Hello! Welcome to this month’s edition of Answer Us Back, full of your feedback on AMTs old and new. Today:
In response to AMT413‘s question about unusual food combos, Dan writes in about his sauerkraut spaghetti, which still doesn’t seem that deviant. Seriously, people, where are your truly perverse flavour combos, eh??
The Toby Carvery’s appearance in AMT403 was very illuminating for listeners outside of the Toby Carvery-producing regions, including Eric in Oregon, who in return teaches us about the Toby Carvery gold card. And in turn in turn, we learn about the new range of Tobywear. Plus, Olly recounts his new-found Costco fame.
In AMT413 we identified what species Wombles are. Amy and her sister are preparing to go on a Wombles-themed holiday in six different locations. Helen is familiar with an entertainment-themed itinerary, after Martin made her go on a tour of Aotearoa New Zealand based on locations from the 1985 post-apocalyptic science fiction film The Quiet Earth. Fun!! Almost as fun as the time in Australia he made her drive several hours to a decommissioned railway station mentioned in a Tom Waits song.
AMT361 prompted a fond memory in Sarah from Leeds of skipping to school with her dad, aw.
AMT206, featuring quite reluctant pod-guest Jackie Mason, is making Katie from Halifax, Nova Scotia feel better about her own awkward workplace atmosphere. Erm, you’re welcome, Katie?
If you’ve been storing thoughts about AMTs 1-414, send them to us for future episodes of Answer Us Back. And as always, send in your questions, in voicenote or written form to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. All new AMT415 will be in your podfeed 26 February.
Keep AMT going by signing up at patreon.com/answermethis, where highest tier gets access to our ENTIRE back catalogue, including the paywalled episodes, the special albums, the Bonus Bits of Crapp on the AMT App (RIP) and all the Retro AMT episodes.
Hi pals. You can tell us. What are the snacks you enjoy that other people in your life consider extremely weird? Or even upsetting? Comment below. And DON’T LIE for effect now, give us your real strange snackery. AMT413’s questioneers need to know! They also needed to know about:
chess cake/pie secret marriage goose fat celebs getting coffee Regina, Saskatchewan Dumpin’ Donuts the word ‘brassiere’ Colin Firth’s fake lake swim what to wear on TV what are the Wombles sad – but caffeinated – Ben Affleck triple egg and how rich is Mr Darcy?
AMT414 will be out 29 January 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.
And for paying patrons, the next edition of our video livestream question-answering session Petty Problems is happening on 16 January 2026, so we welcome your ungrave queries for that too. So become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis and you not only get to watch all the Petty Problemses, you also receive an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus material each month, and 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. Cor! AND you’re helping with the continuing existence of AMT through 2026.
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.
Olly Mann himself has a change of heart about Elf On The Shelf since AMT392.
Laura found a variety pack of stock, as yearned for by Olly in AMT407 – although is two flavours enough to count as ‘variety’?
Several people wrote in to chip in on AMT412‘s discussion of people with your same name using your email address; here we hear from Margaret and Daniel.
After hearing AMT411‘s question from Charlie from Canberra whose mother had lately found out she was the biological child of a prolific sperm donor and thus has 600+ siblings, we heard from many of you reflecting upon your similar experiences of finding you were the child of a sperm donor, or your parent learning that they were. David, Breanne and Jo share some remarkable responses.
If you’ve been storing thoughts about AMTs 1-412, send them to us for future episodes of Answer Us Back. And as always, send in your questions, in voicenote or written form to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, for all new AMT413 which will be in your podfeed 24 December 2025.
Help to keep AMT going by signing up at patreon.com/answermethis, where highest tier gets access to our ENTIRE back catalogue, including the paywalled episodes, the special albums, the Bonus Bits of Crapp on the AMT App (RIP) and all the Retro AMT episodes.
Thanks to Naked Wines for sponsoring AMT, and for providing bottles straight from world-class winemakers, cutting out the middleman, delivered to your door. Head to nakedwines.co.uk/answer to get a £30 voucher on your first 6 pack, including free delivery.
