Mapping the world through five senses

MAPPING THE WORLD

through five senses

Ira Glass >> It’s an unusual job. Ralph says that wherever he goes now, he notices the sidewalk. We stand at the corner of 44th and Lexington. The window of a health food store there has a big sign that says “Juices in Sickness.” It tells you what kind of juice you should drink for a long list of diseases. Diarrhea, hypertension, impotence, hair loss. Ralph, meanwhile, is looking at a hole in the ground where some water has collected.

Ira Glass >> It’s an unusual job. Ralph says that wherever he goes now, he notices the sidewalk. We stand at the corner of 44th and Lexington. The window of a health food store there has a big sign that says “Juices in Sickness.” It tells you what kind of juice you should drink for a long list of diseases. Diarrhea, hypertension, impotence, hair loss. Ralph, meanwhile, is looking at a hole in the ground where some water has collected.

MAPPING

THE WORLD THROUGH

FIVE SENSES

02

PROLOGUE

Ira Glass: The host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life

HOST: Ira Glass GUEST: Ralph Gentles Denis Wood

I r a G l a sss s Every year, about a half-dozen people spend from late spring through early autumn walking the streets of New York, making a map of every crack, every depression, every protrusion, every pothole on every sidewalk of all five boroughs of the city.

R a l p h G e n t l e ss So in this section, we have cracks, we have depression, and we have a broken curb.

I r a G l a s s Ralph Gentles is looking at a crater the size of a manhole cover. He draws on a map he’s carrying with a red felt pen.

R a l p h G e n t l e ss So that triangle would cover the fact that you have a depression there.

I r a G l a sss s So what you do is two triangles with a line in between them, another line, and then two x’s with a line in between them?

R a l p h G e n t l e ss Yes, to indicate that the curb is also defective.

PROLOGUE

03

A cartographer drew maps to sue the New York City

I r a G l a sss s Under New York law, if you trip on the sidewalk and hurt yourself, you cannot sue the city unless somebody had informed the city beforehand that there was a problem with the sidewalk. If no one told authorities to fix it, there was no negligence. And so years ago, a group of attorneys simply decided to hire a map company to go out each year and chart every foot of sidewalk in New York.

They turn in the maps to the city, which makes it possible for injured New Yorkers to do what nature apparently intended for them to do, which is take their city to court. s R a l p h G e n t l e s On this street, I would also look at the crosswalk. It’s uneven, so we usually use some rectangles to suggest that.

04 04

II rr aa G G ll aa ss ss It’s It’s an an unusual unusual job. job. Ralph Ralph says says that that wherever wherever he he goes goes now, now, he he notices notices the the sidewalk. sidewalk. We We stand stand at at the the corner corner of of 44th 44th and and Lexington.

Lexington. The The winwindow dow of of aa health health food food store store there there has has aa big big sign sign that that says says “Juices “Juices in in Sickness.”

Sickness.” ItIt tells tells you you what what kind kind of of juice juice you you should should drink drink for for aa long long list list of of diseases. diseases. Diarrhea, Diarrhea, hypertension, hypertension, impotence, impotence, hair hair loss. loss. Ralph, Ralph, meanwhile, meanwhile, is is looking looking at at aa hole hole in in the the ground ground where where some some water water has has collected. collected.

RR aa ll pp hh G G ee nn tt ll ee ss And And we we have have these these cracks cracks here. here.

II rr aa G G ll aa ss ss I’m I’m just just going going to to name name some some of of the the things things that that you’re you’re not not putting putting on on the the map. map. There There isis aa perfume perfume and and gift gift shop. shop. There’s There’s aa natural natural foods foods place. place. There’s There’s the the passport passport photos photos place. place. In In front front of of the the perfume perfume shop, shop, there’s there’s aa guy guy sitting sitting on on aa crate crate trying trying to to fix fix aa gold gold watch. watch. Not Not very very well. well. None None of of this this goes goes on on the the map. map.

RR aa ll pp hh G G ee nn tt ll ee ss No, No, none none of of itit goes goes on on the the map. map.

II rr aa G G ll aa ss ss And And this this gets gets to to the the very very heart heart of of what what map map making making isis all all about. about. Creating Creating aa map map means means ignoring ignoring everything everything in in the the world world but but one one thing. thing. That That one one thing thing could could be be the the bus bus routes routes or or the the air air traffic traffic control control patterns. patterns. ItIt could could be be the the homes homes of of Hollywood Hollywood stars, stars, or or the the cracks cracks in in the the sidewalk. sidewalk. Maps Maps have have to to mean mean because because they they filter filter out out all all the the chaos chaos in in the the world world and and focus focus obsessively obsessively on on one one item. item.

And And this this isis the the age age of of maps maps though though you you might might not not normally normally think think of of itit that that way. way.

06

D e n i s

Wo o d

Something like 99.99% of all maps that have ever been made has been made in this century.

I r a

G l a s s

This century now?

D e n i s

Wo o d

This century that we’re in right now.

PROLOGUE

I r a

G l a s s

07

I r a

G l a s s

What are those maps? And

Well, from WBEZ Chicago and

what proportion of them,

Public Radio International,

do you think, are the maps

it’s This American Life. I’m Ira

that most of us civilians

Glass. Today on our program,

usually use, which are just

Mapping. Every map is the

road maps to get us one

world seen through a different

place to another?

lens. And today on our

D e n is

program, we bring you five

Wo o d

But you see, I think you’ve missed all the maps right off the bat as soon as you go to the road map because you have forgotten about the maps you see every night on television, the maps that litter the newspapers.

I r a

G l a s s

The weather maps.

D e n is

Wo o d

The weather maps, the maps all over the magazines.

different stories, five different ways of looking at the world, each story about somebody who is mapping the world using a different human sense.

I r a

G l a s s

Act One, Sight.

Act Two, Hearing.

Act Three, Smell.

In that act, we pay a visit to Cyrano Sciences, makers of an electronic nose.

Act Four, Touch.

Act Five, Taste.

Stay with us.

You will not be disappointed.

EPISODE ONE SIGHT

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I r a

G l a s s

Act One, Sight. Ordinary people using a map. According to cartographer Denis Wood, that is a very recent development in human evolution. Up until a few centuries ago, people went to war, built empires, sailed the seas, all without maps. We do have some ancient maps, a Babylonian map which seemed to be used by authorities for tax assessment, things like that. But early maps are relatively few, and usually exist to accomplish some

SIGHT

11

specific purpose. That has changed, of course. Denis Wood brought into the studio a set of maps that he has been working on for years, maps of his own neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, a neighborhood called Boylan Heights. Denis Wood begins with a regular locator map showing how the streets of Boylan Heights fit within he streets of the surrounding city.

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D e n i s

Wo o d

And then there’s a map of part of what would be seen if you were to look through the surface of the Earth into the neighborhood that we do not usually experience but that the sewer men and the gas men and so forth and so on expose whenever they, so it’s a map of manholes, gas lines, water lines, and sewer lines. I’m looking at a map now that’s got all of the overhead lines mapped on it, and it is a crazy star field. It’s the power lines, the telephone lines, and the cable lines. And there was a hierarchy, of course. They flow into the neighborhood from outside the neighborhood.

And as they move into individual homes, they break down. They shatter so that the homes are all like the ends of little, teeny capillaries.

I r a

G l a s s

Which makes the neighborhood sound like a living organism.

SIGHT

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s

h

e

l

p

p

t

et

n

re p t

i

a

m

p

l

m s r e

e

a

SIGHT

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D e n i s

a m

Wo o d

It is a living organism. It’s absolutely what it is.

Here’s a map that shows the pools of light cast by each one of the street lamps at night. And it’s black, and you have these pools of light.

I r a

G l a s s

p

Keep going. What else have you got?

D e n i s

Wo o d

I’ve got a wonderful map that’s every traffic sign in the neighborhood. And the traffic signs are each one of them drawn on the map. The thing that’s fascinating about this image is that the traffic signs are, of course, by and large for people who don’t live in the neighborhood. Their density reveals those streets where strangers are going to move through the environment.

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I r a

G l a s s

And when you draw it on the map, do you represent each stop sign with a the little red stop sign and each yield sign with a little yellow triangle?

D e n i s

Wo o d

Absolutely. Each one of these things has been drawn here. I have a map of the pumpkins that were on the porches at Halloween.

I r a

G l a s s

What’s that one tell you?

D e n i s

Wo o d

Well, that’s an extremely interesting map. And I like to relate it to the map that shows the number of times each residence was mentioned in the Boylan Heights newsletter over the past 25 years.

I r a

G l a s s

You’ve made a map of that?

D e n i s

Wo o d

You take all the newsletters, and you just note every address that appears in it, whether it appears as the name of an individual in the neighborhood or as a specific address. You just do frequencies attached to each one of the residences.

I r a Wow.

G l a s s

SIGHT

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“I HAVE A MAP OF THE PUMPKINS THAT WERE ON THE PORCHES AT HALLOWEEN”

SIGHT

D e n i s

Wo o d

The thing that struck me about that map when I first did it was that some locations, that is to say, some dwellings are frequently mentioned no matter who lives in them.

And I imagine that the people who are going to be movers and shakers in neighborhoods pick homes that are in important locations in the neighborhood or are architecturally significant or historically significant in the neighborhood.

I r a

G l a s s

Or they’ve just got more money, and then they buy the big place.

D e n i s

Wo o d

Well, believe me, money is what’s behind both the pumpkin map and that map.

I r a

G l a s s

Now, as you’re telling me this story, I’m thinking, so where are the pumpkins? I’m trying to guess in my mind where the greatest proliferation of little orange pumpkins would be.

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D e n i s

Wo o d

Oh, that’s not how the map looks.

What I did was photograph the pumpkins at the face. And then I printed them black on black, so all you see are the eyes and the mouths of the pumpkins on the black background. John Carpenter would love this image.

I r a

G l a s s

these maps is that you begin to build up, even though it is never said that you begin to build up the kind of structural knowledge that you take away as the residents of that neighborhood.

So the idea that we have to have the pumpkins drawn against the street only makes sense if you don’t have any other images.

So the map of the pumpkins is just

But as soon as you have other

a map where there are just little

images, you say, oh my lord,

eyes and pumpkin mouths floating

look. Look where these pump-

by the houses which have them.

kins are. Why, they’re exactly

D e n i s

where, and I’m going to answer

Wo o d

But they’re just floating on the black background, just as the traffic signs were floating.

And the map of the traffic signs. There are just traffic signs.

There’s no streets or anything.

On the map of the streets, there are just streets. On the map of the trees, there are just trees. And what you do as you go through

your question that they are exactly where people are mentioned all the time in the newsletter. And as you go away to the edges of the neighborhood, where the people aren’t mentioned in the newsletter, by golly, they don’t have pumpkins on their porches.

SIGHT

21

I r a G l a s s And are the people who are mentioned in the newsletter, do they tend to be the people in the bigger homes?

D e n i s Yeah.

Wo o d

I r a G l a s s They do?

D e n i s Oh, yeah.

Wo o d

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SIGHT

I r a

G l a s s

23

organized around something

Is it true you’ve also done a map

which had to be done or some

of the graffiti in the neighborhood?

purpose that people needed a

D e n i s

Wo o d

Oh yeah. The graffiti in the neighborhood, the things carved into the cement as it was setting

map for, it seems to me that the maps that you’re describing of your own neighborhood are about something really different.

in the neighborhood, patterns of

D e n i s

leaf light on the neighborhood,

Yeah, they are. And they’re very

that is to say the light coming

much involved with this sort of

through the leaves of the trees in

search that I have for a poetics of

the summertime.

cartography.

I r a

I r a

G l a s s

What does that tell you?

D e n i s

Wo o d

They are what it is to live in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is experienced as a collection of patterns of light and sound and smell and taste and communication with others.

I r a

G l a s s

Denis, if most maps, historically, have tended to be maps

Wo o d

G l a s s

Well, it’s interesting. It’s taking the premise of the map, which is that it’s a way to describe the world, and then pointing it at things that we usually don’t think of as being mappable.

