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The Origin of Stuff

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Comedian Katy Brand pays homage to the overlooked essentials of everyday life.

Comedian Katy Brand pays homage to the overlooked, and sometimes underrated, essentials of everyday life.

The Origin of Stuff: Toilet

Toilet

BBC Radio 4 - The Origin of Stuff, Toilet

Katy Brand reveals how attitudes to the toilet have shaped its place in history.

The toilet may be an everyday object, but public conveniences are disappearing and billions worldwide don't have their own. Katy Brand asks how much our embarrassment is to blame.

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

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