Category Archives: News

923. A Rambling Exercise for Fluency / Late-Winter 2025

A rambling episode full of spontaneous speaking. Topics include an exercise for spoken fluency 🗣️, the benefits of listening to spontaneous speech 🎧, overcoming mental blocks 🌳, raising our kids to be bilingual 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, reactions to recent episodes 🙉, thoughts about upcoming content 🔮, bird-related idioms 🐦, the phrasal verb “to follow through” including its rude meaning 💩 …and more! PDF transcript available.

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https://youtu.be/DitClfcmHsA?si=FidE8Exk97XaWap2

PDF Transcript 👇 (you’re welcome 😎)

Luke on The Following Through Podcast 👇 Warning: strong language! 💩

Click here to listen to The Following Through Podcast on Apple Podcasts and other players 👉 https://pod.link/1797539101

A video clip from my appearance on The Following Through Podcast (with subtitles) 👇 yes, this is my “following through” story 💩

922. Words of the Year (with Amber)

Amber joins me for a discussion of some words which reflect various cultural movements of the last 12 months or more. Learn some trending words and listen to discussions of topics such as the influence of online content on mental health, the Oasis concert ticket scandal, an exploration of the ‘lore’ of LEP, romantic fantasy books, the rise of AI and more. Includes a PDF with my episode notes and vocabulary lists.

[DOWNLOAD AUDIO]

https://youtu.be/z2VRyVsQG44?si=cfLnFAexW9NBgFDj

Get the PDF with notes and word lists 👇

Links

Previous episodes of “Words of the Year”

An example of NotebookLM’s AI-generated audio podcast “deep dive” 👇

Nick (from the comment section crew) used NotebookLM (a generative AI language model available from Google) to create this AI-generated podcast about episode 922 Words of the Year. He inputted the PDF for this episode into NotebookLM, and it generated this. It is 100% AI generated, including the voices of the hosts. This is what AI can do today, in February 2025.

914. A Midwinter Ramble ❅ Luke’s English Podcast

An end-of-year rambling episode with some seasonal good wishes 🎄, comments on recent episodes 🎧, an update about upcoming content 📲, anecdotes about seeing Paul McCartney live in concert 🎸, playing music at the British Ambassador’s residence 🇬🇧 and visiting the British Library in London 📚, lots of library jokes (explained) 😂 and a vocabulary review at the end 🙇‍♂️. PDF available.

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Get the PDF with vocabulary quiz 👇

909. The Existential Threat of AI to Human Civilisation (Topic & Vocabulary)

This episode explores the important topic of AI and human civilisation, and teaches plenty of vocabulary on the subject. I analyse an interview with an AI expert and explore many words and phrases for talking about this subject. This includes discussion of the potential pros and cons of AI, how it will impact the job market, global security and economics, and what could happen if (and when) AI exceeds human intelligence. Check the episode PDF for a transcript and detailed vocabulary list.

[DOWNLOAD AUDIO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YgV55DZPQ0&ab_channel=Luke%27sEnglishPodcast

Episode PDF (with detailed vocabulary list at the bottom)

Vocabulary List (check the PDF for definitions, examples and comments)

  • deeply profound
  • to exceed human intelligence
  • raising concerns
  • potential
  • to pose existential threats
  • autonomous lethal actions
  • significant
  • regulation
  • applications
  • lacking
  • widen
  • the wealth gap
  • plumbing
  • statistical tricks
  • competent
  • neural network
  • massively exceed
  • be in doubt 
  • subservient to 
  • given
  • spectrum
  • legislation
  • clause
  • military applications
  • willing to
  • restrict
  • the thin end of the wedge
  • autonomously
  • the like
  • restrain
  • from
  • well ahead of
  • slightly ahead of
  • distinguish
  • go rogue
  • take over
  • be putting huge resources into
  • mundane
  • productivity
  • wealth
  • equally distributed
  • the gap between rich and poor
  • right-wing populists
  • starving
  • the rent
  • stand back
  • consulted
  • Downing Street
  • Confront
  • To rein something in
  • have no teeth
  • reputation
  • my best bet
  • plumbing
  • physical manipulation
  • hopeless