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SIGHT

25

D e n i s

Wo o d

Yeah, and I guess one of the contentions that I would make as a geographer, also as a person.

There isn’t anything that you can’t map. There isn’t anything that doesn’t have some kind of spatial dimension or spatial character.

And that spatial character is interesting. I live in this dream of maps. And I keep looking for the map that is going to really realize the potential of this thing.

I r a

G l a s s

But Denis, I understand this impulse of wanting to capture the whole world in a map, but do you have moments where you think that it actually is not within the power of a map to do that?

D e n i s

Wo o d

Yeah, I know it’s not. I know it’s not within the power of a map to do that.

26

“THINGS THAT WE USUALLY DON’T THINK OF AS BEING MAPPABLE.”

SIGHT

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D e n i s

Wo o d

I r a

G l a s s

Sure, and that’s why I’ve produced

Right, with maps.

an atlas in which I have, on one

D e n i s

map page, just the faces of pumpkins, and another map page, all of the drawings of the street signs, because every map is selective.

But I guess what I am pushing for here is selecting subjects for cartographic display that are other

Wo o d

Yeah. Why not I r a

G l a s s

Denis Wood is the author of the book The Power of Maps. If you want to see his maps of Boylan Heights, they’re not published

than those that are typically done.

anywhere, but he’s allowed us to

I r a

American Life website. That

G l a s s

It’s almost like you’re trying to write a novel.

D e n i s

Wo o d

I am.

I r a

G l a s s

But with pure symbols.

D e n i s Maps.

Wo o d

post a few of them on the This address grab a pen. www.thislife. org. That’s “this life,” one word, no space.

XP

29

I LOR

NG YOUR WO

RL

D

E

SIGHT

AVE YOU S EEN AT H ?

WH

EPISODE T WO HEARING

day a few years ago. I’ll wait.

be people who decide to view the world

H it t

tor running? Just take a moment and listen.

Is your car engine idling? Is your refrigera-

radio. I mean, is your air conditioning on?

What’s on right now? I don’t mean the

J a c k

Jack put together this story.

Jack Hitt visited him outside of Boston. And

much less analyze. Our contributing editor

most of us do not even bother to notice,

sounds that surround us all the time, that

the sounds in his world, the everyday

At some point, Toby Lester started to map

H i t t

with it, literally harmonizing with the heater, creating interesting intervals and chords, a kind of barely audible musical score to his life in the office.

of hyper-aware of everything. And it was quite a cold week, and the heater was just humming along very loudly to the point of

the heater was playing, essentially.

found that myself humming in the key that

to it. And it was a very musical hum, and I

distraction. And I started paying attention

guy who hums at work. So he began to play

those sorts of situations, you’re always kind

editor at the Atlantic Monthly, is a musical

this problem shortly. But Tobey, who is an

to not hear his heater. You too will have

the unenviable position of not being able

Once he heard his heater, then Toby was in

J ac k

I arrived in a new job at a new office, and in

L e s t e r

you can hear what Toby Lester heard one

of the people in today’s program tend to To b y

landscape of your background noise. See if

chart of one small slice of the world, most

through one small, specialized window.

Listen to the droning around you. Map the

G la s s

Act Two, Hearing. Since every map is just a

I r a

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HEARING

L es t e r

ed an office.

the key of my office as long as I had inhabit-

realized that I had probably been singing in

And then I started to work myself back and

To b y

HEARING 33

T O B Y

H I T T

L E S T E R

J E C K

but it was indeed humming.

was humming as well. Not nearly as strongly,

suddenly realizing that yes, in fact, the computer

to the heater and staring at my computer and

I found myself sitting in this little office listening

that would, in effect, create my mood for me.

something else playing a note on top of the heater

or a major third, whether, in fact, there was

this note was there and playing a minor third

the other way around. Rather than my knowing

wondering whether it actually wasn’t working

happened to be in. But that’s when I started

to appropriately reproduce whatever mood I

No, it suited me pretty well, actually. I was able

mot too high?

Was it a good one for you? Your high notes were

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THROUGH HEARING

T O B Y

H I T T

L E S T E R

J E C K

Right.

created a certain interval.

office and the computer hum of your machine

You’re saying that the heating system in your

course, everybody is.

made sad by just sitting in my office, which, of

day long, then it’s indeed possible that I could be

in an office having a minor third played at me all

is somehow inherently sad, then if I were sitting

and a major chord is happy. If a minor third just

universally to assume that a minor chord is sad

been thinking about why is that we seem almost

were. And at the same time, for some reason, I’d

into the office and figure out what the two notes

And that brought me to bring a little pitch pipe

HEARING 35

MAPPING THE WORL

J a c k

H i t t

L e s t e r H i t t

L e s t e r

to be what’s traditionally interpreted as happy.

Right. And that happens to be a major third, which happens

T o b y

was this. [PLAYS KEYBOARD]

So together, what you’re saying is that the interval it created

H i t t

L e s t e r Yep.

J a c k

T o b y

this. [PLAYS KEYBOARD]

like the heating system. And then your computer was doing

So the first note, this one—[PLAYS KEYBOARD]—that was

J a c k

It was essentially—[PLAYS KEYBOARD]

T o b y

that interval?

So can you show us on the keyboard what was the basis of

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HEARING

37

J a c k

H i t t L e s t e r

H i t t

L e s t e r H i t t

T o b y

Yep.

L e s t e r

[PLAYS KEYBOARD]

tem. And then your computer was doing this.

KEYBOARD] —that was like the heating sys-

So the first note, this one— [PLAYS

J a c k

It was essentially— [PLAYS KEYBOARD]

T o b y

what was the basis of that interval?

Right. So can you show us on the keyboard

J a c k

telephone.

computer, and then that nasty little one was the

KEYBOARD] That was the heater, that was the

then constructing a three-note chord. [PLAYS

dial tone played a note above that, which was

a good deal of time on the phone. And the

Well, except for the fact that I was spending

T o b y

So you’re loving your new job, then.

