LISTEN ad-free when you support us on Patreon
LISTEN: Apple • PocketCasts • MP3 • YouTube • Soundcloud • Amazon Music
Prepare yourself, because there’s a moment of extreme eldritch in AMT417. We weren’t ready. Can we truly be ready?
We also discuss:
massage products for bees
fish-shaped soy sauce (here’s that 13-second vacuum video btw, comment if you find a full version)
the oldest ballet dancers (hey listen to A Dancer Dies Twice)
Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Outshotgun knobstick weddings
three line whips
zero percent proof drinks
what to do with 52 very similar baby photos
what to do with 52 baby teeth?!?!!?*
spuriously rebranding Bloomsbury
our fave classic misbegotten hashtag
and
older names for AMT’s original home, the southeast London neighbourhood Crystal Palace.
* In AMT281 someone wrote in about the horror of an acquaintance collecting all their child’s teeth.**
** But is that less or more horrific than this listener’s jewellery made of their own toe-knuckles?
That time we gussied up George Ezra’s song ‘Budapest’ was AMT373 by the way.
Send us your questions for new episodes, and your feedback on old ones for Answer Us Back, to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com in writing or voice note, or leave a voicemail at 0208 123 5877 like the old days. Remember to include the formula “Helen and/or Olly, answer me this”, and let us know a name (pseudonyms are fine) and pronouns to use for you. AMT418 will be out 28 May 2026 and Answer Us Back on 14 May.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to get an ad-free version of AMT417 and a batch of Bonus Bits each month, plus our video livestreams Petty Problems. If you sign up at one of the higher Patreon tiers, you get access to an RSS feed with ALL the AMT stuff EVER, including our entire back catalogue, our six themed albums, the retro AMTs, and every Bit of Crapp from the AMT App. AND you’re keeping this show going!
Check out our other work:
Olly‘s several podcasts can be found via ollymann.com, and include Today in History with the Retrospectors, The Week Unwrapped and his monthly magazine show The Modern Mann where you’ll find the episode he mentioned, My Deepfake Nightmare.
Helen makes the entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, and she just made an appearance on the episode Word Wrangling of the science fiction sitcom podcast We Fix Space Junk.
Martin makes the weird experimental podcast Neutrino Watch, where each episode is a little different each day you download it. He also has a new album coming out soon, so get hyped for that by digging into the back catalogue of his songs, available via his Bandcamp.
This episode is sponsored by:
Saily, flexible eSIM data roaming plans for when you’re abroad. Download SAILY in your app store and use our code amt15 at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. For further details go to saily.com/amt15.
The London Review of Books, the twice-monthly literary mag full of essays, reviews and more by excellent writers. Get a 6 month print and digital subscription for just £12 at LRB.me/answer.
Squarespace, the all in one platform for creating and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/answer, play around with the two-week free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code ANSWER.
Tags: alcohol, babies, baby photos, ballet, beverages, British government, cocktails, condiments, consumer psychology, Crystal Palace, dance, dancing, drinks, drugs, etymology, GHB, government, history, knobstick, London, massage gun, Matthew Bourne, Misty Copeland, non-alcoholic beer, origins of phrases, packaging, parenting, Parliament, photography, phrases, place names, plastic, Prince Albert, recycling, riding shotgun, Samuel Pepys, Shotgun, shotgun wedding, soy sauce, Stacey Solomon, teeth, three line whip, tooth fairy, Victorian era, voting, weddings, whip, yikes
Answer Me This! Podcast 
April 30, 2026 at 7:47 pm |
Listening to this episode currently and am strangely compelled to add my feedback immediately. To the woman with weekly pictures of her child – the very first idea I had was to get a custom printed deck of cards. There are 52 cards in a deck, so can use each of the pictures, and it is a fun useful item. Of course you couldn’t use them to play poker or some similar game as you could eventually identify the card based on memory of the picture. It might make a cute gift to the grandparents as well.
Helen, Olly, and Martin. Yours was the first podcast I ever listened to. I’ve heard your voices from the early days while listening on my iPod during the commute to my first job. I even had a question answered – not sure which episode but it was about peeling hard boiled eggs for my son. Your joy, snark, and hilarity have been a constant in so many amazing or difficult times in life and it is so wonderful to have you back regularly. It’s been a wild ride going from young single person just starting out to being married for ages, two kids, and more moves than I can count from one coast to the other of the US. Congrats to you on all your accomplishments professionally and all the joys in your personal life. Sending so much love and thanks to all of you for everything you do.