1 00:00:20,580 --> 00:00:23,820 Jane: This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont 2 00:00:23,820 --> 00:00:27,105 Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions 3 00:00:27,105 --> 00:00:31,965 from curious kids just like you, and we find answers. We humans 4 00:00:31,965 --> 00:00:36,885 eat a lot of food. Three meals a day, plus snacks. That really 5 00:00:36,885 --> 00:00:40,545 adds up. You know, food is essential for keeping us alive, 6 00:00:40,605 --> 00:00:44,565 but it's way more than that. Food makes us feel pleasure... 7 00:00:44,685 --> 00:00:48,690 or sometimes revulsion, when you're grossed out by something 8 00:00:48,690 --> 00:00:52,530 on your plate or in your mouth. Food helps us bond with friends 9 00:00:52,530 --> 00:00:56,970 and family. It's a way we learn about and share our culture. So 10 00:00:56,970 --> 00:01:00,330 it stands to reason that you have a lot of questions about 11 00:01:00,330 --> 00:01:03,270 food, and it's been a while since we did an episode all 12 00:01:03,270 --> 00:01:05,910 about food. So today we're going to talk with a guy who thinks 13 00:01:05,910 --> 00:01:09,990 about food and writes about food and talks about food and makes 14 00:01:09,990 --> 00:01:11,535 food all the time. 15 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:15,620 Kenji López-Alt: I am Kenji López-Alt. I'm the author of The 16 00:01:15,620 --> 00:01:19,280 Food Lab and The Wok as well as the children's book Every Night 17 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,580 is Pizza Night, and I host a YouTube show called Kenji's 18 00:01:22,580 --> 00:01:23,360 Cooking Show. 19 00:01:23,540 --> 00:01:26,780 Jane: Kenji also helps us figure out how to make good food. 20 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,620 Kenji López-Alt: I write recipes for home cooks, so I try and 21 00:01:30,620 --> 00:01:34,580 help people make food at home more easily or better. Yeah, I 22 00:01:34,580 --> 00:01:36,980 try and make people feel more comfortable in the kitchen. 23 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:39,800 Jane: I think kids might be surprised to know that that can 24 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:40,460 be a whole job. 25 00:01:41,860 --> 00:01:43,960 Kenji López-Alt: Yeah, it is a whole job. Yeah, well, because 26 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:46,480 nobody's born knowing how to cook, and a lot of people are 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:48,820 lucky enough that they learn, you know, how to cook from their 28 00:01:48,820 --> 00:01:51,280 parents, or perhaps, you know, someone else in their household 29 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:53,800 growing up. But a lot of people don't do that, and they find 30 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:56,200 themselves out in the world having to feed themselves or 31 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:01,360 feed their friends and family, and they don't really know how 32 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:02,998 to do it, you know, they're just kind of plopped in there, and 33 00:02:02,998 --> 00:02:03,025 they've got to figure it out on their own. So my job is kind of 34 00:02:03,025 --> 00:02:06,745 to guide people, to help them do that with some amount of 35 00:02:06,745 --> 00:02:09,385 confidence. And my goal has always been to think about 36 00:02:09,385 --> 00:02:13,645 myself when I was first learning how to cook and to, you know, 37 00:02:13,645 --> 00:02:17,185 sort of to write to myself as if I was... the books and the 38 00:02:17,185 --> 00:02:20,125 material that I wish I had when I was learning how to cook. 39 00:02:20,125 --> 00:02:23,365 Jane: Kenji says you can get a lot of insight into people by 40 00:02:23,365 --> 00:02:24,985 learning about what they eat. 41 00:02:25,020 --> 00:02:27,540 Kenji López-Alt: Humans are social animals, and we like to 42 00:02:27,540 --> 00:02:30,420 interact with other humans and learn from other humans and feel 43 00:02:30,420 --> 00:02:33,300 a bond with other humans and a connection with them. And food 44 00:02:33,780 --> 00:02:36,540 is one of the ways that everybody in the world does 45 00:02:36,540 --> 00:02:40,020 that, you know. So food becomes part of our social and cultural 46 00:02:40,020 --> 00:02:44,040 identity. So you can, I find that my favorite way to travel 47 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,385 around and learn about people is by going around and eating the 48 00:02:47,385 --> 00:02:49,965 food and experiencing food in the way that people do, because 49 00:02:49,965 --> 00:02:52,965 it tells you a lot about how they think about the world. It 50 00:02:52,965 --> 00:02:55,065 tells you a lot about the climate they live in. It tells 51 00:02:55,065 --> 00:02:57,645 you a lot about sort of what sort of family structures they 52 00:02:57,645 --> 00:03:01,005 might have, what customs they might have. So, you know, food 53 00:03:01,005 --> 00:03:04,185 is a thing that we do, most of us do multiple times a day, 54 00:03:04,245 --> 00:03:08,325 every day. And most of us do it in a somewhat social way. We 55 00:03:08,325 --> 00:03:10,950 feed each other. We nurture each other. You know, food, for me, 56 00:03:10,950 --> 00:03:14,850 is also a way of showing care and love for other people. 