Kumiko's Mission Is Not to Sell Ms G

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Soap, the big fork, sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Many societies all through the world name those four as the basic part of taste. Kumiko thought that good communication could get these scientists excited about studying mami as a taste. And that excitement was the key to her plan. Was very hard work to make a good communication among all the resalterio scientists.

For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (aka the Umami Mama), scientists finally accepted a fifth. As part of its Making Sense series, Vox’s Unexplainable podcast explores whether there could be even more.

This episode was reported and produced by Meradith Hoddinott and edited by Katherine Wells, Noam Hassenfeld, Brian Resnick with help from Mandy Nyugen and Byrd Pinkerton. Music by Noam. Cristian Ayala handled the mixing and sound design. Research and fact checking by Richard Sima. Tori Dominguez is our audio fellow.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices