Why do some people like spicy food?

But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids

Vermont Public

Nature, Language, Kids & Family, Science

4.4 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever wondered why some spices burn your throat while others tickle your nose? Or why some of us live for spicy foods while others sweat at the mere thought of a habanero? How do pickles stay crunchy if they’re sitting in brine for weeks on end? And why do we have such different food preferences from our friends? We’re answering your food questions with chef and author Kenji López-Alt, author of the kids book Every Night is Pizza Night and co-host of The Recipe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is But Why? A podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont Public.
0:24.5	I'm Jane Lindholm.
0:25.6	On this show, we take questions from curious kids just like you, and we find answers.
0:30.8	We humans eat a lot of food.
0:34.1	Three meals a day, plus snacks, that really adds up.
0:40.3	You know, food is essential for keeping us alive,
0:47.3	but it's way more than that. Food makes us feel pleasure, or sometimes revulsion, when you're grossed out by something on your plate or in your mouth. Food helps us bond with friends and family.
0:53.5	It's a way we learn about and share our culture.
0:56.4	So it stands to reason that you have a lot of questions about food. And it's been a while since we did an episode all about food. So today we're going to talk with a guy who thinks about food and writes about food and talks about food and makes food all the time. I am Kenji Lopez-Alte.
1:13.8	I'm the author of The Food Lab and The Walk, as well as the children's book Every Night is Pizza
1:19.5	Night, and I host a YouTube show called Kenji's Cooking Show. Kenji also helps us figure out how to make good
1:26.3	food. I write recipes for home cooks, so I try and help people make food at home more easily or better.
1:34.4	I try and make people feel more comfortable in the kitchen.
1:37.5	I think kids might be surprised to know that that can be a whole job.
1:41.7	Yeah, it is a whole job.
1:43.2	Yeah, well, because nobody's born knowing how to cook. And a lot of
1:46.2	people are lucky enough that they learn, you know, how to cook from their parents or perhaps, you know,
1:50.1	someone else in their household growing up. But a lot of people don't do that. And they find
1:53.7	themselves out in the world having to feed themselves or feed their friends and family. And they
1:57.8	don't really know how to do it. You know, they're just kind of plopped in there, and they've got to figure it out on their own. So my job is kind of to guide people to help them
2:05.3	do that with some amount of confidence. And my goal has always been to think about myself when I was
2:11.1	first learning how to cook and to, you know, sort of to write to myself as if I was, the books and the material that I wish I had
	...

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