Answer Me This! - AMT337: Tandems, Oil Pulling and Reading Mum's Diary

Episode Date: August 11, 2016

Would you rather: a) be confronted with the reality that your parent is a fully functioning sexual being; b) eat a brain; c) drink Cointreau with a late-night kebab? These are just some of the struggles we deal with in AMT337. Find out more about the episode at . Tweet us http://twitter.com/helenandolly Be our Facebook friend at http://facebook.com/answermethis Subscribe on iTunes http://iTunes.com/AnswerMeThis Buy old episodes and albums at http://answermethisstore.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do squids still use ink or did they upgrade to touchscreens? Answer me this, answer me this How much life have I wasted looking at cat memes? Answer me this, answer me this Helen and Ollie, answer me this Listeners, pay close attention to this sound It's a very special acoustic Because this is the last time we're recording this podcast

in martin's and my flat it's a very special moment they're saying farewell to the home studio that has served us so well for well adequately for 10 years now it's a sad moment because uh you may recall helena martin are being kicked out by their landlord because he's moving back from the usa and this is his flat so you can't live here anymore what's weird is he's moving back from the USA and this is his flat, so you can't live here anymore. What's weird is he's going to move into this flat at which we birthed the show and recorded almost all of the episodes of the show we've ever done. And basically birthed podcasting in Britain. Exactly. And he'll be completely oblivious.

One human care. Almost certainly to the significance of this place as the home of South East London podcasting. And therefore the world's podcasting. She says modestly. He'll just walk in and go, where are all the smoke stains I've built up over 15 years of extremely heavy smoking? Why aren't the walls grey anymore? Why doesn't everything stink? You have done a bit of work here. He might also say, why are there so many hooks for guitars?

That's something that he probably didn't think was essential when he left. He had, on the same wall that the guitar hooks are on, he had a lot of picture hooks with an extension lead decoratively wound around them. It was really tragic. But anyway, if only he knew. If only he knew the significance that you've achieved here. Instead of moving in himself, he'd hire it out to art historians.

There should be a plaque on this building. There should. One day there will. I don't know, it's a listed building, so it might be difficult. I think they'll make an exception for you. They'd better. I'm going to miss it. I'm't know, it's a listed building so it might be difficult. I think they'll make an exception for you. Think better. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it. I've had some nights here where I've laughed like never

before. And nights here where you've slept like never before. We are usually on a blow-up mattress so that is different to other beds. Yeah, but a good Costco blow-up mattress. It's the best blow-up mattress I've ever slept on, but that's damning with faint praise, I would say. A lot of people don't even know that it's a blow-up mattress. It's a good good one I'm not slagging it off Costco

uh here's our first question of the show it's from Tracy in Hockley in Essex who says I've just driven to the supermarket and I had to wait quite a while to overtake a group of cyclists within the group there were two people on a tandem why why why and how can this be better than just having two bikes I love my husband dearly But if every time I went out on my bike I had to look at his arse the whole way It would get very old very quick I thought cyclist arses kept quite tight for longer So Helen, answer me this

Why are tandems still popular? I don't know if they're popular I think I maybe see a tandem once every three-ish years Yeah, I mean you live in an increasingly Oh sorry, lived, past tense, in an increasingly gentrified corner of London, and I hadn't noticed them getting particularly popular around here. Also, we have a lot of cycle races

that start in Crystal Palace, and cycle cafes where people are outside stretching their calves and eating protein powder. And you don't see tandems generally, do you? Well, I suppose racing cyclists tend not to go on a tandem. But they are thought to be more energy efficient than two people on two separate bikes you presumably got roughly the same aerodynamic drag haven't you

as you would have with one person because the profile is roughly the same i don't know i don't know exactly well and it's more stable as well it is more stable it's often kids isn't it i'm not always but often it's a parent and a child and of course the child can't pedal as fast so they get you know then that they're safe they're with you and and you're more stable than if if the child had their own bike down a hill. Well, that is also the thing. Although you do need to be in sync with your tandem rider, you don't have to have the same strength.

