This is the Let's Master English Podcast and I'm your host, Coach Shane.
Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Let's Master English Podcast.
What is this, number 102?
I think that is correct.
I'm Coach Shane. Shane, it's great to be with you.
Thank you for listening.
The Let's Master English Podcast is like a magazine.
We're going to talk about some news, stories, interesting facts, things that happened.
It's a lot of fun. So I hope that you enjoy listening to the LME, Let's Master English Podcast.
It's great. By the way, we have our E -Cubed rehash too.
So the Let's Master English Podcast is once a week.
I try to publish every Monday, but on the other days, we have our E -Cubed easy English expression from the beginning.
So check that out too and check out my website, Let'sMasterEnglish .com.
Get a free lesson, get my newsletter and enjoy studying English.
I'm so excited today, we've got so many stories.
We've got a story about Russia.
Oh yes, Russia. We've got a story about a ghost.
We've got stories about daylight saving time.
The clocks changed in America and they changed in Europe too.
Is this a good thing?
Is this a bad thing?
Is it stupid? It is November of 2024.
What does that mean?
It actually means a lot.
And by the way, November 4th in history, some really cool things happened.
I'll be talking about that.
We've got birthdays, we've got everything.
In fact, we're starting off with a birthday.
I want to say a very special happy birthday to Phulia.
Phulia is one of my students.
She's a rock star and she has a song request.
And also to my wife, happy anniversary.
November 6th is our wedding anniversary.
It will be 10 years.
10 years she has tolerated me and I'm grateful.
So if you're listening to the membership podcast, we have some great songs coming up.
For Phulia, she has a request.
Macklemore and Ryan's can't hold us.
And for my wife, I have a request for her, Red Clay Stray's singing, wondering why, I wonder why she's with me.
I hope you enjoy the songs.
If you're not a member, why not send us an email contact at let'smasterenglish .com.
And for those non -member people, don't worry.
It's okay. Let's get into the news.
Russia has fined Google 20 decillion dollars for blocking pro -Russian channels on YouTube.
The penalty amounts to around 20 billion trillion trillion dollars.
Google has been ordered to restore the YouTube channels or face mounting charges.
The fine starts doubling every day if not paid within nine months.
20 decillion is 200 quintillion times larger than the global economy.
The sum is so large that it is written as a 20 followed by 36 zeros.
Google, by the way, is only worth 2 trillion dollars.
And Somerville, South Carolina residents claim spirits haunt Guarin's pharmacy.
Ghosts of a pharmacist and the little girl have been seen by customers and employees.
Customers have also experienced unexplained noises, items moving on their own and flickering lights.
One employee recalls feeling a cold presence and hearing whispers while alone in the pharmacy at night.
Oh, God, I don't like it.
All right. Did you understand both stories?
It's not actually too bad.
The first story is funny.
And the second story is scary.
The first story, Russia, the country Russia has, you know, they have they have a problem with Google and Russia is saying, hey, Google, why are you blocking?
Why are you banning pro Russian channels?
You know, Google America free speech in America.
People are supposed to be able to say what they want, but you are blocking pro Russian channels.
That doesn't seem fair.
So Google has fined to find F I N E to find means if the police find me, then I have to pay a penalty.
So if, for example, if you're walking down the street and you have a cup of coffee and you finish the coffee and you simply throw the empty cup on the ground, well, that's against the law and you will get a fine.
And the fine could be a couple hundred dollars.
Yeah, it's serious.
Don't do that. So in this case, Google, I'm sorry, Russia has fined Google money.
How much money? Well, I think this guy says it best.
Billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions.
And that's enough, Donald, billions and billions and billions of dollars.
So here's a new word for me and you.
The word is disillion, disillion, 20 disillion dollars.
That's the that's the fine.
What is a disillion?
I don't know. I really don't know.
I had to read, listen to the news and check out the Internet.
A disillion, 20 disillion dollars is 20 billion trillion trillion dollars.
What? It is the number 20 followed by 36 zeros.
So write the number 20 and then write 36 zeros.
And that's the fine.
Yeah, so obviously the question is, will Google pay?
I don't think so. Google the value of Google is only two trillion, only two trillion.
That's insane. So a million is six zeros, right?
It's one million dollars, one zero zero zero zero zero six zeros.
A billion is nine zeros.
A trillion is twelve zeros.
So Google's value is two trillion dollars.
That's two and then twelve zeros.
But the fine is 20 and then 36 zeros.
It's comedy, obviously.
But but it raises an interesting point.
Now you might be absolutely anti Russia and you might be pro Russia and maybe you don't have an opinion.
But it is interesting.
