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You're listening to Luke's English podcast. For more information visit teacherluke.co.uk
Hello today on the podcast I'm talking to Lindsay from Allie's English. Do you know about Allie's English? The Allie's English podcast? If you don't know it then that is a surprise to me because Allie's English is an extremely popular well known and high ranking podcast for learners of English.
I'm sure you've come across it before. Right yellow logo, Lindsay and her co-hosts Michelle Jessica and Aubrey American English. Their episodes are full of positive energy. They promote personal growth through learning English. Their mantra is connection not perfection. Allie is English. Of course you've heard of it.
Over a million subscribers on Apple podcasts and Spotify ranked in the best of Apple podcasts categories several times. And number one in the US education language courses podcast category Lindsay and her team have been featured in magazines. Right podcast magazine language magazine and Forbes.
Which is impressive because you know when your podcast ends up in a magazine when you cross from one medium to another then you know that you must be doing something right. So Allie is English. And Lindsay is a returning guest on my show. She's been on this podcast a few times before.
Long long term listeners might remember her first appearance way back in episode 186. Of course you remember that 10 years ago 2014. She was on my podcast talking about culture shock and she's been on the show a few times since then as well.
We've collaborated quite a few times. I've also been on all is English a number of times to including recently you know the way it works. You've probably got your preferred or favorite podcasts for learners of English like maybe you listen to Luke's English podcast and you also maybe listen to all is English as well.
And you'll just be listening and checking out the podcast and one day you go look looks on the all is English podcast and then like on the same day or maybe a couple of weeks later. Oh OK Lindsay's on Luke's podcast I see I see what's going on. Yeah we call that a podcast collaboration or a crossover.
And that's what we did recently just a couple of months ago Lindsay and I decided that it was about time we collaborated again on a couple of episodes so we invited each other onto our respective podcasts. I was on her show just a couple of weeks ago in episode 2,140. Yeah 2,140 episodes.
And we talked about differences between American and British English that was in a recent episode of the all is English podcast we compared the vocabulary differences pronunciation differences communication style differences and more.
Right so if that sounds interesting you could check it out all is English episode 2,140 the subtle it's called the subtle differences between American and British English with Luke's English podcast so check it out there's a link in the description.
And for Lindsay's appearance on my show in this episode we agreed it could be really interesting to talk about Lindsay's home country the United States the USA and what's going on there at the moment in terms of economic political social cultural changes.
So that's what we're going to talk about you'll hear us discussing things like the actions of unions and how that's been affecting workers rights in the United States recently.
The way that cities are evolving because of changes in people's working lives especially since the things that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic with people working from home remote work and other things like that.
We talk about property prices the energy crisis American people's attitudes about their government trust in public institutions and other things of that nature and also I couldn't help adding my own comments about what's been going on in the UK as well in order to sort of compare and find similarities between our two countries so.
Yeah what's going on or what's changing in the United States and the UK as well a little bit and it's a big year for both the UK and the USA this year we have big elections coming up in both countries as a presidential election in the USA at the end of the year and a general election in the UK at some point so those are very significant things so let's talk about the USA and the UK a bit as well and there's plenty to talk about I hope you find it all interesting.
I'll talk to you again a little bit at the other end of this conversation but now without any further ado let's get started and here we go.
Hello Lindsay how are you welcome back to Luke's English podcast.
Hey Luke ready to be on the show good to see you again I know I've been here on here a few times in the last six, seven, eight years right we've been podcasting for a while both of us so good to be back.
Thank you for having me back as well and you know congratulations on the success of the podcast that is impressive what's the secret I mean I you know I thought my podcast was like the best podcast in the world but so apparently it's not.
Well you know when it comes to podcast you know downloads are always fluctuating our downloads are always changing things are changing in the podcasting space but yeah I mean all our English has a large audience and I think our secret is that we have a strong value we know what we stand for.
When it comes to teaching English and we can talk about that if you want a little bit but yeah we stick to our values on the show very specific reasons for learning English yeah.
Yes you've got a very specific sort of catchphrase as well which kind of defines what you do and the approach you take and that is connection not perfection which is great I do quote that sometimes you know when the when the need arises I do say that and make that point and I obviously reference you I always say as the girls from all is English say it is about connection not.
But it's it's an important thing to remember can you just sort of remind us of what that means and why you chose that as you can't.
