Answer Me This! - Answer Us Back: 'nduja-smeared rubber glove

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Hello! Welcome to this month's edition of Answer Us Back, full of your feedback on AMTs old and new. Today: Helen's going to watch ice hockey this weekend, i.e. she'll get to see zambonis in action, per AMT415. Olly got sleb-spotted when out for breakfast (hi Simon!). Pete in Bloomington, Indiana, wants to know whether Kyle from Bloomington, Indiana, is still stealing olives from the olive bars of Bloomington, Indiana, like he was back in AMT305 in 2014. Well, Kyle, are you? ARE YOU??? Provoked by AMT402's discussion of proposals via book dedications, Emma in Canada has a real life example from her own parents of a proposal via printed text, in their case the local tabloid newspaper. David from Glasgow heard us talking about the radio pip pip pips in AMT406 and explains how they use them in his work on cargo ships. Amy has a tip for Olly, to end his despair from AMT402 about all the little plastic bottles containing his cholesterol-reducing Benecol. We get a bit verklempt as Ricardito reminisces about what AMT meant to his late partner Stephen - including an excellent prank in AMT303. And along the way we learn about Olly's greatest technological fear and pragmatic marriage proposal, and Helen's parents' pugnacious proposal.  If you’ve been amassing thoughts about AMTs 1-415, send them to us for future episodes of Answer Us Back. And as always, send in your questions, in voicenote or written form to [e-mail]. All new AMT416 will be in your podfeed 26 March.  29 March is the next edition of our video livestream Petty Problems, so send us your unserious concerns and queries for that. To watch it and all the previous ones, sign up to patreonise the show 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, and all the Retro AMT episodes with our commentary reflecting upon them years later. AND by supporting the show on Patreon, you’re helping to fund new AMT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huge news, Ollie, since last episode, I have made a plan this weekend to go and watch an ice hockey game. Oh, wow. Is that like an integral part of getting your Canadian visa? Let's hope. Let's hope they hand me the paperwork on my way out. You've sat through all two and a half hours of this, you can stay. That's probably what they're waiting for. They probably want Martin to get circumcised as well, and then you'll be fine.

Yeah, I don't know if that's a Canadian thing so much. It's very cold here, so people need to be. the insulation. Well, that's exciting. Who's playing whom? Shirts versus skins, I don't know. Do you really literally not know? You've got a ticket, Helen. Well, my friend Carlos has like a season ticket and I'm going with him.

It's the women's league. Everyone's very exciting because it's the first time Vancouver's had like a proper women's team and apparently the vibes are excellent. Oh, brilliant. That's what I'm going for. Vibes and bonies, ice shoveling. Can I just do a real life bit of feedback as well? Yes, please. Shout out Simon, the general.

manager at Granger and Coen in St. Pancras. I went in there yesterday for breakfast with our mutual friend Tommy. Oh. And as I opened the door, and I cannot emphasize how rarely this happens, listeners, basically never. He said, with a look of impressed, like, bewilderment, oh, are you Olly man? And I said, yes. And he said, I've listened to answer me this since I was. And then he sort of gestured down to the ground as if to intimate a very diminutive child.

Oh my God. I didn't quite know what to say because I was expecting to be recognised as I went for breakfast. So I said to him, does that mean I get a free glass of champagne? Wow. Always be hustling. Yeah. He laughed awkwardly, but then did comp the coffees, which was much appreciated. Did he recognise Tommy from our Bob Dylan jingles and episode 100? Well, I had the thrill of being able to say to him after our meal and he'd comp the coffees. Simon, this pink-haired software designer sitting with me, he is the voice of Bob Dylan in our jingles and is one of the Bronte sisters. Was Tommy impressed or was it embarrassing to be a slob-spotted with a friend in tow?

