Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 162 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope you're all doing fantastic today.
I'm a little bit tired because I just came back from a run, so hopefully I'm not too out of breath to record this episode.
By the way, the phrase out of breath refers to when you're having trouble breathing because you're really tired.
Your lungs are working really hard, like right after you run, for example.
So I hope I'm not too out of breath, but you might be able to hear me breathing a little bit harder than normal.
But I'm ready for today's episode.
This time we're going to talk about life in the future.
So I thought it would be a fun idea to do an episode about some predictions that are I'll make about what life might be like in the future, maybe a few decades from now or so.
And so these are just guesses.
I'm sure I'll be wrong on a lot of these.
But I think it's a fun idea to just imagine what things will be like if they continue with the way they're going right now, all the trends that we're seeing.
Remember that a trend is like a tendency towards some direction.
So there can be fashion trends, there can be trends in a certain sphere of business or whatever.
So I'll predict what things might look like if our current trends continue into the future.
So this should be a fun one, and I hope you find it interesting.
And remember that you can sign up for my advanced podcast episodes if you feel ready to practice with English spoken fast.
English spoken at normal speed.
So if you sign up to become a Listening Time family member, you'll receive two new advanced podcast episodes every month.
So the link to sign up is down below in the description.
That's patreon.com slash listening time.
And you can also sign up for my US Conversations podcast if you want to practice with two people talking instead of just one.
I actually just recorded a bonus US Conversations episode the other day with my dad.
So that was a fun one.
And for those of you that have already signed up, I hope that you enjoyed that special episode with my dad.
And I think that this US Conversations podcast is great practice for those of you who want to reach that level where you can understand more than one person talking.
So the link to sign up is also down below.
That's patreon.com slash US Conversations.
And of course, you have the transcript for this episode down below as well.
All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
All right, let's talk about life in the future.
What are some things that might happen in the next few decades or so?
Well, the first thing I want to talk about is globalization.
So I think that the world is already very globalized, which means that we're very connected.
People in different countries, different cities, different states.
They are connected, even though we're not all living in the same place.
So the globe, the world, seems like a smaller place now because of this connection, this globalization.
Things are transmitted and go around to different countries very easily.
Like, for example, our movies and TV shows here in the US are watched everywhere, even in the most remote places on the planet.
By the way, the word remote refers to something that is far away and isolated.
So even in the most remote places, people watch our movies and listen to our music and things like that.
And that's part of globalization.
And one thing I think will happen is I think that travel will be easier in some ways.
So I think that there are always possibilities, projects that are in progress, to create new trains and high speed railways and new modes of transportation, new ways to get places faster.
I think that that's the trend, right?
50 years ago, we couldn't reach as many places as we can reach now. with the same amount of ease.
When we say the word ease, we're referring to something being easy, right?
So there wasn't the same ease when it came to going to distant places 50 years ago or 70 years ago as there is now.
And there are more ways in which different cities are connected and even different countries are connected.
So I think that in the future, this will continue and travel will be even easier in that way.
It might be harder in some other ways.
Politically speaking, maybe there are problems with borders and everything you know, wars and political issues and things like that, but in terms of the mode of transportation, the different ways people can get to different places, i think that will be easier and And I think that more places around the world will be open for tourism as countries develop more.
So today there are many countries that can't really receive many tourists, because these countries are very poor or have major political issues or just don't have the infrastructure to receive a lot of tourists.
Maybe they don't have major airports or whatever it might be.
I think that in a few decades or whatever, Some of these places will have developed enough so that they can receive tourists.
So that means there will be more places to go to, more travel destinations.
People will discover new places.
So that will also contribute to globalization.
And one thing that is maybe a negative about globalization is everything gets smaller and closer and more familiar.
And I think people tend to start to become more and more similar to each other.
The younger generations today in different countries are probably more similar to one another than our grandparents' generations were in different countries.
So I think as the years go by and globalization continues, people become more and more and more similar and that kind of makes things a little less interesting in some ways, right.