57 00:03:15,260 --> 00:03:18,020 Jane: You don't have to travel to faraway places to start to 58 00:03:18,020 --> 00:03:20,960 understand different food cultures. Look around you when 59 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:24,680 you're visiting a friend next time, do your friends' meals 60 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,160 look different from yours? Does their family have rituals or 61 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,760 customs when they all sit down to eat that are different from 62 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,360 how your family eats a meal? What kinds of spices do they 63 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,405 have out on the counter? Are they the same as the spices at 64 00:03:38,405 --> 00:03:42,785 your house? What do those spices smell like? Familiar? Or do they 65 00:03:42,845 --> 00:03:46,565 tickle your nose in new and interesting ways? And if you 66 00:03:46,565 --> 00:03:49,505 spend time in a school cafeteria, what kinds of meals 67 00:03:49,505 --> 00:03:52,685 do they serve at your school? It's probably a mix of 68 00:03:52,685 --> 00:03:56,045 ingredients and flavors that are familiar to you with some new 69 00:03:56,045 --> 00:03:58,505 things thrown in now and then to get you to try something 70 00:03:58,505 --> 00:04:01,610 different. But if you went to school somewhere else, those 71 00:04:01,610 --> 00:04:04,010 cozy comfort foods might not be the same. 72 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:10,720 Rowan: Hi, I'm Rowan. I'm four years old, and I'm from Rhode 73 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:15,940 Island. Why do some people like other foods that some don't, but 74 00:04:15,940 --> 00:04:17,500 they're all really good. 75 00:04:17,500 --> 00:04:21,340 Maya: Hi, my name is Maya. I'm six years old, and they live in 76 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,580 Kalamazoo, Michigan. Why does food taste different to 77 00:04:24,580 --> 00:04:25,420 different people? 78 00:04:25,420 --> 00:04:32,785 Nouri: My name is Nouri. I'm six years old. I'm from Western New 79 00:04:32,785 --> 00:04:37,825 York. Why does one person like one food while another person 80 00:04:37,825 --> 00:04:38,245 doesn't? 81 00:04:38,245 --> 00:04:43,465 Elena: My name is Elena. I am seven years old. I live in Mesa, 82 00:04:43,525 --> 00:04:47,425 Arizona. Why do different people like different foods? 83 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,760 Kenji López-Alt: When you think about taste, you think you've 84 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:51,920 learned that you have taste buds on your tongue, and those are 85 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,080 your taste receptors, and those are the things that tell you 86 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,740 what something tastes like, but food is actually... the 87 00:04:57,740 --> 00:05:01,160 sensation of taste is a lot more complicated than that. Not only 88 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,560 do we have receptors on our tongues, but when we're eating, 89 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:05,840 we're all we also have receptors in our nose. We're taking in 90 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:09,440 smells. We also have visual receptors. We're looking at the 91 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,965 food, we're hearing it crunch. We're feeling the texture of it 92 00:05:12,965 --> 00:05:16,085 in our mouth. So there's this whole host of sensory data that 93 00:05:16,505 --> 00:05:19,625 the sensors in our body are connecting. So you know, your 94 00:05:19,625 --> 00:05:23,225 tongue doesn't have a brain. All it is is, is a tool. It's a 95 00:05:23,225 --> 00:05:26,165 piece of sensory equipment. And so what the tongue does is it 96 00:05:26,165 --> 00:05:28,685 detects certain things, and then it sends those signals to the 97 00:05:28,685 --> 00:05:31,985 brain. And it's not until all that information from from our 98 00:05:31,985 --> 00:05:34,625 tongue, our nose, our eyes, our ears, you know, the sensation of 99 00:05:34,625 --> 00:05:37,190 touch in our mouth, all of those signals get sent to our brain, 100 00:05:37,370 --> 00:05:41,150 and then our brain does some very, very complicated computing 101 00:05:41,150 --> 00:05:43,250 on it, you know. So there's you're taking that information 102 00:05:43,250 --> 00:05:45,470 and sending it through through the sort of thought matrix in 103 00:05:45,470 --> 00:05:48,650 our brain. And then we finally say to ourselves, okay, this 104 00:05:48,650 --> 00:05:51,950 tastes good, or this doesn't taste good. And so even if our 105 00:05:51,950 --> 00:05:56,030 tongues might be detecting the same things, or our noses might 106 00:05:56,030 --> 00:05:57,935 be detecting the same things, our brains are never the same 107 00:05:57,935 --> 00:06:00,455 because we all have different experiences. Or we might, you 108 00:06:00,455 --> 00:06:03,335 might even be in a different mood from one day to the next. 109 00:06:03,335 --> 00:06:08,255 Jane: Wait. Our mood can impact how we taste food? Kenji says 110 00:06:08,255 --> 00:06:10,355 yes, and he's even got an example. 111 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,100 Kenji López-Alt: Last summer, I did this experiment on an 112 00:06:12,100 --> 00:06:15,820 auditorium with a thousand people, where we had every 113 00:06:15,820 --> 00:06:20,500 person taste a piece of chocolate while a violinist was 114 00:06:20,500 --> 00:06:23,800 playing some really upbeat, happy music. And then we had 115 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,980 them taste another piece of chocolate when a cellist was 116 00:06:26,980 --> 00:06:31,960 playing a sort of somber piece. And then afterwards, we asked 117 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,285 people which, you know, which chocolate tasted sweeter, which 118 00:06:34,285 --> 00:06:38,065 chocolate tasted more bitter? And they almost all said that 119 00:06:38,065 --> 00:06:41,305 the one that was being eaten while the violinist played the 120 00:06:41,305 --> 00:06:44,965 happy piece tasted sweeter and better. The thing is, we didn't 121 00:06:44,965 --> 00:06:47,545 tell the audience what we were doing. You know, the music was 122 00:06:47,605 --> 00:06:53,725 just kind of incidental in the background. And we told the 123 00:06:53,965 --> 00:06:56,027 audience initially that it was two different pieces of 124 00:06:56,027 --> 00:06:56,067 chocolate, but in fact, they were the exact same piece of 125 00:06:56,067 --> 00:06:56,099 chocolate, and so even, even just the different stimulation 126 00:06:56,099 --> 00:06:59,410 they were getting from their ears made the chocolate taste 127 00:06:59,410 --> 00:07:02,110 different. And you know... You know this, because if you've 128 00:07:02,110 --> 00:07:05,590 ever been to the beach, you know, you might want a glass of 129 00:07:05,650 --> 00:07:08,350 really nice cold lemonade on the beach because you're feeling 130 00:07:08,350 --> 00:07:10,810 hot, you're feeling like nice summery weather, but you don't 131 00:07:10,810 --> 00:07:13,450 want a glass of cold lemonade when you're coming in from the 132 00:07:13,450 --> 00:07:17,650 snow on a cold winter day, in the same way that you don't want 133 00:07:17,710 --> 00:07:19,522 to drink hot chocolate while you're on the beach, you know? 134 00:07:19,522 --> 00:07:22,555 So depending on a whole host of different things our upbringing, 135 00:07:22,975 --> 00:07:25,555 you know, like the food that you that you grew up with, is going 136 00:07:25,555 --> 00:07:28,015 to produce certain memories in you, some of them more 137 00:07:28,015 --> 00:07:30,895 pleasurable than others. And not everybody had the same 138 00:07:30,895 --> 00:07:33,295 upbringing. So things that your mother made that you especially 139 00:07:33,295 --> 00:07:36,235 loved when you were a child, those are going to give you a 140 00:07:36,235 --> 00:07:40,795 taste memory that's going to give you a sort of sense of 141 00:07:40,795 --> 00:07:42,715 satisfaction and make you like the food more. 142 00:07:42,715 --> 00:07:47,740 Eden: Hi. My name is Eden. I'm five years old. I live in 143 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:53,200 Ottawa, Canada. Why are some foods spicy and some aren't? 144 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,760 Nathan: Hello, my name is Nathan. I live in Seattle, and 145 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:01,180 I'm six years old. My question is, why do some people like 146 00:08:01,180 --> 00:08:02,020 spicy stuff? 147 00:08:02,020 --> 00:08:06,145 Jafar: Hello. My name is Jafar, and I'm five years old, and I 148 00:08:06,145 --> 00:08:09,505 live in Seattle, Washington. Why do I find stuff spicy, and my 149 00:08:09,505 --> 00:08:11,725 parents don't find some stuff spicy? 150 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,600 Kenji López-Alt: The chemical that produces the sensation of 151 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,900 spiciness, of heat, it's a chemical called capsaicin that's 152 00:08:17,900 --> 00:08:21,320 produced naturally in a lot of pepper varieties, and we can 153 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,040 actually measure exactly how much Capsaicin is in a certain 154 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,140 pepper. So we can say definitively, you know, this 155 00:08:27,140 --> 00:08:29,900 pepper is spicier than that one. What we can't say, however, is 156 00:08:29,900 --> 00:08:34,220 what does spicy mean to one person versus the next? In the 157 00:08:34,220 --> 00:08:37,085 same way that, you know, some person, somebody might find it, 158 00:08:37,325 --> 00:08:39,845 you know, when they stub their toe, they might find that to be 159 00:08:39,845 --> 00:08:42,245 extremely painful. And someone else might just say, oh, it's 160 00:08:42,245 --> 00:08:44,465 just a stubbed toe, you know. And so, so people have different 161 00:08:44,465 --> 00:08:46,745 levels of tolerance for pain in the same way that they have 162 00:08:46,745 --> 00:08:49,385 different tolerance levels for heat, which makes sense, because 163 00:08:49,565 --> 00:08:52,505 the spiciness that we detect when we're eating spicy foods is 164 00:08:52,505 --> 00:08:56,645 literally the same as we detect when we're when we're feeling a 165 00:08:56,645 --> 00:09:01,490 burn, you know, a physical burn from a fire or a physical 166 00:09:01,490 --> 00:09:06,470 injury. There are receptors on our tongues called TRPV1 167 00:09:06,590 --> 00:09:10,850 receptors, and those are the receptors that sense heat and 168 00:09:10,850 --> 00:09:14,630 pain. And capsaicin actually binds to that receptor and 169 00:09:14,630 --> 00:09:19,010 stimulates it, so we get the sensation of burning and hurting 170 00:09:19,010 --> 00:09:21,395 even though we aren't, so it mimics heat. 171 00:09:21,395 --> 00:09:24,575 Jane: Wow, I didn't realize my brain was interpreting spicy 172 00:09:24,575 --> 00:09:28,115 food the same way it interprets something that's really hot. 173 00:09:28,175 --> 00:09:30,215 Kenji López-Alt: The other thing that spicy foods can do is, 174 00:09:30,215 --> 00:09:33,935 because our body thinks it's heating up or it's getting hurt, 175 00:09:33,995 --> 00:09:36,395 it'll actually cause some of the same reactions that we get when 176 00:09:36,515 --> 00:09:39,215 we start to heat up, you know? So our blood flow will increase, 177 00:09:39,635 --> 00:09:45,740 we'll have a boost of serotonin. Serotonin is a, it's a mood 178 00:09:45,740 --> 00:09:49,400 changing chemical that our body produces, that when, when we 179 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:52,340 feel pain, our body produces serotonin to sort of help us 180 00:09:52,640 --> 00:10:01,220 fight through that pain, and it also gives us a sort of 181 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,147 pleasurable experience, which is why some people really love 182 00:10:06,147 --> 00:10:06,282 eating spicy foods, because they love that, that rush of 183 00:10:06,282 --> 00:10:06,430 adrenaline and serotonin that they get. It can also cause your 184 00:10:06,430 --> 00:10:06,578 body to sweat because you think you're getting hot. So you'll 185 00:10:06,578 --> 00:10:10,505 find that oftentimes spicy foods are eaten in hotter climates. 186 00:10:10,685 --> 00:10:13,865 Partly it's because that's where peppers tend to grow, but it's 187 00:10:13,865 --> 00:10:16,745 also theorized that it's because spicy foods help people deal 188 00:10:16,745 --> 00:10:19,025 with the heat. It helps our bodies produce more sweat, and 189 00:10:19,025 --> 00:10:21,605 when you sweat, body cools down. So eating spicy foods can 190 00:10:21,605 --> 00:10:24,905 actually help you tolerate heat a little bit better. But as far 191 00:10:24,905 --> 00:10:28,182 as you know, perceiving different levels of spiciness, a 192 00:10:28,182 --> 00:10:29,081 lot of it just has to do with building up tolerance. You know, 193 00:10:29,081 --> 00:10:32,330 in the same way that you can exercise your muscles so that 194 00:10:32,450 --> 00:10:35,390 they get stronger at riding a bicycle, or you can, you can 195 00:10:35,390 --> 00:10:38,510 work through, you know, I when I worked in kitchens, when I first 196 00:10:38,510 --> 00:10:43,250 started being on your feet, you know, 10 to 10 to 14 hours a 197 00:10:43,250 --> 00:10:46,370 day, it causes a lot