This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 473.
Hold the Meeting.
How to Talk About Pop Culture at Work.
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Hey, Michelle, how are you doing today?
I'm good, Lindsay.
Lindsay, did you hear that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey got engaged?
Believe it or not, I did hear that.
I'm not normally in the zeitgeist, but I did read it somewhere in the news.
And then, yeah, everyone's talking about it, Michelle.
Everyone's talking about it.
Does this excite you?
Yeah.
Uh, I'm okay with it.
I have no problem with it.
I wouldn't say that I was like jumping for joy.
I don't, you know, I'm not a big Taylor Swift person.
I'm not a Swifty.
Yeah.
And I'm not a football fan either.
So yeah.
Right.
Same.
But I, you know, it's funny cause I, I also, I do, I mean, her songs are certainly catchy.
I'm just not one of.
You know, I'm not a Swifty.
You know there's a difference between being like Oh I, you know some of her, I like some of her songs, or I respect her as an artist.
But and also then being a Swifty, that's when you're kind of more really big fan.
So but it's funny.
At the same time, I'm not.
Yeah, that's great for them.
But when but then sometimes I like I've seen pictures of them or short video clips and.
You do get this feeling that they're a nice couple, so I was kind of happy for them.
It's nice to hear nice news, basically.
Yeah, good news is good to hear.
I 100% agree.
Yeah, we need that.
Michelle, would you bring this up at work with someone?
Would you talk about this at work?
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, good question.
I think so, but I also think that it depends. on lots of factors at your work.
But guys, we're going to be talking about that today.
So we're going to talk about how to bring up a big pop culture news story, like Taylor and Travis, because we used to have the water cooler at work.
I don't even know if there is still that idea of the water cooler um, but yeah, just we're gonna talk about, you know, get more into this topic because there are certain breaking news events in pop culture that come up and you know, you're not sure if you should say it at work, but it can actually be a really good connection moment.
So yeah guys Lindsay, we want our listeners to hit the follow button wherever you are listening, because we don't want you to miss anything from the Business English podcast.
100%.
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And I like what you said there, Michelle.
It's all about timing.
Um so my partner works in the corporate world and I often listen in on calls because I'm right next door.
Our offices are right next door to each other.
And I do feel like pop culture does come up sometimes at the top of a meeting, like a zoom meetings.
I mean, we're not robots.
Again, we don't go right into business.
Uh, when we first get on a call, that would be insane.
Right.
So.
So timing really matters.
True.
Yeah.
Really.
That's very important.
You know, I like that idea at the beginning of a meeting right before things get started.
That's a nice casual place to start bringing things up.
Yeah.
Maybe you're waiting, especially if you're running the meeting.
Maybe you're waiting on everyone to arrive.
You're not going to start, especially because not everyone's there yet.
So the first five minutes is usually small talk.
And that is a master skill that we have to get good at to build the business relationships.
And pop culture does come into that.
Yeah, absolutely.
So yeah depending, it depends on the moment.
You know, not in a high stakes moment, not in the middle of some your boss presenting figures about the last quarter.
You know, but you know you never know.
I mean, if you are in a workplace a casual workplace and you're close, and you're close with your boss and you're you know, it is possible that somebody might be like wait, We have to talk about this.
It is possible.
100%.
So again, it depends on your culture.
Know the people you work with.
Know what their vibe is.
Depends on your relationship with your colleagues.
Do you feel like you're close with them?
Um, is there a friendly vibe?
Have you talked, have you talked about pop culture before?
Is it never come up before?
Right.
Right.
Right.
If you have talked with your coworker about Taylor Swift and you know you both love Taylor Swift, of course you're going to come in.
It's like, ah, right.
So if you know that you share that with someone, that's certainly something that could come up.
Um, And then yeah, is it breaking news?
Is it something that happened days ago?
So do you actually find out in the middle of the workday?
Maybe sometimes certain.
I remember when I used to work at the radio station, we always had the TV on in the background, but that's not always radio.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So that's, that's a little bit different.
But Um, yeah, but okay.
But let's say you work in a medical office and there's a TV in the waiting room.
You know it's possible.
There are certain workplaces where there might be a TV, somebody sees it.
Um, the only thing I'd be careful of is, if you're seeing it during the workday, then you're showing that you were and there's no TV, you might be showing that you're on your phone.
That could in certain situations not be good.
Um, But let's assume, for the sake of this episode, that you do have that playful, fun relationship with your colleagues and you want to bring something from pop culture into the room.
Yes.
Love it.
OK, so how can we do it is the question for today's episode, right?
If you are the one bringing that information, maybe you just heard it was just announced today.
One thing we could say is breaking news, everyone.
And here you're playing around.
You're pretending to be like a newscaster, right?
Yes.
In a sense.
Yes.
Yeah.
So you might say breaking news, everyone.
Taylor and Travis are engaged.
Yeah.
And of course, by the time this episode comes out, we're a few months into it.
This is old news.
This is old news.
Old news.
If you don't know this by now, you're living under a rock, as we say, right?
Yes.
Um, or you can say, can you believe that X, right?
So this is, I just made this up.
I think it already happened, but Lindsay, what's the example here?
Can you believe that they're coming out with a full house reboot?
Yeah.
That's kind of surprising.
Yeah.
Because are they all still around all the, uh, all the main characters or did any of them pass away?
No.
Oh, well, um, no, no, no.
Yeah.
What's his, um, oh my gosh.
Danny Tanner.
Yeah.
Danny Tanner.
No, he died around.