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J a c k

H i t t

L e s t e r

preted as happy.

which happens to be what’s traditionally inter-

Right. And that happens to be a major third,

T o b y

val it created was this. [PLAYS KEYBOARD]

So together, what you’re saying is that the inter-

HEARING 39

40

DIABOLUS IN MUSICA

HEARING

J a c k

41

H i t t

So you’re loving your new job, then.

T o b y

L e s t e r

Well, except for the fact that I was spending a good deal of time on the phone. And the dial tone played a note above that, which was then constructing a three-note chord. [PLAYS KEYBOARD] That was the heater, that was the computer, and then that nasty little one was the telephone.

J a c k

H i t t

So all together, they were[PLAYS KEYBOARD] Ooh. When played against the tonic, or foundation note of his heater, the telephone created an interval known as an augmented fourth.

Toby began to do some research and discovered that the Catholic Church had assigned different meanings to numerous musical intervals back in the Middle Ages. And the augmented fourth was the most reviled sound of its time, which feared as the “diabolus in musica,” the devil in the music.

42

Toby and I were sitting in his

kitchen when I was talking to

him. And suddenly I was afflicted with the same keenness of hearing that Toby had been. I heard something, and felt compelled to identify it.

J a c k

H i t t

What is that, now that we are sitting here?

T o b y

L e s t e r

That is the tonic of the kitchen, the refrigerator humming.

J a c k

H i t t

Let’s see if we can get that. Where’s the motor? Oh yeah, here. Down here. [PLAYS KEYBOARD] T o b y

L e s t e r

That’s the note.

J a c k

H i t t

So what note is that?

T o b y

L e s t e r

B-flat.

J a c k

H i t t

So that’s the tonic of your kitchen?

T o b y Essentially.

L e s t e r

HEARING

J a c k

H i t t

Not long ago, Toby had come across a critic named Deryck Cooke, who had written a book updating the church’s musical classifications. Rather than finding the devil in the music, Cooke assigned quite modern interpretations to each sound. One interval, for example, seemed to inspire, quote, “a spirit of anguish.” Another sound was “violent longing in a context of finality.”

Apparently, any combination of notes conjured its own specific mood and sensation.

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A B-FLAT TO A C JUST TO TURN ON THE MICROWAVE

HEARING

45

46

J a c k

H i t t

For example, let’s just do one. This

J a c k

refrigerator’s in B-flat. So when

Let’s hear it.

you come in the morning and you

T o b y

put a bagel in your microwave over here, what note are we adding to the tonic here?

T o b y

L e s t e r

Let’s listen to the microwave. Even the beeping— J a c k

L e s t e r

[PLAYS KEYBOARD] J a c k

H i t t

OK, yeah, finality. There’s a sort of closure to that. And so then the bagel is ready. So let’s run that microwave.

H i t t

What was that beep, do you think?

T o b y

H i t t

So play that on the keyboard here.

L e s t e r

J a c k

H i t t

So play that on the keyboard here.

Let’s hear it.

Let’s press it again and see. A C.

T o b y

J a c k

[PLAYS KEYBOARD]

H i t t

Right. So it’s a B-flat to a C just to turn on the microwave.

T o b y

L e s t e r

Well, and let’s look at that. Let’s examine that. A B-flat to a C is a major second. And Mr. Cooke refers to it as “pleasurably longing and has a context of finality.”

L e s t e r

HEARING

47

J a c k

H i t t

OK, yeah, finality. There’s a sort of closure to that. And so then the bagel is ready. So let’s run that microwave.

T o b y

L e s t e r

[STARTS MICROWAVE] And that hum is an F-sharp, very identifiably. So the B-flat and F-sharp. [PLAYS KEYBOARD] Not a great way to start the day, really. And let’s see, what would that be? “Active anguish in the context of flux,” according to Mr. Cook.[LAUGHTER]

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HEARING

J a c k

49

H i t t

Active anguish in a context of flux.

there be a connection between

Did Sartre write this? [LAUGHS]

the low, constant humming

Toby’s research led him to Plato,

of our industrial culture and

who once wrote, “When the modes

the dissonant mood of anxiety

of music change, the fundamental

and irresolution that seems to

laws of the state change.” It sound

characterize our century?

preposterous at first, but might

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HEARING

T o b y

51

L e s t e r

We’re the first generation of people to live in an environment in which there are lots of devices buzzing, whirring, humming at us. I’m entirely a product of it. I have no awareness of a life led without some sort of humming appliance lurking somewhere behind me.

J a c k

H i t t

Of course, there must have been noises in the 16th century that were musical. If nothing else, just nature.

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HEARING HEARING

T oT b y y L eL se ts et re r o b ButBut what appliances do that I don’t what appliances do that I don’t think other natural world things havehave think other natural world things done is provide a steady drone.

It isIt is done is provide a steady drone. the the droning thatthat is really novel. droning is really novel.

My My guess is that people these daysdays guess is that people these findfind themselves a lota more bored, themselves lot more bored, in general, thanthan theythey usedused to be, partly in general, to be, partly because their appliances are are taking because their appliances taking carecare of things for them.

ButBut the the payoff of things for them. payoff is that there is this drone behind is that there is this drone behind everything.

AndAnd the the drone is sort of of everything. drone is sort a symptom of modern life.life.

We’re veryvery a symptom of modern We’re acutely aware of our ownown boredom, acutely aware of our boredom, andand we have been eased intointo ourour we have been eased boredom by all machines. boredom by these all these machines.

J aJ ca kc k H H i ti tt t So, So, let me restate my my firstfirst question. let me restate question.

Listening to your ownown background Listening to your background noise, do you hearhear what Toby Lester noise, do you what Toby Lester hears?

TryTry it again. hears? it again.

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J a c k

H i t t

Now that I can’t stop hearing it, I wonder if every exercise in mapping is really such a good thing. When I sat at my keyboard composing these lines, the computer hum and fan were droning a minor third at me, an interval associated with sorrow. Before Columbus’s day, the old maps simply showed an arrow pointing to the mysterious West, and then the words, “there dragons be.”