of pain in your feet, but eventually you 198 00:10:46,370 --> 00:10:49,790 get used to it. So in that same way, the more spicy foods you 199 00:10:49,790 --> 00:10:52,160 eat, and the sort of the earlier in your life you're introduced 200 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:56,375 to them, the more heat tolerance you'll get in, the less hot some 201 00:10:56,375 --> 00:10:59,294 certain foods will taste to you compared to someone who doesn't 202 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,840 Jane: So that helps answer your question, Jafar, about why your 203 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,840 parents are able to eat much spicier food than you are 204 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,960 without feeling like it's too spicy, or maybe even spicy at 205 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:12,920 all. The more spicy food you eat over time, the more you'll get 206 00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:17,000 used to it. But Kenji also says it's totally fine not to eat or 207 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,340 like spicy foods. You do you! 208 00:11:19,700 --> 00:11:27,905 Jack: My name is Jack, and I am five years old. I live in 209 00:11:28,385 --> 00:11:34,565 Okinawa, Japan. Why are some foods spicy in your mouth and 210 00:11:34,565 --> 00:11:38,045 some foods spicy in your nose? 211 00:11:38,165 --> 00:11:41,285 Jane: I love this question because it's so true! When I eat 212 00:11:41,285 --> 00:11:45,245 really spicy Thai food, I taste it in my throat and my mouth and 213 00:11:45,245 --> 00:11:49,670 my lips. But when I have wasabi with my sushi, the wasabi feels 214 00:11:49,670 --> 00:11:52,730 like it's shooting right up my nose if I eat too much of it. 215 00:11:52,539 --> 00:11:55,285 Kenji López-Alt: Yeah, well, so, so spiciness is almost always 216 00:11:55,346 --> 00:11:59,129 associated with capsaicin. There is a certain, when we when we 217 00:11:59,190 --> 00:12:03,157 eat things like, say, mustard or wasabi, the types of things that 218 00:12:03,218 --> 00:12:06,758 kind of go up the back of our nose and really give us that 219 00:12:06,819 --> 00:12:10,480 tingling in our nose. That is, that's, I suppose that's also 220 00:12:10,541 --> 00:12:13,898 spiciness. It is a different kind of spiciness, so that 221 00:12:13,959 --> 00:12:17,559 that's produced by a chemical called allyl, isothiocyanate, 222 00:12:16,765 --> 00:12:31,225 Jane: We looked it up. It's called allyl isothiocyanate. 223 00:12:17,620 --> 00:12:21,465 iso... isothiocyanate. I can't, I can't, I can't remember, off 224 00:12:21,526 --> 00:12:25,188 the top of my head, it's one it was. It's a big word, AITC. 225 00:12:25,249 --> 00:12:27,019 AITC is how it's abbreviated. 226 00:12:31,285 --> 00:12:34,825 Kenji López-Alt: So AITC, similarly, is going to bind to 227 00:12:34,825 --> 00:12:37,765 those same receptors that trigger the sensation of heat 228 00:12:37,945 --> 00:12:41,830 and pain. However, it's a much more volatile molecule. So 229 00:12:41,830 --> 00:12:45,430 capsaicin is a relatively large, heavy molecule that is oil, 230 00:12:45,430 --> 00:12:48,550 salt, fat soluble, and will sort of sit on our tongue and coat 231 00:12:48,550 --> 00:12:52,330 our tongues, you know, whereas AITC is a volatile molecule, 232 00:12:52,330 --> 00:12:54,670 which means that it's much more prone to sort of jumping off 233 00:12:54,670 --> 00:12:57,610 into the air. It's very light, and it's prone to jumping up 234 00:12:57,610 --> 00:13:00,910 into the air. And so when you eat a food that's heavy in AITC, 235 00:13:01,075 --> 00:13:03,955 rather than attacking our tongues directly, it's more 236 00:13:03,955 --> 00:13:06,355 likely that it's going to jump up into our noses, or go up 237 00:13:06,355 --> 00:13:09,475 through the back of our throats, up into our noses, where then it 238 00:13:09,475 --> 00:13:12,235 will bind to those same receptors in our nose. So 239 00:13:12,235 --> 00:13:15,235 instead of feeling the pain on your tongue, you feel it in your 240 00:13:15,235 --> 00:13:18,235 nose. On the other hand, because it's so volatile, it also 241 00:13:18,235 --> 00:13:21,475 generally doesn't last as long, so capsaicin can stick to your 242 00:13:21,475 --> 00:13:24,355 mouth and make you feel the burn for, you know, 10, 20, maybe 243 00:13:24,415 --> 00:13:27,700 even 30 minutes before, before you stop feeling it, whereas 244 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,820 AITC generally lasts more, like, you know, 30 seconds to a 245 00:13:30,820 --> 00:13:33,940 minute, you get this really intense feeling that then very 246 00:13:33,940 --> 00:13:35,080 quickly dissipates as well. 247 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:37,540 Jane: What is it that people like about spicy food? People 248 00:13:37,540 --> 00:13:40,360 who don't like spicy food are like, it's awful, and people who 249 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:42,880 like it, it's like, I like it, it enhances the flavor. But Why 250 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,820 do we like that sensation of something burning our throats or 251 00:13:45,820 --> 00:13:46,480 our nose? 252 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,165 Kenji López-Alt: Spicy foods do enhance other flavors because it 253 00:13:49,225 --> 00:13:51,385 they make us more alert. You know, they make us sort of more 254 00:13:51,385 --> 00:13:54,205 attuned to our senses. They give us that sort of fight or flight 255 00:13:54,205 --> 00:13:56,725 response that our body, you know, when our body senses 256 00:13:56,725 --> 00:13:59,305 there's some kind of danger, something's going wrong, all our 257 00:13:59,305 --> 00:14:02,125 senses get heightened. And so you do, you know, when you're 258 00:14:02,125 --> 00:14:04,345 when your body is getting triggered by these spicy foods, 259 00:14:04,345 --> 00:14:07,465 you're getting a very mild form of that response. And so you do 260 00:14:07,465 --> 00:14:11,245 end up sort of noticing other flavors more. So some people 261 00:14:11,245 --> 00:14:14,050 say, especially with Thai food. You know, if you've ever eaten a 262 00:14:14,050 --> 00:14:16,690 Thai dish, or like a central Thai dish, that without any 263 00:14:16,690 --> 00:14:19,390 spice to it, it can taste sort of almost like overwhelmingly 264 00:14:19,390 --> 00:14:22,390 sweet. Where that, where the where the sugar, or some of the 265 00:14:22,450 --> 00:14:25,630 or maybe some of the acidity, really blocks out some of the 266 00:14:25,630 --> 00:14:28,870 other the flavors of the actual ingredients that you're eating, 267 00:14:28,870 --> 00:14:32,110 you know, the vegetables or the meat, and then when you balance 268 00:14:32,110 --> 00:14:33,143 it with that spiciness, those sort of more subtle flavors come 269 00:14:33,143 --> 00:14:33,160 forward. It tames the overt sweetness, attain some of those 270 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:34,075 other sensations that you get on your tongue, and allows your 271 00:14:34,075 --> 00:14:40,975 body to really pick up the aromas and really attunes it to 272 00:14:40,975 --> 00:14:41,695 the aromas. 