We’ll explore the science, the emotion, and the unexpected perspective that comes from experiencing the world without taste and smell—and what her experience can teach an industry built around our senses.
 
Marie Wright bio
 
Marie Wright is a renowned flavorist and dynamic industry leader, recognized worldwide for her expertise as an innovator as a technical leader and Flavorist.  Blending scientific precision with creative artistry, she has crafted thousands of innovative flavor solutions across every food category spanning both human and animal nutrition.
 
Beyond her mastery of flavor creation, Marie is distinguished for her ability to build and inspire high-performing technical organizations. She champions growth, drives exceptional customer partnerships, and cultivates collaborative cultures that thrive. With visionary leadership, she empowers teams to set new benchmarks for the industry, transforming bold ideas into market-shaping realities.

WTSA’s Stephanie Feuer speaks with Téa Nicolae about how whiskey can become a tool for sensory exploration, self-knowledge, and community.
Téa Nicolae, PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh and founder of TasteVera and Women Vitae. She designs and facilitates women-focused whisky tasting experiences that combine guided sensory exploration with structured reflection. She has led over 40 sessions across Scotland, Europe, and South Asia, where she uses TheWhiskyBaba, a tool that  generates sensory projections by mapping individual receptor biology and differences in women’s taste perception against whisky chemistry
In this episode of The World of Taste & Smell you'll hear: 
Whisky as a doorway to embodied awareness
Whisky culture and gender
The Whisky Baba  tool from AshZero
How to get started  with Whisky
Whisky as a training ground for the sense
Find Tea on Linkedin and Instagram (@tasteveralab, @womenvitae) and the WhiskyBaba at thewhiskybaba.com. 
 
“Every dram holds history in it.”
 

Are we already living in the era of JOMO—the Joy of Missing Out?
This deep dive explores the growing movement away from constant stimulation and toward calmer, more intentional living. Inspired by the work of Mindy Yang and the World Taste &Smell Association, this conversation examines why consumers are choosing peace over performance, simplicity over excess, and experiences that regulate rather than overwhelm.
From sensory branding and product design to marketing, hospitality, and consumer behavior, discover how taste and smell quietly influence the way we feel, decide, and connect. If the next generation of brands is built on trust instead of attention, what does that mean for the future of design?
Part of our ongoing exploration leading up to the World Taste & Smell Summit this September, this episode offers a preview of Designing the Feel—where scientists, designers, chefs, perfumers, marketers, clinicians, and innovators come together to explore one of the most powerful forces shaping our lives: human perception.

A scent can pull us back to a moment we thought was lost—but why does smell do this so differently from our other senses?
In this episode, neuroscientist Anne-Lise Saive of the Lyfe Institute's Research and Innovation Centre joins Mindy Yang and Stephanie Feuer of the World Taste & Smell Association to unpack the science of odor-evoked memory: why scent-triggered memories aren't just stronger but qualitatively different, how the limited language we have for smell shapes what we perceive, and whether scent becomes part of our very identity. The conversation widens from the personal to the cultural, asking what we lose when the smellscape of a place or craft disappears, and whether "olfactory heritage" can be archived for future generations. Finally, at the frontier of neuroscience and AI, we ask what remains inaccessible to a machine that has never inhabited a body—and whether we'll one day share smells the way we share photographs and music. 

Featuring Agilex Perfumer Neha Okhade with Guest Host Jenna Troyli
 
What makes a fragrance unforgettable? In this episode of the World of Taste and Smell, Agilex perfumer Neha Okhade joins guest host Jenna Troyli, World of Taste & Smell Association Board Member, to explore the powerful connection between scent, memory, emotion, and wellbeing. From the lasting impact of COVID-19 on our understanding of smell to the future of emotion-driven and sustainable fragrance design, discover how today's perfumers are creating scents with purpose.