What do you think? Leave your comments below 👇

900. Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results (with Amber & Paul)

It’s a catchy title! Episode 900 is here, and what better way to celebrate than by inviting my pals Amber & Paul back onto the podcast? Amber & Paul have been regular guests on this podcast for 10 years. We usually have light-hearted and tangential conversations and these episodes are often very popular with long-term listeners. This time we talk about Episode 900 celebrations 🎉 the title of this episode 🔁 Paris Olympics 2024 🏟️ encounters with dead animals in Paris 😢 Paul’s Olympic marathon run 🏃 the dangers of sneezing 🤧 and more…

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YouTube video version👇

Paul’s Olympic marathon medal 👇

899. Back on the Mic: September 2024 Ramble & Grammar Tangents

Rambling about being back after the summer break, with regular moments of grammar analysis. Includes a lot of tangents, funny moments and analysis of English tenses and complex sentence structures. PDF with transcript and notes available.

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Episode PDF with transcript & notes 👇

892. You’re not a LEPster, by any chance, are you? (July 2024 Ramble)

Join me on another rambling episode as I encourage ninjas to come out of the shadows 🥷, touch on some present perfect continuous verb forms 🔁, give some podcast updates, give a report about the stand-up comedy show 😂 & live podcast recording 🎤, teach some polite and diplomatic language with a dramatic bank robbery scenario 🔫, give a summary of the UK’s general election results 🗳️ & more…

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Episode PDF 👇 with transcript and notes

Listen to The Footglish Podcast – Learn English with Football ⚽️👇 (s01e28)

Pod links for The Footglish Podcast 👉 https://pod.link/1751816033

On YouTube 👇

891. The Bilingual Journalist (with Charles Pellegrin)

Talking to bilingual journalist Charles Pellegrin (France 24) about how the conventions of broadcast journalism influence the way the English is used in news reports, how Charles started as a journalist, the challenge of making TV news reports, our time at university, the Olympics in Paris, and Charles’ experiences of living and working in China.

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My guest today is Charles Pellegrin, a bilingual (English & French) journalist working for the TV channel France 24. Charles currently works as the presenter of a morning business program, but used to be based in China, where he lived in Beijing for 3 years. Charles also does stand-up comedy in English, which is how I know him, and we are doing a 2-man show together this Friday, 19 July 2024 (details below).

In this conversation we talk about why reporters speak in a certain way when they read the news, how the conventions of broadcast journalism influence the way the English is used, how Charles started as a journalist, the challenge of making TV news reports, our experiences at university, the Olympics in Paris and whether it will be beneficial for France, and Charles’ experiences of living and working in China.


Links

Luke & Charles’ stand-up comedy show in Paris on 19 July

Charles on Instagram & X
https://www.instagram.com/chpilgrim/
https://www.x.com/chpilgrim/ https://www.instagram.com/charles_pellegrinf24/

888. UK General Election / Euro 2024 (The Rick Thompson Report: June 2024)

My dad returns to talk about the current political situation in the UK. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a general election to take place on 4 July. Why did Sunak call an election at this moment? What do people think of the Consvervative Party, who have been in power for 14 years? Will we have a new government and a new Prime Minister in the UK in a couple of weeks? Also, what about England’s performances in the Euro 2024 football championship?

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Luke’s Comedy Show in Paris 👇

885. Still Raining, Still Rambling (News, Comments, Questions, Guitars & Music)

Hang out with me while the rain pours down outside 🌧️ and in this episode I’ll talk about the problem of “faffing around” 😵‍💫 , podcast news & updates 📲, some stand-up comedy dates 🎤, comments on recent episodes 💬, some common questions from listeners 🙋, a lot of rambling about how I learned to play music 🎵, a tour of all the guitars in my podcast room 🎸 and a song at the end 🎶, with lyrics explained 👨‍🏫.

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📄 Get the PDF for this episode 👇