The Man Who Tasted Words: A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses Cover
Podcast Mentions

The Man Who Tasted Words A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses

Dr. Guy Leschziner

In Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable?

Podcasts 1
Quotes 5
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

This book discusses the experiences of people with synesthesia. It was mentioned as one of the books written by Dr. Guy Leschinzer.

"

So one of the individuals in that book is an individual who is not a patient, who doesn't have anything wrong with him. He's got a condition called synesthesia, which is the melding, the combining of...

— Episode: The Sleep Scientist (NEW RESEARCH): Slee...

Episode: The Sleep Scientist (NEW RESEARCH): Sleeping Patte...

This book discusses the experiences of people with synesthesia. It was mentioned as one of the books written by Dr. Guy Leschinzer.

"

So one of the individuals in that book is an individual who is not a patient, who doesn't have anything wrong with him. He's got a condition called synesthesia, which is the melding, the combining of certain senses.

So he gives a really good example of his, you know, in childhood, his friend had a girlfriend whose particular name in him gave him a awful taste.

And he every time he his friend mentioned this girl's name, his mouth was filled with a terrible taste. So he will read words, he will hear words and all of those words will be associated with a particular taste that has lasted his entire life.

And it's been very fixed. So as a kid, when he started reading, he learned how to read by looking at the tube map on the way to school.

And each of those tube stations has got a particular taste associated with it. And that taste has remained fixed throughout his life. Now, this sounds really very strange, but actually we know that some degree of synesthesia, some degree of melding of our senses is actually quite common, that up to about 4% of individuals exhibit some form of synesthesia.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.