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. Today, questioneers wonder about what to say about working in a world-famous place, romantic bacon competitions, unromantic but important kebab competitions, Danielle Steel's sleeping habits, and looking at their own semen through a microscope. Find out more about this episode at answermethispodcast.com/episode401. We don't know whether/when we will pop up in your feed again, so stay subscribed! And follow us on facebook.com/answermethis and twitter.com/helenandolly. Hear our other work: Olly Mann has a daily podcast, Today in History with the Retrospectors, and his monthly magazine show The Modern Mann, both of which you can find along with his other work at ollymann.com. Helen Zaltzman makes the The Allusionist, an entertainment podcast about language, which you can find at the podplaces and at theallusionist.org. Martin Austwick's music is available at palebirdmusic.com, his Tom Waits podcast Song By Song at songbysongpodcast.com, and his experimental fiction podcast Neutrino Watch at neutrinowatch.org. This episode is sponsored by: • 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'.

We're coming out of retirement for one last job. There'll be a new episode in your podfeed on the first Thursday of April 2023, ie 6 April 2023, and for it, we need YOUR QUESTIONS. You remember the procedure: send your queries to  in written or voicenote form. Your deadline is 13 March.  Do it, because you never know how long it'll be before we unretire again! Your gone but not forgotten friends, Helen and Olly

Mr Blobby made his debut on anarchic BBC show Noel’s House Party on 24th October, 1992. Oscar Bilby, of Tulsa, Oklahoma grilled a beef patty, and - for the first time in documented history -  PUT IT IN A BUN - on 4th July, 1891. It is of such consequential and amusing events that Olly's daily podcast, 'Today in History with The Retrospectors' is comprised, and, in this compilation especially for Answer Me This! listeners, he introduces two of his favourite episodes. FOLLOW THE SHOW now to get a ten-minute episode each weekday in 2023! Just search for 'Today in History with the Retrospectors' in your podcast app of choice, or visit theretrospectors.com  APPLE PODCASTS: https://apple.co/3xCWWQX SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4BwUqSOfCS6sSrADe834BR GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL3RoZS1yZXRyb3NwZWN0b3Jz AUDIBLE: https://www.audible.com/pd/Podcast/B08K571PXV POCKET CASTS: https://play.pocketcasts.com/web/podcasts/share?id=e6c14e00-8c37-0139-34f5-0acc26574db2 CASTBOX: https://castbox.fm/channel/Today-In-History-with-The-Retrospectors-id4096213?country=us PODBEAN: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/9evhk-1c6f5f/Today-In-History-with-The-Retrospectors-Podcast TUNEIN: https://tunein.com/podcasts/History-Podcasts/The-Retrospectors-p1438500/ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producers: Emma Corsham & Sophie King. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2023.

Hello! Helen and Martin are on tour with the new Allusionist live show in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Imagine the fun facty bits of AMT minus the tricky personal dilemmas or drunk people phoning up asking about poo. Come and see them! They're playing Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney in July, and Wanaka, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in August. Dates and tickets are at theallusionist.org/events.

Hello! There's a sleighful of fun festive episodes of Helen's podcast the Allusionist over at the theallusionist.org and in the podplaces - episodes about Santa/Father Christmas/St Nick's many names, meaty greetings cards, what to do when kids' letters to Santa are delivered to you, and how to write a festive hit for a very Covid Christmas. But, right here in your AMT feed are a couple of Festivelusionist highlights: Winterval, about the term that unwillingly became a byword for the War On Christmas; and How The Dickens Stole Christmas, explaining why Christmas is so damn Dickensian. Also, we have a lot of delightful AMT festive episodes on the feed - seek out ones released in Decembers - as well as our Christmas album, available from answermethisstore.com/albums! We answered so many seasonal questions, about the Spanish shitting log tradition, the cause of Rudolph's red nose, how come there's a Flintstones Christmas episode though they lived long before Christ was born, and how artificial Christmas trees were begat by bog brushes. Merry Winterval to one and all!

Milli Vanilli, Marilyn Monroe and Henry VI are amongst the people pored over in this preview of Olly's new comedy-history podcast series 'The Retrospectors' put together especially for Answer Me This! listeners. You can find the show at podfollow.com/Retrospectors In each daily ten-minute episode, Olly and his co-hosts Rebecca and Arion look back at a curious moment from that day in history. Previous topics have included the birth of Ladybird books, Walter Raleigh bringing tobacco to Britain, and the launch of the board-game Twister. In this special compilation, Olly introduces three of his favourite episodes of the show so far:  • In 'Marilyn's Birthday Surprise', the team look back to 19th May 1962, when Marilyn Monroe delivered her breathy, flirtatious rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to JFK, and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen remarked, 'it seemed like Marilyn was making love to the President in front of 40 million Americans.'  • Then, in 'The Death of Kissing', they look back to 16th July, 1439, when Henry VI issued a decree imploring his citizens to stop kissing his ring, to hold back the spread of the bubonic plague - a deadly disease that had been rampant for a century. • Finally, in 'The Outing of Milli Vanilli', it's time to journey back to 21st July, 1989 - the day German pop duo Milli Vanilli first exposed a shameful secret: their vocals were sung by someone else. Warning: contains Olly's Justin Timberlake impression. If you like what you hear, please please follow 'The Retrospectors' on your podcast app of choice, for a ten-minute dose of something similar every weekday! podfollow.com/Retrospectors --- The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.  Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.

