Making Sense: The Umami Mama

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (a.k.a. the Umami Mama), scientists finally accepted a fifth. So could there be even more? This is the fourth episode of our six-part series, Making Sense. For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable It’s a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics on our show. Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email. Support Unexplainable by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.0	and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
0:29.0	An ASMR guide for Marmite first timers. First toast your pillowy soft bread.
0:37.0	Push that.
0:39.0	Liberally spread that butter. Stroke that Marmite open.
0:45.0	Dip that knife and spread that. Don't overload and taste that.
0:54.0	Marmite. Love it. Hate it. Get it on.
1:09.0	It's unexplainable. I'm Noah. I'm Hassan Feld.
1:11.0	And this is our fourth episode of Making Sense.
1:14.0	Our series on some of the most perplexing questions about our senses.
1:18.0	Last week we talked about the mysteries of smell.
1:21.0	And this week senior producer Meredith Hadnott brings us a story about the fuzzy borders of our sense of taste.
1:30.0	The science behind how things taste has been an organizing principle in my life.
1:36.0	It's led me to chemistry labs and test kitchens and science podcasts.
1:41.0	But I've never met anyone as devoted the science of a single taste as Kumiko Minomiya.
1:49.0	My nickname is Umami Mama. Many people don't know about my exact name, but they know Umami Mama.
1:56.0	Kumiko, the Umami Mama, is a biochemist and researcher.
2:01.0	I am always talking about Umami, Umami, Umami.
	...

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