Yes 100% we stumbled on this as we were trying to articulate what we believed about learning English after traveling the world and teaching in Japan and South America New York City I think it was like
so 50 my original coast and I were on there we're trying to articulate what we believe and it came out and then we said oh my gosh that's it that is the reason we believe people learn English now there are you have your
linguist you have your Germerians but that's not who we talk to that's not you know 99% of who we talk to and who we help are people who want to connect through English
whether it's at work or in our daily lives or going abroad for a business trip it's always about connection so it doesn't mean that we don't try to be correct of course we try
to be correct we work on grammar we work on vocabulary the question is what do you do when you hear yourself make a mistake do you break eye contact do you
double up because that is what breaks the connection is not your mistake so that's the theory that's the going idea is that it's not your mistakes that break connection it's the way you act after you make a mistake so let's
maintain eye contact when we hear ourselves make a mistake and let's maintain the connection yeah absolutely and it's always worth remembering what the purpose of language is it is to make
connections you know language is not here to just sort of impose this sense that it has to be completely correct that's not what makes it functional you know yes language
functions in its in its sort of pragmatism you know in the effects that it has right yeah we're super practical on the way we talk about language
because I believe it's meant to be for the people out on the street you're communicating that's why we do it it's not theoretical
but as you said it is you know you need a certain level of control over the language in order to be able to make it do what you want it to do and to you know achieve the
sometimes fairly complex communication act that we are involved in and so yeah obviously a level of control is necessary and that that relates to grammar and using the right words
at the right times in the right way and getting your pronunciation under control and all that stuff but the point is the end result is is making a connection with the
person you're talking to yeah I totally agree exactly yeah yeah yeah great idea good good catchphrase so
so Lindsay it's yes it's been a few years since we talked I think the last time well I mean we're we just talked about half an
hour ago in fact for your podcast right so I'll be turning up in an episode of the all these English podcast at some
point but before that you said I think it was 2020 was that if was that during the pandemic or before I can't remember I'll have to
look at the date I have a feeling it was spring I have a feeling it was before yeah kind of before the world sort of
change forever yes yes maybe it's just before but anyway so things are changing the world is changing all the time
and so you know you're in the US right and I thought that it would be really interesting to talk to you about America
today and just to get a sort of view from the ground in terms of what it's really like in the USA these days tell
us about living in America what what what is the state of the country at the moment well how is it living in the
US these days and tell us a few things that you think are changing there yeah I'm excited to talk about this because I've been
thinking about this lately and that's why I wanted to bring it on your show I've seen a number of shifts in our culture in
politics I guess but also just politics are real they affect our daily lives our everyday lives also kind of what people are doing what
what like young people are doing how people are viewing life so there's kind of three things that I wanted to talk about today
all right so here we go so the first big thing I'll just say it into in three words unions are hot right so we're in a pro labor
moment which is kind of rare for the US it's something we haven't seen since I guess you could say the days of the
car boom in the rust belt of the United States where unions dominated car the car world right to try it Michigan the whole
Midwest was a is was more was a major car industry and unions dominated at that time and then when we went into the Reagan era and the
Bush era we really went into more a big business era unions were weak people didn't like unions people are still skeptical of
union I'm still somewhat skeptical of unions as well depending on what's going on but I think overall this is a positive thing because
people in the US are able to negotiate for raises I mean there's been very high profile events that have gone on
like the Hollywood strike the writer strike did you hear about this Luke that happened last summer absolutely yes I did hear about the Hollywood
writer strike and it's also connected to AI and chat GPT and stuff like that I think before we carry on and talk about that
I feel like we might need to define what a union is that's a good question yeah good point so union is an organization that
workers for generally larger companies can join usually it's by choice you can join it you cannot join it you paid
dues to this union and they fight for you so it's a collective bargaining thing where usually there's a president of
the union and they will at certain times when things aren't right for you as a worker they will go to bat for you and negotiate for
raises negotiate for time off things like that that's what a union is yeah we sort of associate unions with the slightly
industrial economic situation right so you mentioned the car manufacturing industry which in the US was like such an important industry
yes I mean it was it was it's these days it's called the Rust Belt which is like this area in the United States which you know places
like Detroit and and which which other city 100 percent so did so a lot of it is centered around Michigan so Detroit there's
there are towns that are named after these cars there's place a place called Pontiac
michaing Pontiac I believe Pontiac Michigan yeah they're all around that area we did a whole unit on this in one of
our courses I actually went out there and interviewed people from these areas that are really a lot of these places are
down and out now because the car industry has boomed and kind of busted as cars have moved a broad to be
manufactured a broad yeah that's why it's called the Rust Belt isn't it because it previously was was it the
Ryan Belt or the Steel Belt well the Steel Belt is more in Pennsylvania but yeah you're talking about the
manufacturing center of the country right so it all kind of blends together and unions were a big factor in the
Steel Belt as well right okay okay yeah in the UK yes we also had the unions were a huge presence in the
especially in the 1970s when things really came to a head where the unions really kind of had a lot of power
and they were really putting their foot down and negotiating hard with the government and we had especially
like the steel industry and the coal mines so mining yes and then very similar to the US where you had
Ronald Reagan arriving on the scene yeah we had Margaret Thatcher who came okay okay so we moved in
parallel politically somewhat yeah yeah so Thatcher really sort of like for hard with the unions and
almost obliterated the the union movement in the UK yeah and she changed the country she liberalized
the economy we moved away from a manufacturing based economy and towards a services a financial
services based economy yeah and the country has never really been the same ever since yes very
similar path of the US right we had Ronald Reagan massive tax cuts and then we we you know we had
George H Bush also conservative we had Bill Clinton who actually made some conservative leading moves
even though he was a Democrat and we're now kind of seeing the result of these this more conservative
economy we've had a lot of billionaires being created in the last 20 years due to this but we've
also got a lot of poverty in the you I mean poverty is a relative term right I have to be careful
using that word it's different around the world but the middle class is shrinking and it's due to
these these politicians that were quite conservative historically and it's trickling down now right yes
yes yes and the the result is that maybe sort of workers have fewer rights exactly less bargaining
power than they used to I mean you know the fact that you've got more billionaires now
than you had before is also evidence of this I mean I don't know if the presence of billionaires
is a sign of a healthy country or not because you know if you've got lots of billionaires it