So it is a good one for having a cycle ride with your child where you're not waiting for them endlessly to catch up, or similarly with your ancient parent. But also if you're cycling with someone who maybe has a disability that stops them from cycling solo, Maybe they have vision impairments. They can still cycle. It's a bit like, in that way, kind of like being the kid sitting on daddy's lap

driving the car, isn't it? And pretending to honk the horn. No, but you do actually have to do something on the back of a bike. Do you have to, though? Don't your feet just have to go round propelled by the other person if you wanted? No, you're propelling the pedals in the behind one.

You're just not steering. But if you're on the front one, then you have to steer. So both of them, you have to do something. something yeah you can't just take it easy no okay so don't let ollie man on your tandem because he's just dead weight hello this is sean from sterling um in a takeaway i just got a can that says not to be sold separately because it's a money pack why can't you sell them separately they can legally be sold separately sean um the takeaway that's selling you the can effectively that came from

a multi-pack they are just disobeying the manufacturer's advice and if they don't have a direct contract with the manufacturer then they're not breaking any law at all because there is no contract to break but the can says so the reason the can says it is imagine sean if you weren't in your local takeaway but were instead in your local sainsbury's imagine you saw let's say diet coke on a shelf and they were in a packet of 12 the price per can in a packet of 12 obviously is is less than if you go and get a single diet coke from a fridge in the same store right so sainsbury's are able to sell the diet coke at i don't know 65p at the front of the store as a single can but perhaps 30p at the back because you're buying 12 of them

the unit price is less because you're buying more so when it says not to be sold separately it's essentially flagging up if you were to take that can from the multi-pack and try and buy it in the store there would be an embarrassing moment where it probably wouldn't scan and sainsbury's should properly say no you can't buy that because you know we're not covering our cost by selling that to you individually so that's why they do it um any company that has a direct contract with the manufacturer can't sell those cans separately but there's actually nothing in law to stop you buying something that's legal and then selling it on at whatever price you want well this is very disillusioning i I thought those cans were truthful. Well, there is...

It's just advisory. There is a possibility of your takeaway getting sued, arguably, if they were selling... I don't think this happens with cans of drink, but with, like, cans of soup or something, which would be an unlikely thing to get in your takeaway as an additional side order. That's how shit it really was.

But sometimes with things like that, the ingredients label with all the nutritional information for people with allergies and stuff and people who are worried about whether it's kosher or whatever that often will only be in the wraparound label not the individual can so there is the issue that they're flagging up that this may not contain all the information you need so you could say well my news agent gave me this it didn't say it contained nuts because it doesn't say that on the individual yeah so that there's that as well and also with some products like crisps the multi-pack crisps that are not to be sold separately might be smaller than the soloist packets of crisps aren't they just here's another

question of drinks from danny who says i'm having a post-pub kebab but i have no more beer at home tragic i answer me this what should i drink i can find an m&s red wine box some vintage claret a 50th birthday present and some quantro okay what should i drink definitely not a cocktail i think you could have the quantro after your kebab no well don't want to open with that that's your uh nightcap vintage claret i would say not the No. Save for an opportunity you're going to remember it. Where your palate has not been corroded by the night you've already had in the pub and the kebab. Which, whilst kebabs are wonderful in so many ways,

they tend to have a lot of ingredients that will corrupt your palate sensitivity. Correct. I mean, think back to all those programmes you've seen on telly where people are wine tasting. They never say, the way to drink this is to make sure... Half a raw onion. A lot of jalapenos.enos first make sure your taste buds are obliterated by chili mayonnaise they never say that and there's a reason for that so save the posh wine so then

we're down to the m&s wine box now i think you're in a lucky situation here yeah because red wine i think is a good pre-sleep drink anyway so long as you stick with it and don't mix it with other stuff and it's a pleasant and a slow alcoholic hit and it works with the beer before wine fine Red wine, I think, is a good pre-sleep drink anyway, so long as you stick with it and don't mix it with other stuff. And it's a pleasant and a slow alcoholic hit. And it works with the beer before wine fine. Yes, exactly. Wine before beer fear. So yeah, I'd say the red wine box is a good option. It is also, being Marks and Spencer's, not going to be terrible wine.