That's not a huge negative, of course, but for someone like me who's really interested in seeing different and unique things, That can be a little more boring when everyone seems like they're exactly the same or not exactly the same, but they're very similar.
That's a little less interesting, but obviously that's a small negative.
And another thing related to globalization that I think will definitely happen is that English will become a stronger and stronger presence around the world.
Minor languages will start to disappear little by little, and some smaller languages will completely disappear and will never be spoken again, unfortunately.
I don't think this will happen to other major languages.
For example, Spanish is not going to disappear anytime soon, right?
French is not going to disappear anytime soon.
I'm not talking about those languages, right?
I'm talking about languages that have a very small group of people that speak them, or even languages that are not that small, but the people in those countries are starting to speak English more and more.
That will also contribute to those languages kind of dying out over time.
But I think that English will grow stronger every year.
And I think that the other major languages will still have many speakers And I think that they'll be okay.
But English is guaranteed to be the global language, in my opinion.
I know some people have different opinions about this.
Some people say that it will be Mandarin Chinese in the future or some other language, but I disagree.
I think that English is already so embedded all around the world in different industries.
The internet travel.
It's so important already that it will be very hard to reverse that or for another language to take its place.
I'm not saying that that will never happen in the future.
It might, but I'm just thinking a few decades in the future.
I think that English is 100 gonna be the global language.
But I think that people will still be learning English.
I don't think that a few decades from now, everyone will speak English.
All the young people around the world will have great English.
I don't think that's the case.
I think more people will speak English and there will be more people who don't need to learn English actively.
But I think that there are many places around the world right now that have a very low English level.
And that's not going to completely change in just a few decades because that usually takes time.
And so I think that people will still be learning English.
I'll still have a reason to make English content, I think.
Maybe I'll have to focus more on the countries and the places that have a lower English level.
I don't know.
But I'm sure that people will still be learning English in a few decades.
But I think that English will be an even stronger presence around the world than it is now.
And another thing that I think will happen in the future is I think that many jobs will change.
I think most people would agree with me about this topic.
So I don't think there will be as many jobs that are just jobs, normal service jobs, where you're just serving a customer, maybe a cashier or someone who is bringing food to your table or whatever.
I think that a lot of these jobs will become automated in the future and maybe robots will do them.
Who knows?
But I don't think that this means that Everyone is gonna lose their jobs in the future.
I don't want to make it sound like this is the end of work for everyone.
I know that some people push that narrative, but that's not what I'm saying here.
By the way, when someone pushes a narrative, this means that they are promoting their idea OK, their perspective, their opinion about something.
So I'm not trying to push that narrative, but I think that many jobs will change and we won't need jobs the same types of workers then that we do now.
So, for example, when i go to the grocery store, i almost always try to go to the self checkout lane and not the checkout with the cashier, And not everyone does this.
I think that many people will still always prefer to have a cashier person.
But I think that a lot of people will change to self-checkout, for example.
And so we won't need as many cashiers, maybe.
So I'm not saying that that job will completely disappear.
But what I'm saying is that maybe more employees at that store will be needed to help with the computers and the machines for the self-checkout.
And there will be problems with those things.
So maybe the employees will need to focus less on the customer service side aspect of the job and focus more on fixing things or maintaining things, and i think you get my point right.
So there will be a lot more jobs related to technology and automated processes, making sure those are going well And, for example, cybersecurity.
That's a huge one.
I think that we will need a lot of cybersecurity workers in the future to help keep things safe and protect things.
But I think that the necessary skilled trades will still exist.
I'm sure of this.
For example, when I say a skilled trade, I'm referring to things like plumbers and electricians and mechanics and people like that.
These people will always be needed, these people will always have business, and I think that these are really important jobs, so I don't think those are going anywhere anytime soon.
I think that we will need plenty of plumbers, plenty of electricians, plenty of mechanics, plenty of landscapers, all those types of professions.
And one other thing that I think will happen in the future.