Huge news! Skip over to Patreon.com/answermethis, sign up for the Sound Bag top tier, and you can 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, all tiers get an ad-free version of the new episodes, bonus material each month, and our live video trivial-question-answering session Petty Problems. Oh, and most delightfully of all, you patrons are funding the continuing existence of AMT, due to keep going through 2026, hooray. Patreonage is also available to give as a gift for the AMT lover or liker or tolerator in your life.
Plus: Olly finds the opposite of porn; Helen’s marriage motivation becomes apparent at long last; and Martin chats with the other Martin Austwick, who is a sword man not a sound man.
AMT413 will be out on Christmas Eve and halfway through the month, there’ll be an episode our new feature Answer Us Back in your podfeed, full of your contributions to AMT questions recent and ancient.
Got questions for us? Send them 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.
Helen makes the entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, and also recently was a guest talking about the British Christmas pop music canon on Arnie ‘Hello from the Magic Tavern’ Niekamp’s new podcast No Skip Christmas. And, you can watch her read the whole of A Christmas Carol with musical accompaniment from Martin on the Allusionist YouTube channel.
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.
Thanks to Naked Wines for sponsoring AMT, and for providing bottles straight from world-class winemakers, cutting out the middleman, delivered to your door. Head to nakedwines.co.uk/answer to get a £30 voucher on your first 6 pack, including free delivery.
At the bottom of the post are the photos you’ll need to picture Olly’s mum’s erotic occasional table with detachable stiffy, and listener Erica’s sweary embroidery and butt planter. Oh, and beware, the pics are NSFW unless you work at the Saucy Decor Factory.
We also consider:
Cheesecake Factory’s most ordered item Cheesecake Etc cooking slugs gifts that the recipient asked for then never uses those cow sculptures that are all through town sextons Torajan death rituals (CW for this link: images of death) Spotify making you gnash your teeth when you just want to play an album too many boules not noticing that your home is full of clowns and how to own a cemetery.
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. Next new episode will land in your podfeed Thursday 28 August 2025.
Paying patrons hear from us before then, though: not only will you receive a compilation of Bonus Bits halfway through the month, and an ad-free version of the episode, AND our live video question-answering series Petty Problems tackling some some not so serious problems. Catch up with previous editions and be ready for the next by becoming an AMT donor at patreon.com/answermethis.
Check out our other work:
Olly handily lists most of his work at ollymann.com, where you’ll find his several podcasts including his news show The Week Unwrapped.
Helen will be appearing at Nerd Nite in Vancouver on 10 September, talking about mysterious surprises in Scandi versions of Dracula – tickets are on sale here – and if you’re the kind of person who appreciates sweary embroidery in the home, check out the Allusionist’s Four Letter Word season. Some of the episodes are about swears; some are not; and a recent one featured a familiar special guest…
…Martin! Singing a new song about poisonous plants, which you can get from his Bandcamp, along with his other songs. And keep up with his Beatles covers project at instagram.com/MartinAustwick.
OK are you ready for the NSFW decor photos?
Here
they
are:
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.
Behold! Rob the Balloon Artiste, who featured in AMT405, has only gone and done a balloon portrait of us after Marc Chagall’s painting The Promenade! A very impressive technical and artistic feat, as well as a pretty accurate likeness (Martin the Sound Man appears in the form of headphones).
So that’s exciting. As are AMT407‘s topics of inquiry:
lobster mating rituals the lies of Phoebe from Friends cartoon anvils suncream smell malepolish Judi Dench at Disney World refusing to be recruited to your coworker’s MLM the inverse relationship at coffee shops between nice coffee and comfortable seating stock cube variety packs and the AMT cut of Friends.
Plus: Olly delivers expert voiceover tips; Helen delivers dating advice from Andrea Silenzi of Why Oh Why podcast; and Martin delivers a charming song about animals that mate for life. MICE?!