They're bottom standard, even if it's the cheapest one. And it will be if it's in a box. But even if it's the cheapest one at M&S, that's going to be a lot better than the cheapest one at Asda. And also, if you just eat a kebab will you actually be aware of whatever you're drinking

if you just have water will you even notice well that's probably what you should have yeah because it's very salty although I find myself often drinking red wine

rum as well dark rum late at night a shot of dark rum with no mixer just on a saying yeah do you need us

to call someone are you a sailor I've got a question email your question to answer me this podcast at googlemail.com to answer me this podcast at googlemail.com

to answer me this podcast at googlemail.com To answer me this podcast at GoogleMail.com To answer me this podcast at GoogleMail.com So retrospectives, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of Today in History? On Monday, we bring you the real story of the mutiny on the bounty. On Tuesday, the anniversary of the day somebody invented the meatball, but who? On Wednesday, the iconic British car that ripped off an iconic American car. On Thursday, how American airlines invented air miles.

And on Friday, the UFO sighting that gripped colonial America. We discuss this and more on Today in History with The Retrospectors. Ten minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts. Here's a question from Peter in Haywards Heath heath who says i'm currently listening to an episode of the archers that's that's an aid memoir for anyone who's too young to actually listen to the archers but knows radio 4 vaguely from hearing it in their parents house it's just that strong sense memory um do you know i was once a guest on them front row and um just before uh the show starts the producer said into mark lawson the presenter's ear he said you want to do a rehearsal I was once a guest on Front Row and just before the show starts

the producer said into Mark Lawson the presenter's ear he said do you want to do a rehearsal of the opening menu and Mark Lawson actually said in his own mic

out loud five minutes before the real show starts he said okay okay da da da da da da da da da da da that was the archers and now Front Row hello good evening

he did the rehearsal because he had to sing the archers to himself he had to get into character that's amazing like that's how much of a cue it is even for people that bloody work there imagine what it's had to sing the archers to himself he had to get into character that's amazing like that's how much of a cue it is even for people

that bloody work there imagine what it's like being in the archers yeah incredible they probably all do that like Peter says he is currently listening to an episode of the archers

and it got me thinking he says about their scripts and recording processes was the plot not very absorbing probably something about udders

Helen asked me this how many episodes of the archers do they record in a day four uh really that's a lot of episodes isn't it yeah but they only have eight recordings a month so for a daily show that works well so it's like the daily quiz shows that they bang out like pointless yeah uh and how far in advance of broadcast do they record them one month i got this information from a friend of a friend who is in the archers oh wow yeah the only time i've ever encountered the archers is when waiting for front row to start

and i don't have anything against it like you do with all radio drama i don't have anything theoretical against it um i would one day be ready for the archers but i feel like you live in the country already you can be ready for the archers i feel like it's going to be the same time in my life when i'm ready for classical music which is when my libido dies okay so the only thing keeping your libido alive is not listening to the artists seven o'clock it's mark forrest gives me a right old stiffy there's no way i could possibly listen to the archers i've got a mental image of your flaccid penis gradually falling onto the radio doll and knocking onto classic f FM now. And you're like, well, I guess it's time. It's time.

So I heard somewhere that The Archers originally, and maybe still does, has like an informational component. Like it's meant to inform farmers about matters of countryside business. Is that right? Yeah, that is right. It does have its origins in proper reithian principles yeah um the original producer of the archers godfrey basely his name was um had previously worked not on soaps but on agricultural programs and his concept was this is boring if we dress this up so that there's a bit of drama in it you know once every six weeks someone dies or whatever then farmers would be more likely to listen to the stories and pick up the messages along the way i wonder if that worked it's amazing well the show's still running so something works yeah but i wonder whether it has shifted from that

original principle because i don't listen i couldn't possibly say i think i mean i can't remember the exact year but something like 1972 they abandoned any commitment to educate in the show and it became a straight up drama right um but still it reflects farming issues like when foot and mouth happened yeah so although farmers wouldn't listen to that to get advice on what to do with their cattle. Like his idea was, we've got rationing, so this will tell farmers how to feed the nation. Now, you're unlikely to learn lessons, but you are still, I think, likely to think, okay, this is reflecting my real life. I'm more likely to listen and feel like part of a community through this.