Maybe not every terra incognita needs discovering. But, of course, this is America. We don’t just explore, we profit. Any day now, I expect a house tuner to be ringing my doorbell, some failed telemarketer who’ll promise to harmonize the whir of my toaster with the flush of the toilet, and thereby guarantee me an inner peace worthy of the millennium.

HEARING

57

T o b y

L e s t e r

And you could obviously select from, like you might select from paint chips from a variety of different house moods, happy, sad, active anguish in a context of flux.

[LAUGHTER] I r a

G l a s s

Jack Hitt lives in New Haven.

[MUSIC—”WAY OVER YONDER IN THE MINOR KEY” BY BILLY BRAGG AND WILCO]

EPISODE THREE SMELL

60

SMELL

61

in fact, the questions that people most want to know about the nose. We just like the sound of it. Here then, her report.

A n n o u n c e r Hello, and welcome to Frequently Asked Questions About the I r a

G l a s s

Act Three, Smell. Well, tradition-

Electronic Nose. Does the electronic nose look like a nose?

ally, there are maps of things you

N a n c y

can see. And sometimes, there

Actually, no. It looks like a tiny

U p d i k e

are even maps of things that you

table. It’s a green, three-by-five

can hear, for example, those

plastic circuit board like you’d see

government maps of where the

inside a computer. And it’s sitting

jet noise is in the neighborhoods

on steel legs a couple inches high.

around airports. But finding

It does not go on your face, need-

somebody who has a need to

less to say. Sitting on top of the

understand the world—to chart

circuit board, there’s something

the world’s objects—through

that looks like a black stamp. It’s

smell, this was not easy. And then

a microprocessor, the computer

we found Cyrano Sciences,

that runs the thing. At the other

a Pasadena company that’s trying

end of the circuit board, there’s a

to make an electronic nose. Ms.

white box about an inch high

Nancy Updike headed out to

with the name Durante printed on

their offices. She prepared her

it in black letters. I’m not joking.

report in the form of those

It says Durante. And then there

“frequently asked questions” pages

was a clear plastic tube, thinner

on the Internet. Quick warning

than a pencil, that the nose uses

to listeners before we begin.

to sniff. But that’s just the guts

We have no idea if these are,

of the thing. Richard Payne is

62

the project’s chief technical officer, and he showXed me a mock up of what the outside of the final product, which is going to be a handheld electronic nose, might look like when they finally give it an outside.

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

So one would be able to push the black buttons to give it instructions as to start or stop.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

And these are black buttons that are sitting on a yellow disc, almost like—not a dinner plate but the next size down.

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

It’s a dessert plate.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

If the electronic nose could draw, oh, I don’t know, a map, say, of its world, here’s what would not be in the picture—blueberries, movie popcorn, candle wax, pretty much every smell you can think of. The electronic nose is still a baby. It has to learn each smell for the first time, just like we had to do as we grew up. It has to build up a smell archive in its computer brain that it can compare new smells too. Here’s what its map would include.

Here are the smells it can identify so far.

And be forewarned, It is a small, sad world, frankly, for the electronic nose. In preparation for its life as an industrial workhorse, the

U p d i k e

A dessert plate. Thank you.

A n n o u n c e r What can the electronic nose smell, and what can’t it smell?

N a n c y

electronic nose has been sniffing mostly nasty solvent vapors and decaying bacteria. But when scientists want to show it off, they let it identify two perfumes—the lovely Chanel Coco and the, in my opinion, overly sweet Bal A Versailles.

SMELL

63

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

We’ve opened up the bottle of perfume and inserted the sampling tube. The first sound you heard was clean air being drawn in to purge the sample chamber. And now it’s on the draw mode when it’s identifying. And it has successfully identified Chanel Coco because it was trained to identify Coco.

64

A n n o u n c e r What will the electronic nose be used for?

N a n c y

U p d i k e

By you and me? Not much. It’s going to cost $2,000 to $5,000 at first. But Richard really, really wants you to have one. So they’re going to spend the next five years coming up with a model just for you, the consumer, for under $10. Meanwhile, the electronic nose will have other assignments. Detecting landmines.

Factories could put electronic noses throughout their plants to detect dangerous gasses that might be leaking during the manufacturing process. Doctors could use a hand held electronic nose to diagnose pneumonia and other conditions that have distinctive smells.

Smell, actually, used to be a much bigger part of medical diagnosis decades ago. Richard tells me about one nation, not the United States.

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

A more neurotic nation, shall we say.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

That wants to use the nose in an elaborate scheme to detect counterfeit money. This unnamed nation.

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

Oh, it was actually the German printing office.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

Wanted to inject a smell into their money, a smell that would be detected by “die nase elektronisch.”

SMELL

65

66

A n n o u n c e r

A n n o u n c e r

How does the electronic nose work?

Right. I’ll repeat the question. How

N a n c y

does the electronic nose work?

U p d i k e

Before we get to that, let me

N a n c y

explain how actual noses work.

So the electronic nose works

U p d i k e

The inside of your nose is filled

almost the same way. Remember

with millions of little sensors,

how I said it looks like a little

like sponges. A smell, meanwhile,

table? Underneath the table, it has

is made up of a whole bunch of

a pump, like a tiny set of lungs to

different chemicals, in the form

draw smells in through the plastic

of gasses, that combine to create

tube. The air goes up the tube into

one specific odor. As you breathe

the white box named Durante,

in, let’s all breathe in, the gasses

and the box holds all the sensors.

enter your nose, and each chemical

Then some of the sensors swell

is absorbed by a different sensor

depending on whatever chemicals

that’s primed to respond to that

are in the air being drawn in.

type of chemical. The sensors, the

Electrodes measure the amount

little sponges, then send signals to

of swelling, and the microcom-

the brain. And the brain combines

puter acts as a brain to coordinate

all the data from all the different

all the information from all the

sensors and identifies their com-

sensors and to compare the new

bination as a particular smell.

pattern to smells its learned before.

SMELL

A n n o u n c e r How does the electronic nose compare to a dog’s nose?

N a n c y

U p d i k e

Dogs are used at airports to detect explosives, and they’re also used in detecting landmines.