I think he was impressed. It doesn't happen too much in his software engineer career. Well, here is some feedback from Pete from Bloomington, Indiana, who says, in episode 305, which I think puts that late 2014, Kyle from Bloomington, Indiana wrote in about tasting, bracket, eating, olives from his supermarket olive bar and wondering if he was stealing. Yes, I remember that. Classic quandary. I can't remember what we said. Can you? We spun ten delectable minutes out of it, Helen,

as we debated the pros and cons. I think I would have said that stealing a few is okay, but obviously not by the letter of the law, and that's basically where we stand, isn't it? That's a very Olly Man type of response to this question. Will it stand up in court? No, does everyone do it? Yes. Has Olly Man ever been apprehended for stealing the big orange juice at Pratt while paying for a little one? Not yet.

Well, not yet, although I tried to get a full orange juice at Pratt the other day. They don't do them anymore. Because of you. You took them all. They only make the half bottles and charge everybody for what used to be the full bottle price. They took the tip from Ollie Mann. Yeah. Exactly. Table turned.

Okay. Well, Pete says, I live in Bloomington and worked in a supermarket at the time and was the one who selected and purchased the actual olive bar fixture installed in the store. Touch him. him, he's real! Wow. My aunt had a friend when I was a kid who was the wine taster for Waitrose. Wow.

And I remember grown-ups around the Passover table all expressing sort of interest in her job, but me thinking, well, so what? Not interested because I didn't drink wine. This is like my vibe. Oh, yeah. Olive Bar Commissioner. A bazillion percent. Yeah.

Pete, if you want to write in and tell us more all about the Olive Bar business, both of us would be enraptured. How do you select between like walnut veneer, stainless steel interior? Pete says, I've wondered about Kyle lately, as the local olive bar popularity has all but dried up. Olly, answer me this. Is Kyle still in Bloomington tasting and stealing food at the supermarkets? What does he think about the decline in popularity of the olive bars?

Are olive bars still popular in your area of the UK? Okay, I'm glad there was a more domestic question at the end, because I feel like the first two questions aren't really in our purview. This is answer us back, not... Not stalk all of your questionnaires in perpetuity. Kyle, do get in touch about your olive crime spree, please. I mean, I can tell you, Pete, that Kyle, as far as we can see, using the original email address with which he wrote to us to confess his olive bar theft,

has not written to us since. He's in supermarket jail. It's going to be a long old term, isn't it? It's going to be at least another 10 years ago, is that? But I can answer that here in the UK, yes, I have actually observed that olive bars have somewhat declined from their peak. Is that a COVID-It, you know, I think it might be. be, but also because of the rising level of immigration and more kind of like cross-cultural

grocery stores across our cities, I do think as well that like, you know, once the Turkish olive game arrives on your high street, you don't want the Sainsbury's olive game. Do you know what I mean? They've just got so many good olives. And I feel more icky about stealing from those family businesses, as I do from a supermarket. So I feel again that the olive bar theft has probably declined in tandem. God, I wish I was surrounded by olive bars, but alas. Is there not, Not one. Not one. Not even at a farmer's market where they overcharge? Well, I mean, all food is like farmers market prices, even if it is a budget supermarket here. There are a couple of olive bars, but one of them I found quite disappointing because all of the olives are way over salted and they all kind of taste the same even though there's sort of 12 different kinds. That is the risk when they're air rated. I have noticed. Is it? And that is genuinely why it's useful to try each one and see how it being exposed to pickle slash air has affected its flavour.

I say, okay, you're making a case for your crimes. What has actually kind of more widely proliferated via the high street chains here, as far as I can see, is like ready to eat Spanish pinches, do you say? Pinchos, pinches. Yeah. Like the ones on sticks. Yeah.

Gildas, they're sometimes called also. Yes, yes. We like cheese relitos and ham and then an anchovy or whatever. What a great game for someone to be like, okay, I'm just going to put this cheese and an anchovy on a stick and then I can charge seven quid for it. Again, I find the vacuum packness of them does something strange to the olive. Like it doesn't have contact with any liquid.

And so it's just been in air for two weeks. And it tastes a bit too much to me of the pork and the salt and less of the olive. Yeah, disappointing because I want to taste that olive. That's all I want in life. Yeah, I agree. I guess they're designed for like party food, aren't they? They're picky bits. They're at picnics.