What if they think it's real? Do you think this is what will happen to the Beef and Dairy Network? Oh, I think a lot of people uh who first listened to beef and dairy network podcast by friend of the show benjamin partridge who way back in the first year of the show i think sent us a question asking if he should go to bremen on holiday and then made a package in bremen on holiday to answer me this uh store.com if you'd like to hear it yeah and since then i've got to know him in real life he has a podcast now very funny called beef and dairy network but uh i think a lot of people that

i've seen on twitter were like oh it's fiction ah what makes me laugh about the archers is when you look through the list of cameos celebrities who have appeared in it um as themselves yeah i mean like judy dench has done it as an actress and stuff but like if you look at who's actually pitters themselves quite eclectic as you'd expect with the long-running soap like that so chris moyles has been in it propping up the bar i'm not surprised he's in the same building as the bbc exactly uh prince prince wasn't uh pet shop boys did do it just like they did in neighbors and there was an episode with griff reese jones apparently where that's not a surprise no no exactly i'm getting to my point the episode with griffith jones again expected he went along

to one of the fictional characters who was trying to sell off the pub or something and he tried to restore the building for his tv program restoration that was the plot line so like so like you sort of understand those celebrity cameos then i found that in 2007 lord winston did a cameo as himself as a fertility specialist when a couple in the show who had fertility problems went to go and see the actual Lord Winston and he advised them on whether or not they should have treatment. Wow. But hang on.

That must have been really expensive. For them to record. For those characters to go to the top fertility specialist. Presumably that's partly the drama of it, but doesn't it sort of cheapen the whole thing, bearing in mind they are fictional characters? It both cheapens the actual process of going to see the top fertility expert and also the soap itself by having a real life person

rather than an actor playing them. I don't know that it cheapens it so much as really rips you out of the fact that it's made up. It just draws attention to the fact that the rest is made up. It's an awkward celebrity cameo as well because it's like, look at the clever thing I do. I get to help couples have children sometimes. Sometimes the babies don't make it through.

It's just a bit weird. Since he does have a service to sell, does that make that episode The Archers branded content? Exactly. Does it make it advertising? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Complicated. Now it's time for today's intermission.

Hurrah! Where we take a little snippet from an answer me this episode from the past yes just a little amuse bouche yes something to tantalize your taste buds it's by no means the whole thing but you could go totally la grande bouffe by buying episodes 1 to 200 from our website answer me this store.com We've had this in from Vicky, age 15, in Oxted. She has just watched the film Lolita online. I was in floods of tears at the tragic and powerful end... Hold on. She's going to ruin the ending now.

It's all right. We've passed the statute of limitations on spoilers. She's about to ruin one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. Published in 1955. So I can just say it, can I? Yes. Fine. She says the ending of the film she saw was a caption on the screen that says they both die.

What kind of a shitty ending is that? I think I've lost all my innocence forever. Well, you were watching Lolita online, which is A, stealing, B, a film about paedophilia, so innocence be gone. To be fair, you never really imagined that the ending would suddenly be a marriage and a sing-along would you i mean i i've not read the book i've not read the book but i guessed it would probably be a bit tragic

it's time listeners to remind you that if you want to leave a question on our voicemail then you can call in on the following number oh did that sound different to usual did it that's because there's a little present from tom from pennsylvania yeah it's a jingle that he's made of our phone number which by the way if you missed it is 0208 123 5877 the numbers made up by bits of famous artists singing songs from their back catalogue did you spot all the songs there uh i didn't even spot the numbers well it's quite hard to make out the number uh but we'll put the list of all the songs on our website um but uh bill withers was in there

meatloaf was in there which you know obviously know, obviously is exciting to me. Yeah. And a song by Prince called Seven. I was not familiar with that Prince number. No. I'm trying to think if there's a more famous song with the word seven in it. There's Seven Seconds by Yusuf Endor and Naina Cherry. Yeah, that is a better one. I think what we're doing is saying that you could have done this better, Tom. But don't do it again because we can't pay copyrighted music fees.

It's very complicated, the licensing, in every country that this podcast is available in, which is nearly all of them. Anyway, let's very complicated the licensing in every country that this podcast is available in which is nearly all of them uh anyway let's hear who has been in touch today hi helen ollie it's short from berry here i've been all over america i've had american food from all the different states well nearly all of them but i've never had Native American food. So answer me this. What is traditional Native American cuisine? And secondly, why is it not popular in restaurants? Why has there been no Native American food franchise outlet? Is this a goldmine that we're sitting on?

