Answer Me This! - Answer Us Back: Tiaras and Cadavers

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Wake up, babe - a new AMT feature just dropped! Midway through the interminable month between new episodes, we’ll be doing an Answer Us Back episode that’s all bits of feedback you send in about episodes old and new. Today we hear from: Scott, on the lyrics of ‘Sweet Caroline’, first discussed in AMT365 in 2018; Steve in San Diego, with some cool tiara trivia following our discussion of that headgear in AMT408; Elodia and Jess, both former medical students, illuminating us on what really goes on when they dissect human bodies during their training, which came up in AMT404. And Elodia previously wrote to us all the way back in 2011! If you’ve been storing thoughts about AMTs 1-411, 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], for all new AMT412 which will be in your podfeed 27 November 2025. Also, join us for our fun Petty Problems live video on 16 November 2025 by signing up at patreon.com/answermethis; by doing so, you’re also helping keep the whole podcast going, so congrats and thanks for that. Thanks to Naked Wines for sponsoring AMT, and for providing bottles straight from world-class winemakers, cutting out the middleman, delivered to your door. Head to ⁠nakedwines.co.uk/answer⁠ to get a £30 voucher on your first 6 pack, including free delivery.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, hark at this, something new in your Answer Me this podcast feed. You spoil us, Ambassador, with your Ferreiro Roche. Here is our Ferreiro Roche Tower of extra content, because the thing is about doing a podcast since the dawn of time, is that we have a very large back catalogue, and aside from things that have not dated well, it is as fresh to the listener, the day they listen to it, As the day it went out, what is time, Ollie? This means that people have responses to stuff from the recent and distant past. That's right.

And so what you're listening to now is a new vehicle for that feedback. Your feedback, as if presented on an ermine cushion. At last, getting the spotlight. Exactly. This is an email from Scott, who says, My husband, Michael and I listen to answer me this to help soothe us to sleep. Why do people tell us that like it's a compliment? I think it's a compliment.

It's intimate. I mean, it's nice to be in a bed with you both. Yeah, in bed with Scott and Michael. Yeah. We've probably listened to some episodes a dozen times or more, though not necessarily from start to end in one go. No, that's how falling asleep works, isn't it? Yeah, it took a snooze break.

Do you ever listen to audio when you're trying to sleep, Helen? Is that a thing you've ever done? Oh, absolutely. When I was growing up, I used to put on the radio, Ian Collins on Invictor FM. Oh, yes. See, my son got a smart speaker for his Christmas present a couple of years ago. Even though he was only like six, we got him a smart speaker

because we thought well you're not getting a fucking phone do you what I mean like we're hard no on phone so let's be a bit more liberal about the smart speakers it's only music

so we got him a smart speaker started listening to Joe Rogan well this is the thing right what he has discovered is some like sleep hypnosis playlist which is like 10 hours long and he goes to sit

and I can only blame myself because of all the times we thrust white noise into his buggy but I do worry like there might be some hidden message in there, because it's 10 hours long. I'm not listening to it. And he listens to it every night when he goes to bed. It seems mostly to be like meditative calm stuff, but I don't know.

I don't want it to be a crutch, you know, they can only sleep with those noises. I know a lot of people that can only sleep listening to a horrible true crime podcast. What is it about the human body where they're like, this is what relaxes me? Look, from a podcaster's point of view, an advertising impression is an impression. That's true, yeah. Just put it on silent while you sleep and then use the voucher code before you wake up. Scott says, we recently listened to episode 365 from, God, when that I've been... 2018, I think.

Where you were discussing the lyrics of Sweet Caroline, and whether the line is one touching one or warm touching warm. Both plausible, but the latter clearly the less desirable mental image. I guess. What about hot water bottles? Yeah, exactly. I know one touching one sounds like something that... Queen Elizabeth might say to Prince Philip, but I still think, warm, touching warm,

you're saying it's less desirable, but it is sexier, isn't it? It's more tactile. A bit less depersonalised. Yes, I think that's why in 2018 I came down on the side that it was warm touching warm. Scott continues, last night, we were in a gay bar in Palm Springs on karaoke night. It's the perfect location for Sweet Caroline.