So you're probably only supposed to have one, whereas I have all three. And then I feel like I can feel my heart to quicken. Have you ever put one of those in a martini? No, but I'm almost tempted just like mic drop now, walk off and try it because that sounds great. That sounds fucking great. Pinchos is just a regional term in northern Spain for small bite to eat. It's not even a specific thing. Like you go to Dinoscia and it's Pinchos in the bars early evening.

So it's sort of like if they'd taken the word tapas and just applied it to Potatoes Pravus or something. Yeah. But Marx and Spenture are very clever at creating their whole new product category. for UK palettes based around international ideas, aren't they? It's like they do an Nduja barata that you cook. And I was watching one of those like puff pieces for Marks and Spencer Christmas time that they put on, which is just a big advert for their range of food,

but is strangely compelling as like people spend like half a year planning a mince pie. And they were talking about how, well, they showed you like the lady who went to Italy to sauce the barata. And like all of the dairy farmers in Italy, I know Italy is very conservative about, you know, the way foods should be, and maybe that means a trache.

No, they were like, you want to do what? You can see on their faces they were torn between taking the meeting with the massive UK grossing company and at the same time being like, you're not cooking my fucking barata, mate. Not in an undoja, what's wrong with you? But, you know, it's a whole new product category that works here. And I guess British people just don't care that it's not authentic. Or that it's not even right. Like you could do that with shit barata.

Why would you use the good stuff? Well, again, Marks and Spencer, because they want to put on their label, don't they? made with Italian barata. Yeah, it's a waste of barata, but I bet it tastes good. I bet that's the thing. Yeah, but you could smear and do you're on a robber glove and it would taste good.

Here's an email from Emma in Canada, who says, in Answer Me This, 402, so a more recent example now. It's still long enough ago that I can't fucking remember. Let her email remind you, Helen. Okay, great. You joked about what would happen if a wedding proposal written as a dedication in a book were to be missed by the intended recipient.

No joke at all. And I just wanted to share that that basically happened to my parents. Wow. My dad was a columnist for a local tabloid and wrote a column proposing to my mum. Aw. You're being all sweetness and like now, Helen, you didn't have this great approval of people who practice this in the episode, I recall. Okay, well, like I said, I've forgotten the episode,

so I can be a completely different person now. The night before the publishing date, she says, he got home very late. He had to wait for the press to print an edition. Awesome. He left the paper, opened to the right page at her spot on the table, and went to bed.

Mm-hmm. Picture the scene. You can imagine how excited he was to get downstairs and find out the answer to his proposal. God, the tension. I wonder how he slept. In the morning, he discovered that she had tossed the paper aside

without even looking at it. That's what local papers are for. Yeah, probably had some cat litter to clear up. She didn't like the tabloid, and she was probably still frustrated at him for how late he'd gotten home the night before. So he had to do a song and dance together to look at it without spoiling it, which took a while. But she did say yes, and their wedding cake was made to look like a newspaper. I can relate to this hard, obviously, because I have a similar thing. If I wanted to communicate a message to my wife, the one place I would not do it is in a podcast.

She has absolutely no interest in my audio work at all. No. I would have to put a post-it note on the fridge. Or did she propose to you with a note on the mayonnaise jar? We just had a really, like, pragmatic and practical conversation. We were like, we should probably get married. It was really underwhelming in that sense. Beautiful.

Yeah, I didn't find it unbeautiful because neither of us were bothered. Yeah. But this, I do think, is kind of not... I mean, what I think is actually important is the graphic design here. So Emma has actually sent us a screen grab of the Toronto son from Friday, June the 16th, 1989. Thank you so much, Emma, for your service. I'm enjoying this so much.

And the headline of the column, and what's important, I think, is that the typeface is about three times the size of his author's byline. The headline is, Dear Debbie, comma, let's get married. So I think that is quite a nice souvenir to keep. If the sub-editor had called the column something else all about your dad, and if your dad's photo had been bigger on it, it would look a bit narcissistic, wouldn't it? But as it is, it looks quite romantic, I think. And it's amazing how that might not have even been his choice.