just means that there's less money going around for everybody else right I mean billionaires
like who I in my opinion who really needs to be a billionaire and now this is this even that is a
very controversial statement in the US right because we believe in personal freedoms if you want to
become a billionaire you should be able to become a billionaire and I'm not a big fan of a state
tax or things like that so I'm a little bit moderate politically speaking to be honest but
millionaires maybe billionaires that's pushing the needle I will I think so yeah especially
when these days you talk about you know the 1% or the 0.1% where something like 99%
of the wealth like 99% of all of the money in capital and ownership is in the hands of 1%
of the nation then you know that's not a very healthy situation yeah yeah and we're seeing this
shake out now and so we're seeing a massive increase in homelessness in cities like Phoenix,
Arizona there's entire like homeless rows where you'll see streets and streets where businesses have
gone out of business because there's so much homelessness on the streets my city of Denver has a
homelessness problem you'd be shocked if you just just took a flight into Denver and went downtown
and so anyways coming back to you know what this is cause post pandemic I think people
during the pandemic had a chance to be at home thinking through this and something happened
something was ignited in people's sort of hearts and souls around hey I want to be paid
what I'm worth so we've had some major high profile wins like the sag
after the Hollywood strike and I think what tip that one is that the actors got involved
right so it was the writers the one first and then finally the actors tipped it into a win for
them and the thing about the actors getting involved is that they suddenly weren't allowed
to do all the press that they would normally do for their movies
yes part of the strike is that they weren't allowed no one was allowed to talk about
any of the new projects correct to reppled out into the public consciousness
yes that put everything to a halt and and then once you start to affect people's TV
and people's movie entertainment unfortunately that's where it starts to you start to have
wins and so they had a win I mean I know I don't know the exact details of they got
some wage increases they got some guarantees around AI although we don't know what's
going to happen with AI in the future I don't know if they felt like I guess any good
negotiation is never a win on either side right it's just good enough for both sides
right Luke yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah and the United auto's auto workers
had a win a 25% increase in base wages through 2028 Starbucks has had mixed
results but they are unionizing which is something we haven't seen historically
at all around Starbucks so yeah unions are hot Luke this is very interesting
I hadn't actually realized that the unions were rallying in this way in the
United States today I was aware of the Hollywood writers strike but I wasn't
really aware of the other things you mentioned there is this is this something to do with having
a a Democrat in charge in the White House I think so you know Joe Biden is known
to be like union Joe like he is he's the guy who has built a brand for himself
whether it's just PR whether it's true I think it's partly true he wrote Amtrak Amtrak
is our labored train system really really weak really poor compared to all European
trains he would ride Amtrak up from Wilmington Delaware which is a very working class town
where he's from up to DC every day so he would be sitting next to the people
right and so he's known as a union guy or a pro labor a pro every day person
and so I think it is he actually showed up it's the first time a US president
has ever showed up to a union negotiation or in support of the unions which was a huge deal
yes yeah so yeah and I think Gen Z I'll sorry go ahead Luke I was just going to compare it to the UK
so in the UK we have a conservative government still and they've been in power since 2010
right and we are really feeling the the the effects I mean the conservative party is in
English you would say it's on its last legs at the moment okay you know after Brexit
after the sort of disastrous way they handled the coronavirus and the economic situation
and it's frankly a huge embarrassment I mean this government is appalling and everyone agrees really
and they are just desperately kind of clutching at different sorts of populist
policies to try and maintain power but there's going to be an election next year similar to the US
you're going to have a presidential election so we've got an election coming up
everyone expects the conservatives bid to be out but like in terms of unions in the UK
the big thing of the last couple of years has been the trains so you mentioned Amtrak
in the United Kingdom we don't have a nationalized rail network anymore it was sold
under Margaret Thatcher to private companies the understanding being that the market
the competitiveness of the market would make sure that services would be as good as they can be
right that's the idea right these in these different private train companies around the country
would compete and provide the customers with the best service well in fact what actually happened
is that the train companies similar to the water companies and other ones basically their bottom line
was the most important thing and so the shareholders got their profits and not enough money was being invested
in the train networks and train staff drivers but all the other people who work on trains
were really not getting paid a fair wage and the unions stepped in and there's been this long
running negotiation over the rights and pay of train staff and it's been in the press a lot
and the you know Mick Lynch is the union leader and he's an incredible person because he's been
like maybe the most vocal and articulate critic of the government recently and I think he's
sort of damaged the Tories that's the Conservatives quite a lot just by simply being interviewed
and by applying simply by applying simple common sense to the situation so anyway I just want to
add that you know just to add the UK's perspective to similar situation yeah sure sure I mean
I think it's normal that society's flip from one side to the other there's always a backlash
no matter what direction you're going conservative moves back to liberal but yeah I mean
you know you have issues with antitrust when you have yeah we're going to privatize an industry
and then there's really one company that's dominating right and then that's not good for
that's not letting private business serve society yeah and their focus is on making sure
that the shareholders get their big dividends you know and that the company directors get their bonuses
you know right like like I'm sorry but the idea that competition results in the best service
for customers isn't always true you know when companies then their main objective is
to essentially scrape profit of the whole enterprise yeah and then you see large companies
you know doing a round of layoffs and you see their stock surge it's just something is out of
whack right yeah something's not quite right so I mean that's kind of what the biggest
shift that we've seen and it'll be really interesting to see what Gen Z does right because this
translates down in the US to a new generation of workers entering the workforce that never
really went to the office right they're working from home because they graduated into the
pandemic and they're asking for for more money they're asking for what they're worth
sometimes I think their asks are a little out of reality like they're going to have to
reconcile with what's realistic but it's probably a good thing you know in the long run
it's a good thing I think for workers so you talk about generation Z that's basically
the younger generation that are coming into into the workforce now yeah yeah the generation
before millennials so people who are in you know they're 20s like early 20s right now yeah
yeah it's a new way of looking at how to ask for what you're worth at work Gen Z millennials
and then is it Gen X Gen X yes correct I mean I think I'm between millennial and Gen X actually
I don't know what that's called yeah okay all right all right so yeah we're talking about
Gen Z the younger generation coming through and assessing the sort of the working environment
of today yeah yeah and also there's there's a the shift from being loyal to a company and now
kind of being loyal to one's own career and oneself that's the shift I've seen on the individual level
