This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2235.
This episode is the best thing since sliced bread.
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Sometimes you find a new product that completely changes your life.
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Hello, Michelle. How's it going for you today?
Good. Good. How are you?
I am doing fantastic. Michelle, question for you.
Yes. Is there any item you've recently acquired that is just amazing?
Anything that I've gotten recently that is just amazing.
Yeah. Well, I need things.
I need certain things. Well, okay, I'm just going to say that my favorite piece of technology is basically just any GPS.
I'm just going to say GPS on my phone.
I know that's not a recent thing.
That's not new. But for me, I'm terrible at directions.
That's something I could not live without.
What about you, Lizzie?
Have you gotten anything recently?
Or did you? What's something that you think you couldn't live without?
Technology. Maybe. I mean, maybe since I've been flying lately, the mobile boarding pass, right?
The ability to check in through the mobile app.
So apps, maybe airline apps, that sort of thing.
Because I've just been in so many airports in the last two or three years, is that you get your mobile boarding pass.
You don't have to print it out.
That sort of thing. So technology, Michelle.
Yeah. Just much better.
So much better. Yes. You know what else?
Just in my, oh, I have one.
I have one. That my air fryer.
I love my air fryer. I use it.
Most days. Do you have an air fryer?
No, I do not. Is that like a healthier way to fry things?
Or it is. I don't really get it for being healthy.
It's just very, it cooks things very quickly.
So even if I have tofu or vegetables or salmon, anything, you can put it in there and it's pretty fast, faster than the oven.
And so it's just been a huge, amazing life's time saver for us.
It's actually to me. I feel like the air fryer is the best things in sliced bread.
Oh, where did that quote come from?
I love that. I mean, that's what we're talking about in today's episode.
What you just said right there.
But first before we get into this more, Michelle, I want to let our listeners know to go check out one of our past episodes.
And what was that episode, Michelle?
What was that one? Yeah, episode 2195 that was six phrasal verbs to describe your dating life in English.
So that was definitely a fun one.
So maybe for some people, they think dating apps are the best things in sliced bread.
I don't know. For sure. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you know lots of couples that are maybe even married now that met through dating apps, right?
It absolutely has happened for people over the last 10, 15 years dating apps went mainstream.
And for some people, they might be the best thing since sliced bread.
Well, I met Dan online. It was before the dating apps were even popular.
We were pre dating apps, just a regular old computer.
And but yeah, okay. Interesting.
Okay. Guys, also before we get into it, we have been doing these really fun Spotify polls.
And we just have so much fun with these because we have a poll for the episode.
And then some of them we read the results on air.
So but stay tuned until the end of this episode.
And we will give you the poll so we can interact with you here.
What do you have to say? And then you can wait for a future episode.
Well, we will we will give you the results.
Yeah, and you do need to be over on Spotify to be able to participate in this poll.
So just to let you know, but don't forget to hit follow guys on all there's English wherever you are listening, Spotify, Apple podcasts, Castbox, whatever your favorite or YouTube, of course, subscribe, hit that follow button or that subscribe button.
So we just show up for you automatically.
Hello. Yes. Exactly. All right.
So today we are teaching this cheesy old-fashioned sounding idiom.
But it is used and it is one to know.
And people do use it in this cheesy kind of funny way.
And it's what I was using before.
The best thing since like since sliced bread or some people say the greatest things in sliced bread.
Lindsay, you've heard of this one, right?
Of course. Of course. Of course.
Yeah, when I think of this expression, I think of the 1950s.
But I have a feeling I'm not sure when the actual like, do we know when the expression started?
I mean, we we we learned a little bit about slice bread to prepare for this episode.
What do we know about that?
Just real quick. We know that basically in 1917, sorry.
It was auto row wetter from Iowa and he basically got invented this machine to sliced breads.
And that's basically what happened.
Unfortunately, there was it was all ready to go and there was a fire.
And so it destroyed the factory guys.
I got this from kcur.org.
So I'm just kind of summarizing a little bit here.
But I'm not sure how it how it panned out in the end.
But basically around the 1917 around that time was when this started coming around.
Because it used to be that everybody sliced their own bread.
And you know, that can actually be kind of difficult.