Well, I was wondering whether they needed the headline to be big to fill space because he hadn't quite reached the word count. It's quite romantic, I think. It starts, it's raining outside and a soft grey mist is drifting down over the city. But here in the newsroom, my mouth is as dry as a Methodist prayer meeting because he's nervous about the proposal. Quite wisely, the sub-ed editor has added tabloid style as a breaking markers of the text as you get down.

So it gets, just above, marry me, comma, Debbie, they've put a subheading, Here it comes, readers. So you know where to look. Yeah. It's nice to have a story. I suppose you've just got to be careful, like I was kind of suggesting, that the partner is on board with the story being all about you. You know, you did this thing. This was your proposal, whereas, like, particularly some brides would feel like the focus should be more on them.

I think that it's nice that we have a man talking about emotions, talking about, talking about being teary and nervous because of love. I'm happy to see that in public. I live for the tears of cis-set men. So good for you, Emma's dad. Did your parents have a fun proposal story, Helen? Well, according to my mother, they got engaged whilst having an argument.

So I suppose it depends if you think that's fun. It's funny. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know what the argument was about. I think my dad's reasoning was like, if we get married we can do this all the time. Oh. But he didn't go outside and like chisel I love you into a sports figurine.

He wasn't a sculptor then. He had a real job. Oh, did he? That was a shift after they got married. You know, an exciting surprise for my mother. Remind me what he was doing back then. Oh, he was a management consultant. He had a sports car.

I think he was quite flash. Okay. God dear. She got sold up up. Absolutely. Yeah. She had a child. And then when the second child was on the way,

he's like, and giving all that up to be a sculptor. Ouch I once tried to use the university newspaper to convey my feelings of regret that I hadn't acted on an amorous invitation in the past Did you? How do I not remember this?

You wouldn't know because I've never spoken about it. There was a lady who sort of made a move on me in year one and I just couldn't deal with it because I did actually really fancy her. I was 19 and I was like, I don't know how to cope with this person who I actually like liking me.

So she even said like, is there something you want to say to me? I think she said. And I was like, no, no, definitely not. Change the subject, be funny. And then in my third year, you know, I think someone was writing an article about like what levers regret. Oh.

And so I thought, okay, well, this is a way of saying to her through code that I regret that moment because she had another boyfriend at that point. Two years late. You were two years late. Oh, God. And I didn't, it's not like I wanted her to split out with her boyfriend. Wow. But I also, I thought I'm never going to be able to bring this up with her.

But if I, in code suggests that that happened, then she might read it. and think, oh, okay, he did like me. Damn. Yeah. God. Did it feel a tall cathartic to have put it out there? Yes.

Good. Yes, it did a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's useful. Yeah. And it makes me think about this as well. Like if Debbie had said no, I mean, this is the reason why we were saying

about being public proposals. It puts pressure, doesn't it, on the person you're proposing to say yes and then that's not fair. And then what if they say no? If Debbie had said no, would Emma's dad have felt that it was worth doing to get off his chest anyway?

Yes, probably. I mean, it's a big public embarrassment, but that's a useful. It's a useful milestone in a man's life as well. Maybe. I don't think doing it via the newspaper is that embarrassing, because it gives the recipient time to consider. It's less on the spot than if you like, where was I, were you there as well at Green Man Festival where someone made the band stop playing on the main stage so he can propose. And it was tremendously awkward. But you're kind of stuck with making a stressed response if that's you. being proposed to, whereas the newspaper, I think, is a bit more of a generous plan.

Particularly these days, because the local paper, I mean, that'd be a weekly publication at best. Got a week to think about it. Yeah. Well, God knows when the print deadline is. It could be like three weeks. Yeah. It might be like Esquire. They just see like an autumn winter edition. Yeah. I have to wait six months for the answer. So retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of today in history? On Monday, Earhooks, lenses and bifocals, a brief history of spectacles. On Tuesday, the anniversary of the day Francis of Assisi

first put on his sackcloth. On Wednesday, the dapper French businessman with a garden full of dead bodies. On Thursday, it's the 1890th Academy Awards and the winner isn't La La Land. And on Friday, throw me something, mister, how Mardi Gras came to America. That's today in history with the retrospectors.