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. Next episode will land in your podfeed 31 July 2025.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to help with the continuing existence of AMT, and to get an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus materialculled from the show, and our live video question-answering session Petty Problems.
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.
Check out our other work:
Olly is hosting a four-part BBC Sounds series about the building of a new Universal Studios theme park in Bedfordshire! Listen here. He also has his daily podcast Today in History with the Retrospectors, and a monthly magazine show The Modern Mann, both of which you can find along with his other work at OllyMann.com.
Helen‘s entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, is BACK with a season about four-letter words; she and Martin are also doing a live show next week with Material Girls podcast (FKA Witch, Please) so get tickets at theallusionist.org/events. And their exquisite composition Souvenirs will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 at 16:00 on 22 July 2025, and be available online via the BBC thereafter.
If your neighbours want to set up a catering business but you don’t want them to waste their money because think their food is sludge, can you stop them? Should you stop them? We face this question along with other matters, including:
taking butter from a cafe Popes learning Italian Danish wedding traditions morning suits “pip… pip… pip… pip… pip… piiiiippppp” on the radio “young, dumb and full of cum” in Point Break David Bowie emerging from a church wall and dropping your phone into a toilet at a festival.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethisto help with the continuing existence of AMT, and to get an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus cuts from the show, AND you get our new Entertainment Experience: Petty Problems, a live YouTube version of the show where we are only answering questions that are trivial, unserious, minor. And the best part is, because it’s live, and you can hang out in the sidebar chat, you can weigh in on the problems in real time – and if it’s your Petty Problem, give us instant feedback. It’s going to be fun! The first edition will be 10pm UK time on Sunday 15th June, so go go go to patreon.com/answermethisto sign up so you can attend, and pose us a petty problem.
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. Next episode will land in your podfeed 26 June 2025.
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.
Helen‘s entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, returns in early May with a season about four-letter words; she and Martin are also doing live shows in Toronto on 1 June and Montréal on 9 June, get tickets via theallusionist.org/events.
It’s one of those fantasy questions that gets batted around when “Who would you want at your fantasy dinner party?” has been wrung dry: what would you spend the money on if you won the lottery? Except one questioneer has actually done it, and now they need to figure out what to spend the money on in a way that doesn’t tip anyone off that they won the lottery. What would you do? Tell us in the comments!
We also contemplate:
listener Rob’s 👆 amazing balloon art! Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis Choristers karaoke kissing trophies travelling with pole vault poles pretzel symbolism Biscoff spread toe socks and what to do with your late husband’s underpants.
Plus: Olly will not taking up hands-based hobbies, Helen talks about the not-good film Duets AGAIN (hear her discuss it on Pop This! podcast), and Martin the Sound Man could easily spend a lottery win on custom guitars.
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. Next episode will land in your podfeed 29 May 2025.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to help with the continuing existence of AMT, and to get an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus material.What a great way to dispose of your lottery winnings, too!
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.
Helen‘s entertainment podcast about language, The Allusionist, returns in early May with a season about four-letter words; she and Martin are also doing live shows in Toronto on 1 June and Montréal on 9 June, get tickets via theallusionist.org/events.
In AMT404, listeners want to know where to go to see the northern lights, why Jesus’s official birthday and deathday aren’t on the same calendar, and who is being weird: them, or their family? We also learn about:
sand heists leaving your body to scienceDisneyland the perfect beachcarpet of fish blood werewolf menstruation Apple Tango 404 codes opening coconuts cooking with mayonnaise Nicky Pluff the doll’s eye polisher and bat-flavoured beverages.
And a question for you to answer in the comments: what would you write in a note to the medical students dissecting your body after you left it to science?
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. Next episode will land in your podfeed 1 May 2025.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to help with the continuing resuscitation of AMT, and to get an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus material.
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.
We’ve been making this show for a long time. We have had SO many questions about weddings. And yet, in AMT403, we get a whole fresh spin on the Wedding WTFery genre of question. We also discuss:
understudies’ pay the least worst cruise ships popcorn wet crunch vs dry crunch vertigo/acrophobia/illyngophobia loud cinema snacks posthumous shed clearance and Toby Carvery.
