Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcastThe Allusionist, the entertainment podcast Answer Me This!, and the Veronica Mars recap podcast Veronica Mars Investigations.
Career
''Answer Me This!''
Zaltzman began the comedy podcast Answer Me This! with Olly Mann in 2007. The duo met in 2000 studying at St Catherine's College, Oxford. The podcast began in Zaltzman's living room in Crystal Palace with assistance from Martin Austwick. In 2009, Zaltzman and Mann made history by being the first podcasters to be given their own national show on BBC Radio 5 Live, Web 2009 with Helen and Olly. They went on to present several other specials for BBC 5 Live. The podcast won a silver Sony Award in 2010 and gold in 2011, and in 2012 a European Podcast Award. It has been voted one of the Top 10 Comedy Podcasts in the World by The Guardian. It has received critical plaudits in numerous publications including Q, The Times, Time Out, and Radio Times. Due to the podcast's success, Faber and Faber published a companion book in November 2010.
''The Allusionist''
In January 2015, Zaltzman launched a new linguistics podcast called The Allusionist. Zaltzman is the first British broadcaster on the Radiotopia podcast network. The Guardian describes the Allusionist as "an antidote to all the whither-life-and-how-to-understand-it podcasts". The Allusionist was iTunes UK's best new podcast of 2015. At the 2018 British podcast awards it was named ‘Smartest Podcast’ and Zaltzman was awarded ‘Podcast Champion’.
''Veronica Mars Investigations''
In August 2019, Zaltzman launched an episode-by-episode recap podcast of the TV show Veronica Mars, with co-host Jenny Owen Youngs, musician and co-host of Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcast.
Other audio
Zaltzman is a regular on The Bugle podcast, and has appeared on podcasts including The Bugle Presents... The Last Post, Jordan Jesse Go, The Chuck Tingle Podcast, Hello From The Magic Tavern, Ologies, 99% Invisible, Potterless and ZigZag. Along with Mann, Zaltzman was the internet correspondent on BBC 5 Live's Saturday Edition and on Steve Wright in the Afternoon. She was a panellist on the third series of Charlie Brooker's So Wrong It's Right and won. She hosted the Radio 4 show Four Thought 2016–2017. She has appeared on Woman's Hour, The News Quiz, The Richard Bacon Show, Transatlantic with Rory Bremner and Ian Collins's radio show, and was a correspondent on the 2012 Olympics for BBC Radio Scotland. She has been a guest on numerous podcasts, including The Guardian's Media Talk and Maximum Fun's International Waters, Potterless, and guest-presented a special edition of the Radio Academy's Radio Talk. In 2012, Zaltzman was a judge on the Sony Awards. In May 2013, Zaltzman began hosting a monthly podcast for Sound Women, an organisation which campaigns against gender discrimination in the radio industry.
Writing
Zaltzman is a comedy writer, her radio credits including The Now Show, The Milk Run on Radio 1, and Newsjack, and TV credits including Celebrity Juice, Keith Lemon's Lemonaid, Britain Unzipped, and Animal Antics. She has written for The Observer, Classical Music Magazine, The Big Issue, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and the BBC.
Performance
Zaltzman is a crafter, and has painted numerous posters for comedians' Edinburgh shows. Additionally, she has created props, including a giant inflatable Boggle set; dinosaur costumes; and dolls of Tony Benn, Robert Plant, and Donald Rumsfeld. Zaltzman has acted in plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and will occasionally perform live comedy, most often with Josie Long and Robin Ince. In 2007, during a three-week run of Long's show Trying is Good at the Soho Theatre, she sat onstage embroidering a quilt depicting scenes from the show. In 2010, Zaltzman and Mann wrote and starred in a series of videos around Britain, Great British Questions, in association with Visit Britain. In April 2017, Zaltzman delivered a talk entitled 'Writing as a form of time travel' on the main stage at TED2017.
