How the COVID-19 Toilet Paper Shortage Made Americans Embrace the Bidet
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, it took empty store shelves and a toilet paper shortage for many Americans to finally take the bidet seriously. Long dismissed as unnecessary or foreign, the 18th-century bathroom invention saw a surprising surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, and unlike many pandemic fads, it never faded. Bidet sales exploded, inventories vanished, and companies like Bidet King have reported steady growth ever since.
Simon Whistler, host of Brain Food Show and the Today I Found Out YouTube channel, tells the unexpected story of how a centuries-old invention found new life during a modern crisis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.0 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. |
| 0:18.6 | If you brought up installing a bidet toilet to Americans before COVID-19, they might have |
| 0:24.7 | likely flushed the idea straight away. |
| 0:28.1 | During the pandemic, every single bidet sold out at bidet king.com, and the business grew exponentially. |
| 0:35.1 | Here to tell the story is Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel |
| 0:41.2 | and its sister, The Brain Food Show podcast. |
| 0:45.5 | Let's take a listen. |
| 0:47.1 | I've got some hazelnut spread here. |
| 0:49.7 | Oh, I got it on my face. |
| 0:52.1 | No worries, I've got some toilet paper here. |
| 0:56.0 | Let me just clean that right off. Oh, I got it on my face. No worries. I've got some toilet paper here. Let me just clean that right off. |
| 1:09.0 | All right. It is totally cleaned off so there's not going to be any distraction with hazelnut spread on my face because I wiped it off with toilet paper. I'm good to go. Oh, hang on. Wouldn't you believe it? I actually had to go to the sink |
| 1:14.5 | and wash my face off with water. I don't get it because this should have worked. I mean, it's |
| 1:21.4 | toilet paper. A mini shower for your nether region, bee days are a popular way worldwide to keep said |
| 1:29.8 | regions tidy, and there are plenty of extremely inexpensive options for easily outfitting |
| 1:35.3 | any standard toilet with one. |
| 1:37.2 | So why has this popular bathroom fixture not caught on in the United States? |
| 1:42.2 | Believed who have originated in France, the first B-days were simply a bowl of water, |
| 1:46.7 | over which, after relieving herself, a person would squat and then use a hand to splash |
| 1:51.6 | and wipe away any messes that remained. |
... |
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