Ten minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts. Here's a message from David from Glasgow, who says, I'm a few episodes behind, so apologies for the delayed message. Don't apologise, David. This is the bread and butter of what we're doing here. Yeah, exactly. We've had feedback from an episode from 11 and a half years ago. So you're doing fine. David says, I really enjoyed your discussion about the Pips on BBC Radio. Oh, yes.

Episode 406 is when we talked about the Pips. He says, I work on a cargo ship and we use the Pips to calibrate our chronometers. I should have looked up what a chronometer does because I just realized I am ignorant. I mean, the name suggests something to do with time in and of itself, doesn't it? It does. It does, yes. The measurement. of time. The measurement of time thing. Yes. David says,

we tune in to BBC Radio 4 on 198 kilohertz for the time signal. If we're out of range, we switch to the 10,000 kilohertz time signal station instead. We then fill in our chronometer log to record how many seconds out

our chronometer is. This accurate clock, i.e. the pips, might be all we have to calculate our position at sea if our GPS is ever jammed, spoofed or broken. So it remains an essential

daily check even today. Wow. Great. It's nice to hear a listener who's got a proper job, isn't it? Yeah, what's that like, David? Working on a cargo ship. I did kind of half think that you guys all had like posh watches like the ones James Cameron wears in his submersibles.

Is that because he needs a special watch that he can wear in the pressure of the deep sea? I think it's because he was flattered to be the spokes face for Rolex. Oh, yeah. But it's interesting to hear you say that if you haven't got posh watches that you are using longwave radio, because in the UK, I think we probably talked about this in the episode. On DAB, what is the point of the PIPS?

Because if you can receive a legible digital signal, then you can also see the accurate time on your digital radio display. But if you're on a ship and you don't have DAB signal and you're reliant on long wave, then that would be the only way you'd be able to know. There's no visual version of knowing what time it is. Right. So some things haven't really changed that functionality.

Yeah, exactly. When he says, oh, if our GPS is ever jammed, spoofed or broken, that's terrifying, isn't it? the idea of what life was like before Google Maps. The worst fear for you was pre-Sat Nav. Honestly, I would, I mean, I'm dyspraxic for listeners you don't know. If GPS went down, I would just be in the centre of London going round and round in concentric circles like I was in a video game.

Or like you were in National Lampoons European Vacation. Yeah, that would be the biggest event for me. You know when people say, oh, I'd pay for Facebook if they didn't have ads or I'd pay for this or that? Google Maps is that honestly, I'd be. pay easy £400 a year for Google Maps. If there was no other sat-nav available, doesn't matter what I earn, £400, have it?

Yeah. Well, they're leaving money on the table. Just to take my data. What's more valuable? Cash or your data. I mean, my data, to me, is worth less than the cash. Actually, our search histories are so putrid because of this show that maybe our data is quite exciting.

People who like alternative cremation methods also like grapefruit juice. No. Just two random questions we were asked. Well, Amy has written in to say, I just listened to my first ever answer me this as I am newish to the podcast world. Welcome, welcome. Welcome, yeah. In episode 402,

Ollie spoke about drinking a daily Benacol drink, but despairing of the plastic use. Oh, yeah. You can take plant sterols, the active ingredient in Benicol as a capsule to help control cholesterol. Good thought, Amy. Yeah, make your own Benicol.

I was saying why doesn't it come in like large bottles? I don't mind having one plastic bottle a week. What I object to is the fact that it's in shots and you have to get through seven a week. Yeah, so you could just make your own just buy a yogurt and stick some capsules in it. Yeah, or just glug down the capsule neat and then eat something else.

I've looked into this, though, since this email, and there is apparently less evidence for the effectiveness of the supplements compared to food that contains senols and sterols. Is that because Benicole has paid for studies to show that Benico does something? I think basically yes. Okay.

