Rachel S. Gross

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255 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 18 Aug

Rachel S. Gross’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Gastropod · So Hot Right Now: Why We Love the Chile Pepper · 18 Aug 2026 podcast

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How did this rather assertive berry spread from its home in South America and conquer, well, almost the entire world?

To the point where I can't even imagine Indian or Chinese or Nigerian food without it.

And why was the US and Northern Europe so slow to catch on?

All that plus the rise of the superhots.

Actually Gillis.

This encore episode was made possible thanks to generous support from the Alfred P.

Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics, as well as the Boroughs Welcome Fund for our coverage of biomedical research.

Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

This might sound like a just so story, but why is the chili pepper

Mariselle says back then millions of years ago, peppers looked and smelled like a tasty snack to the animals in the region,

strategy.

Denise told us chili peppers are the only plants in the world that produce capsaicin, and because chilies are making capsaicin to protect their precious seeds, they put most of that protection right around those seeds.

So this is why and where chilies are spicy, but if the point was to put us off from eating them, then why did early humans in what's now Peru and Bolivia give them a try?

But there's one particular reason that ancient hunters might have preferred the spicy ones.

Capsacin naturally repels insects.

But sometimes those insects might mistakenly take a bite of a pepper.

But even with insect bite holes in them, the damaged berries wouldn't have gone bad, and that's because capsaicin also fights off fungus.

Kinda like garlic.

And Mariselle thinks there was another reason that early humans in South America were so attracted to peppers.

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