This Is Life Without Taste and Smell

EPISODE 32: Gulp.

Almost three years ago now, our friend/PTFO nemesis David Samson — World Series champion; ex-president of the Miami Marlins; host of Nothing Personal; first man voted off the island on Survivor in 2014 — lost his senses of both taste and smell.

It was a medical mystery that triggered so many questions for me, when I first heard this. But my fascination only deepened as I began to spend more and more time with David. Often at restaurants.

Because the way that he dealt with and adapted to this (nightmare) development is not at all how I suspect that I — or the vast majority of people I know — would have. David’s brain is, uh, a different sort of computer, to say the least.

But lucky for me: his brain also happens to be extraordinarily candid about details that most everyone else would be too ashamed to share. Which means it can also teach the rest of us something essential about ourselves.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

P.S. A very special shoutout to the legend Sean Evans — host of Hot Ones — for very generously making the end of today’s show possible.