The food industry, understandably, one's academic backing for its claims that it can lower your... Because it can. All that stuff, flora proactive stuff can lower your cholesterol. But they need studies to show that, so they've poured money into that as marketing. So yeah, exactly. There could just be fewer studies

for the people who make the cholesterol capsules. But that doesn't mean they're less effective. You've always got to look at who paid for the studies. Exactly, yeah. So according to the Association of UK Dietitians, in general, studies show... that stanol or sterile supplements taken with meals can reduce cholesterol to similar levels as Benicol. So yeah, maybe I should consider it. You could try it. You could conduct a one-person

study, which wouldn't be scientifically valid. Yeah, I mean, the problem is if I have an enormous heart attack at 46, there's no counter-example, is there? We don't know what would have happened if I tried the other thing. It can only compare me to the market. Then your family could sue Amy. That sounds fair. And then Amy could sue podcast for getting her into this mess. I also would have to be careful because some of the supplements have niacin in, which is a trigger for gout. Oh, damn. So good for lowing cholesterol, but I could end up with a swollen foot because I am susceptible to gout.

Damn it. So a swollen foot in pain, not even the blessed relief of a heart attack to provide a distraction. Oh, God. Interesting. It's not really a thing in the USA, Benicol. Really? That surprises me. Yeah, so it is available.

I think Johnson and Johnson have the rights for it, but it's not in every mainstream supermarket like it is here, and I know this because I was in Florida this time last year, and I went to the biggest Walmart I've ever seen. You can imagine the Walmart in Orlando. And I just assumed that, of course, they'll have Benicole, because you get all the British stuff you could get in there. You could get your baked beans and your eater bicks or whatever.

They've had everything from all over the world. But they didn't have Benico, and I tried to explain to the clerk what I was looking for, and obviously he was super helpful. But after about five minutes of trying to explain what Benicle was, he was like, it's a yogurt? I can't explain what this is if you don't know what. I'm trying to explain, it's got a plant sterile in it, and it's a shot. And you have it every day, but it's a yogurt.

He just looked to me like I was completely, you know, off the planet. I suspect in like New York City and stuff, it's probably bigger. But like in regional supermarkets, it's not as widespread as it is here. And I don't know why that is. I feel like we're going to get another message from someone in Bloomington, Indiana, talking about how Benichol is available there. Sure. Try our Benicol bar. We dip our olives in it. Yeah. Can you get savory Benacol?

With like cheese and olives in? For the real high cholesterol victim, the cheese-flavored Benacol. We know what you like. Yeah. Right. A change in tone now for our final email this episode, Helen. This is like it's a bit of a weepy, this email that I'm about to read. It's, you know, in the vibe of an R-tune with Simon Bates. All right.

It comes from listener Ricardito who says, Helen Nolly, you drop your podcast onto the world. You rarely find out the effect it has on people. I want to share my story with you. Thank you very much unless it's a bad story where we ruined your life, in which case, sorry, in advance. No, it's a mostly good story, but it's a bit sad. I met my partner, Stephen, 15 years ago.

He was a hardcore AMT fan. Wow. He quickly got me hooked. We bought each other AMT. merch for Christmas gifts. Oh my God. Finally, we know who was propping up the AMT merch store. Actually, fun fact, we have not been paid for those badges since 2009.

I believe the company went bust. Oh, shit. So if you are UK-based and you want to help us refresh our merch offering, please do. It's something I need to get around to at some point this year. Great. Rick Ardito continues. I sent in questions without telling Stephen, so he'd get a surprise when you answered them. That's cute.

The most memorable one was when I had changed the names of the character. in 50 Shades of Grey to those of my elderly parents and put it on my mum's Kindle. That is memorable, Rick Adethe. I'd forgotten it, but what a wonderful, fresh amusement for me. Nicely reminded of it. That's so upsetting.

