The Surprisingly Strange History of Toilet Paper
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Toilet paper might seem like a modern necessity, but the truth is messier—and much older. Long before perforated rolls and flushable comfort, people used whatever they could find: seashells, corn cobs, even stones. The History Guy shares the story of what people used before toilet paper was invented—and how one man’s idea for “medicated paper” launched an industry no one wanted to talk about.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.4 | Summer's here and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. |
| 0:09.0 | On good mom's bad choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. |
| 0:14.1 | Take the kids to camp. |
| 0:15.5 | You know what? |
| 0:16.3 | It was expensive. |
| 0:17.7 | But I was also thinking, you have my kid. |
| 0:20.0 | This is kind of priceless. Take her, feed her, |
| 0:23.3 | make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. |
| 0:29.3 | To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart |
| 0:34.4 | Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:38.3 | Adventure should never come with a pause button. |
| 0:40.9 | Remember Movie Pass? |
| 0:42.3 | All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks? |
| 0:45.0 | I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 0:47.8 | And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told. |
| 0:51.2 | Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out |
| 0:55.0 | of the company he built. |
| 0:53.6 | Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it. And then boom, it's everywhere. And that was that moment. Listen to there are no girls on the internet on the IHurt Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I also want to address the Tonys. |
| 1:12.4 | On a recent episode of Checking Game with Michelle Williams, |
| 1:15.7 | I open up about feeling snubbed by the Tony Awards. |
| 1:19.3 | Do I? |
... |
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