Goldmine we're sitting on. Yeah, let's take something that's theirs and exploit it for capitalist gain because that always goes so well when it comes to native american culture people really love that it gets very positive press doesn't it i have my thoughts about why this hasn't caught on as a cuisine in the states but first of all i'm do you know what native american cuisine is because as native peoples quite widely geographically spread absolutely and the local ingredients around which native american food is based very wildly from alaska to the southeastern us yeah but i've traveled very extensively in the

lower 48 didn't really encounter that much native american food the only time i have really come across any was in arizona and new mexico and what was it there uh so there the feature I particularly remember was fry bread, which is like a massive bit of fried dough. And also corn and squashes, peppers and tomatoes in some places. Like in some places they'll have a lot of game, in others they'll have more fish depending on the geography. Like in Alaska they have more seal meat than they have in Arizona. But it's also the bits of the animal that they eat are different. There's a lot of brain going on in Native American cuisine, I understand. Liver and stuff, and then berries.

So I think it does have the capacity to become very popular with people who are into the paleo diet or similar, and they want these ancient, unrefined ingredients because they don't really use farmed meat traditionally. They don't use processed flour and sugar. I think there's a lot of overlap in the South with Mexico because those peoples were permeated and migratory and traded and communicated and so on.

Yeah, so I remember when we were served fried bread, it was very much in the style that it might be served to tacos. So with salsa and sour cream and beanie things dumped on it. Well, I think in that lies my answer as to why this isn't as popular in the US as pizza joints and Mexican and all the rest of it. I mean, there's lots of reasons. One of them is what you were hinting at the different geographical areas. So people in one place would go in expecting salmon and another place expecting buffalo. So how do you have a

consistent meal that you offer up as a cuisine? But I think the real issue actually is the cost. So if you imagine a taco, and you get cheap pork to put in it, if you've got a Mexican restaurant, if you're running a Native American restaurant, imagine the controversy of an American company like McDonald's opening up branches of Native American cuisine that didn't employ Native Americans, right? That would be a no-go. They'd have to say, we use genuine ingredients farmed by Native Americans. That costs loads of money.

If you're going to have a buffalo brought up and slaughtered by people who are not exactly in tune with intensive farming farming that's going to create its own issue and the general pundit isn't prepared to spend four times as much for a buffalo taco as for a pork taco and that's basically what it comes down to i think that is some of what it might come down to but far from the whole story i think you've got a very complex issue as soon as you get into there being large chains of native american restaurants which will be largely serving people who are not native americans then you open up that very complicated and politically sensitive situation because native americans have been fucked over

such a lot and discriminated against a lot and marginalized a lot and culturally appropriated a lot and this would probably happen again like if it was difficult for native americans to set up these large businesses because their income is way below average so it's hard to set up a massive chain the settlements they were given are not usually near the big cities where food trends start and then if you're based around local ingredients how are you going to get them in new york say where the trend would then spread to other places and then what do you do to attract outsiders because a lot of people are not curious or brave about trying new foods do you then compromise your traditional foods to attract them and then if they are restaurants not run by native americans then you get the whole

culturally insensitive diluting you could imagine a group of um people from arizona or new mexico setting up a chain in la and it being very popular, right? Well, they have. There's one in New York at the moment. Well, this is it. They often say in their interviews, like, you know, we're going to open a chain of 12 restaurants by the end of the year and the biggest chain at the moment has two.

So it just hasn't proven itself as a business model. It's partly because landlords don't want to take the risk either because they know there's an audience for burgers. They can't prove there's one for Native American food. But also Native Americans apparently don't have a restaurant culture, which because they know there's an audience for burgers. They can't prove there's one for Native American food. But also Native Americans apparently don't have a restaurant culture, which I think would influence it as well.

But I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years it does take off. Would you eat bird brain soup though? If I served it up to you now and told you it was delicious? I don't really like soup. Don't avoid the issue.