right we don't stay a company for a lifetime and that was before the pandemic that had changed
yes yes that's even more amplified now yeah mm-hmm yeah and there's a very this sort of fluid
workforce in terms of changing from one job to another maybe a bit more regularly but also
in terms of location that the pandemic allowed everyone to well it forced everyone to work from home
and that's kind of stuck with us hasn't it that culture yeah it's really interesting and it's like
a W F H work from home versus W F A work from anywhere I'm seeing a lot of people in my circle
kind of taking their laptops and having a well paying full-time job in tech with benefits
everything but taking the laptop I'm gonna fly to Boston for the weekends I'm gonna be at
the airport logging on from the airport this is really common now and it makes me wonder
what's gonna happen to cities right because cities were kind of coming back they were getting safer
they were having a boom and now they're having a bust they're coming you know they're
becoming more sparse you don't see people downtown as much anymore on certain days
so it makes me wonder how are things going to change within the US demographically yeah yeah
because you've got these big cities I mean obviously we think of the major ones like
Manhattan and especially that I feel like Manhattan may be a different case because it's
what could happen with that and similarly with London and maybe Paris is that to
an extent these city center areas these sort of downtown areas become like
like almost like a city theme park their places where you go for the day to have a
shopping experience or something or a leisure experience rather than a place that you go
to do your job yeah right but it makes you think like if if New York City just
becomes Times Square for tourists is it even New York City anymore because
do tourists go for other tourists or they go to see what life is like a New York
City right yeah who knows yeah I just I pulled a stat from Forbes that they're
saying now as of June I don't know if this is probably an updated stat here there
was 50% occupancy in Midtown Manhattan like downtown New York City for the office
buildings and that's 50% so they were half empty those buildings and it might be
edging up to 60 65 now but the question to me is is it always going to be
less than before or is it going to fully come back because that means that
vendors that lunch spots delis just don't have the business they need right so
the question is yeah it's more an open question like what's going to happen
to these big cities San Francisco Manhattan Chicago and we saw people
relocate did you see that in the UK did people like buy second homes or move
out of London yeah yeah yeah that's always happening but it certainly happened
a lot more easily and people were a lot more ready to do it you know when they
realized oh I can just work from anywhere then I might as well just be
anywhere and yeah a lot of people are moving out of the city for sure okay and
are they have you seen anyone move back to the city because their works called
them back they're all kind of staying in the countryside yeah okay interesting
yeah we're seeing you know second tier third tier cities become more popular
and this collides with the price of the cost of living like even though New
York City is half empty or three-coyote quarter empty it's still really
expensive to live there so people are the math just not making sense for people
anymore you know so they want to cheaper cost of living and that's another big
trend like our housing costs are up 50% since 2019 yeah housing costs are
up 50% since 2019 yeah that's from the Wall Street Journal I don't know if
you listen to the journal podcast it's a great show brings in economics and
politics great show that that was a quote they studied since 2019 housing
costs in the US are up 50% oh my gosh and not not to mention energy costs
as well because I don't know if in the States it's the same but in the UK
there's been a huge energy crisis okay even though the energy company is
recorded record profits where literally like all the consumers their energy
builds doubled you know with the war in Ukraine you know and and various other
things suddenly the cost of energy just went bup just went up like that and of
course it just got transferred directly to the to the customers and some people
couldn't afford to heat their homes oh my gosh you know here's me
trashing the government again I am not a fan of the conservative government yeah
but meanwhile they're kind of going we've got to you know got to reward the
energy companies we've got to like you know that you can see where their priorities are
it's just to like allow the energy companies to take away these huge profits
meanwhile there's like you know there's like people just freezing in their homes
it's just mad it's crazy that's wild that's crazy oh my gosh yeah
yeah so I wonder what would New York be like I mean as an example if like
all of the office workers leave and you just got these empty spaces including
as you said restaurants and delis where people would be buying their lunch and
that's all empty but that kind of real estate has still got a ton of value
it's got value surely other things are going to come in to sort of take the
place of these people who aren't there yeah what what else could happen in these
spots it's actually very interesting I mean I think a more even a more
dramatic example is San Francisco because San Francisco was the hub for right
so Silicon Valley and like the Facebook crowd they all many of them lived
in San Francisco and bust to Cupertino or wherever their offices are and so
that's the city I think is even more at risk that'll be really interesting to
see what happens with San Francisco have you been to San Fran yeah yeah
a couple of times yeah I loved it yeah it's a cool place it's a cool city it's
a cool city but these guys especially you know the people that work in Silicon
Valley are especially work from anywhere right literally it's almost
required you know to to hire people in this sector now to have to have that
ability and so that that's the one that I think I could see New York
companies coming back before San Francisco but we'll see we'll see what
happens so big shifts big shifts in what people want to I think urban life
was kind of in style pre pandemic and now there's just a big question mark a
lot of people are saying I want space for my dog to run around I want to go
hiking on the weekends I want to be closer to nature so my question is does
that continue five years from now or do we want to come back to the cities
and have the urban life you know that's the interesting part and very
interesting sort of clash of cultures to an extent if like these metropolitan
people who previously lived in cities are going out to more rural places
then it's interesting what happens in those rural areas because in the
states in the past there's been quite a large cultural divide between the
sort of metropolitan side of things and the rural side of things and these
these things are sort of mixing together that's that's surely good a good
thing yeah that's really fascinating right so brands like sweet
greens you know the fast casual salad brand do you guys have that brand I mean fast
casual state okay you take McDonald's how fast that is and then we don't want
McDonald's anymore we want salads we want healthy fast food so fast
casual salad bowls things like that yeah yeah yeah that idea I'm sure that
sure yeah sure yeah so expanding delivery routes out into the suburbs to
deliver to people working on their laptops in their living rooms in the suburbs
that changes everything right that changes a lot of things around cost of living
now where are those workers going to be living can they can they afford to live in
the suburbs now because now people have bought houses out there so
everything's in flux I feel like it's just a big question mark you know these
shifts what really happens yeah very interesting stuff and so you know I was
mentioning the the state of the conservative government and how they'll probably
be elected out I guess so we'll see we'll see what kind of government we get
next time round who knows I mean who knows the conservatives have a have a
knack of holding on especially when you get to election day people are sort
of get to the polling booth and they're about to cast their votes and then they
they're kind of like oh no I don't think I'll risk it you know because the
conservative vote is traditionally the sort of safe vote the economically safe
vote so we'll see but anyway what about in the states what's the kind of
relationship with the American citizens and their government which is that's