273 00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:45,680 Jane: Coming up, a flavor as divisive as spiciness. We'll 274 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:46,880 talk about pickles. 275 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:52,120 This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids. I'm Jane Lindholm. 276 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:55,900 Today, we're talking about food with chef and food writer Kenji 277 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,560 López-Alt. We're exploring flavors we like and flavors we 278 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:02,560 don't like. And some of the sensations we get from food, 279 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:07,480 like spiciness in our throat and nose. Do you like spicy food? Do 280 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,465 you put hot sauce on your scrambled eggs or pepper flakes 281 00:15:10,465 --> 00:15:14,725 on your pizza? I do, but I used to eat a lot more spicy food 282 00:15:14,725 --> 00:15:17,725 than I do now, so I feel like I've lost some of my spice 283 00:15:17,725 --> 00:15:22,405 tolerance. Let's talk about another thing some people love, 284 00:15:22,405 --> 00:15:28,105 and some people absolutely do not like even a little bit: 285 00:15:28,705 --> 00:15:32,830 pickles. Are you a pickle person? Let's crunch into it. 286 00:15:33,130 --> 00:15:35,890 Bridget: My name is Bridget. I'm five years old. I'm from 287 00:15:35,890 --> 00:15:39,430 Greeley, Ontario, and my question is, when was the first 288 00:15:39,430 --> 00:15:40,090 pickle made? 289 00:15:40,150 --> 00:15:43,150 Jane: When was the first pickle made? Do you know? 290 00:15:43,330 --> 00:15:45,250 Kenji López-Alt: That would be almost impossible to tell, 291 00:15:45,250 --> 00:15:48,490 because likely pickles were an accident, in the same way that 292 00:15:48,490 --> 00:15:52,090 likely most fermented foods were an accident. You know, pickles, 293 00:15:52,210 --> 00:15:55,150 the way you make a pickle, the simplest way you make a pickles, 294 00:15:55,150 --> 00:15:57,610 you take a vegetable or meat, you can, you know, you can cure 295 00:15:57,655 --> 00:16:00,415 meat, which is essentially pickling for meat, and you pack 296 00:16:00,415 --> 00:16:03,775 it with some salt. Pretty early on, humans discovered that salt 297 00:16:03,835 --> 00:16:06,835 preserves food, that things that were stored near salt wouldn't 298 00:16:06,835 --> 00:16:10,495 go bad as quickly, and when you leave some vegetables sitting by 299 00:16:10,495 --> 00:16:13,375 salt for a long time, is going to naturally pickle. What the 300 00:16:13,375 --> 00:16:18,595 salt does is it prevents the growth of things like mold and 301 00:16:18,595 --> 00:16:21,340 certain bacteria that are harmful, but it allows for the 302 00:16:21,340 --> 00:16:24,280 growth, the sort of, the controlled growth of bacteria 303 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:26,440 that can actually be helpful, and, you know, yeast and 304 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,020 bacteria and things that, things that are going to produce the 305 00:16:29,020 --> 00:16:32,860 sort of sour pickley flavors without actually harming the 306 00:16:32,860 --> 00:16:34,960 nutritional value of the food. 307 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:41,080 Eli: Hi, my name is Eli, and I am eight years old, and I live 308 00:16:41,365 --> 00:16:46,285 in Idaho. Why are pickles crunchy from cucumbers? 309 00:16:46,300 --> 00:16:48,040 Kenji López-Alt: Vegetables... You know, all plants are made up 310 00:16:48,100 --> 00:16:52,120 of cells that have cell walls, and they're kind of stuck 311 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:55,720 together by a glue, a carbohydrate glue called pectin. 312 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,560 And so when, when a vegetable goes limp, the reason it goes 313 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,860 limp and soft is because it's lost a lot of its moisture, or 314 00:17:02,860 --> 00:17:07,240 it could be because the cell walls start to break down, and 315 00:17:08,020 --> 00:17:08,999 so the cells themselves are starting to get, starting to get 316 00:17:08,999 --> 00:17:09,023 soft. So a crunchy vegetable is crunchy because it's packed with 317 00:17:09,023 --> 00:17:12,685 water and because its cells are really nice and intact. What 318 00:17:12,865 --> 00:17:15,865 happens when you pickle things is that you're packing them in 319 00:17:15,865 --> 00:17:18,505 what's called a hypertonic solution of salt solution. So 320 00:17:18,505 --> 00:17:20,965 it's something that is very salty, and it's salty enough 321 00:17:20,965 --> 00:17:24,025 that it actually draws moisture out from inside of the 322 00:17:24,025 --> 00:17:27,085 vegetables. And so your vegetables are going to end up 323 00:17:27,085 --> 00:17:29,905 naturally getting a little bit softer. In addition to that, the 324 00:17:29,905 --> 00:17:32,017 cell walls can start to break down, the pectin can start to 325 00:17:32,017 --> 00:17:32,040 break down. And so what you need to do is introduce some elements 326 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:36,610 to make sure that pectin doesn't break down as much and that the 327 00:17:36,610 --> 00:17:40,810 cell walls don't break