The Evolutionary Mystery of Taste and Sour

Pucker up, duderinos! Short Wave's kicking off a series on taste we're calling, "Taste Buddies." In today's episode, we meet Atlantic science writer Katherine Wu and together, we take a tour through the mysteries of sourness — complete with a fun taste test. Along the way, Katie serves up some hypotheses for the evolution of sour taste because, as Katie explains in her article, "The Paradox of Sour," researchers still have a lot to learn about this weird taste.

Baffled by another mundane aspect of our existence? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org and who knows — it might turn into a whole series!

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