In a world where change is accelerating, how do we find meaning, comfort, and connection?

Whatever your spiritual beliefs, if any, the PRX podcast How God Works offers a rare combination

of cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom meant to help us all grapple with some of life's biggest

questions. Join me, Dave Dosteno, for Season 3. From meditation to psychedelics and burning

man to techshabot, we're going to take a look at what role spirituality might play in what comes

next, available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

Today, explain to listeners, hi, it's Noel. We're doing something a little different today.

We have an episode from our friends at the unexplainable podcast. This one is part of a series

they're doing on the Senses, Site, Smell, Touch, and today we have taste for you. The sixth and final

episode of that series is going to air next Wednesday. In the meantime, here we go, unexplainable

senior producer Meredith Hodnott with the story of the Umami Mama.

The science behind how things taste has been an organizing principle in my life.

It's led me to chemistry labs and test kitchens and science podcasts, but I've never met anyone

as devoted to the science of a single taste as Kumiko Minumia. My nickname is Umami Mama. Many people

don't know about my exact name, but they know Umami Mama. Kumiko, the Umami Mama, is a biochemist

and researcher. I am always talking about Umami Umami Umami. The Umami that Kumiko is always

talking about has always been a part of food, but it wasn't identified until 1908. That year,

a Japanese chemist Kiku Nai Ikeda distilled pure glutamate salt from big sheets of a seaweed

called kombu, a foundational ingredient in Japanese cuisine. This salt, monosodium glutamate,

or MSG, was more than just salty, but it wasn't exactly sour or bitter or sweet either.

Ikeda believed that MSG had a totally distinct taste, and that it was the basis of deliciousness,

or umai, Japanese, and so he called it Umami. If you eat long kukuchu stew or

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