often a very complex relationship isn't it yeah well I mean I can't even get
started on what's going to happen this fall right this is going to be stress to
the max this fall depending on what ends up happening with the who's running
for president right what what do we end we end up with the same match up of
Donald Trump and and Biden but that's that's for later let's say our
our minds for later I'm sure we'll be going crazy but yeah so I think there was
a weird shift that especially institutions like public health right in the
pandemic we had Anthony Fauci I don't know if you know the name yeah yeah so he
was the head guy of the Department of Health or I'm not sure which anyways the
ones that were doing the research on the pandemic and at first they said don't
wear masks and then after a few weeks they said yes do wear masks and people
had a major problem with that all of a sudden simple health guidance became
super partisan and we became really divided I'm curious if this happened in
England you know it was like if you're wearing a mask your liberal kind of
or your gullible you believe the government if you're not wearing a mask like
the the perspective from them was that they were suspicious of the government
they don't trust anyone they don't want to be told what to do and some of
this is in the DNA of American culture not being wanting to be told what to
do but it just became really partisan we're just talking about beating a
pandemic you know yeah so yeah I was aware of that in the states and you know we're
all aware of the kind of the more libertarian elements in the United
States who are sort of like you know really ruthlessly anti government you know in
any form at all that even you know like from from outside the states we look at you guys
and we kind of think okay so Barack Obama just wants to introduce public
health care free health care so that anyone can afford to go to hospital if they need to
blah blah blah it sounds totally reasonable and yet there's a lot of Americans
who are like you know holding their guns and going this is you know this is like
what about my liberties it's like they just want to if you break your leg you can just get
you know like what's the tell what's the matter so so we totally see that and we
see the way that is so in terms of the masks and the response to that yeah there was
in France and in the UK there was a sort of kick back against it but not to the same
extent as in the US so we still have those elements those sort of elements that
maybe have a slightly more conspiratorial way of thinking about these things and so
naturally when especially when the vaccine came in there were a lot of people
who are against the vaccine and had decided that it was yes well I mean I think
there's actually a sliding scale in terms of the vaccine because to an
extent you know some people are sort of saying they're injecting 5G chips into
your arm they will you know what and then but other people then have a
actually fairly legitimate sort of sense of restraint about it but it's like
this thing you know like the Oxford vaccine or whatever a vaccine it is it's
been rushed through it hasn't been properly checked and in fact there are side
effects that can affect people's hearts and so you know and then at the same
time other people are going but this is this pandemic it's you know it can kill
so many people and we just got a we've got to get on top of this so that was
a very intense time and yeah there was a lot of distrust knocking around a lot of
distrust yeah for sure I felt bad for the people who were just trying to do the
research and communicate the research I mean the way science works is that it's
always changing we didn't know much about the pandemic when it first broke out we
needed the research and then we got the research we got a little more
information and the new informed the public but especially the heads of these
departments like Fauci or I'm forgetting your name now there's another woman
that was heading up the Department of Health they really got torn up in the media
and became like a scapegoat and everyone blamed them it was it was tough to watch
it was tough to watch yeah yeah it was a pretty scary time in for many reasons
yeah and just sort of watching like you know you just see some conversation
about the subject and like go into the comments section of YouTube it's like oh
my god oh god look at the attitudes oh my goodness yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so
I think that's been a shift I feel like I was thinking to myself what if the
pandemic had broken out let's say in the 90s I think I think the attitude would
have been different towards just listening to the guidance and saying like at
least yes around the around the vaccine sure you know everyone has their right to
question it and and in touch and go around that but masks I think there
would have been less resistance to masks that's my that's my opinion so
yeah that shifted a little bit yeah with the way the internet has evolved and
stuff and it's it's on one hand it's allowed a certain level of let's say
citizen journalism to happen and a certain level of freedom of information
but on the other hand it has led to you know a large breakdown of trust in
public institutions yeah yeah I think the internet is the key look like
that's the thing that's changed since the 90s right we are all connected and
that allows us to kind of be in our echo chambers right so really these shifts
like just to kind of sum it all up it's just all a question mark we don't know you
know I think it's too early to say what were the effects of the pandemic what has
really shifted in American culture are these permanent shifts or are we going
back to the way things were I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know
but it's very interesting to see how things are going to pan out
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so this episode Lindsay I think is going to be published in January 2024
so it's you know it's quite apt really that we're talking about you know
looking to the future and so on and just generally yeah of course we all
hope and pray that we you know as we move into a new year that we get us
a more stable and reasonable situation not just in our countries but
everywhere around the world we just yes can everyone just go back to normal
please I know we not have so much stress when we watch the news or turn on
you know I'll put up the New York Times right I know there are reasons there are
reasons for everything but anyway this is what this is sort of what we hope for isn't
I suppose very interesting Lindsay to have this conversation and also yeah to be
to be looking to the future and sort of it's going to be interesting to see
what happens in terms of elections in the US and the UK this year
yeah great okay yeah good very interesting in depth conversation
yeah I think yeah I think for your listeners I mean these are great
conversation starters and that's what we always say in all our English you
take what you've heard today and start conversations right this is how we work
through stuff I think as a global community how do we work through the
division that's going on we talk about it in the US people are talking
anymore right yes it can be dangerous to talk about things when everyone's
feelings are so heightened by as you say the echo chambers that they exist in
right and you know we get together at Christmas with different members of our
family or extended family and these things come up and they can be flash
points they can be points big points of disagreement and it's very
distressing really you know that the we really need to try to be reasonable
and sort of listen to each other as much as we can and avoid those sorts
of knee jerk reactions you know I mean I think for me like at first
there is that there's that knee jerk my ego is linked to this right my
position on this but then if I sit down and I have like a full dinner
with someone I start to get to know them as a person and then that's where
things can start to break down for me you know because now there's a human
being in front of me and there's a reason why they think this and so then I
can try to understand that their history their family all these things
that's I feel like how we're going to get through a moment of division globally
we get back to connection not perfection again there just have dinner with
people and make connections yeah kind of yeah okay Lindsay thanks so much for
talking to me on the show and thanks for inviting me onto your podcast as
well of course we don't know which number episode that will be yet but I guess