down as much. Typically, natural ways of 328 00:17:40,810 --> 00:17:44,350 doing it are things called tannins, which are ingredient, 329 00:17:44,470 --> 00:17:48,970 antioxidants that you find in things like tea leaves. So some 330 00:17:48,970 --> 00:17:51,310 people recommend putting a, you know, like a half teaspoon of 331 00:17:51,310 --> 00:17:54,550 tea leaves into your pickle jar if you want to keep the pickle 332 00:17:54,550 --> 00:17:59,455 fresh. The flowers of a cucumber can also contain tannin, so you 333 00:17:59,455 --> 00:18:03,055 might add some cucumber flowers directly into the jar with it. 334 00:18:03,655 --> 00:18:05,575 Typically, though, when you're when you're talking about 335 00:18:05,575 --> 00:18:08,155 commercial pickles, or even home pickling, we add a chemical 336 00:18:08,155 --> 00:18:12,115 called calcium chloride. And calcium chloride is a, it's a, 337 00:18:12,115 --> 00:18:15,175 it's an edible chemical. But that that is also going to sort 338 00:18:15,175 --> 00:18:17,990 of help those, keep those cells plump and sort of firmly 339 00:18:17,990 --> 00:18:20,200 connected to each other, and that's why, that's why pickles 340 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:22,540 stay crunchy. If you don't add any of those things, you will, 341 00:18:22,540 --> 00:18:25,120 in fact, get soft cucumber pickles. 342 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:28,180 Jane: Salt is a big factor in making pickles, and some of you 343 00:18:28,180 --> 00:18:29,440 have questions about salt. 344 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,400 Zachary: Hi, my name is Zachary. I'm from Miami, Florida, and I 345 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:37,900 am eight years old. Why is sea salt called sea salt? I thought 346 00:18:37,900 --> 00:18:39,220 all salt was from the sea. 347 00:18:39,540 --> 00:18:42,240 Kenji López-Alt: At some point, all salt was in the sea. That is 348 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:46,260 true. What we call sea salt is sea salt that we specifically 349 00:18:46,260 --> 00:18:50,100 today, get from the ocean. So all salt was in the sea. But we 350 00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:53,460 have things called salt mines, you know. So you go, you can go 351 00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:57,660 into mountain ranges and dig and find big deposits of salt under 352 00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:01,560 the ground. And so a lot of salt comes from mines. However, at 353 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:05,385 some point in the, in ancient history, that salt was all part 354 00:19:05,385 --> 00:19:08,145 of an ocean. So a lot of... a lot of our mountain ranges 355 00:19:08,145 --> 00:19:10,845 today, you know, I was, I was just in Utah with my kids in 356 00:19:10,845 --> 00:19:14,565 Moab, which is a desert now, you know, mountainous desert, but at 357 00:19:14,565 --> 00:19:17,625 some point that whole area was underwater, under an ocean. And 358 00:19:17,625 --> 00:19:20,265 so you can find the fossils of sea creatures high up in the 359 00:19:20,265 --> 00:19:24,525 mountains there. And so all that water, as it evaporated, left 360 00:19:24,525 --> 00:19:27,570 large amounts of salt deposited in the earth. And over, over the 361 00:19:27,570 --> 00:19:30,630 millions and millions of years that mountains take to form, 362 00:19:30,750 --> 00:19:33,510 some of that salt ended up sort of underneath rocks, underneath 363 00:19:33,570 --> 00:19:36,990 silt, underneath petrified mud flats, things like that. And so 364 00:19:37,290 --> 00:19:40,230 you end up with with salts that was at some point in the ocean, 365 00:19:40,230 --> 00:19:44,130 but is now in mines. If you go out to say, Yeah, Salt Lake City 366 00:19:44,130 --> 00:19:46,710 in Utah, you know that there's a big Salt Lake out there that is 367 00:19:46,710 --> 00:19:49,755 not part of the ocean, but it's still very salty. And that's all 368 00:19:49,875 --> 00:19:53,775 ancient ocean salt that is now dissolved in a lake. And so what 369 00:19:53,775 --> 00:19:56,595 we refer to as sea salt today is salt that is still in the ocean 370 00:19:56,595 --> 00:20:00,315 today that we are drawing out of the ocean. So typically the way 371 00:20:00,315 --> 00:20:05,295 that we collect harvest sea salt is we very long, flat trenches 372 00:20:05,295 --> 00:20:08,715 around the ocean where sea water collects, and then we allow that 373 00:20:08,715 --> 00:20:12,015 water to evaporate with the sunlight, and so and as the 374 00:20:12,015 --> 00:20:15,120 water evaporates, the salt gets more and more concentrated, 375 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:18,180 until eventually it can't there's not enough water for the 376 00:20:18,180 --> 00:20:21,480 salt salt to stay dissolved in. And so it forms these crystals. 377 00:20:21,540 --> 00:20:27,420 And depending on sort of the specific mineral content, you 378 00:20:27,420 --> 00:20:32,040 know, salt, all salt is mostly sodium chloride. In fact, all 379 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,097 salt is sodium table salt, the salt that we use to season our 380 00:20:34,097 --> 00:20:34,113 food is sodium chloride. But depending on where we harvested 381 00:20:34,113 --> 00:20:35,025 our salt from, they could have other trace elements and 382 00:20:35,025 --> 00:20:38,805 minerals in there that are going to slightly affect the flavor, 383 00:20:38,925 --> 00:20:41,385 though not too much. But what it can really affect is sort of the 384 00:20:41,385 --> 00:20:44,865 shape of the salt crystal that forms. And so you might see salt 385 00:20:44,865 --> 00:20:47,505 crystals that form into these sort of perfect pyramids. You 386 00:20:47,505 --> 00:20:50,025 might see salt crystals that form into sort of cube or 387 00:20:50,025 --> 00:20:54,585 gemstone, like sort of moist, moist piles, you know, or the 388 00:20:54,585 --> 00:20:56,925 salt that we, that we make commercially, forms into these 389 00:20:56,925 --> 00:20:59,790 tiny, perfect little cubes because we eliminate all of the 390 00:20:59,790 --> 00:21:02,310 all of the material, the minerals and other compounds 391 00:21:02,310 --> 00:21:03,450 that might make a change of shape. 