Maybe you’ve seen them in the movies. Their nose, at this point, is pretty unbeatable for mapping smells. It has 10 times as many sensors as the human nose. And human noses have 300,000 times as many sensors as the current version of the electronic nose. But the electronic nose does have one significant advantage over dogs.

A n n o u n c e r Dogs, they tend to have a very short attention span. They usually are good for 15 or 20 minutes, and then it’s time for another dog.

A they’re expensive to train. And they’re very good.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

I didn’t know that. You always see the dogs being so focused.

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

No, they stay focused for time frames on the order of 15 minutes, maybe a good one, a half an hour.

N a n c y

U p d i k e

And is the electronic nose going to be as good as a dog’s nose?

67

68

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

R i c h a r d

P a y n e

It will be a long time before it’s as

I’m happy I’m a person and not

good as a dog’s nose, but it will be

a computer.

someday.

N a n c y

A n n o u n c e r

U p d i k e

Yeah, me too. You know, at a

Does the electronic nose have

moment like this, you really need

a soul?

an omniscient narrator with a

N a n c y

U p d i k e

A few hours into my visit at

deep voice to come in and wrap it all up. And I have one.

Cyrano, I found myself, inevita-

A n n o u n c e r

bly, thinking about that dilemma

Yes, there are similarities and

at the heart of so many science

differences between the human

fiction movies. At what point does

nose and the electronic nose. The

a machine achieve humanness?

key difference is that powerful

A machine whose sense of smell

human-computer we call the

consists of counting up all the

brain, which lets us sift through

chemicals in a particular odor

thousands, even millions of differ-

and naming them, is that really

ent odors as we map our world.

smelling? Real smelling seems

I r a

different. It seems human. Real smells have associations. They evoke memories and feelings.

We don’t just count molecules floating through the air. What we do and what we call smelling seems fundamentally different from what the electronic nose does when it smells. Richard, like any good scientist, of course, has no interest whatsoever in this idea. I won’t play for you any of the five minutes of tape of our going back and forth about it, except to say that he ended with.

G l a s s

Well, coming up, learning to map a city using your mouth your guide. Our little radio experiment in the five senses continues. Taste and Touch are left. In a minute, from Public Radio International, when our program continues.

69

SMELL

REAL

SMELLS SEEMS

DIFFERENT

THEY

EVOKE

MEMORIES AND

FEELINGS

EPISODE FOUR TOUCH

72

TOUCH

I r a

G l a s s

It’s This American Life. I’m Ira Glass. Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, invite a variety of writers, documentary producers, and performers to tackle that theme. Today’s program, Mapping. We are bringing you five stories, five ways of mapping the world, one through each of the human senses, sight, hearing, smell, and now touch and taste. We’ve arrived at Act Four, Human Touch. This is a story about somebody mapping her own body using the sense of touch. Deb Monroe is a magazine writer and contributor to public radio shows like Marketplace and The Savvy Traveler. If mapping means that you’re charting only one aspect of the world, there is a good side to being obsessed with one thing. And, of course, there is a darker side.

73

74

1

TOUCH

D e b

75

M o n r o e x

This whole thing began seven years ago. I remember the day. At a park with my daughters, babies back then, I came across a magazine article about breast cancer. It listed the warning signs. It suddenly didn’t matter that I was in a crowded public place. I had to check. So I stuck my hand under my blouse and checked for lumps. Nothing. Then I stretched out my T-shirt and peeked inside. What was that?

I’d never noticed it before, a sort of puckering on the pale skin of my breasts. Grabbing the kids and carting them to a phone, I called my doctor. Come in today, he said.

At the office, the nurses watched the babies while the doctor examined me. He looked like he was trying hard not to roll his eyes. Stretch marks, he said. Those are stretch marks.

That experience would have stopped most people from panicking and running to the doctor. Not in my case.

It catapulted me straight into the world of hypochondriacs.

When life gets stressful, I do five or six breast checks a day.

When things get really intense, that number goes up to 30 or 40. I’ve pushed and prodded my flesh so hard that I’ve actually bruised myself. I’ve done self-exams at the dinner table, in the middle of a performance at the Hollywood Bowl, and I hope they’re not listening right now, but in the studios of PRI’s Marketplace. I can’t control myself.

But it’s not just the breast exams. My husband Jim can tell you when it all began.

76

MA P P T HE WO R L

TOUCH

I NG This is a story about somebody mapping her own body using the sense of touch.

D

Touch it, feel it.

77

78

J i m Probably about seven years ago.

Probably when we were living in Dallas and Michaela was not very old. She was really pretty young.

A few months old, maybe. That’s when you had your first tumor.

I can’t remember where it was.

Was it a brain tumor? You went through so many. I think you thought you had a brain tumor.

And then we moved to Chicago, and then you had stomach cancer.

I believe you had another brain tumor, a couple of cases of breast cancer. Quite a survivor.

You have actual physical pain.

That’s the weird part. You’re convinced that you have had a headache for three weeks. You are convinced that your stomach has been killing your for three months, and that’s got to be a developing tumor somewhere between your knees and your shoulders. You’ve got this cancer that’s eating you alive. You’re convinced of that, and it’s bizarre, truly. I’m sorry. It doesn’t sound very sympathetic.

79

TOUCH

D e b

M o n r o e

The weird thing is that I’m so afraid I might actually find something that I don’t really do my breast exams correctly. My hand darts in here, there, feels around and then, relieved that there are no obvious lumps, my hand pulls away as if it’s just been burned. But knowing that I did a lousy job, I must do it again, and the cycle just repeats itself.

The cycle spiraled out of control

At a friend’s party filled with

two years ago. It was a bad time

children and music and wine,

in my life. The kids were worried

I was walking by a bookshelf

about starting school, and my

when I spotted the Merck Manual.

father was on the verge of a

It’s filled with descriptions of

nervous breakdown as my mother

diseases and their symptoms.

continued her decline into

I tried, but I couldn’t resist.

Alzheimer’s. So when a magazine

The book was suddenly in my

offered to send me to write about

hand. My friend’s husband, John,

a weekend getaway for stressed-

sauntered up, interested. He was

out moms in the mountains two

sure he had a brain tumor.

hours south of LA, I jumped at

The repeated CAT scans must

the chance.

have missed it, he said.