in the show notes for this episode you'll find a link to to that episode as well
if you want to know it's going to be about differences between British and
American English yes 100% always a pleasure to work with you here and be on
each other's shows Luke and thanks for having me on I appreciate it pleasure
all right have a lovely day and speak to you soon you too take care bye-bye
so here we are this is the end of the episode more or less although I'm going to
sort of ramble a little bit at the end here like normal let's see first of all
thanks again to Lindsay for this episode it was very interesting to listen to her
talk about the United States and to get her comments and observations
and the rest of it interesting stuff I hope that you found that interesting
too interesting interesting interesting it also be interesting to see what
happens in those elections which are coming up presidential elections is in
November December certainly near the end of the year what's going to happen will
Donald Trump return will Joe Biden hold on to the president's see will Trump
even be allowed to to run for president or will he be in jail I don't know
we'll see won't we we'll see what happens and what about the UK there's going to be
a general election we don't know exactly when it's going to be but it's almost
certain to happen this year I think it legally has to happen at some point
this year will the conservatives hold on to power will we have Rishi Sunak as
Prime Minister will the conservatives decide that they need to get rid of Rishi
Sunak even before a general election because he's not popular he's not a
popular leader in or out of the Conservative party no one seems to like him
very much so maybe they'll chuck him out and we'll have another Prime
Minister yet another Conservative Prime Minister who hasn't actually been
chosen by the electorate how many has it been in the last few years of course
we had Theresa May who took over from David Cameron and then she got replaced
by Boris Johnson excuse me and then Boris got replaced by Theresa May
excuse me for about five seconds and then Rishi Sunak came in maybe we'll
get someone else before the election the polls seem to suggest that the
conservatives going to lose they're going to lose quite badly this is what
the polls suggest who knows I mean we'll see I've talked about this during
the episode a little bit didn't I don't mean to get overly political on this
podcast but you know every now and then it's interesting to talk about these
things so British and American English that's what you just heard the two
versions and remember episode 2140 of all is English you can hear me talking
to Lindsay about differences between American English and British English
including things like pronunciation accent vocabulary and general
communication style and it's called the subtle differences between British and
American English because you know for the most part British and American
English are you know really similar right it's the same it's still the same
language just slightly different versions but for the most part it's all exactly
the same so it's easy to I'll I say this in the episode it's easy to
sort of what's the word for it overestimate the differences or to
imagine that the the the two languages are like vastly different they're not for
the most part it's exactly the same we share you know the same words the same
grammar but there are certain subtle differences obviously when a
British person speaks to an American personal vice versa we know
instantly you know you know I you know I when I meet an American person I'm
pretty certain instantly that they're from the United States maybe Canada
because that's so similar and normally in the United States they can tell
that they're speaking to a British person obviously it depends some Americans
in some part of the country they don't know like I'm worried from you from
Australia I had that I've had that a few times actually on holiday in the
United States and people sort of like were you for you Irish no I'm from
England but you know for the most part exactly the same anyway listen to
episode 2140 of all is English and you you'll hear us talking about those
differences and things like that okay all right so coming up on Luke's
English podcast soon sound like a professional professional like presenter
don't know when I say that or like a sports presenter coming up next on
Luke's English podcast we've got all the goals from Saturday's football
anyway coming up on Luke's English podcast over the next few weeks what have I
got in store for you so I've got a couple of other conversation episodes
in the pipeline I mentioned some time ago that I've got an episode about
UNESCO and working at UNESCO that's probably going to be the next
episode probably so I haven't you know don't worry I haven't forgotten
about that that hasn't disappeared that's coming so there's going to be that
and also I've got a an episode with a returning guest a popular returning
guest who will be back on the show with some news interesting news to share
and other stuff too I've got about two more conversation episodes and then
we'll be back to the other types of episodes that I do on my own yes including
some story episodes I know that those story episodes are popular that might
be the main reason why I recently got a million views on YouTube because
people like subscribe story episodes please and then I'm like here's some
other things that you didn't necessarily subscribe for but it's okay I know
that the story episodes are popular more story episodes are coming right now
that now those story episodes are a little difficult to prepare they they
take a lot more time to prepare also it's not always easy to find appropriate
stories for those episodes right because ideally the stories will be the right
length so that means not too short but not too long if a story is too short I
mean to be honest I did an episode about a 100 word story that's just a hundred
words and that episode was popular and there was loads of stuff to be
discussed and explained in just that 100 word story if it's a good 100 word story
that can be a really good idea but so you know you want a story that's short
a story that's not too long because if a story is even if it's a short story
if it's still more than a few pages long that makes it difficult to turn it
into a podcast episode because naturally what I want to do is tell you the
story and then obviously use it to teach you English which means going through
vocabulary and maybe grammar as well and possibly pronunciation in terms of
reading the story out so if a story is too long then that just becomes impossible
really because like with the Sherlock Holmes story I did last year I read out
the story and then just spend a bit of time summarising what you've heard and
then continue like that until the story's finished and that's like over an
hour just even for a story that's about 10 pages long so even short stories can
be too long so you know it can be difficult to find exactly the right
stories for story episodes on this podcast and then it takes a little bit of
time to prepare them also you know you've got to choose the right story from
the right period of time I've got to think about what kind of English you probably
don't care you don't really care really about all these details do you and I
probably shouldn't worry about them too much either I should just basically find
some interesting stories if they're short enough for me to go into detail about
the language then great if they're longer then I can just kind of have fun
digging into the performance part of sharing the story with you and then
summarising bits as we go anyway it's all good it's all good and I've got some
stories stuff coming a short one where I can go into the language a bit more
and a longer one which hopefully you'll just find entertaining and just you'll
just get swept up and carried away with the story and I'll help you to understand
the main events of it okay also I've got my own by the way I've got my own
short stories which are basically anecdotes from my life which I've written
down and I mean I often obviously share stories and anecdotes on this
podcast anyway and they're usually just things I tell you spontaneously
rather than stories which are written down but I have actually written down a lot
of my stories and I use them for premium episodes right I have a premium
series called Storytime I've published I don't know how many Storytime
episodes five is it six and those Storytime episodes are basically true
stories which I've written down and then which I used to help you learn English
and I've done ones about my childhood sort of moments when I got into trouble
