Posts Tagged ‘civil servants’

AMT414: we’re under your mouse mat

January 29, 2026

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26 years late, questioneers want to know why there weren’t more songs about Y2K. We ancient historians consider that, as well as:

wax seals
paper p/reviews
Past Times
civil servant by day vs comedian by night
Silverchair vs fascism
listening to podcasts in the bath
Ian Dury’s last vocal recording
Mary Roberts Rinehard inspiring Batman
S.S. Van Dine’s 20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories
dodging dreary lunch companions
peppercup
and
Martin meeting his alt.

Also: huge thanks to Caroline Crampton of Shedunnit podcast for illuminating us about “The butler did it” and the servant problem. Check out the show at shedunnitshow.com!

AMT415 will be out 26 February 2026, so send your questions in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or call 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.

Mid-February, there will also be an episode of our new feature Answer Us Back, where you answer us back about questions from our recent and distant back catalogue.

Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis and you not only help the continuing existence of AMT, you also receive an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus material each month, and our live video series Petty Problems. If you sign up at one of the higher 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. It’s a lot!

Check out our other work:

Olly lists his work at ollymann.com, where you’ll find his several podcasts including his daily history show Today in History with the Retrospectors and his monthly magazine show The Modern Mann.

Helen makes the entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, and with Jenny Owen Youngs recapped all of Veronica Mars (including the titular character’s many crimes) in Veronica Mars Investigations.

Martin is a singer and composer; check out his songs via palebirdmusic.com or his Bandcamp. His very mainstream totally normal podcast is Neutrino Watch. And keep up with his pivot to video at instagram.com/MartinAustwick.

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace, the all in one platform for creating and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/answer, have a play around during 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.

EPISODE 158 – two tennis balls and a banana

November 25, 2010

Dear listeners,

In this special commemorative plate of podcasts, Answer Me This! Episode 158, we join in with the national celebrations of the romance of our age. For finally, after years of waiting, years of frustration, years of public speculation…Pudsey Bear is finally getting his end away.


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

We also mention:
Wills’n’Kate (o jubilate deo!)
Marilyn Monroe
humanure
the US Weather Bureau
Dolce’n’Gabbana
Audrey Horne
augmented reality vs. unaugmented reality
Jean Paul Gaultier vs. dog saliva
Dexter’s bloody cologne
pox patches
the true meaning of eau de toilette
the Queen’s blingy carriage
and
the unsung beauty that is Robert De Niro.

Plus: Olly surmises that the West Country is boozed up to the eyeballs 24/7; Helen gives tips for turning your unsightly syphilitic blemishes into a join-the-dots game on your face; and Martin the Sound Man manages to compare the Gospels to Rashomon and the other religious texts of the world to something far worse. This week’s Bit of Crap on the App is a question from Curtis from Guildford about what we’d call a games console if we were to invent one. Luckily that day is far, far off.

We also have a bit of a disagreement about which of the Queen’s speeches is actually the Queen’s Speech; help us settle it once and for all:

You can send us QUESTIONS for future shows by leaving a voicemail on the Question Line 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis, or emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. And if you’re a student, unemployed, or have an unusually generous lunch hour, please pop down to Rough Trade East at noon on Friday 26th, which is where and when we’ll be doing a reading from our book and signing copies. We are also available for signing wedding certificates, will forms, decrees nisi, blank cheques…

See you next week!

Helen and Olly

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