Bird brain? Would you eat bird brain soup? I think it would depend on the texture of the brains. Often with organs. Well, would it? It's off the menu off the menu here you are you're in my native american restaurant i say this is a great recipe handed

down from my grandparents you know it's got a michelin star this place it's culturally right on everyone's native american would you eat my bird brain soup or not was i ordering it or were you just shoving it in front of me i'm the waiter and i've come up to you and i've chatted you up and i'll be like our specials of the day are this and this i've never ordered specials the specials is always stuff they're trying to get rid of okay i think she's avoiding the question i think she's i think she is I wouldn't eat bird brain soup I would

Would you? If I was in someone's house then I would if I was ordering in a restaurant then I wouldn't I wouldn't eat it in a different culture either I just don't really like offal

No neither do I but it's a big part of certain Native American cuisines that's all I'm saying I've definitely eaten stuff that I thought would be disgusting and faint delicious like I remember

eating Polish tripe soup that was amazing You've just got to sort of close your eyes and pretend you don't know what it is, haven't you? Hello. I'm Wilson. The ball from Castaway.

And here is my song about my favourite balls. Football, rugby ball, volleyball ball, tennis ball, volleyball ball. Tennis ball, zoe ball, basketball. Netball, handball, debutante ball. Bowling ball, baseball, big sweaty ball.

Answer Me This Sports Day, a marathon of fun and games, out now at answermethispodcast.com slash albums. Here's a question from Adam from Yorkshire who says, Helen, answer me this. When you leave a fingerprint at a crime scene, what are you actually leaving behind? What is it on your finger that's coming off and staying on a surface until someone wipes it down? Is it oil yeah it can be oil from your finger or sweat or dirt or if you had traces of say engine oil on

your finger you might leave that if you just washed your hands with soap and water you could still leave fingerprints though couldn't you yeah so what's that well i think that will still be oil there's also the option where you leave fingerprints in something say powdery or squidgy so you leave an impression of your fingerprint rather than the actual substances of your finger i think he's asking about the muck you leave the human muck the fact they still use fingerprints and that's what sherlock holmes was using it's sort of extraordinary isn't it still works people have still got unique fingerprints i think um racist eugenicist statistician francis colton figured out the likelihood of two people having the same fingerprints and i think um racist eugenicist statistician francis galton figured out the

likelihood of two people having the same fingerprints and i think it's like one in 70 billion wow which is why it's it's thought i think that there's been evidence to say that's not quite true but that's why it was thought to be such a good indicator of of guilt if you find someone's fingerprints it's also quite hard to fake isn't it it's a lot of effort yeah i mean how would you how would you plant someone's fingerprint in a place that they'd never been to obviously if they live there you can do it with sellotape now pretty easily couldn't you get dust and then off a wine glass i guess yeah we've all seen that bullshit in murder mysteries on telly right yeah does that really actually do it like i mean if you're pinning

your whole deception on it yeah bit of sellotape on the back of a wine glass well you'd be better off doing dna evidence then. Yes, exactly, nowadays. But I think there's far more problems with DNA evidence. I think that gets compromised a lot more often than fingerprint evidence. Best thing, obviously, is to wank someone off in their sleep and then plant that around the house, but it's difficult. My bird list seems to have jizzed everywhere. That would be amazing with small pool.

Rick says, Helen, answer me this. Are there any health benefits to oil pulling? I've read that swishing coconut oil around in your mouth for up to 20 minutes and then spitting it out into the trash otherwise it clogs your sinks drain pipes when it solidifies again good point thanks for the tip rick will remove toxins that form in your mouth oh you've always got to be so careful around things that claim to remove toxins firstly you should ask the practitioners what they mean by that yes by toxins by toxins it's like when people say

they've got a great energy or they're very spiritual but toxins are actually a thing like heavy metals those are toxic yeah whereas what they're talking about uh they're usually more vague when you press them on it and also if you're a fairly healthy person in that you're all of your organs are working and you're not absolutely barraging them with terrible substances, they will eliminate toxins from your body for you. That is what your liver and kidneys and digestive system are for.