Are you good? Do you slice do you buy bread in the full low flintsy?
Do you ever completely slice them?
Sometimes I do. And it's not really that big of a deal.
But this speaks a lot to the industrial revolution.
Yeah. Ride to machinery coming into our lives to kind of industrializing our lives.
And for capitalism to kind of take root in the US.
And there are also a lot of fires in the early 19 hot.
So you hear about so many fires.
That's true. It's just every city had a great fire.
It's just unbelievable.
It makes me feel so grateful to be alive in 2024.
Yeah. Not 1924. It's just incredible.
Incredible. So, okay. So we know that it goes back to the early 1900s.
And probably along with other inventions.
It's also very inspiring innovation in this way.
The way it happened in the early 1900s.
Right. And so this idea, the best thing since sliced bread.
So how do we use it? How do we use it as an expression?
Yeah. So we know that this goes, probably goes back to like the early 1900s.
The expression as well.
And we use it in kind of a folksy fun way to say this thing is just amazing.
It's sensational. Right.
Right. It's wonderful.
So it could be about, it could be about an invention.
It could be about other things as well.
It doesn't have to be about food.
Right. That's one key point.
Just because we talk about the best thing or the greatest things since sliced bread.
It doesn't actually have to only be about a food.
So, right, right. It doesn't have to be like a tea, like a carrot peel or something.
No, it's not. We're not saying on the kitchen theme, right?
So it's about, right. Things that just make our lives better.
Do we have some examples for listeners?
Sure. Sure. Let's go. All right.
Here's the first one. I know everyone thinks that the new iPhone is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
But I actually like my Android better.
Ooh, hot take, hot take.
But these days, I mean, iPhones not really to be honest.
It's been a while since iPhones come up with anything revolutionary.
I totally agree. It's been a while.
And actually, so we, Dan has an Android and I have an iPhone.
And his camera is so much better than mine.
Really? Well, also now my camera is cracked.
It's all falling apart.
Well, that might have been something to do with it.
But even before, nobody even before then, his, it was just, they're just beautiful.
Just the images. And I, it's all marketing.
It's all that the iPhone seems like the status symbol that you have to have an iPhone.
And really, it's not necessarily the best one.
I mean, iOS is so famous for their, their marketing when Steve Jobs was around, right?
I mean, you know, the 1984 commercial, just the his, if you study the history of iOS, it's just, it's amazing.
But I think now the differentiators kind of going away a little bit.
So we'll see what happens in the next 10 years between iOS and Android.
Hopefully another player will enter this space.
Yeah. Yeah, we've got to get some more competition in there.
But yeah, so here's another, what's another example?
And say, okay, you could say, I'm telling you, this toy is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
My kids love it. Right. And so when we say this, we know we're using an old expression.
Yes. We're using a very old expression, a little folksy, a little cheesy.
Yeah. We think of old days when we say it almost, don't we?
Yeah. Kind of just, yeah, we're a little old fashioned.
Yeah. If we do. And it, but it's just, it's just a fun way to put it into words.
Instead of saying, oh, this is awesome.
Or wow, this is such a great invention.
Or this is the latest and greatest thing.
Yeah, this just gives a different, a little bit of a different spin to it.
Uh, in words that I don't know that we represent so well, like we don't have necessarily another exact phrase for this.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like a lot of our listeners might say now, you know, AI or Chad, do you tease the greatest things since sliced bread?
That's all full conversation.
Yep. But yeah. And then you said your air fryer.
Yeah, I already, I forgot that I wrote that in the plans and I said, anyway, so it goes to show that that's what I, how I really felt.
But I do love my air fryer.
So again, that, that what's that example?
So for me, the greatest things since sliced bread now is probably my air fryer.
Yes. Right. That's the phrase.
Love it. That's right. Okay, Michelle, there must be, so sometimes maybe we don't feel like using an old expression like this.
We want to feel more up to date or more neutral around how old the phrase is.
So what else could we say?
Mm-hmm. Well, you could say I couldn't live without it.
I love my air fryer. I couldn't live without it.
Yes. Or it's changed my life.
This new meal delivery service has changed my life, right?
