Toilet

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may call it the toilet, the loo, the privy, the potty, the can or even the bathroom, but whatever you call it, this everyday object has its roots in Bronze Age Pakistan. It even had a seat! But how did the toilet come to be? Given one third of the world’s population still live without one, how much is our embarrassment around toilet habits to blame? And what scientific developments are underway to help make them truly universal? Water and Sanitation Expert, Alison Parker, from Cranfield University believes part of the solution lies in a waterless toilet which creates ash, water from the waste it receives, and the energy it needs to operate, from the waste it receives. Even in the UK, we don’t always have access to a toilet when we need one. Over the past decade, the number of public conveniences has dropped by a half, leaving older people and the disabled, who may need easy access, unable to leave their homes. Raymond Martin, Managing Director of the British Toilet Association, hopes to stop our public conveniences going down the pan. Also featuring resident public historian Greg Jenner. Producer: Beth Eastwood Picture: Bathroom/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
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0:57.0	This is Discovery from the BBC World Service. I'm comedian Katie Brand and this is the origin of stuff
1:05.9	where I pay homage to those overlooked and sometimes underrated essentials of everyday life.
1:11.5	Now listeners of a sensitive disposition might like to know that today we are taking a good long
1:16.6	look at the toilet.
1:20.4	I am not someone who likes to linger in the littlest room.
1:23.5	There are those who seem to luxuriate in the making of their oblutions,
1:27.0	but I'm more of an in and out kind of girl.
1:29.5	I hardly get my phone out, and believe me in this day and age leaving your phone in your
1:33.1	pocket or even in another room whilst doing a number two is almost unheard of.
1:37.4	Too much information? Well strap in because it's only going to get worse. That's
	...

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