392 00:21:03,450 --> 00:21:05,670 Jane: And it can change the color too, depending on where 393 00:21:05,670 --> 00:21:06,270 it's from. 394 00:21:06,270 --> 00:21:08,610 Kenji López-Alt: Oh, yeah, yeah. So we get, you know, from 395 00:21:08,670 --> 00:21:12,450 Hawaii. You can get black salt from the volcanic, you know, 396 00:21:12,450 --> 00:21:15,150 from the minerals that come out of the black volcanic rock 397 00:21:15,150 --> 00:21:18,030 there. You can get pink sea salt from Hawaii as well, that comes 398 00:21:18,030 --> 00:21:21,075 from the materials in clay, or the pink sea salt from the 399 00:21:21,195 --> 00:21:25,395 Himalayas that comes from the minerals there, you get sel 400 00:21:25,395 --> 00:21:29,415 gris, which is like a gray sea salt from France that forms from 401 00:21:29,415 --> 00:21:32,115 the sort of silty waters in the ocean there. So yeah, depending 402 00:21:32,115 --> 00:21:34,575 on where your salt is from, those minerals can absolutely 403 00:21:34,575 --> 00:21:39,315 change the texture, the color and well, in some ways the 404 00:21:39,315 --> 00:21:43,395 flavor, although really the main flavor changes come from those 405 00:21:43,395 --> 00:21:46,275 textural changes, like a crunchy salty pyramid is going to taste 406 00:21:46,275 --> 00:21:50,460 different from a sprinkle of very fine salt, for example, in 407 00:21:50,460 --> 00:21:54,060 the same way that, say, a ruffled potato chip tastes 408 00:21:54,060 --> 00:21:55,740 different from a flat potato chip. 409 00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:01,300 Sam: Hi, I'm Sam. I'm five years old, and I live in Irvine, 410 00:22:01,300 --> 00:22:05,200 California. Why do we eat different foods for different 411 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:05,860 meals? 412 00:22:05,860 --> 00:22:08,560 Jane: Why do we eat different foods for different meals? We 413 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:12,280 have customs where we think of maybe scrambled eggs, for some 414 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:14,860 people, as only a breakfast food, and it would be weird to 415 00:22:14,860 --> 00:22:17,620 try to eat it for dinner. So why do we have these customs about 416 00:22:18,025 --> 00:22:19,765 when we eat certain foods? 417 00:22:19,765 --> 00:22:22,345 Kenji López-Alt: Well, you know, a lot of that is just purely 418 00:22:22,345 --> 00:22:24,685 cultural and things that have developed within different 419 00:22:24,685 --> 00:22:27,025 cultures over the years. Because in the US, for example, you 420 00:22:27,025 --> 00:22:29,965 might have eggs or something sweet, you know, some sort of 421 00:22:29,965 --> 00:22:33,205 sweet pastry for breakfast. But if you go to Vietnam, you might 422 00:22:33,205 --> 00:22:35,845 be, you might eat a bowl of noodles for breakfast. If you go 423 00:22:35,845 --> 00:22:39,085 to Japan, you're going to, you might eat some grilled salted 424 00:22:39,085 --> 00:22:42,490 salmon and a bowl of rice for breakfast; you go to you go to 425 00:22:42,610 --> 00:22:45,010 France or Italy, and you might eat pastry and a cup of coffee 426 00:22:45,010 --> 00:22:47,830 for breakfast, you know, a slice of bread. So it's not really 427 00:22:47,830 --> 00:22:50,830 true that we eat certain foods. It's only it's depending on 428 00:22:50,830 --> 00:22:53,830 where you are, those foods are going to change. What you can 429 00:22:53,950 --> 00:22:57,370 generally say, though, is that most breakfast foods tend to be 430 00:22:57,370 --> 00:23:01,570 sort of really energy dense, relatively quick foods that can 431 00:23:01,570 --> 00:23:04,064 either be prepared quickly the morning of or can be prepared 432 00:23:04,064 --> 00:23:04,266 the night before, the day before, and that can be sort of 433 00:23:04,266 --> 00:23:04,418 taken on the go, because generally, you know you're 434 00:23:04,418 --> 00:23:11,095 waking up, you don't want to put you don't have five or six hours 435 00:23:11,095 --> 00:23:14,155 to put into your meal, and you need a lot of energy for the 436 00:23:14,155 --> 00:23:16,915 start of your day. And so that's why we tend to see sort of 437 00:23:16,975 --> 00:23:20,275 really fast, easy to cook things like eggs, pastries that could 438 00:23:20,275 --> 00:23:22,975 be made the night before, breads that could be made the day 439 00:23:22,975 --> 00:23:24,895 before, things like that for breakfast. 440 00:23:24,955 --> 00:23:29,680 Danica: Hi, my name is Danica. I'm nine years old. I live in 441 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:35,380 Atlanta, Georgia. Why do we eat dessert after a meal and not 442 00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:37,720 like before a meal or in the middle of a meal? 443 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:40,300 Kenji López-Alt: You know dessert was is a concept that 444 00:23:40,300 --> 00:23:45,220 only exists because of we live in a time of great abundance and 445 00:23:45,220 --> 00:23:48,340 excess. You know, we're able to create these sweet, elaborate 446 00:23:48,340 --> 00:23:51,925 concoctions that that when we were evolving, we certainly 447 00:23:51,925 --> 00:23:55,705 couldn't. And so we discovered, okay, sugar tastes good, but you 448 00:23:55,705 --> 00:23:58,345 know what, if you eat too much of it, it can make you sick, can 449 00:23:58,345 --> 00:24:02,245 make you unhealthy. So sugar is, you know, what we call a treat. 450 00:24:02,605 --> 00:24:05,545 And so desserts are generally treats, and so you want to eat 451 00:24:05,545 --> 00:24:10,765 your meal before you eat your treat, so that you don't fill up 452 00:24:10,825 --> 00:24:13,118 your treat and you get the nutrients you need. So I think, 453 00:24:13,118 --> 00:24:13,141 I think it is just a learned behavior that we realized, hey, 454 00:24:13,141 --> 00:24:15,250 we need to get the good stuff before we can get to the fun 455 00:24:15,250 --> 00:24:15,730 stuff. 