Absolutely. As soon as we heard the opening bars of Sweet Caroline, I couldn't help but see which of the two options came up on the screen. Suffice it to say, they went with warm touching warm. Of course they did. Warm touching warm. I called it. Not sure that it's conclusive either way, but certainly not three words I'd want to see together again on a big screen in a hurry. My whole like attitude to Sweet Caroline has changed since we had that conversation actually. Because I had nothing but affection for that song. It's a banger. It's kind of got built in nostalgia. It's fun, right? Oh no. Has it

been ruined for you? It has been slightly ruined through overkill. It's the biscoff of pop. back then it was known in sporting terms for the is it the Boston Red Sox I think play it at their whatever they are are they football or they baseball don't know don't tell us we don't want that feedback we deliberately don't care don't you know us at all exactly whereas here in the UK it's not like it was unknown it was a massive hit in the 1960s but sweet Caroline was one of those sweetly nostalgic singalongs you'd put on and people would know kind of like hey Jude you'd hear it occasionally right but then since then I mean you've left the country I don't know how aware you are of this it's become like an England football anthem

in ways that aren't clear. I think it's something to do with because the song sort of builds and builds and it kind of has this sense of the hooky chorus is just around the corner, you know, just out of reach, getting brighter and brighter. I think it plays into the English football fan's dilemma

of like, you know, England are doing better and better, but we hope they're going to win. Always out of reach. Yeah, exactly. And it was, I think it was Euros 2021 that it started becoming a thing. And now it's just any,

English football event of any kind or any sporting event of any kind. The crowd will start singing Sweet Caroline and they'll do the American thing of going so good, so good, which we didn't used to do in this country either. No, we just went hard on the ba-ba. Just the bubba, like a normal person would. And then the other thing that happened, on one of my podcasts, I will allow a gambling advert in a third-party voice. I won't do a read. But, you know, if they want to advertise on my show, I don't mind. And yet, I stopped the William Hill adverts because it was so fucking annoying. Because people writing to me saying every time I listen to your show I have to hear Sweet Caroline. It was like

soundtracking gambling adverts, wall to wall throughout an entire summer. I have had some experience of unwanted Sweet Caroline listening despite not living in Britain anymore because last summer Olly, I spent a substantial amount of time in Wolverhampton,

in England, because Martin's dad was dying Bap but but. Yeah. So bad, so sad. Yes, it was. very sad. The day after he died, Martin and I went for a walk along a beautiful canal and had this big argument about nothing. You mean when you have like a sort of truly soul-destroying argument, but it's really not about anything. It's just because you have like so many

built-up emotions and you're venting them in an appropriate way. And we'd just been through this very difficult experience of like spending weeks caring for his dad and then he died. Yes. I find in a marriage, it's often that once the conversation has been opened up and you're like, oh, this is going to be one of those conversations where we'll upset each other and we'll say the things that irritate each other, it's almost like it has to follow the formula of now, I'm going to have to say these things that I was upset about weeks ago. Yeah. Because this is the opportunity.

Just like everything from the entire back catalogue of a podcast level is of upset. But we got through it and reconciled. And then just as we were finishing our walk and getting to the car from behind a massive edge, we just heard a bunch of people singing, sweet Caroline, ba, ba, ba. And I was like, what the fuck is happening on the other side of that edge? well i'm glad you had an irritating experience with sweet carolina out in the wild oh yeah just a great equalizer is it yeah exactly it's everywhere and you can't avoid it now i'll remember that next time i i touch down at heather i expect to be greeted by uh neil diamond

himself singing it in my face uh right we've got some feedback as well from steve in san diego that's how these feedback episodes are going to work list is there's no question no question just answers how reassuring steve says in answer me this four hundred and eight So that is at least from the modern era. You discussed the history and customs surrounding the wearing of a tiara. We did. This discussion prompted me to write to you

with a bit of tiara trivia. Did you know that the United States Navy has an official regulation uniform tiara? I did not know, Steve. Looking at it online, I don't know that I would have identified it as a tiara because it looks like a kind of little cap with some embroidery.