There's an oh my gosh. Yeah, delivery of food in general, you know, being able to just get food delivered.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Yes. Exactly. There was so much food delivery and even for groceries and things like that.
So that has helped a lot, I think.
All right, Michelle. So shall we dive into a little role play for our listeners?
Let's dive. All right. So in this role play, we are friends.
And you see that I have a new watch.
Yes. Here we go. Okay. Ooh, that's a nice watch.
Oh, thanks. I love it. Seriously, it's the best things in sliced bread.
It counts my steps. It can make calls.
Oh, it's incredible. That's great.
Maybe I'll get one too. Yeah, I mean, it's changed my life.
Wow. Yeah, really, I couldn't live without it.
Nice. So here we use the older expression, like the one we're teaching today, the classic.
Let's call it classic, not old, Michelle.
Classic. Classic. I like that.
I like that. Right? So we said, you know, seriously, you said, oh, I love it.
It's the best thing since sliced bread.
All right. And then you tell me what it does and how amazing it is.
Yeah. Yeah. Then I said, it's changed my life.
It's changed my life. Yes.
And then you said, and I couldn't live without it.
Right? You're really, really emphasizing how amazing it is.
I am just so excited. It sounds almost like I work for the watch company.
Yeah. This is I'm trying to tell you.
We're not sponsored. Yes.
No, no, no. And and Lindsey, we, I don't, I don't have a smartwatch.
And you don't have a smartwatch.
So, but I imagine they'll be good.
They could know smartwatch.
Yeah, I still count my steps on my phone.
Michelle, we have a poll to let our listeners know about now.
And you do need to be on Spotify to participate in this poll.
But we're excited about this one.
Yeah. This is going to be a good one.
So the question for this Spotify poll is, which technology invention could you not live without?
So guys, let's make sure we understand the grammar there.
Could you not live without?
Right. So that means you're going to select the one that's your favorite.
The one that if somebody took it away from you, you would just not know what to do.
100%. And so the options, guys, are the phone, the TV, which is an invention that goes far back now at this point.
Right? So, so let me set back mobile phone.
Not the telephone on the wall.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mobile phone, the TV, the smartwatch, or the computer.
I mean, I guess people might argue that the, you know, mobile phone and the computer are kind of the same thing in a way.
True. And I didn't include iPad or anything like that.
But yeah, you could, I think a lot of people would select the phone because you can get TV through your phone.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right? But you can get the computer.
So I have a feeling I know what the answer will be, but still maybe somebody used the computer a lot for work.
Right? Sometimes you just need to be on the computer.
It's just you can't get what you need, especially for work.
I mean, it's just not the same.
You need the computer. So let's not, let's not forget about the computer.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, so what is the thing that has changed your life the most?
What is the thing that you're saying is the greatest thing since sliced bread for you?
Right? I mean, for me, like we said before, I don't know how I drove across the country when I was 21 without a fault without Google Maps or Apple Maps.
I have no idea how I did that.
Yeah, I, I, yeah, I'm very thankful that I live in a time where I don't need to know directions because I would, I would just be so lost.
I know. Yeah. So, and I'm also thankful for my air fryer, as I said.
So guys, let us know what is the thing that has helped you the most in your life.
Yeah. And when it comes to a summary, guys, for today's episode, this is about showing people what's changed your life.
Like we can't deny that technology and items, material items, change our lives in a lot of ways, right?
Sometimes it allows you to be healthier, which profoundly changes how long you live.
That could be the smartwatch.
So it's about, again, one of those episodes where we're saying so much more about ourselves than we're just rather than just speaking about the item, the technology, right?
Yeah, exactly. So there's, there's a lot behind this.
And even though it is classic, it is still used.
So guys, we're teaching you something that don't think, oh, this is classic.
I can't, you know, it's not worth using.
People use it. So go ahead, give it a try.
Let us know how it goes. Maybe we should do a mini course on classic expressions that live on Michelle.
What's up? What's up? We're going to start with an episode of Allers English.
So guys, hit the follow button on Allers English to get that episode one day in the future.
Yes. All right. Good stuff.
All right, Michelle, you have a good day.
All right. All right. You too.
Bye, guys. All right. Bye.
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