I am on a smell walk, a habit formed during the coronavirus pandemic: I stroll around my tree-lined neighborhood in Toronto’s east end, focusing not on the city’s more obvious sights and sounds, but on its subtler scented stimuli. I started these walks for my mental health—walking provided me with daily physical activity, and smelling enabled a much-needed sense of cognitive stillness. These days, it’s become a scavenger hunt for my curiosity, an opportunity to encounter new odors that might teach me something about the place and time I inhabit.

— Read more in The Hidden World of Scents Outside Your Door at The Atlantic.