at school things something that happened to my brother and you know just some
fun stories from childhood I've got more Storytime episodes planned as well
I've got loads of other stories to tell anyway so about Story
episodes it takes time to find the right stories to prepare them to record them
I can't just do Story episodes all the time I will do some but I'll also
continue to make plenty of other types of episodes to just like I've always
done you know I think also that's better for your English as well because you
get to hear a variety of things so that you've got to hear a variety of things
you've got to hear different voices different accents different sound
conditions different subjects different topics all of these things are in my
mind when I plan and prepare episodes I've got lots of different episodes
in the pipeline in various stages of preparation so anyway after a couple
of conversation episodes you'll get some solo episodes with some stories I've
got some sort of joke stuff some dissecting the frog stuff and all kinds of
other stuff okay I wonder what you think what you have thought what you
thought while listening to this episode share your comments in the comments
section and also I'm curious to know where you are and what's going on in your
country at the moment obviously we you know we end we might end up getting into
political stuff I don't want to have some big argument in the comments section
maybe that's up to you but always I always encourage you to be respectful
right and diplomatic in the comments section just as I would expect my
students to to behave correctly in a classroom of mine similarly I want to
kind of extend that sentiment towards my comments section where I expect
people always to be polite and respectful and you know just use basic
politeness but anyway you can let us know where you're from and what's going
on in your country do you have similar observations are there similar trends
happening where you are let us know in the in the comments section that could
be interesting talking of comments responses to the previous
episode which was the one with Nick Peachy about multimodal communication it
was very nice to see lots of positive responses to that people saying things
like what well first of all people saying that they didn't struggle to
understand the conversation and the reason that people made that comment is
because I had said in the introduction that I was a bit concerned that
or I predicted that people would write I can't understand can't understand
Nick because that does happen quite a lot when I get guests I say quite a lot
sometimes when I have guests on the show people often sort of comment that
they can't understand the guests it's partly just because they're not used to
it well you know surprise surprise it could just be a question of level of
English you know you know that's that's the whole that's kind of the whole
point I want to get you familiar with different voices to be important to
practice listening to other people not just me in less than perfect audio
conditions but for the Nick Peachy episode yeah people saying that they
understood it and that they found it very interesting so that's great
also at the end of that episode I was kind of like reflecting on some of
the things that Nick and I were talking about including things like what
what what my podcast room seems to say about me and I was saying that I
was considering making it more minimal even installing a curtain or
something in the background I actually had decided not to do that because
I just don't think it's possible but a couple of people commented saying no
no no don't don't change your background it looks great it's kind of
authentic it tells us about who you are and all those things so you know
that's nice thanks for the encouragement what else what else what else
what else people commenting about the values that my podcast has now
Lindsay and all these English she's like totally on top of this kind of
thing and she's defined she's defined quite long time ago what the
values of her podcast were and its connection not perfection which is
a decent kind of statement to make for me I guess from the very beginning
of my show it was real British English right so it's British English
obviously because that's the first of English that I speak but it's real
British English in the sense that you know it's about authenticity and
about being genuine and trying to show you how English is spoken you
know by people you know just being spontaneous and genuine and natural
and that's sort of the anyway thank you for your comments in response to
the last episode it was nice to read your words I think I'm going to
stop recording this now am I going to stop now I think I'm going to
stop now I think so yes I mean why would I continue I don't have
any specific other things to talk to you about you know the only other
reason to continue now would just be to hang out for a little while should
we do that should we just hang out for a little bit okay obviously I'm
going to talk I'm not just we're not just going to sit here and like get on
our phones yeah let's just hang out together and we'll just sit there on our
phones no I'm not going to do that hmm should I try and play a song
should I try and do that it's been a long time since I did that now I've got
see the thing is if I try and do a song there's a chance that it'll get blocked
on YouTube and if that does happen I'll have to edit it out and it'll
only be in the audio episode so anyway let's see I've got no idea which
what I'm going to do I haven't done I used to you know long term listeners
will remember that I've used to sing songs at the end of episodes quite
a lot by the way if you don't want to hear me singing a song if that's not
your cup of tea then that's the end of the episode thank you very much for
listening and I'll speak to you next time nice one otherwise if you want to
stick around and like listen to a song there be my guest what am I going to do
hmm let's try across the universe Beatles huh let's try I can't promise to be fair I
have not practiced this recently I've got to get all of this set up as well
right I got to get the microphone
struggle to get it all set up okay okay
so what's this what's this song about I'll let you let you work it out for
myself the words you can there'll be a link on the page for this episode on my
website for the words you know for the lyrics and the chords as well and
John Lennon wrote this when he was in India in 1968 and they were off on a
meditation retreat doing transcendental meditation near the banks of the
River Ganges they spent a couple of months over there a way to escape from
the sort of madness of their lives to try and find a bit of peace and peace of
mind and John wrote this when he was out there and it's very inspired by that
period and the words are nice they've got a nice rhythm to them that are nice
cadence the chorus goes jai guru Devah on so that's a reference to like Indian
an Indian guru
if you see or hear lots of edits in this it means that I got the song wrong
and I've had to cut and edit right because I'm not able to I'm not a professional
musician so I'm not able to just pick up the guitar and just instantly perform
like this perfect song professional musicians they perform like every night of
the week in front of audiences you know if they're on tour or something and so
it's just they're just totally in the zone in the musical zone for me it's
like just shove me in front of a group of learners of English sure I can just
snap into it but put a guitar in my hand and it might take me a little while to
just get myself together alright okay alright hold on according to my notes
it's I should be playing this in a different part of the guitar according to my
notes I should be playing this at a different part of the guitar because
apparently it's easier for my voice one two three four five six all the way up
on the sixth fret of the guitar up there is that even in tune it'll do professional
show business one two three four five six I see if I can actually get this done
before the sun goes down words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper
cup they slither wildly as they slip away across the universe pulls of sorrow
waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind possessing and caressing me
jageru day nothing's gonna change my world nothing's gonna change my world
nothing's gonna change my world images of broken light which dance before me
like a million eyes they call me on and on across the universe thoughts me
and a like a restless wind inside a letter box they tumble blindly as they