You genius. Stephen and I embrace the Helen and Ollie universe, he says. Stephen took me to an illusionist live show. Really? I hope it was okay. This is where it takes a turn. Stephen died two years ago. Oh, fuck. I'm sorry. It wasn't the illusionist live show that killed him, was it?

He leaves that blank. Okay. Those who loved him are left bereft, but our lives go on. Now you have rebooted AMT. I listen with so much fondness, if a little dewy eyed. Yeah, I'm sorry Stephen wasn't here for the reboot. Yeah. I'm sorry for other reasons that Stephen's not here.

This sounds shit, Ricardito, and I'm sorry. You've answered a couple of my questions in the new season, Ricardito says. Yeah, you've sent us a lot of good questions, Ricardito. Stephen would have got a kick out of hearing them like he always did. As listeners, we've been through your life events, birth, marriage, bereavements. You weren't there when I was born. I'm pretty sure. I think my mum would have mentioned.

My dad wasn't even there. I just write to tell you that you have been with me through my life events too. I thank you for the little extra bond you gave to Stephen and to me, and for the enjoyment. Oh, my God. Please keep on doing what you do as long as it's rewarding for you. means a lot to your listeners. That's incredible. Thank you so much. Good sign off as well with love, Ricardito in Brighton, Brackets and Stephen, probably in the fiery place. Well, a nice pub with an open fire with a Labrador asleep by it. Rick Arito, really sorry

for your loss. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. You're right, we do. We do talk into the ether. I mean, this show is a bit different to others because it's an interactive show, so we actually have more of a sense of our listeners' lives and that we're sharing our lives with you. But still, you know, you don't have much aspiration for this stuff. Do you really beyond being, I'd like to be someone's favorite podcast and I'd like to be able to pay the bills with it. But to be the in-joke in someone's relationship over decades.

That's gorgeous. And now remembered now they're dead. I mean, it's really genuinely a humbling. Yeah. Honestly, I'm not exaggerating. This is the kind of thing that keeps us going. Yeah, totally. Even when our massive income from the Badgers has,

dried up. No, you're right. There are a lot of podcasts in the world right now. Sure. But this is the bit you can't fake authenticity, as they say, right? Everyone else is trying. Actually, we, you know, have been having a conversation with all of you for so long now, as I was saying at the beginning with Simon the manager at the coffee shop.

Yeah, you really feel that deep, deep integration. And it's, yeah, thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah. It's sort of sobering as well because we hear from people when they're like, I was listening to your podcast when I was giving birth and that child's now 12, or we hear from people who've been listening to the podcast since they were preteens and now they're like 30. But hearing about the end of life and beyond is, you know, another spin on how we are in people's lives.

If you have sincere feedback on anything we've discussed in the last 19 years. Or non-sincere feedback's fine. We can take it. Yeah, but you're flippin and glib feedback really helpful for the top. And I do really want to hear from Kyle who at some point lived in. in Bloomington, Indiana and took some olives. Reach out via the usual channels, our email address, our phone number, send us a voice memo. And if you want to catch up with the whole history of AnswerMe This, if this has inspired you to look back through the back catalogue and see if there's an unresolved issue that

you'd like to pick us up on 15 years later. So many. There are two ways to do that. You can buy the back catalogue at AnswerMe This Store.com or you can sign up at patreon. At patreon.com slash Answer Me This and get it ad-free on the podcast app you're using to listen to this, and I think we'll all agree that's better. It's cheaper. And more convenient. Sure. I mean, the thing is, the show's been going so long that you had to build a special system so that we could sell the back catalogue and then eventually technology creaked into action

and provided other options. We're also going to be doing petty problems as well on Sunday the 29th of March. That's right. Yes, our video live stream for Answer Me This Patreon's and it's really fun because the people who attend the stream can help pitch in on other people's light-hearted problems. And it's a jolly hang. Indeed. So if you fancy hanging jolly with us, Sunday 29th of March. And if you have a petty problem, send it in now for us to answer. Yes. And of course, we are taking your questions of all kinds for the next episode of answering this, which is out on the 26th of March. So send us those two. See you then. Bye.