Plus: Olly wants neither moist feet nor minty balls, Helen doesn’t want the royal family to inherit her stuff when she dies, and Martin the Sound Man is unwilling to pound you to death on an ice rink, sorry. No, not in either sense of ‘pound’ as a verb.
Also: which retired or deceased artist would you want one more album/book/film/etc from? Tell us in the comments.
Got questions for us? Send them in writing or voice note to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – 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. New episodes will appear on the last Thursday of the month, so return to us on 27 March 2025.
Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to help with the resuscitation of AMT, and to get bonus material.
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.
Helen is on a break from the The Allusionist, her entertainment podcast about language, but there’s a ten-year archive which you can find at the podplaces and at theallusionist.org – including this episode about roller derby names.
Welcome back AMT for one special new episode! So much has changed since we retired nearly two years ago, but what remains is our desire to answer YOUR QUESTIONS. Thanks so much for sending them, we loved hearing from you again.
Content notes/child-friendly ratings: discussion of alcoholic drinks with mention of drunkenness. A handful of swears. A question at the end about looking at your own sperm through microscopes.
• Wondrium, the streaming library of tutorials, lectures, documentaries, how-to videos, travel, craft and much more! AMT listeners get a month of free access to the whole library at wondrium.com/answer. • Squarespace. Want to build a website? Go to squarespace.com/answer, and get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code ‘ANSWER’.
Well this is it, listeners. After 14 years and 8 months and many thousands of questions, AMT400 is the last episode of the show. Sob!! But we’re surfing out of here on a wave of your lovely, lovely messages – as well as a British Podcast Award for hanging in there for so damn long – and some excellent questions about such things as:
sky dining – no not sky diving, sky dining the difference between shepherding and nursing the unreasonable popularity of Fiji Water saving Joni Mitchell’s childhood home destroying William Shakespeare’s final home Barbie vs Lilli Anish Kapoor’s expensive sculpture vs Anish Kapoor’s expensive sculpture Swiss Barbie the real Sherlock Holmes?! homing pigeons and arsenic girl.
The songs you hear were sent in by MJ Fouldes and Hannah Ventisei. Thanks so much to all of you who sent in lovely messages – and songs! – with your AMT-related emotions and memories. We could only include a tiny fraction of your affection in the episode, but know that we read/listened to everything. And maybe wept over it all a bit, too.
You’ll hear a few more of your AMT memories, plus bonus questions and answers about reheating McDonald’s cheeseburgers, the pleasantness of trans-Atlantic crossings 250 years ago, regretting the person you chose to bequeath your children to, life drawing classes, and ruined birthdays (we’re so sorry, Beth!), in today’s Bumper Bonus Bit of Crap on the App. As it’s a special occasion, you can listen to even if you don’t own the app, by downloading here or clicking on this player:
Thanks to our sponsors: • Manscaped, a full range of grooming products for your furry parts. Get 20% off plus free shipping with the code ANSWER at Manscaped.com. • Squarespace. Want to build a website? Go to squarespace.com/answer, and get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code ‘ANSWER’.
Admin time: We won’t be taking emails or phonecalls, but this website will remain up for as long as we keep remembering to renew the domain! And episodes 201-400 will sit pretty on the free feed in the pod places. Plus all our other stuff will still be available at answermethisstore.com: episodes 1-200, our Best Of compilations from 2007-2015, and our six special albums – Home Entertainment, Love, Holiday, Sports Day, Jubilee and Christmas.
Stay subscribed, because you never know what the future holds…
Good grief! Can this really be it?? THANK YOU for sending questions and feedback, commuting/exercising/falling asleep with us, and letting us be your pod friends.
Helen & Olly
••• AMT400 Child-Friendly Rating: 68%. Low-bawd but several swears. Plus an ad for ball-shavers. •••
Answer Me This! Podcast 