00:00 Toast is the topic of discussion in this podcast episode, with the hosts expressing their love for it and discussing its various forms and the enjoyment it brings.

05:02 Toast has been enjoyed by people for centuries, with its origins traced back to ancient Egypt and the Greeks and Romans popularizing it, and it was named "toast" because the Latin word "toastem" means scorched.

10:27 French toast originated in the 13th century and was associated with alchemists, who believed it was associated with gold and immortal life, and it involved dipping toast in egg yolk and cooking it, while cinnamon toast was invented in Naples, Italy and involved toasting bread over fire and adding butter, cinnamon, sugar, and sometimes creamy cheese.

15:36 Toast water is made by pouring boiling water over toast and straining out the toast, resulting in a toast-flavored water that some people compare to a toast-based iced tea.

20:49 Toast can be made using various implements, including camping toasters and toasting forks, but it wasn't until electric power came along that toast really started to become popular.

26:00 Nichrome, a nickel and chromium composite, was invented in 1905 and is still used today in toasters and space heaters; the first mass marketed commercial toaster was the GE D12, which had a simple design but was prone to catching fire; the first pop-up toaster, invented by Charles Strite in 1919, had a timer and eliminated the need to flip the toast; modern toasters no longer use timers, but instead use a circuit and electromagnet to hold the toast down.

31:12 Toasters use a switch made of two metals that expand at different rates to control the timing of toasting, which is cheaper to make than using a timer.

36:14 Alan McMasters was falsely credited as the inventor of the toaster in a prank that started on Wikipedia and spread to various news articles and even a BBC show.

41:31 The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs when you toast or cook certain foods, resulting in new smells and tastes, and the compounds created can potentially be carcinogenic.

46:53 The podcast discusses various types of toast from different countries, including shrimp toast from Sweden, fairy bread from Australia, and pankon tomate from Spain, as well as the toast craze in the United States that gave rise to avocado toast.

52:02 The word "toast" as a verb originated from dropping spice toasted bread into a drink to flavor it, and from there it evolved to mean making a toast and other usages such as "toast of the town" and "they're toast."

57:15 A listener shares how they have been using the podcast to help them fall asleep and how it has become part of their nightly routine with their son.