456 00:24:15,850 --> 00:24:18,670 Jane: Dessert is always a good place to end an episode. But I 457 00:24:18,670 --> 00:24:21,250 want to offer you one more thought before we finish up. 458 00:24:21,670 --> 00:24:25,030 We've had a mixture of science and culture in today's episode, 459 00:24:25,150 --> 00:24:27,850 and that's perfect, because there's a lot of both when we 460 00:24:27,850 --> 00:24:30,910 think about food. But there's something really key that we 461 00:24:30,910 --> 00:24:33,730 haven't talked about that applies to both science and 462 00:24:33,730 --> 00:24:38,515 culture, and that's just how important cooking is to human 463 00:24:38,515 --> 00:24:42,955 evolution. Cooking food transforms some of the chemicals 464 00:24:42,955 --> 00:24:46,075 and structures in the ingredients we eat. It can make 465 00:24:46,075 --> 00:24:49,615 food taste really different, much better, in some cases, than 466 00:24:49,615 --> 00:24:53,635 it was raw. But it also often breaks down the food to make it 467 00:24:53,635 --> 00:24:57,835 easier for our bodies to digest, and it can make food safer by 468 00:24:57,835 --> 00:25:02,260 killing bacteria. Cooking is one of the things that makes humans 469 00:25:02,260 --> 00:25:04,360 unique in the animal kingdom. 470 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,860 Kenji López-Alt: A lot of evolutionary scientists 471 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,040 speculate that one of the biggest advances for humans, as 472 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,060 far as being able to evolve, was the invention of cooking, 473 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,000 because it suddenly meant that we didn't have to spend as much 474 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,160 energy digesting our food. So if you look at most animals, they 475 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:26,000 actually have a much larger digestive system compared to the 476 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,480 size of their bodies than humans do. So a cow, for example, has 477 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,600 four very large stomachs that takes up a big portion of its 478 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,420 body, and it spends a lot of time eating and digesting its 479 00:25:35,420 --> 00:25:38,240 food. Humans, on the other hand, have a on the other hand, have a 480 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,740 pretty small stomach, and it's because we have evolved to eat 481 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,700 our food cooked, and so we can readily grab the energy from it, 482 00:25:45,700 --> 00:25:47,980 and don't have to spend all of our time cooking. And we can 483 00:25:47,980 --> 00:25:51,040 spend our time doing other fun things. We can do other 484 00:25:51,100 --> 00:25:53,800 productive things and other fun things. We can play, we can run 485 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,760 around, we can build skyscrapers. We can study food 486 00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:59,920 and do science. There's all these other things that you can 487 00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,940 start doing once you have time freed up because you're not 488 00:26:02,940 --> 00:26:05,940 spending all of your time looking for and digesting food. 489 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,900 Jane: Wow. Think about that. One of the key things that makes us 490 00:26:09,900 --> 00:26:13,260 human and has given us the ability to use our big brains 491 00:26:13,260 --> 00:26:16,620 for all kinds of things other than just finding and eating 492 00:26:16,620 --> 00:26:21,900 food, is that we learned how to cook. So maybe you'll spend some 493 00:26:21,900 --> 00:26:24,660 time with your adults this year learning some new cooking 494 00:26:24,660 --> 00:26:28,980 skills. What do you want to learn how to make pizza, cake, 495 00:26:29,505 --> 00:26:34,665 Bibimbap, collard greens, masoor daal? Think about what you enjoy 496 00:26:34,665 --> 00:26:38,265 eating and what you think you might enjoy cooking, and then 497 00:26:38,265 --> 00:26:41,685 get some help and learn how to cook it. Then you can 498 00:26:41,685 --> 00:26:45,885 experiment, try new ingredients in that meal, or different 499 00:26:45,885 --> 00:26:51,345 spices: maybe more pepper and less salt, or maybe a little 500 00:26:51,345 --> 00:26:54,450 more milk. Maybe not if you're baking, but if you're cooking, a 501 00:26:54,450 --> 00:26:58,230 different kind of meal. Cooking can be so fun, and you're not 502 00:26:58,230 --> 00:27:01,230 only feeding yourself, but you're showing love to the 503 00:27:01,230 --> 00:27:04,710 people you care about. So on that note, don't forget to 504 00:27:04,710 --> 00:27:08,070 appreciate the people who are cooking and caring for you, too. 505 00:27:09,150 --> 00:27:12,270 That's it for this episode. Thanks so much to Kenji 506 00:27:12,750 --> 00:27:16,290 López-Alt for answering all your great food questions. He's got a 507 00:27:16,335 --> 00:27:19,635 book for kids called Every Night is Pizza Night, and you might 508 00:27:19,635 --> 00:27:23,115 enjoy listening to the Recipe, a podcast for adults. He co hosts 509 00:27:23,115 --> 00:27:26,355 with Deb Perelman. Their most recent episode is all about 510 00:27:26,355 --> 00:27:30,795 burgers. Now, as always, if you have a question about anything, 511 00:27:30,915 --> 00:27:33,735 have an adult record you asking it. You can do it on a 512 00:27:33,735 --> 00:27:37,035 smartphone using an app like voice memos, and then have your 513 00:27:37,035 --> 00:27:41,655 adult email your file to questions@butwhykids.org. We 514 00:27:41,700 --> 00:27:45,360 can't use all of your questions in our episodes, but we listen 515 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:49,740 to them all, and we love hearing from you. But Why? Is produced 516 00:27:49,740 --> 00:27:53,160 by Melody Bodette, Sarah Baik and me, Jane Lindholm at Vermont 517 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,240 Public and distributed by PRX. Our video producer is Joey 518 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,960 Palumbo, and our theme music is by Luke Reynolds. If you like 519 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:03,465 our show, please have your adults help you give us a thumbs 520 00:28:03,465 --> 00:28:07,005 up or a review on whatever podcast platform you use to 521 00:28:07,005 --> 00:28:11,205 listen to us. We'll be back in two weeks with an all new 522 00:28:11,205 --> 00:28:15,105 episode. Until then, stay curious.