In January 1943 the United States government banned pre-sliced bread, and a New York housewife wrote to the newspaper about suddenly having to saw through 22 slices every morning to feed her family. This episode traces the surprisingly dramatic saga behind a convenience so basic it became an idiom, from the jeweler-turned-inventor who lost his prototype in a fire to the wartime decree that triggered a public meltdown and was reversed in under two months.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder spent 16 years perfecting a machine of synchronized reciprocating blades that could slice a loaf without crushing it, finally launching commercially in Chillicothe, Missouri, on July 7, 1928. But slicing created a new problem: the loaf went stale and fell apart before it could be wrapped. The conversation follows St. Louis baker Gustav Papendick's failed experiments ...