Glad to hear it. Your kidneys will put them into a piss, basically, won't they? But coconut oil is the current panacea of paltrow choice. I think it's even overtaken cider vinegar. Yeah. And bicarbonate of soda so why is that well coconut oil has antibacterial properties it is 50 percent lauric acid which inhibits strep mutans that are the primary bacteria that cause tooth decay so it may help prevent tooth decay also there's some bacteria that will bond to fatty substances and

thus it's easier to wash them out of your mouth with an oil that's sensible um yes but it's one of those things where it's probably not bad for you well it's probably not bad for you but the thing is if you get coconut oil into your lungs then it can cause lipoid pneumonia so actually it can be a bit bad but that'll be true of any oil that you inhaled yeah and also it can give people stomach upsets but the thing is like they're saying yes it could be good for like um strengthening your jaw and whitening your teeth and freshening your breath but not necessarily in the limited studies that have been done better than a mouthwash but i suppose you might want to avoid the chemicals that are in a mouthwash

i've been buying coconut oil for six months now and i didn't know you were supposed to use it in your mouth i've tried it a couple of times just to see what this is like have you yeah you didn't tell me that well i don't tell you everything keeping the secrets how do you what because i've been using it for cooking yeah is that wrong no it's meant to be very good oh you can use it for cooking oh you can use it for every bloody thing but it's okay to eat it yeah but i used it also on a scar that was reluctant to heal wow really cleared it up it really is the panacea of the moment yeah is it is it liquid no it's it's it's a mushy uh cream how do you swill it how do you swill it well some people just put a lump in their mouth and and swill it until it liquefies i put a little bit into a cup that was in some warm water so

it melted into a liquid and then you just sort of sit sloshing it around your mouth and it turns white and everyone's like oh that means it's filling with toxins but it's filling with saliva So it melted into a liquid. And then you just sort of sit sloshing it around your mouth and it turns white. And everyone's like, oh, that means it's filling with toxins. But it's filling with saliva and air, which means, of course, it's changing. There have been a few studies done, but they are by people who are affiliated with Ayurvedic medicine, which has been using oil pulling for like three to five thousand years. Therefore, they're not necessarily the most impartial or the most accurate. So you probably shouldn't start at 20 minutes a day. That will be too much.

You can start with five minutes and work up if you really want to do this. And then you're supposed to rinse your mouth out with salt water. So if the coconut oil didn't make you puke, salt water will do it for you. I'm an answer me this fan. I listen with my nan. She is not so keen. She finds it too obscene I follow them on Twitter

Though Ashton Kutcher's fitter I want to take things further Just one step short of murder I want to look like Olly Mann I want to smell like Olly Mann I want to feel like Olly Mann I want to chase like Olly Mann I want to look like Olly Mann

I want to talk like Olly Mann man I wanna be like a loony man I wanna chase like a loony man I wanna be like a loony man Here's a question from an anonymous lady who says, I'm in my twenties my younger brother is at university he's in his late teens, and during the holidays he lives with our mum this week he, he's in his late teens, and during the holidays he lives with our mum. This week he revealed he's been reading her diary.

What? And has relayed to me some increasingly juicy, scandalous, and now quite concerning elements of what seems to be her sexual reawakening since getting divorced. Good God. You know, when I was a teenager I did go digging around into my dad's porn collection because I knew it was there and it was my only chance to encounter anything like that. If I'd have stumbled onto anything homemade, I would have had to have blinded myself. I took that risk knowingly. It's like I'm an Oedipus, isn't it? The idea of reading the innermost thoughts of my parents that are meant to be private, you know, even if they're just words on a page if they're sexually explicit that is absolute

poison isn't it and also when you're younger it's so inconceivable that they're actually human beings with urges and lives of their own they're just subsets of you yeah and i just think it would be playing on your mind all the time if you're still the child in that relationship and this this sounds like it's like easier for her in her 20s not living with her mum anymore to talk about for her brother you know he's he's living with her. She's the mum figure still. I think this is quite disturbing stuff. Well, Anonymous Lady says, I've told him to stop reading the diary,

but Ollie, answer me this. What do I do with the knowledge I've acquired? Hire the men in black. It sounds like she is engaging in risky and unpleasant to her sexual antics with equally unpleasant men. Just put your fingers in your ears and say la la la. Is that really so difficult?

I think she wants her mother not to be having sexual encounters that are emotionally or physically damaging to her. Yeah, but then her mother can come to her and ask for advice, can't she? I think what she may be hinting at is a difference in generational attitudes towards sex. Possibly, but then possibly her mother's also interested in someone else of the same age as her and that person's from that generation as well. And why should a younger person assume that they know all what a good relationship is when the older person's been in one for longer?