Right.
I thought that he passed away.
I thought so.
Yeah.
So strange to have that without him.
Bob Saget.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
But they had this already years ago.
I just made it up for the sake of the episode, but they did have a, it was Fuller House.
Yeah.
I didn't watch it, but okay.
Got it.
Got it.
I thought there was another one.
Yeah, no, I don't think so.
And then what's another thing you could say?
We need to talk about X. Like we need to talk about the Oscars.
Right.
So maybe they were on last night and you come in to talk about it.
And by putting emphasis on the word need there, you're showing that pop culture is a high value for you and that the person you're saying that to it's probably one-on-one you're saying that to it's also a high value for them.
Yes.
Okay.
Yep.
Yep.
There's a lot there.
Love it.
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Okay, so what else, Michelle?
If it is in the middle of the meeting, let's say you do it again.
Guys, be careful with this one.
This is for a very specific kind of workplace, very specific kind of relationships.
But good to know.
So you could say something like, hold the meeting and give the news like.
And you're saying it kind of in a joking way.
So hold the meeting.
Taylor just announced her new album.
Yeah.
And again, got to know your workplace well, know that you can get away with this.
But if you can, then, you know, maybe that makes you a fun person to be around at work.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the next one's a little sarcastic.
The most important thing we need to talk about now is Taylor and Travis.
Right.
Right.
The most important thing we need to talk about now is the Emmy nominations.
Yes.
So you're being sarcastic because it's obviously not the most important thing.
But, you know, you're kind of making a little joke.
Yes.
Or just one more.
You could say, did you see or did you hear?
So did you see what happened on Beyonce's tour?
Yes.
Michelle, why could it be beneficial to bring this up?
Well, it can be really good for connection.
Again, we talk about not being a robot at work.
It also shares your interests or shows what you connect with your colleagues on.
So with that I mean especially, I think, with someone like Taylor Swift.
She really brings people together, even different ages, different genders.
She really kind of unites people.
So there's a lot to talk about there.
And so, you know, it really can bring you closer to your colleagues.
But again, you have to think about when you're bringing it up or to the wrong person.
If it's a super straight laced person who doesn't really socialize with the team, you know, maybe just not not for that person, but um so consider your audience, consider the workplace culture.
As always, we talk about that so much on that show.
Yes.
Let's go through a role play, Michelle, and see what it looks like live here.
So we are colleagues and it's the morning.
We're close friends and we have a fun relationship at work.
We've probably talked about pop culture before, right?
Yes.
Yes.
Here we go.
Hello, Lindsay, Michelle.
We need to talk about the engagement.
Yes, I am so happy for her.
Can you believe that they're engaged?
I can't wait to hear what the wedding will be like.
Oh, hey, Jane, hold the meeting.
Travis proposed.
You're all in.
Yes, I've been waiting.
I've been itching to talk about this.
You're really all in.
Yep, for sure.
Yep.
And I wonder what Jane thinks.
Yeah, Jane's probably excited.
Yeah.
So we use some fun phrases here.
Right.
So you said I said, Michelle, we need to talk about the engagement.
Yeah.
You could tell that both of us are really all in on this.
Right.
Yes.
And then I said, I'm so happy for her.
And we didn't even look.
We didn't we didn't need to use any names.
We knew who we were talking about.
Yes.
Which tells you.
Yep.
And then I said, can you believe that they are engaged?
So again, they.
That they are engaged.
Again, we haven't mentioned the names yet, right?
And then you said, oh, hey, Jane, hold the meeting.
Travis proposed.
Yeah.
So someone came in.
Right.
She walked in.
And so we stopped her to talk about it.
Yeah.
So and notice I think it's interesting also how people.
It is interesting how sometimes people with their celebrities that they really like they might not even say their last name.
Like we didn't need to say Travis Kelsey.
Right.
It's so funny.
Yeah.
Very typical.
Our friend.
Love it.
Yeah.
So I think the key here for connection skill is just getting this right in terms of who's having the conversation, who are you talking with and what's the moment.
It's the timing that's huge.
Timing and relationships, right?
Yeah.
So, so much there.
Guys, check out episode...
472 of the business english podcast.
That was how to affirm and validate to keep employees happy and heard.
That was a good one.
I love it.
And then the last thing i would say is it's smart to stay up to date on pop culture if, if you don't even if you don't care which i kind of fall in that camera like i don't really care but it leads to conversations and connections and opportunities to improve your fluency because you can actually carry on that conversation Right.
Because people are going to be referring to it.
So why not be in the conversation?
You might as well know what's going on.
Right.
I mean, and it is true.
I mean, it even goes to this conversation between the two of us.
I mean, neither of us are super. you know into those people but we were still able to talk about it I mean even if we weren't on the episode if one of us brought it up we might be like oh okay sure but we would still be able to talk about it or to say oh well it's it's a sweet thing or whatever so there's always going to be a way to connect on something as big you know when the news is so big like that I think the key and it's usually happy I mean well that's not true it's not always happy sometimes it's a little celebrity death but it's good to know what's going on i think the more yeah the more input we have the more output we can have in certain moments so there's just more material that we can use and it doesn't matter if the what the substance of the material is it's practicing our speaking you know what i mean yeah so that's the key right there i love that good stuff today michelle all right this is a lot of fun lindsay let's talk soon all right take care bye all right bye thank you for listening to business english a podcast just for you the high achieving global professional want more from all ears english don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads just search for the all ears english podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency american culture grammar and so much more or Tap the link in the show notes.
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