I agree. It's sort of half-air hostess half sailor's hat. Or like a padded headband, but you wear it flatter on your head. And it's a bit like saying Donald Duck's wearing a tiara. It is clearly a naval hat. But it is tiara shaped. It has the gap

behind for the hair. It's fancy enough for evening only. Maybe I need to check my personal definition of tiara. Maybe it doesn't encompass enough fancy headgear. Well, Steve explains, this is an optional head covering for female officers which can be worn with the formal dinner

dress, often called mess dress, uniform. Mestress. Mestress is roughly the equivalent to black tie in terms of formality and is worn only for special formal occasions. Tiaras are not required as part of this uniform, continues Steve, but can be worn by female officers if they choose. Get with a program, Navy. Why can't male officers choose to? Well, exactly. I know all this because my wife is in the Navy, and while she doesn't have the tiara, one of her good friends does and has worn it to Navy functions. The uniform Tiara is different from a traditional tiara, it is made of uniform fabric

and does not have jewels. Not a tiara! You could wear it if you're working in fast food restaurant to keep your hair out the deep dryer. However, it does have Navy insignia and will have different embroidery and symbols on it depending on the wearers rank. Other branches of the US military also used to have tiaras

as part of their formal uniform options, but they've been phased out of regulation. As of today, only the Navy still authorises it as part of the uniform. Well, also, the Navy discontinued it. in 2016 due to poor tiara sales and only reinstated it in 2024.

I don't know what sign of the times that was where they were like, it's tiara times again. Maybe there was protest. People like the tiaras. It's a bit like I would never wear a kilt but I would be upset if I never again saw a man in a kilt at a black tie event.

That always cheers me up. Oh, for sure. You know, I don't want to be told to wear a kilt, but I'm happy for someone to interpret black tie to mean kilt. Totally. Because a lot of black tie is quite boring. So the reinterpretations are very welcome. I actually, I went to a wedding a couple months ago and I sorted through my cupboard and I thought I had my black tie ready. It wasn't white tie. It was like regulation black ties. It was like, yeah, I've got a dinner jacket. I'm a bit fat these days, but I'm sure I can squeeze in it.

Oh, I've got my dad's one. That's fine. I'll wear that. He's dead. But I don't wear that. But I didn't try on the shirt because I thought shirt's going to fit. Oh, no. And then on the way to the wedding, like, you know, did that classic thing of, like, waiting 10 minutes before the taxi turned up to get dress. Realised to my panic that the white shirt that I thought was a dinner shirt just isn't. It isn't a dinner shirt. It's just a white shirt. It's just a white business shirt.

Didn't have the pinky collar. Didn't have the space for cufflinks. And I sort of had no choice. I could either be late for the wedding and stop en route at Marks & Spencer or wear it and brave it out and see if anyone noticed. And which did you choose? The latter. And I think that's the correct choice.

I think nobody did notice. It turns out if you wear a normal white shirt and you wear it with a black bow tie with a black dinner jacket, it looks very much like black tie. That's the thing. The shirt is like quite low down on the things people will notice in that ensemble. I mean, I think a fashion Easter would notice and someone like looking carefully through the photo. The bride probably would notice two weeks later looking through the photos. But no one noticed on the night. Unless you're a very important guest, I think people largely don't really give a shit what you're wearing as long as it doesn't seem disrespectful.

Well, this is it. It's a bit like a kilt in a way, isn't it? I could have been like, oh, this, yeah, this is grey tie. Yeah, it's my clan, we wear this. Just ride it out. It's my culture. But it's also just like we're not that important in other people's weddings. Correct. Sorry to break it to you. Unless you turn up wearing your navy tiara, in which case you steal the show. Oh, yeah. You know what you should do, Oli? You should keep one of those tuxedo t-shirts in your back pocket at all times, just in case you have to go to a fancy event. Oh, my son had one of those when he was like six months old, and it was really cute. And I did that. think. I wish I hadn't all in one tuxedo. It's not too late. You totally could. So retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of today in history? On Monday, the anniversary of the day the crystals had a hit without singing a note.

On Tuesday, when the world got into Tutankhamen's tomb and saw his underwear. On Wednesday, the medieval battle that gave rise to the word kamikaze. On Thursday, how 24 popularized real-time TV drama. and torture. And on Friday, what was that? The first recorded meteorite hits Earth in 1492. That's today in history with the retrospectors. 10 minutes each weekday, where you get your podcasts.

This is forbidden history. They came from the north, emerging from the murky coastline, clad with armor strange and weapons sharp. For centuries, the Vikings have been cast as brutal warriors who enjoy pillaging monasteries and burning towns. But who were they really? And of course nobody switched on that button and said, oh, we're Vikings, let's go raiding.

Trying to understand the Vikings is like trying to unravel a mystery. And I think that for me is the hook. We're always gaining new insights into how we can evaluate that material. And I think that's incredibly important. This fall, forbidden his... History presents a special three-part saga, The Real Vikings. Available now on your favorite podcast platforms. On the subject, raised in Answer Me This 404, what happens to your body when you donate it to science?