Well, instead of being a relaxing,

We spent the next two hours

pampering experience, I kept

pouring over the book, following

sneaking off to the bathroom to

the trail of little gray boxes of

check for lumps. I went to the

symptoms to their frightening

bathroom so many times, one lady

conclusions. Hodgkin’s disease,

asked if I had food poisoning.

stomach cancer, Ebola. John’s wife

I wonder what she would’ve said if

marched over, grabbed the book

she could see me, hunkered down

away, and pointed meaningfully

on the grimy toilet lid under the

at the children bobbing for apples.

fluorescent light, stripping to the

My husband ordered me to stop

waist so I could check myself.

reading medical information in

Fast forward to Halloween.

books and magazines.

80

3 AM r

TOUCH

81

D e b

M o n r o e

He forgot about the information that comes with prescription drugs. In teeny, tiny print on the skinny piece of paper that comes with birth control pills is that bit warning women over the age of 35 about the possibility of blood clots in the leg, which can shoot up through your veins and kill you. At 3:00 AM, I woke up with a leg cramp. It had to be a clot. I paged the doctor.

Well, since I ruined all the goodwill in that relationship, I had to move on. This time, I switched to a woman doctor. Turns out we had a lot of common—both 37, third generation Mexican-American, even grew up in the same neighborhood. She asked about the stress in my life.

82

Doctor Because a lot of times, women with pain in that area will have a psychological cause for it.

I would say maybe 50% of the time.

D e b

M o n r o e

50% of the time? I am not alone?

Doctor No, you’re not alone.

D e b

M o n r o e What’s this about?

Doctor Knowing you as I have, I think perhaps you’re just nervous and anxious about the possibility of having a problem. And with everything going on your life, it’s easy to focus on something else to put your anxiety into. And at one point, it was the pelvic pain. And that resolved once you knew that maybe this is what was causing it. Now it’s the breast situation. And maybe once you resolve whatever is in your life that might be triggering that fear and anxiety, that will resolve itself as well.

TOUCH

NO, YOU ARE NOT

83

ALONE.

84

TOUCH

D e b

M o n r o e

Ah, fear and anxiety. They are so

85

that sometimes get shunted aside when you’re busy obsessing about

‘90s. It’s all so self-absorbed. And

these maladies.

it’s this part of hypochondria—the

D e b

self-absorption—that I hate the most. I feel enormously guilty having such thoughts when millions of people are suffering from real problems.

J i m Everything is going along fine, and then it’s like, oh, I remember the syndrome. Suddenly, we’re back into it again. I think you’re doing fine, you seem to be doing fine, and suddenly, I catch you feeling for a lump or something.

I find it a little depressing.

Suddenly, it’s like what I thought was sort of a normal pattern has now come to an end, and now

when we got married that I would end up doing this?

J i m No. It’s a great question. No. Not at all. You were smart, kind of fun and liked to have a good time, seemed to be very much capable of enjoying life. You were good at what you did. Now you still are good at what you do, but your enjoyment of life has to be hampered by your constantly searching for lumps and believing you have them. That definitely doesn’t seem like the kind of thing the person I married would

we’re going to go through this

have done.

difficult time with you being dis-

D e b

tracted and sort of self-absorbed and worried. And yeah, I almost want to slap your hand like you’re a 2years old reaching for a cookie.

The trouble is, I think, that it takes your mind away from other things that it seems to me should be more important, because they actually exist, for one thing.

I mean, the tumors don’t exist and I do, your other things do,

M o n r o e

Would you have ever suspected

M o n r o e

But this is the problem. When you start mapping your own body while consumed with fear, the map’s inaccurate. The picture that you get of yourself is inaccurate.

It’s filled with landmarks that seem huge but really don’t exist.

It’s a road map that always sends you driving down the wrong road.

86

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love

and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

TOUCH

87

88

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW

ABOUT YOURSELF?

TOUCH

89

WRITE 20 THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF

I r a

G l a s s

Deb Monroe in Los Angeles

EPISODE FIVE TA S T E

92

I r a G l a s s Act Five, Mapping the World Through Taste. Jonathan Gold’s life was changed after he decided to map his city, one part of his city—by relying mostly on his sense of taste. His story begins in the early 1980s. He went back to where it all happened to tell the tale.

J o n a t h a n

G o l d

This is the historic site of Mr. Coleslaw Burger, which now is a neon sign shop specializing in Hangul characters for Korean signs. Mr. Coleslaw Burger is on Pico Boulevard. And at the time, I lived on Pico Boulevard about three or four miles down over a kosher butcher shop in a JewishIranian section of town. And I took a bus down Pico Boulevard every day for my job, which was an incredibly boring legal proofreading job at a downtown legal newspaper.

My goal in those days, I suppose, was to be Elliott Abrams, who was at that time the undersecretary of state under Reagan, who seemed to have the glamorous life of flying around from Latin capital to Latin capital, meddling in everybody’s economies and exhorting them all to try University of Chicago-style economics.

I had some vague idea that I wanted to be a government

bureaucrat. I took every civil service test that it’s possible to take.

I took the country civil service test and the state civil service test.

I took the post office test. I took the National Security Agency test.

I took a CIA test. And finally, but probably not least, I took the foreign service test. And I got a fairly high score on it. So I assumed that I was going to, at some point, join the foreign service.At some point during this year, my friend, Ken, took me to this place on Pico Boulevard—Mr. Coleslaw Burger. And Mr. Coleslaw Burger wasn’t much, I guess, in terms of restaurants. It wasn’t the most magnificent place I’d ever been to, and it wasn’t the best-smelling place I had ever been to, and sort of a surly guy behind the counter who insulted his clients and liked to be known as Mr. Coleslaw Burger himself, although his name was probably Miller.