The question is. If America is a country based on free speech, meaning you can say whatever you want, then is it OK if Google regulates speech?
It's an interesting interesting question.
And to be honest, in my opinion, if it's my business and it's my platform, I think I should be able to control what is being said.
Now, that's just my business perspective.
But is Google simply a business?
Obviously, Google is a business, but Google, at least in the US and maybe in your country, too, I don't know, has become kind of like more than a business.
It's like where most people go for the Internet.
So it's it's this is a difficult question and it's very interesting question.
Obviously, Google will not pay the fine.
Obviously, the fine is kind of a joke, but it does raise the issue of free speech.
What do you think? The second story, there's a pharmacy.
Oh, pharmacy P H A R M A C Y pharmacy, a drug store in the UK.
They say chemist, a chemist.
There's a there's a pharmacy in South Carolina.
South Carolina is one of America's 50 states, the town Somerville.
And in the pharmacy, there are spirits.
I'll spell it spirits S P I R I T S.
This essentially is a ghost.
And I'm not going to explain the difference right now because that is in our Q and a section spirit and ghost.
What's the difference?
So wait for that. That's coming up.
But anyway, evidently in this drug store, there are spirits.
There are two, at least two.
One of them is a pharmacist, the drugstore guy from a long time ago, and another is a little girl.
Oh, man, see, old people, ghosts.
Yeah, that's scary.
But children ghosts.
Oh, that's even scarier.
I don't like that. People say that this pharmacy has ghosts.
People have heard unexplainable noises, noises that they can't explain.
People have seen things moving.
People have seen lights going on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off.
Well, lights going on and off, on and off that that's not a ghost.
That's like, you know, lights, but things moving and weird noises.
One employee, one guy that works there recalls he remembers feeling a cold presence.
Suddenly the air got very cold and hearing whispers.
While alone in the pharmacy at night.
No, thank you. Okay, so you guys know, uh, I work at a radio station.
W M O O in Derby, Vermont.
And the radio station is in an old farmhouse.
The farmhouse is over a hundred years old.
Evidently, there is a ghost or two in that farmhouse and the ghost would walk around and all the DJs have seen the ghost.
Uh, I have not, and I am grateful that I have not seen the ghost.
Do I believe in ghosts?
Well, I do have two experiences that have happened to me.
That are extremely bizarre and would be explained if there were such a thing as ghosts.
But if there are no ghosts, then I don't know how to explain the two very scary incidents that happened to me.
Do you want to know what those scary stories are?
Well, maybe next year I'll tell you.
I'm not telling him.
Sorry. Okay. I'm so mean.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm not going to tell you.
You have to wait. You have to stay tuned to the let's master English podcast.
All right. I'm going to read the story two more.
Well, not two more times.
I'm going to read two stories.
One more time. Then if you're a member, you're going to hear Tommy Richmond million dollar baby.
But if you are not a member, don't worry.
Coach Shane, I'm not coach Shane.
I am coach Shane country.
Shane is coming up.
Here we go. Russia has find Google 20 decillion dollars for blocking pro Russian channels on YouTube.
The penalty amounts to around 20 billion, trillion trillion dollars.
Google has been ordered to restore the YouTube channels or face mounting charges.
The fine starts doubling every day, if not paid within nine months.
20 decillion is 200 quintillion times larger than the global economy.
The sum is so large that it is written as a 20 followed by 36 zeros.
Google, by the way, is only worth two trillion dollars.
Somerville, South Carolina residents claim spirits haunt Guarin's pharmacy.
Ghosts of a pharmacist and a little girl have been seen by customers and employees.
Customers have also experienced unexplained noises, items moving on their own and flickering lights.
One employee recalls feeling a cold presence and hearing whispers while alone in the pharmacy at night.
Where education and entertainment come together.
Let's master English.
Do it. How you doing everybody?
This is country Shane and I'm bringing you the facts.
Hey everybody, in America on Sunday, we changed our clocks.
Yeah, we have daylight saving time and it ended on Sunday.
Oh, what a problem.
So I've got some interesting facts about daylight saving time in America.
Other than it's stupid, 38 % of people say their nighttime snacking increases during daylight saving time when it ends.
It's out of control.
And the most candy number four popcorn, number three chips, number two cookies, and the number one most crave nighttime snack ice cream.
What about you? I love me some ice cream.
Country Shane. Thank you so much.
That's right. On Sunday in the United States, I think it was last week in Europe.
Some countries anyway.
We changed our clocks and what I don't, it's so stupid.
Nobody likes it. Why do we do this?
In my opinion, the smart countries do not change their clocks.
Do you live in a smart country or do you live in a dumb country?