In this episode, Stephanie Feuer speaks to  Dr Xander Bertels, Head of Advocacy at Euforea, the European organization dedicated to implementing optimal care in daily practice for chronic airway diseases. In this episode you’ll hear
What Chronic Rhinosinusitis is, how prevalent it is, and the symptoms and triggers
Treatments and cures for CRS
What Euforea is doing to advocate for patients with airway diseases
ABOUT the WTSAThe World Taste & Smell Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing sensory science, education, and public awareness. Through research, storytelling, and innovation, WTSAbridges the gap between science and human experience—helping people rediscover the power of taste and smell in daily life.

In this episode, Stephanie Feuer speaks to Bridger Menlove,  about the 2026 AChemS Hill Day.  Hill Day is an annual lobbying effort. Bridger is a PhD student in Neuroscience at Florida State University. 
The Congresspeople who the AChemS team met with
The issues they raised, notably lobbying for more science funding for taste and smell research and advocating for universal smell testing
ABOUT the WTSAThe World Taste & Smell Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing sensory science, education, and public awareness. Through research, storytelling, and innovation, WTSAbridges the gap between science and human experience—helping people rediscover the power of taste and smell in daily life.

In this episode, Stephanie Feuer speaks to Amy Marks-McGee about trends in fragrance and flavor, how they develop, how experts spot them, and what trends to look for in 2026.Amy is the founder of Trendincite, and an Advisor of the World Taste & Smell Association.She is an award-winning Fragrance & Flavor Marketing Expert and Trend Researcher, with more than 25 of success within the fragrance and flavor industry. Her work experience includes fine fragrance, air care, and personal care marketing for International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF),Noville, and Givaudan.
Highlights & Key Topics
What is Trendcasting?
How to Spot a Trend?
What were the key trends in fragrance and flavor in 2025?
What will we see in 2026? What are the emerging flavor and fragrance trends?
ABOUT the WTSAThe World Taste & Smell Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing sensory science, education, and public awareness. Through research, storytelling, and innovation, WTSAbridges the gap between science and human experience—helping people rediscover the power of taste and smell in daily life

When your world goes quiet, you notice what’s missing.
In this powerful episode, hosts Stephanie Feuer and Mindy Yang of the World Taste & Smell Association speak with Katie Boateng, a leading patient advocate, co-founder of STANA (Smell and Taste Association of North America), and the incomparable force behind The Smell Podcast. Katie has lived with complete smell loss for more than 15 years — and in that time, she has transformed grief into community, purpose, and national advocacy.
Together, we explore what it means to lose a sense that most people never think about… until it’s gone.

In this episode, Stephanie Feuer and Mindy Yang of the World Taste & Smell Association speak with Dr. Derek Toomre, a Yale scientist, Professor, and inventor whose work helped transform smell testing from an inaccessible clinical tool into a global public-health innovation.
Derek’s company, U-Smell-It, created the world’s first low-cost, open-source smell-testing kit, designed to democratize olfactory diagnostics for both clinical and community use. What began as a rapid response to COVID-19 has become a vital resource for sensory health, research, and education — empowering anyone to test their sense of smell at home.
We explore how U-Smell-It works, why smell is such a powerful indicator of health, and how tools like this are changing the way we understand human perception.
You can now order U-Smell-It directly from the World Taste & Smell Association at TasteAndSmell.org.
This partnership ensures that everyone — from patients to researchers — can participate in advancing the science of taste and smell.
Highlights & Key Topics
The origin story of U-Smell-It during the early pandemic
Why smell loss is often the first sign of illness — and a vital window into neurological health
How open-source design can drive equity and innovation in sensory science
Derek’s vision for the future of smell testing and sensory diagnostics
About WTSA
The World Taste & Smell Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing sensory science, education, and public awareness. Through research, storytelling, and innovation, WTSA bridges the gap between science and human experience — helping people rediscover the power of taste and smell in daily life.
Learn more and support our work at TasteAndSmell.org.