Helen Zaltzman & Olly Mann answer the world's questions
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Olly Mann Podcasts
BACK FOR 2025! Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann host the award-winning podcast that's been answering the world's questions since 2007. New episodes on the last Thursday of each month - keep us going by supporting us at patreon.com/answermethis. Visit our official site at answermethispodcast.com and buy classic episodes and albums at answermethisstore.com
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Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll. From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages. In just ten minutes! Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
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Have you missed the biggest news of the week? Olly Mann and The Week’s writers and editors talk about under-reported stories with long-term consequences
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Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann of Answer Me This!, Pete Donaldson of The Football Ramble and Chris Skinner, producer of The Bugle, look back over the first decade of podcasting. They share their experiences, give advice on getting started and answer the most important question of all — can you make a living from podcasts? Hosted at the Apple Store, Regent Street in London.
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Race to the Arctic, Jony Ive and the EHRC
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Will Europe beat China and India to the North Pole? Is the man who designed the iPhone going to kill his own creation? And what's going on at the equalities watchdog? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, Arion McNicoll and Emma Smith Image credit: Leon …
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Radical playwright Valerie Solanas, author of the SCUM Manifesto (for the ‘Society of Cutting Up Men’) attempted to assassinate pop artist Andy Warhol at The Factory on 3rd June, 1968. As a result, Warhol wore a corset for the rest of his life; security had to be introduced at the previously open-door environment of The Factory; and Solanas’ name w…
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Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall the shocking events of the Heysel Stadium disaster, which lead to all English football clubs being banned from European competitions for five years from 2nd June, 1985. The tragedy occurred during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, when hooligans from both clubs had infiltrated the neutral sections…
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The most significant rebellion of the Medieval era, the so-called Peasant’s Revolt, kicked off in Brentwood, Essex on 30th May, 1381, when tax collector John Bampton attempted to collect unpaid poll tax. The protest triggered a violent confrontation, rapidly spreading across the south-east of the country. Within a month, the rebels were marching to…
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LISTEN: Apple • Spotify • PocketCasts • MP3 • YouTube • Overcast • Amazon Music • SoundCloud 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 c…
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AMT406: Slicing Socks, Polyglot Popes and Stealing Butter
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Why do Danes slice up the bride’s veil and the groom’s socks at a wedding? Is it OK to take pats of butter from a cafe? How/when do Popes learn Italian? And what happens if you drop your phone into the toilet at a festival? (Spoiler: nothing good.) Questioneers want to know all these things and more in AMT406. For more information about this episod…
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Whit Monday became the first of the new ‘Bank Holidays’ on 29th May, 1871, as millions of Britons got an officially-sanctioned paid day off. The brainchild of eccentric polymath (and former banker) Sir John Lubbock, the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 created four official days off, cleverly packaged as innocuous financial regulation so as to sneak throu…
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A naval juggernaut of 137 ships, 10,000 sailors, 2,500 guns, and 20,000 soldiers was launched at England by Philip II of Spain on May 28th, 1588: the Spanish Armada. Their goal? A full-scale invasion to dethrone Queen Elizabeth I and restore Catholicism, no less. Unfortunately, their commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, had no naval experience. A…
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Microwave cookery was first demonstrated by Ross Kilgore of Westinghouse at the Chicago World’s Fair, which opened on 27th May, 1933. But the event was deemed to be a side-show of little scientific significance, and was forgotten until microwaves were ‘discovered’ two decades later. Incredibly also on display at the Chicago World’s Fair were incuba…
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The major political upheaval that befell Italy happened on 26th May, 1981, when Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his entire cabinet resigned. This followed the exposure of a secretive Masonic lodge, known as P2 or Propaganda Due, intent on creating a shadowy state-within-a-state. Its 962 elite members included high-ranking military officers, civi…
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Drug-fuelled sport, AI weapons and political dating
