As a working professional, my very first day at my very first corporate job, I stuffed envelopes. But the job was at a medical publishing company, and eventually, I worked my way up the ladder to spend a whole bunch of years there as a medical journalist. And if that sounds sexy to you, trust me, it’s a lot less sexy than it sounds. The good news is that eventually, I went on to other even less sexy-sounding jobs that we need not get into.

But while I didn’t love being a journalist, per se, I will give it credit: it forced the most scientifically curious side of me to dig into complex topics and try to unwind them. Flavor, along with about a zillion other biological processes in the body, is a fascinatingly complex scientific topic just as much as it is a fun and unique way to enjoy an ice cream cone. This podcast would be nothing if we couldn’t find and talk to an actual PhD and expert on human perception of chemical stimuli.

Luckily for all of us in and around Philadelphia, the Monell Chemical Senses Center on Market Street is a world-renowned institution dedicated to the science of taste and smell, and I was able to catch up with Paul Wise on the staff there. And I just started asking questions, from what the basic definition of flavor actually is, to what smell has to do with it all, to whether we can actually trust our eyes and noses and taste buds.

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