Grounding Sheets - do they really work?It's perhaps the most-requested product in Sliced Bread history but is there any real science behind grounding (or 'earthing') sheets? The claims made for them are wide and varied - from reducing inflammation and pain, to helping with sleep. How do they do this? Proponents say grounding sheets connect you to the Earth's own electrical field and dissipate electrical charges in your body, built up though everyday activities like wearing rubber-soled trainers. Prices of grounding sheets vary from £30 to £150.Listener Alison is thinking of buying one and wants to know if it could ease pain and help her sleep better. She joins Greg in the studio along with two experts for a deep-dive into the science to find out whether grounding sheets are the best thing since sliced bread - or marketing BS.We are looking for more of YOUR suggestions of products to investigate. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807PRESENTER: GREG FOOTPRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND PHIL SANSOM

Grounding Sheets - do they really work? It's perhaps the most-requested product in Sliced Bread history but is there any real science behind grounding (or 'earthing') sheets? The claims made for them are wide and varied - from reducing inflammation and pain, to helping with sleep. How do they do this? Proponents say grounding sheets connect you to the Earth's own electrical field and dissipate electrical charges in your body, built up though everyday activities like wearing rubber-soled trainers. Prices of grounding sheets vary from £30 to £150. Listener Alison is thinking of buying one and wants to know if it could ease pain and help her sleep better. She joins Greg in the studio along with two experts for a deep-dive into the science to find out whether grounding sheets are the best thing since sliced bread - or marketing BS. We are looking for more of YOUR suggestions of products to investigate. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807 PRESENTER: GREG FOOT PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND PHIL SANSOM

Grounding Sheets

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else.Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

Health & Fitness

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

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Grounding Sheets

Grounding Sheets

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