Well, I think anonymous lady can interpret whether it's risky and that could still mean her mum's having a good time. But if she's saying it's unpleasant to her mum, that sounds like the mum must have been confided in the diary. It didn't really make her very happy for whatever reason. Anonymous lady says, I don't want to let my mum know that her children have been confided in the diary. Yeah. Didn't really make her very happy for whatever reason. Anonymous Lady says, I don't want to let my mum know that her children have been reading her diary,

although she certainly invaded my privacy a great deal during my teens, but I'm very concerned about what she appears to have become involved in. She's not the most assertive of people and she's also, I think, incredibly naive thanks to a 30 plus year marriage. I don't think she knows what a good relationship

or a good sex should be like. She's taking a very paternalistic attitude towards her mum, isn't she? Is she worried that she's in physical danger? Is she worried about safe sex? What are her concerns? Either way, I think she's being the mum in this relationship, isn't she? The other Freudian thing here,

I don't know the circumstances of your parents' divorce, obviously, but it sounds like some of your concern, you've got to confront the fact that your mother is having sex with someone and that will sometimes you know be something she enjoys and sometimes not and actually sometimes those two things happen together and we're all programmed not to think about that we're all programmed to think of our parents as our parents from the moment we're born if we're brought up in conventional setups but also without knowing the specifics of whether it is destructive sexual and emotional behavior that her mother's engaged with it could just be that your mother's

back on the market and when you're dating you might have some encounters that you just think that person is a bit of a twat like it might not be a harmful thing to do. You might just be like, well, I'm out there. Doesn't mean everyone is someone I'm really pleased to be with. No, exactly. And actually the fact that she is confiding it to her diary. I haven't kept a diary since I was 12. But when I did,

there was definitely an element in there of bragging to the future me. I mean, obviously hopelessly, but I didn't know that at the time about what I'd done. And even when I was angry about stuff, even when I was unhappy with the way things were going, it was really a way of me recording a thing

that on some level I thought was quite cool had happened to me. I mean, your mum might just essentially, by writing these detailed descriptions of unpleasant men she's having sex with, effectively be saying to her future self, I'm having sex! Yeah? I'm having sex! Or, if later, when you're no longer seeing these people

and you're feeling a bit nostalgic about it thinking oh my god they were the one you can look back at this thing it was just a bit of a tool yeah exactly yeah yeah the signs were all there i just didn't want to believe it but anyway i don't think really you should mention to your mum that you read her diary but you could engage her in a conversation where you got a bit more earnest about her dating life you could say how how has it been going on the single scene have you met anyone nice what's it like dating after 30 years of divorce i think you can just come out and say that yeah use it as briefing notes yeah and then but don't let her know where

you're getting it from no and then if your mother seems like there's something troubling her you could gently steer her towards talking about that and she doesn't necessarily have to reveal to you in person the particulars of her sex life. But if then you have concerns that she's engaging in, let's say, unequal encounters, whether they are harmful or not, then you can talk about them. Right?

Also, she's presumably hearing about it from her brother not reading the extracts herself. Not clear again. Yeah. So maybe he's interpreting it slightly. And he might have less of an understanding of the sexual urges of a woman who is several decades his senior. Exactly.

You could be hearing a teenage boy's interpretation of a middle-aged woman's sexual frustrations. Not ideal. But not the clearest picture. But it sounds like a great idea for a podcast. My mum wrote a diary. straight to number one people sadly that particular one isn't available right now but our archive is a reminder on our website answer me this store.com and there'll be new episodes of this show very soon with your questions which you can supply using the contact details on our website answer me this podcast.com and also if you need more ear matter

then you can use our offer to get a free audiobook from Audible by going to AnswerMeThisPodcast.com slash Audible That's right, remember if you get a free audiobook it doesn't cost you anything, that's the meaning of the word free but we get money from Audible so thanks Oh, listeners, I'm doing a live show of The Illusionist in September on the 24th at the

London Podcast Festival. So come along to that at King's Place. Am I doing something for that? I reckon I'll get Martin on stage to do something. I can do a little dance. Martin, are you trying to live negotiate your role here? I'm appearing as the letter A. Are you going anyway?

But you haven't got anything for me. I'm just going to storm the stage with my guitar. Okay. So maybe I can see you in person then, but before that, please join us again in two weeks for the next Answer Me This. Bye!