Do toothpastes promising to repair enamel and help with sensitive teeth really work?We've all been there - you go down the supermarket aisle to grab toothpaste and suddenly you?re faced with an ocean of the stuff, all promising to do different things. Buzz-phrases like ?protect? and ?repair? all vie for your attention. But just what are the ingredients in all these different toothpastes? And do they live up to the marketing hype?In this episode we hear from three listeners keen to find out: Bernadette has sensitive teeth, Deirdre is concerned about her enamel and Melvyn wants to protect his gums. Can presenter Greg Foot find a toothpaste that will work for them and leave them all smiles?This series we?re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you?ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there?s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban

Do toothpastes promising to repair enamel and help with sensitive teeth really work? We've all been there - you go down the supermarket aisle to grab toothpaste and suddenly you?re faced with an ocean of the stuff, all promising to do different things. Buzz-phrases like ?protect? and ?repair? all vie for your attention. But just what are the ingredients in all these different toothpastes? And do they live up to the marketing hype? In this episode we hear from three listeners keen to find out: Bernadette has sensitive teeth, Deirdre is concerned about her enamel and Melvyn wants to protect his gums. Can presenter Greg Foot find a toothpaste that will work for them and leave them all smiles? This series we?re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you?ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there?s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807. PRESENTER: Greg Foot PRODUCER: Simon Hoban

Toothpaste

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 on 3 July, 2025. 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 on 3 July, 2025. 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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