What's the connection between iambic pentameter and olfactory glands? Or between rats and life coaches? This week we cross several borders and time zones to find out. With guest appearances from a poet, a rabbi, and an exterminator.

Chocolate Donuts and Cologne
Sense of smell is closely linked with human memory. In honor of National Sense of Smell Day, we go out on the street and ask people, "What smells will YOU never forget?"

Smells Like Poetry
Each year the list of national days, weeks and months gets longer. In April, Americans are observing National Poetry Month, Stress Awareness Month, Education Advocacy Week and National Sense of Smell Day, to name a few. Next Big Thing producer Curtis Fox wonders if a few alliances might not be forged, and resources shared, among the celebrants.

Smelly People
What do you get when you google the words "odor" and "poem"? It's this little ditty by English schoolteacher Roger Stevens.

Ask the Rabbi
After Rabbi Roderick Young settled a debate on the morality of egg-throwing a few weeks back, listeners came to us with more ethical dilemmas. Is it wrong to pour hot sauce onto an intruder on the fire escape? Here's what Rabbi Young has to say to this and other burning questions. Do you have a question for the Rabbi? E-mail us at nextbigthing.org.

A Growing Profession
By training, Lance Gregson is a contractor. But a few years ago, he decided he'd like to help clients restructure not only their houses but their lives. Are life coaches the next big thing?

Get a Life (Coach)
In Australia, you can get a life coach to help you do just about anything, from finding a job to finding love. Alan Jacobs seeks the latter. First step: To become irresistible, to himself and others. The highs and lows of Alan's coached life come to us by way of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's program Radio Eye. Produced by Natalie Kestecher, with sound engineer John Jacobs.

Rat Tales
Experts say New York City rats outnumber residents eight to one - and most of them are NOT pets. Urban dwellers Peter Marks, Joe Richman and Margot Tenenbaum bring us true stories of their uninvited encounters with rodents.
Border Patrol

Canadian exterminator Don Poulin knows about rat elimination. It was his father who instituted a zero tolerance policy in Alberta, successfully eradicating all rats in the province. So what advice can he give to the rat infested states to his south?

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