If you live in a country that changes their clocks twice a year, do you like it?
I really hate it. I really, really don't like it.
And it needs to stop.
It's ridiculous. Anyway, anyway, what country Shane is talking about is interesting.
So where I live in Vermont today, sunset was basically 4 30.
Let me go ahead and check.
Hold on a second. I'm going to actually look at what time sunset is.
I'll have to look at tomorrow.
So sunset tomorrow is 4 32 in the afternoon.
That sunset. That's when the sun goes down.
So by 4 32 on a cloudy day, it is dark.
By five PM. It is completely dark.
That's stupid. It's ridiculous.
I think, in my opinion.
Anyway, yeah, that's daylight where I live right now at 4 30.
That's sunset. 4 30 in the afternoon is sunset.
It's crazy. So speaking about daylight saving time, I've got some additional facts.
Country Shane, sorry, I'm going to give people more facts.
I hope that's okay.
There is a significant increase in traffic accidents after we change our clocks, whether in the spring or the fall.
This is good. I like this fire prevention experts say people should use the end of daylight saving time, which was Sunday in America to change the batteries in their smoke alarms.
I like that. Do you have a smoke alarm in your house in case there's a fire?
Change the battery.
Make sure that battery is working good.
And one more little fact here.
Daylight saving time.
When we switch the clocks, when we change the times, it actually hurts the US economy by how much?
434 million dollars a year is lost because of worker productivity decreases and increases in worker injuries.
It's stupid. Now I have no power, but if there are any politicians listening to this, please change the law.
Get rid of daylight saving time.
It's not working, but what is working songs about time?
I have a special request.
So somebody said to me, coach Shane, you have students around the world, right?
I said yes. Can you get some really cool songs from around the world so that we can listen to them?
And I thought that's a great idea.
So the first song that I will introduce an international song is a song by the singer named Nell.
And he's a Korean singer.
The name of his song is Kyoge Kondenshigan.
And the translation is basically time spent walking through memories.
So we have memories and we're thinking about them and it's the time spent and it's a really nice song.
And I love this song.
It's a great song. I hope you enjoy it.
Then we're going to pick it up a bit with Imagine Dragons.
It's time. Daylight saving time is over.
It's chaos with scheduling for international meetings.
So if you have an international client, if you're in my DDM or perf class and we have coaches around the world, make sure you double check the time.
We have a great question today.
I love this question.
We just had Halloween.
October 31st was Halloween in the United States.
All Saints Day was, of course, November 1st.
Lots of people celebrate that, especially if you, I think if you're Catholic, it's a big day.
But the question was Ghost G -H -O -S -T and Spirit S -P -I -R -I -T.
Are they the same? If they're not the same, what's the difference?
And I love the question.
So this is my answer.
And by the way, I did not check a dictionary.
So the dictionary might disagree with me, but this is, as an American, I'm an old guy.
I'm not old. I'm young.
As, I'm 56, as a 56 year old American guy, this is the way I understand it.
They're the same except a ghost we can kind of see.
We can kind of see the ghost, right?
There's some sort of image.
We see something that would be kind of a ghost, a spirit we don't see.
We might hear. We might see something move, but we don't see a person.
That's kind of the way I look at it.
The ghost, we see something.
The spirit, we don't.
But we know that something is there.
It's November. November 4th is the actual production date of this podcast.
November, everybody.
November is National Gratitude Month.
Be happy. Find things that are good.
Find things that are good and be happy for those things.
Gratitude. Let me spell it because this word is so important.
If you don't know the word, please check it out.
The spelling G R A T I T U D E.
Gratitude. Show gratitude.
Yeah, very important.
It's also National Peanut Butter Lovers Month.
Do you love peanut butter?
My mom did. I'm not such a huge fan.
I think my wife likes it.
And it's also Vegan Month.
Vegan. V E G A N. Are you a vegan?
Vegans are people who do not eat any animal products.
No milk, no eggs, no.
Just everything has to be from vegetables.
Everything. I am not a vegan.
I am not interested in becoming a vegan.
I don't care. Now I have had vegan food.
I've had vegan bread and vegan sandwiches.
And they were delicious.
So I have no I have nothing against being vegan.
But personally, I love all my food.
November 4th is the 309th day of the year.
There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.
November 4th is use your common sense day.
Do you have common sense?
You know, we say common sense is not so common.
But I know you you're smart.
You have common sense.
It's also check your blood pressure day.
So if you're older, like me, I'm not that old, but I'm, you know, kind of old.
It's a good day to check your blood pressure.
It's national candy day.
I know my sons will love that.
It's national wine tasting day.
Do you like wine? Wine is okay for me.