This is just my prediction, my opinion.
I could be wrong, but I think that overall, in general, people's health will decline and treatments will multiply.
So what am I talking about here?
Well, I think that we have already seen this over many years.
Not in every way, of course.
Some things have really gotten much better.
For example, like sanitation and plumbing and things like that.
That extended our lives and made our health better drastically.
That's probably the greatest invention in terms of human health ever, right?
Is clean running water and waste removal and sanitation and plumbing and you know drainage, washing hands and everything, everything related to sanitation.
That stuff has definitely helped our health.
But when it comes to other things, other habits that people have, I think that things have gotten worse, right.
People have gotten worse when it comes to Their posture, sitting down for many hours every day in front of a computer, looking at screens all day right.
Not needing to walk as much and everything. not moving around as much.
All of these types of habits have probably gotten worse all over the world over the years.
And of course, these things lead to poor health outcomes, right?
An outcome is a result, okay?
So there are poor outcomes when you have these bad habits.
And people's diet, the food that people eat, has gotten worse over the years, right?
If you look at many traditional diets around the world in communities that are more isolated and don't have a lot of contact with industrialization, you see that their diets are much better and their health is much better than just the average person who lives in a big city.
And that's because, as our cities have developed, our processes have developed, We've made our food worse and we don't eat the same quality food that we ate in the past.
Right.
So I think that as time goes on.
This will probably get worse in many countries, as many countries maybe develop their processes and their industries more.
It will be the same thing everywhere.
We'll have mass production of food and huge farms with practices that aren't the best for our health right, and preservation techniques that aren't healthy right, and ingredients will be added for preservation and flavor and different things that aren't healthy.
So I think that this is the trend and so I think people's health will get worse.
I think that unfortunately, that will probably happen.
I might be wrong and i hope i'm wrong, but that's my prediction, and i think that there will be a lot of medications and treatments that are invented due to these issues.
Right, some of them might be good and i'm sure a lot of them might not be good, but A lot of them might have a lot of side effects or whatever.
So I'm sure there will be a big market for treating our declining health, unfortunately.
I'm sure that there will be some breakthroughs in curing certain serious conditions.
The word breakthrough refers to when there is suddenly this big change or discovery during some process and it really helps things move a lot faster or it changes things completely.
So I really hope and I think there will be some breakthroughs in curing some serious conditions, some serious illnesses.
A lot of people assume that cancer is a death sentence, which means that if you have cancer, that means you're going to die.
But obviously that's not true, right?
Many people have had cancer and haven't died.
And many people have actually cured serious cancers and died.
You might not ever hear about this if you don't actually do the research yourself and find out about these different types of treatments that have been developed and different doctors that are doing special things that aren't conventional, maybe.
And so there are a number of promising treatments and doctors who have done great things when it comes to treating cancer.
But these aren't widely known.
And there is actually, unfortunately, a lot of opposition to these types of treatments and doctors.
And so you might never hear about them, because they're They're not mainstream and they're not the accepted practices or whatever.
So I think that the same thing might happen in the future.
We might have some breakthroughs in curing some major diseases, but it won't be that suddenly everyone knows about it and gets this cure if they need it, and then everything is good.
It probably won't be like that unfortunately, for some diseases.
But I'm hopeful that there will be some breakthroughs in curing some major conditions.
But unfortunately, overall I think that health will decline around the world and I hope I'm wrong, but it's what I'm seeing.
So that's kind of a negative prediction that I have about the future.
But I'll stop there.
I talked about a few things and I'm sure you might agree with me about some of them and disagree about some of the others.
But no one knows, really.
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
And remember that you can sign up for my advanced podcast episodes if you want to practice with fast English.
If you become a Listening Time family member, you'll get two new advanced episodes every month.
The link is down below in the description.
And if you want my US Conversations podcast to practice listening to two people talking and not just one, the link to that is also down below in the description.
And you have the transcript for this episode down there as well.
All right.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
And I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
