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. more

Anticipating and managing exponential impact - hosts David Wood and Calum Chace Calum Chace is a sought-after keynote speaker and best-selling writer on artificial intelligence. He focuses on the medium- and long-term impact of AI on all of us, our societies and our economies. He advises companies and governments on AI policy. His non-fiction books on AI are Surviving AI , about superintelligence, and The Economic Singularity , about the future of jobs. Both are now in their third editions. He also wrote Pandora's Brain and Pandora's Oracle , a pair of techno-thrillers about the first superintelligence. He is a regular contributor to magazines, newspapers, and radio. In the last decade, Calum has given over 150 talks in 20 countries on six continents. Videos of his talks, and lots of other materials are available at https://calumchace.com/. He is co-founder of a think tank focused on the future of jobs, called the Economic Singularity Foundation. The Foundation has published Stories from 2045 , a collection of short stories written by its members. Before becoming a full-time writer and speaker, Calum had a 30-year career in journalism and in business, as a marketer, a strategy consultant and a CEO. He studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University, which confirmed his suspicion that science fiction is actually philosophy in fancy dress. David Wood is Chair of London Futurists, and is the author or lead editor of twelve books about the future, including The Singularity Principles , Vital Foresight , The Abolition of Aging , Smartphones and Beyond , and Sustainable Superabundance . He is also principal of the independent futurist consultancy and publisher Delta Wisdom, executive director of the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation, Foresight Advisor at SingularityNET, and a board director at the IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies). He regularly gives keynote talks around the world on how to prepare for radical disruption. See https://deltawisdom.com/. As a pioneer of the mobile computing and smartphone industry, he co-founded Symbian in 1998. By 2012, software written by his teams had been included as the operating system on 500 million smartphones. From 2010 to 2013, he was Technology Planning Lead (CTO) of Accenture Mobility, where he also co-led Accenture's Mobility Health business initiative. Has an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge, where he also undertook doctoral research in the Philosophy of Science, and a DSc from the University of Westminster. more

Periodic look at the impact of future technologies on our lives - what can we do now to prepare for the next few years? Senior journalist Guy Clapperton presents a series of interviews with consultants, technologists and future thinkers in general that takes the shorter-term view rather than forecasting decades ahead.Want this voice at your event? Contact Guy to discuss! more

Hello, welcome to the Future of You podcast. Here we're going to investigate and analyse all the ways emerging technologies are going to affect our identity. We used to argue about whether personal identity was in the mind or in the body; but now that psychology of the self and the biology of self has been joined by a third dimension - the technology of the self. In a digital, data-driven world, Facebook gets a say in verifying who we are, medical science can alter our genetic make-up, and AI will help us create our digital twin - just how many identities do we need in the multiverse? How is 21st Century technology changing who we are? I set out to research exactly that, when I wrote my book The Future of You. That turned out to be only the start of my journey into our changing identity in a digital world. And I thought rather than continue to research this on my own, I could invite you along too. I'm Tracey Follows, I'm a futurist and founder of Futuremade, the futures consultancy, and I've helped brands and businesses like Virgin, Google, Diageo and Farfetch spot trends, develop strategic foresight and fully prepare for what comes next. I believe identity is the defining issue of our generation. So every fortnight I'll be releasing new episodes, featuring panels of experts as we delve into topics such as how we use media to express our selves, the emergence of the extreme self, transhumanism and the augmented self; anonymity, genetics, biometrics, mind clones, and the digital afterlife - these are just some of the innovations, and controversies, we'll cover. Join the community, buy the book at thefutureofyou.co.uk or connect with me on X at @traceyfutures. Please come with me on this journey to explore identity in the digital world, as we investigate the future of me, and the future of you. more

Digitally Curious is a show all about the near-term future with actionable advice from a range of global experts. Order the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order Who is your host, Andrew Grill? He's the AI expert who speaks your business language. After 30 years building tech solutions at companies like IBM and a range of high-tech startups, Andrew now helps executives navigate AI without getting lost in the complexity. He has held senior leadership roles, including Global Managing Partner at IBM , and has collaborated with C-suite teams from organisations such as Shell, Vodafone, Dell, SAP Concur, Nike, Nestlé, and the NHS. Andrew has delivered 600 keynotes in over 50 countries on topics such as generative AI, quantum computing, digital transformation, and the future of work. Ranked among the world's top 10 futurist speakers and a finalist for AI Expert of the Year, in 2025, he was recognised on the AI 100 UK List as one of the country's leading voices in responsible Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of Digitally Curious (2024), a bestselling guide to navigating the future of AI and technology, and host of the Digitally Curious Podcast (since 2019), where he translates complex trends into actionable insights. Andrew is a regular media commentator, featured on BBC Television & Radio , Sky News, LBC, and in publications such as the Financial Times , The Guardian, and The Economist. Find out more about Andrew at actionablefuturist.com more

The FUTURES Podcast explores the multitude of possible tomorrows.Meet the scientists, technologists, artists and philosophers working to imagine the sorts of developments that might dramatically alter what it means to be human. Hosted by Luke Robert Mason. more