I prefer scotch and then beer.
And it's national chicken lady day.
I don't know what that means.
What is a chicken lady?
I've heard of cat lady.
What's a chicken lady?
Ladies? Are you? Do any of you consider yourself a chicken lady?
Tomorrow in the U .S.
Tuesday, very, very important day.
Tomorrow, we might see what might we will have a new leader.
So that'll be interesting.
There are 24 days until Thanksgiving, 25 until Black Friday when my next sale begins.
So if you want to study with me, there's another sale coming up on Black Friday, 25 days later.
And Cyber Monday is 28 days later.
Of course, Christmas is in 51 days.
On this date in 1846, the artificial leg was patented.
Wow. The artificial leg.
That's a great thing for many, many people.
A false leg, a wooden leg, a peg leg.
We should call it an artificial leg.
Do you guys know King Tut?
Tutankhamen, one of the Egyptian pharaohs, he was a young pharaoh.
He died at a young age.
King Tut, King Tutankhamen.
In 1922, King Tut's tomb was discovered.
All that gold, all the gold in Egypt.
In 1980, President Ronald Reagan became president.
He beat Jimmy Carter.
In 1984, Prince, the singer, started his Purple Rain tour.
In 1989, Roxette, the band, had their song, Listen to Your Heart.
It hit number one. I like Roxette.
That song is boring to me.
In 1996, Michael Jackson said his wife, Debbie Roe, was pregnant with his first child.
In 2001, J .K. Rowling's Harry Potter, the first movie, came out on this date.
And in 2008, Barack Obama, Barry Sotero became the first African -American to be elected president of the United States.
What do you think about that?
As you think about that, we've got a couple of great songs.
Steve Martin's King Tut and Roxette's Dangerous coming at you.
But don't worry, if you're not a member, we've got birthdays coming up next.
As I said when we started the show, it is Fulia's birthday.
Happy birthday, Fulia.
I got to sing it. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Fulia.
Happy birthday to you.
Congratulations. You didn't tell me how old you are.
She said she has a daughter.
So I'll assume Fulia is 26 years old.
Congratulations on your 26th birthday.
Who else is celebrating a birthday?
Well, last Saturday Nellie, the rapper, he's 50.
David Schwimmer was 58.
You know David Schwimmer, right?
Ross from Friends. Yeah, his birthday was this past Saturday.
He's 58 years old. Yesterday, Sunday, Dolph Lundgren is 67.
Rocky, Rocky IV. He was in Rocky IV.
He's that Swedish guy, that really big Swedish guy.
He's a genius, by the way.
He's 67. Adam Ant. God, I loved his music as a kid.
70 years old. That makes me feel so old.
Oh my God. Adam Ant.
70 years old. Roseanne, very popular comedian in America.
72 years old. Today, Monday, the birthday cakes go to Matthew McConaughey.
He's 55 years old. In jail right now, and if he's guilty of what they say he may be guilty of, I hope he rots in hell.
Diddy. P. Diddy is 55 years old also, and oh my God.
Do you guys remember the Karate Kid?
Do you remember the Karate Kid?
The Karate Kid is 63 years old today.
Ralph Machio. Is it Machio?
Machio? I don't even know how to pronounce his name.
He's the Karate Kid.
Wax on, wax off. He's 63 years old, and that suddenly really makes me feel old.
These are things that were popular when I was a kid.
Oh my God. I'm not old.
I refuse to believe I'm old.
What about you? I hope you enjoyed today's podcast.
I really enjoy making the Let's Master English podcast.
Send me an email. Contact at Let'sMasterEnglish .com.
Say hi. Tell me if you liked it.
If you're listening on Spotify, please leave a message.
Tell me what you liked or what you didn't like.
If you're a member and you want to request a song, please do so.
Just like Fulia, request a song.
Let me know. I'll play it for you, and of course, if it's your birthday or you want a shout out, just let me know.
Let me know, and I'll be more than happy to play a song for you, to say your name, and whatever it is, let me know.
I know one guy, Serge, my brother from another mother, Serge said he had a couple of songs he wanted to request, but Serge, did you tell me what they were?
I don't think you did, so I didn't get them in this week's podcast, so let me know.
I'm really excited to make this as interactive as possible.
That's it, everybody.
I really hope you enjoyed the podcast.
Taking us out, if you are a member, of course, I have to play the song.
It's a very long song, but it's such a classic.
People love it. GNR, Guns and Roses with November Rain.
If you're not a member, don't worry.
Just send us an email.
Contact at Let'sMasterEnglish .com.
I want you to become a member.
That's it, everybody.
Thank you so much, and together, Let's Master English!
