Michael Epstein

The Curious Case of the Pheromonophone Michael Epstein

The Curious Case of the Pheromonophone is an audio story that takes you on an irreverent, true-life adventure with one of Silicon Valley's successful failed inventors - Jonathon Keats. A philosopher, an inventor and an artist, Keats has been inventing janky contraptions for over two decades, like a factory you can control with your mind and an emotionally responsive car. In this story he debuts one of his new inventions, what he calls a "pheromonophone" - a kind of smell telephone that can send your personal scent over digital networks.

With his friend and participant journalist Michael Epstein, the duo attempt to turn Keats' invention into a commercial product. We'll follow along in their journey to find funding and partners, from a digital smell entrepreneur in Africa, to a tele-dildonics inventor in Singapore, to an artist colony in one of San Francisco's largest software companies.

In the process, they'll expose the transgressive world of contemporary art, the far-flung edges of entrepreneurship, and a new perspective on why inventors invent.

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