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Will the Enhanced Games change the image of drugs in sport? How will autonomous weapons change warfare? And are Reform supporters more dateable than Tories? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Felicity Capon, Jamie Timson and Harriet Marsden Image credit: Morne de Klerk / G…
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Hanged for piracy and murder, sea captain William Kidd was executed in Wapping on 23rd May, 1701. From the gallows he proclaimed to the large assembled crowd that he was innocent of the crimes, as he was a licensed privateer. The vessel he’d captured, the Quedagh Merchant, was indeed sailing under a ‘French pass’ - though the documents that prove t…
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Namco’s ground-breaking arcade game Pac-Man had its first focus test in a Tokyo cinema foyer on May 22nd, 1980. Created by 24 year-old Toru Iwatani, it was originally called ‘Puck-Man’ and designed to appeal to women as well as men. Each of the ghosts - Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde - was programmed to have its own personality using AI routines, cr…
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Labour leader Ed Miliband awkwardly ate a bacon sandwich at New Covent Garden Market on 21st May, 2014. Mid-bite, eyes squinting, lips oddly parted, and fingers clumsily gripping the sandwich - it was an instantly meme-able moment. The British press pounced. The photo became a viral sensation, with endless edits, spoofs, and headlines suggesting Mi…
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When Hitachi launched their ‘personal massager’ on 20th May, 1968, they had no idea (or so they claim) that they were about to, um, go down in sex toy history. The Magic Wand was initially developed to relieve tension and relaxing sore muscles - but soon became celebrated as the most powerful vibrator the world had ever seen. In this episode, Rebec…
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Nobel Prize-winning dramatist Harold Pinter's London premiere of his debut, ‘The Birthday Play’ was detested by most critics - on 19th May, 1958. Set in a mundane seaside boarding house, the play initially lures audiences in with a naturalistic facade, before plunging them into a perplexing, uncomfortable narrative. Critics lambasted the production…
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Socialite, wit and fashion influencer Beau Brummell fled to France on 16th May, 1816, in order to escape his creditors, from whom he had racked up around £600,000 of gambling debts. Staying at Dessin’s Hotel, he entertained in his apartments while learning French and writing his memoirs, biding his time until his bestie George IV appointed him to t…
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Will weight-loss drugs cut cancer rates? What's behind a rise in 'sextortion' cases? And why is cheese so bad for the environment? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Suchandrika Chakrabarti, Rebekah Evans and Catriona Stewart Image credit: Douglas Magno / AFP / Getty Image…
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Ellen Church became the first ever airline stewardess on May 15th, 1930 - when she took to the skies with a Boeing Air Transport flight from Oakland, California to Chicago. A licensed airplane pilot, she’d approached the airline to inquire about flying planes, but, when she was told that in fact they didn’t employ women at all, she suggested that t…
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The Adultery Act, passed into British law on 14th May, 1650, made having sex with a married woman a crime so severe it was punishable by death – but only for her. Radical groups like the Ranters mocked Puritan prudishness, Royalists called the law joyless and tyrannical, and Presbyterians argued the law would be impossible to apply fairly. But the …
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‘WannaCry’, the biggest cyberattack the world has seen, was stopped in its tracks on 13th May, 2017. British blogger Marcus Hutchins found the 'kill switch'. He was 22. The ransomware had attacked the NHS, Renault, Telefónica, FedEx, and Boeing - causing damage estimated at up to $8 billion. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion revisit Hutchins…
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Winnie - the real-life bear who inspired A.A. Milne to create Winnie-the-Pooh - died at London Zoo on 12th May, 1934. Brought to the UK by Canadian soldier Harry Colbourn, who’d named her after Winnipeg, the approachable bear took up residence at the Zoo during the First World War, where she became a favourite with visiting children, who were permi…
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Fourteen years of food rationing came to an end in Britain on 4th July, 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted - and we're running this episode today as part of the 80th anniversary of VE Day that Europe is celebrating this week. Members of the London Housewives’ Association held a special ceremony in London’…
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The anti-Trump bump, Rust and a touchy-feely robot
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Has Donald Trump given centrists a new lease of life? How will robots benefit from a sense of touch? And was it wrong to release the deadly film Rust? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Arion McNicoll, Julia Macfarlane and Irenie Forshaw. Image credit: Pedro Pardo / Getty …
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