We have heard from several of you, including Elodia, who says, I'm a Patreon subscriber at patreon.com slash answer me this. Thank you, Elodia, which means you're an absolute legend. Well done, Elodia. And an OG listener from 2007 or eight. Wow, 18 years of service. We should have a tiara for that. That's true, we should. I have an extremely clear memory of being sat in the library at university,

listening to you on my iPod whilst ostensibly revising. You guys have been in the background to a lot of my revision, and I have done a lot of exams. I completed my last one earlier this year at the tender age of 35. Go me! Elodia says, I have never sent a question in, which is actually incorrect because I can see from our emails that she did. Oh, what did she send? It's quite a long one, but it is interesting.

It's basically her boyfriend was shortlisted in the final of a international writing competition, and the ceremony was on the same day as a wedding of a very good friend of theirs. So which should he do? Okay. I mean obviously we would give that the appropriate space and time where we two have got which we didn't. We obviously didn't cover that story because she doesn't remember sending it in. Yeah and probably 12 years later it doesn't really matter to Elodia or any of the other people involved.

Yeah. So in a way go to the thing where you're going to get the prize but I mean... Yeah, these you can put it on your CV. I know that she did also write in about famous Belgians because I've just dug out her email from 2011. She gave a whole list of famous Belgians because we said there weren't I don't know if even we said it. I think maybe I was mentioning that when I was at school, one of the teachers was picking on a kid from Belgium saying, who were the famous Belgians? Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. Teachers were mean.

It's a good list, actually. Like now, look, I probably wouldn't have been that impressed with this list in 2011, but now as a cultured 44-year-old. Yeah. Herge, author of the Tintin comic books, Marguerite, Rubens. Yeah, and Adolf Saxo invented the saxophone, who I used to have a bit about in one of the illusionist live shows, he had this astonishingly difficult childhood where he just had loads and loads of near-death experiences in between inventing instruments. He invented like the sax tuba as well, the sax trombone. But he had all these accidents like he fell into a massive frying pan. I think he fell out of a window.

He once almost suffocated to death because one of his family had been revarnishing furniture and then the fumes nearly killed him overnight. But he survived. How is he not the most famous Belgian? He deserves some compensation for all of this. What are they got? John Claude Van Dam, payo of the Smurfs, they should have him. He should be the most famous Belgian.

Bring back Sacks. Elodia is Brussels born and bred, so I think hopefully Alodia is pleased with you being pleased by the list. 14 years later. I'm now pleased all these years later, yes. Anyway, sorry, this is irrelevant to what she wanted to write in to say regarding a more recent thing.

Well, Alodia says, I'm now a doctor and a mum, so I never have time to do anything. Evocative. But I'm currently stuck in hospital being treated for meningitis. Oh my God. I can't see my child and I'm simultaneously extremely bored and extremely sad. Gosh. Mr. Sacks could help you out with that, couldn't he?

He's like, don't worry, you'll survive. Look at me. Worse happened to me and I can play this consoling lament. Elodia says, in response to your shout out to doctors or ex-medical students who've performed anatomical studies on human remains. Oh yes, that's what we were talking about, yeah. It's not only nice, but important to humanise the remains. This is because otherwise people can forget what they're handling

and can behave in ways which are not particularly thoughtful or respectful, which I did hear from a friend who's a doctor that at her medical school, she didn't complain about people doing the kinds of things that one fears when one leaves one's body to science. Yeah, although, I mean, gallows humor, isn't it? I think it's permissible in certain circumstances among groups of people. You know, it's not for the public, is it? I think probably some people who do donate their bodies to science.

wouldn't mind and would appreciate that that's a way of letting off some steam sometimes, maybe. It's also not just gallows humor, it's that these people are basically children who are off doing adult stuff for the first time and your brain is like silly mush. Yeah, they can't

all be illustrious academics at the age of 35 like you, Alodia. Alodia says nowadays, we are warned off misbehaving in the anatomy lab with stories of students kicked out of medical school for nefarious behaviour such as playing noughts and crosses on a cadaver. Surely Hangman would be the one you'd want to play.