And the thing that struck me about Mr. Coleslaw Burger was

TASTE

that here was a man who had found his mission in life. And his mission in life was to put coleslaw on hamburgers. I’m not sure if he was the very first person to put coleslaw on hamburgers, but the first person I’d ever seen. And somehow, thinking of Mr. Coleslaw Burger and thinking of the other restaurants I’d eaten at on Pico, I came up with this sort of half-baked coleslaw-inspired idea to eat at every restaurant on Pico Boulevard and to create sort of a map of the senses that would be able to get me from one end to the other.

The next week, as I was coming home from work and I had really nothing else planned for the evening or, realistically, the week or the rest of my life, I decided to do that. And I came up with a set of rules. I had to go to each restaurant in order. If the restaurant was closed, I could go to the next restaurant on the list, but means the next time I was out, I had to go back to the one that I had missed the first time.

If a restaurant was really bad, I could skip out after a bite or two. If a place wasn’t really a restaurant but, say, a candy store that also happened to sell hot dogs, then I’d have to try the hot dog, but I wouldn’t necessarily have to make it part of my meal. And as often happens with these kind of restaurants, they’d close down. So if I’d gone two miles and then a restaurant that I had gone to had closed down and opened up again, then I would have to go and eat at that restaurant before I would be able to go to the next one. Street vendors, push carts selling tacos or mangoes were optional. I usually tried to eat at them, but I didn’t consider it a fault if I didn’t.

I became obsessed with the idea of Pico Boulevard. Almost every ethnic group that exists in Los Angeles, you can find on Pico. There’s specific blocks that are Guatemalan and Nicaraguan blocks and Salvadoran blocks. There are parts of Pico where you can drive for probably a mile without seeing a sign that isn’t in Korean.

Bit There’re big sections that are Mexican, and not just Mexican but some are Oaxacan, and some are so solidly aligned with Jalisco, with Guadalajara

that you see the little symbol—the goat of the Guadalajaran soccer team, which is the Chivos—in almost every window. And it’s center for a huge concentration of Persian Jews that came over here around the time the

Ayatollah took power. I don’t think there’s another street in Los Angeles that’s quite like it.This is the El Parian, and the thumping you hear is a man butchering goats. El Parian is probably the best place in Los Angeles to find the dish called the birria, which is sometimes translated as “ugly stuff ” and in Arizona is made with beef. But in Los Angeles and in Guadalajara where the dish comes from, it means goat stew.

When you come to El Parian, usually people won’t ask you what you want.

They know what you want. There’s only one reason you come here, and that’s for the birria. You start off with some chips and beans, and then they bring it out—a big plate of goat roast. Still has the crispy parts and the savory parts and some stewy parts. And they’ll our over it this broth called consomme,

e

TASTE

95

eating the goat fine. But the goat soup that you’re able to scoop out from around the goat is the best part of the whole thing. Birria may seem like a strange thing and sort of an isolated specialty, but birria’s actually hugely popular in Los Angeles, especially among immigrants from Zacatecas state and from Jalisco, whose capital is Guadalajara. And there may be as many as 100 places specializing in the dish.

This is the last remaining location of the world famous Oki Dog, the more famous branch of which used to be on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

The original Oki was notorious because it was where everybody went after punk rock shows at the Starwood. So you’d go there at 1:00 in the morning, and there’d be a line of 300 people with mohawks and cherry-red hair and rings in their noses and Doc

which is essentially a very strong

Martens on their feet, flying the

broth made with amplified goat

flag, hanging out with the freaks.

drippings and lots of chile.

The famous punk rock singer,

First sip of the—oh, my. The first sip of the consomme—the first taste that you get is the taste of salt. And then almost immediately, like a kick in the back of

Darby Crash, who was the lead singer of The Germs, was reputed to have had his last meal at the Oki Dog just a few hours before he OD’d.

the throat, the chile comes in. It’s

That one got closed because it was

a very specific feeling. And then

the site of about half the crime

sort of like the round, almost

in the city of West Hollywood.

arc-shaped flavor of the goat,

The Pico Oki, though, was the

which is gamy but not too gamy,

one that always had the better

and the meat’s sweetness comes

food. Los Angeles has always

through. It’s a wonderful taste. It’s

been famous for its fusion food,

really well balanced. Really, I like

its multicultural concoctions of

96

things. But the same sort of thing

ing less interested in the places

that was happening in much fancier

that serve chili burgers that looked

restaurants like Chinois and Chaya

exactly like the place that served

Brasserie across town, here, Oki

chili burgers a block away. And after

Dog was doing almost the people’s

a while, all pupusas started to look

version of it.

alike to me.

My favorite item, the pastrami

During the course of this year, I’d

burrito—which is a truly fearsome

gotten the results of the first Foreign

creation capable of feeding four people

Service exam. I did pretty well. And

for four days—is a greased bun made

on the second Foreign Service exam,

with fried pastrami, fried cabbage,

I did better than I did on the first

fried peppers, a glob of chili, pickles

part. I’d been through my FBI search

and onions if you want them, and

and had been fingerprinted

wrapped inside a burrito, which

and had been checked out by gov-

is to say food with influences of

ernment physicians. I was ready to

Chinese food, Jewish food, and the

go. I was waiting for a posting some-

Los Angeles chili tradition, wrapped

where. And it occurred to me that

in a burrito which is Mexican style,

what I was looking for in the foreign

cooked by Japanese guys for an

service, that the sort of adventures

almost exclusively clientele.

I was hoping to have, that the sort of

This is the Magic Carpet Restaurant, which is a black kosher Yemenite restaurant. Mmm. Smell that mint tea. That just smells great. Magic Carpet was sort of on the end of my year on Pico. I had eaten in perhaps 150 restaurants. But at some point during the year, I started relaxing the rules a little bit. I started passing by the mango carts. I started becom-

people I was hoping to meet, I was already having right there in my own hometown.

TASTE

I r a

97

G l a s s

Jonathan Gold is now the restaurant critic for the LA Weekly and for Los Angeles Magazine. His food column “Counter Intelligence” was in the Los Angeles Times for eight years. His mission—to help readers everywhere be less afraid of their neighbors using the medium of food.

2

THIS AMERICAN LIFE MAPPING

09.04.1998

THIS AMERICAN LIFE EPISODE 110: MAPPING

www.thisamericanlife.org