make their way across the universe jageru day nothing's gonna change my
world nothing's gonna change my world nothing's gonna change my world
nothing's gonna change my world sounds of laughter shades of life of ringing
through my opened is inciting and inviting me limitless and dying love
which shines around me like a million sons and calls me on and on across the
universe jageru day nothing's gonna change my world nothing's gonna change my
world nothing's gonna change my world nothing's gonna change my world
jageru day nothing's gonna change my world nothing's gonna change my world
who is this Dave that you keep singing about that's jageru day I don't know who jageru day
is I mean I guess he's a is a an Indian guru right who is jageru day
ever jageru day ver om this is a a Sanskrit mantra notably known for being recited
in the songs across the universe by the Beatles and all this is that by the
Beach Boys Jai means victory or glory to guru as you know means master or
teacher and Dev that's Dev not that's Devah not Dave means divine so it's not
like glory to the great teacher Dave Devah means divine so it's basically
glory to the divine master and om om is considered to be the primordial sound
of the universe the eternal vibration that vibrates through every single one
of us at all times so basically all glory to the divine master that is the
eternal vibration of existence and on that note I think it's time to say good
by so thank you very much for listening to this podcast have a lovely afternoon
evening or night and I will speak to you next time but for now it's just
time to say goodbye bye bye bye bye oh wow
actually we're still not done yet you thought it was the end it's not the end
because the video version of this episode did get flagged up on YouTube for
copyright reasons as I thought it might do and so the video viewers didn't get
to hear that wonderful music that you just heard and yeah I'm sort of being
sarcastic or self-deprecating anyway instead of playing them the song what I
did for the video version was let them see me play so they could still see
the the visuals but I replaced the audio part because it's the audio bit that
got flagged right so what I did was I over the top of the video I just talked
about the song and read out the lyrics and so that's what I'm going to play now
at the end of this episode okay so this is the audio track from the video
version of this episode where I'm actually just talking about the song and
giving a little bit of background information about that song there's a bit of
a story behind it and then I read through the lyrics as well okay so that's
what you're going to hear now and here we go okay so this is the bit that I have
to remove from this video version because the song as I said got blocked on
YouTube or it got copyright flagged so I'm not able to actually play the audio
to you as I said before but you can still listen to this if you listen to the
audio version of this podcast episode so here I am I'm just going to kind of
talk to you while you can see the visuals of me sort of stumbling my way
through this version of this song and I'll read the lyrics to you actually
before I do that let me just sort of give a few bits of information about the
song so John Lennon wrote this song in India as I said after having an
argument with his wife Cynthia Cynthia was with him in India and John was sort
of struggling at that time he couldn't he had sort of difficulty sleeping he'd
had an argument with his wife and I think he was lying there feeling very
frustrated and irritated he went away or these words came to him I think it was
like words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup I don't
know if that's a comment on the way that his wife was just going on at him but
he certainly felt irritated so he said I was lying next to my first wife in
bed and I was irritated she must have been going on and on about something
and she'd gone to sleep and I kept hearing these words over and over
flowing like an endless stream I went downstairs and it turned into a sort
of a cosmic song rather than an irritated song it drove me out of bed I
didn't want to write it but I was slightly irritable and I went downstairs
and I couldn't get to sleep until I'd put it on paper so that's interesting
that he kind of was just in this irritated mood these words were spinning
around in his head he just had had an argument with his wife couldn't sleep and
so the the songs are like forced its way out of him it seemed but it
actually when you listen to it and listen to the words it's very cosmic and very
peaceful and obviously he was inspired by the meditation that he'd been
doing because they were out there in India trying to find peace of mind I
think for John it was actually a very difficult period because despite the
meditation and the peaceful setting I think that he was going through serious
changes it's all very complicated a lot of complicated psychology and so it's
like a combination of frustration probably going through changes you know
the way that sometimes when you're going through big personal changes it
can seem very noisy in your head and so on anyway that's the that's where the
song comes from and yeah if you listen to the words they're very cosmic and
they're very sort of peaceful and you definitely get the impression that
a lot of these images come from probably the mental space that he was in after
having spent a lot of time meditating and I think I mentioned this lyric at
some point in this in this part of this episode I can't remember now I said I
thought that the chorus part which is Jay Guru Dev Om I think I say that
that's a reference to a guru but it's not actually a reference to a guru
it's a mantra right a phrase that you say when meditating intended to
lull the mind into a higher consciousness the words are in Sanskrit and
they mean I give thanks to Guru Dev who was the teacher of the Maharashi okay
so Guru Dev was a guru okay because I'm trying to work out what this means
I got a red one thing that said this is a reference to consciousness
transcendental consciousness itself and then I've also read something that
Guru Dev is an actual person apparently he was the teacher of the Maharashi
who was their Guru the Om at the end is the drawn out Om used in meditation
to relate to the natural vibration of the universe you know you know the
natural vibration of the universe while visiting the Maharashi in Rishikesh
in India John purchased a set of brass bracelets with the word Jay Guru Dev
imprinted on them the bracelets are now in the possession of Julian Lennon his
son and were on display at the White Feather the spirit of John Lennon exhibit
at the Beatles story in Liverpool so the lyrics go like this words are
flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup they slither wildly as they
slip away across the universe pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting
through my opened mind possessing and caressing me Jay Guru Dev
Om nothing's going to change my world images of broken light which dance
before me like a million eyes they call me on and on across the universe
thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they tumble
blindly as they make their way across the universe Jay Guru Dev
Om nothing's going to change my world sounds of laughter shades of life are
ringing through my open ears inciting and inviting me limitless undying love
which shines around me like a million sons it calls me on and on across
the universe Jay Guru Dev
Om so there you go those are the lyrics of the song and some comments you
can listen to the song I think it's on the let it the original let it be
album I don't think that John was ever particularly happy with any of the
recorded versions of that song and I feel like maybe the Beatles never really
did the song justice in the recording studio I feel like they could have
done a better version of it but they meant they didn't manage to do it
obviously my version now it's that's it right this is the ultimate version
isn't it now of course so there we go we're actually at the end of the
episode now and this episode took a strange turn didn't it at the end we
went from how the USA is changing to nothing's going to change my world
and the limitless vibration of the universe so I think it's a good point
to stop I'll now let you get back to the timeless vibration of the universe
but thank you very much for spending this time with me here at Luke's English
podcast speaks you next time but for now it's time to say goodbye
bye bye bye for the second time in this episode
bye bye bye
thanks for listening to Luke's English podcast for more information
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