Whereas now, before ever entering the lab, we were given a lecture about the generosity of people who donate their body to science and the sacrifice their families make as it means their remains cannot receive burial or cremation for three years after their donation. There is a yearly cathedral-based celebration somewhere in London in honour of all of those

who have donated their bodies to science that year, which their families can attend while waiting for their loved ones remains to be released. We were told it's also open to anyone who works with human remains so they can pay their respects and were encouraged to attend. I wonder if that weird plastic guy goes.

Gunther von Hagen's. Yeah, he works with human remains, doesn't he? Is he still alive? Good question. Gunther von Hagenes. He's certainly someone I could have watched an obituary for, you know? Are he still alive?

80 years old? I bet he's left his body to plasticination. I bet he has. It would be hypocritical not to, wouldn't it? A bit. Oh, yes, he's got Parkinson's, and after his death, his wife will plasticinate his body, and it will enter the Body World's exhibition.

Okay, there we go. And he wants his remains to be in the entrance with his hands outstretched to greet visitors. Is he going to give himself a big flappy cock, though? That's the question. Surely. You'd think. Well, Alodia, we hope you're better now after sending this email. I'm not saying the email cured you.

I'm just hoping that the time that has elapsed since you sent it has involved some healing and rest, even though you do have a child in this medical career, neither of which sound restful. Totally. We've also got this email on the same subject from Jess. I went to Manchester Medical School in 2009, she says, and remember starting anatomy. We all filed into a large room to stand around our prospective tables covered in a sheet.

I think the table was covered in a sheet, not them. They were playing at ghost. Roughly eight students per cadaver. The tutor gently removed the sheet, and we were introduced to the body. We would become intimately familiar. with over the course of the semester. A few students left crying,

one accidentally going through a door where, quote, spare cadavers were stored and cried even harder. Oh, that's sitcom-like. Isn't it? That happened to my mum once, not with a room full of dead bodies, but she locked herself in the kitchen to escape a mouse that the cat was chasing.

Oh dear. And then the mouse ran under the kitchen door and over her feet. Oh, what a backfire. Fast forward a few weeks, says Jess, and we were elbow deep in cavities using the table as leverage with bone cutters on the sternum, carrying arms full of bowel to the large sink to clean out for closer inspection. That seems appropriate because you do have to become very inert to what it is to working with human bodies if you're in the medical profession, right?

Precisely. I mean, that is the point of the training, that's right. There was also a shocking week we arrived and the heads had gone to the dental students. Ooh. Yeah, I got to know the heads. That must have felt weird. We didn't focus on the person being a person, though, she says, as that wouldn't have facilitated such enthusiastic exploration. However, at the end of the semester, when we had gotten all learning we possibly could have, the university held a service for all those who donated their bodies. Okay, so that's a bit like what Elodia was talking about.

And families as well as students and staff were invited. They became human again. I think she means figuratively. Oh gosh, it wasn't like a resurrection. It's a seance. Bring back the bells! I cannot rest. And we were all grateful for their donation.

There was a time and place for sentimentality, and it was at the end. But we had to go through a journey ourselves first before being able to get to that place. That's amazing. You've summed it up well, actually, Jess, because there's a lot of ground you've covered in those two paragraphs, but I get a very good sense of what that course was like. Absolutely. And, yeah, what an emotional progression to go on. On that note, that is it.

From this new feedback strand of Answer Me, this, if you would like to answer us back on anything we've discussed in any episode ever, Do send them in to the usual places and maybe one day we will read them out in between our proper episodes. The next Answer Me This where we answer your questions is on the 27th November 2025, so return to your pod feeds then. And it's still open for your questions, so get them into the usual place right now. Yes, please. If you're our Patreon of Answer Me This, then you get to attend our Petty Problems live stream where we answer your trivial, non-serious questions. That is on the 16th of November 2025.

So you've got time to join up at patreon.com slash answer me this. And we'll see you in a couple of weeks with a brand new episode. Great. Bye! This is forbidden history. They came from the north, emerging from the murky coastline, clad with armour strange and weapons sharp. For centuries, the Vikings have been cast as brutal warriors

who enjoy pillaging monasteries. and burning towns. But who were they really? And of course nobody switched on that button and said, oh, we're Vikings, let's go raiding. Trying to understand the Vikings is like trying to unravel a mystery. And I think that for me is the hook.

We're always gaining new insights into how we can evaluate that material. And I think that's incredibly important. This fall, Forbidden History presents presents a special three-part saga, The Real Vikings. Available now on your favorite podcast platforms.