Well this is it, listeners. After 14 years and 8 months and many thousands of questions, AMT400 is the last episode of the show. But we go out on some terrific inquiries, about pigeon navigation, saving Joni Mitchell's childhood home/destroying Shakespeare's final home, the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, diamond skulls, and eating brunch dangling 150 feet up in the air. Huge thanks to all of you who sent in lovely messages - and songs! - with your AMT-related emotions and memories. We only included a tiny fraction of your affection in the episode, but know that we read/listened to everything. And maybe wept over it a bit too. Find more about this episode, including a mega bonus episode of all the extra answers we didn't have room for, at answermethispodcast.com/episode400. Keep in touch! Here's how to find the three of us:  Olly Mann is @ollymann on Twitter. His podcasts include The Retrospectors and The Modern Mann, and you can find all of his shows at ollymann.com.  Helen Zaltzman is @helenzaltzman on Twitter and Instagram. Her podcasts include The Allusionist and Veronica Mars Investigations. Martin The Sound Man Austwick is @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram. His podcasts include Song By Song, Neutrino Watch and Maddie's Sound Explorers - and you can hear his songs via palebirdmusic.com. This episode is sponsored by: • 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'. Stay subscribed to this feed, cos you never know what the future holds. Until the unknown future happens: bye!!!

For our very last retro AMT, we returned to a favourite from December 2011: AMT200, where we enlisted our families to answer your questions. And, well, it's a novelty not to be embarrassed just by our own past selves this time. This episode originally appeared at . Episodes 1-200 are available at , where you can also get our six special albums. Tweet us Facebook Subscribe on Apple Podcasts  Hear Helen Zaltzman's podcasts The Allusionist at  and Veronica Mars Investigations at , Olly Mann's The Retrospectors, The Modern Mann and more at , and Martin Austwick's Song By Song at . This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Want to build a website? Go to , and get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code 'answer'. 

In AMT399, we find out about tuning church bells, cheetahs being given pet dogs, Olly getting lost in SeaWorld, how pickled onions inspired soft play, and which ways you might be most likely to be killed by a ball pit. We also have a Big Announcement ahead of episode 400. Find out more about this episode at . For more AMT stuff, head over to answermethisstore.com, where you can get our six special albums, AMT episodes 1-200, and our Best Of compilations. Send us your questions for episode 400, as well as your precious AMT memories - whether our answers to your questions helped or hurt your life, whether you made any friends through the podcast, whether you started your own podcast, the weirdest place or oddest thing you were doing while listening to the show, we want to hear it all! Email written words or voice recordings to . Tweet us @, and follow us on Facebook . Hear our other work: Olly Mann has a new podcast, the Retrospectors, which you can find along with his other shows at ollymann.com; Helen Zaltzman makes the podcasts The Allusionist - theallusionist.org - and Veronica Mars Investigations VMIpod.com; and Martin Austwick's music is available at palebirdmusic.com, his Tom Waits podcast Song By Song at songbysongpodcast.com, and the music'n'science podcast Maddie's Sound Explorers, hosted by Maddie Moate, at . This episode is sponsored by: • Wondrium, the streaming library of tutorials, lectures, documentaries, how-to videos, travel, craft and much more! AMT listeners get 14 days' free access to the whole library at . • Squarespace. Want to build a website? Go to , and get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code 'ANSWER'.

We're settling a lot of couples' disputes in AMT398. Potato in tacos: Y/N? Did all animation used to be worse, or specifically just in Disney's straight to video sequels? And who's from the biggest village?  Find out more about this episode at . For more AMT stuff, head over to answermethisstore.com, where you can get our six special albums, AMT episodes 1-200, and our Best Of compilations. Send us your questions for future episodes: email written words or voice recordings to . Tweet us @, and follow us on Facebook . Hear our other work: Olly Mann has a new podcast, the Retrospectors, which you can find along with his other shows at ollymann.com; Helen Zaltzman makes the podcasts The Allusionist - theallusionist.org - and Veronica Mars Investigations VMIpod.com; and Martin Austwick's music is available at palebirdmusic.com, his innovative new podcast Neutrino Watch at neutrinowatch.org, his Tom Waits podcast Song By Song at songbysongpodcast.com, and the music'n'science podcast Maddie's Sound Explorers, hosted by Maddie Moate, at . This episode is sponsored by: • 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 , and get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code 'ANSWER'.