Shadowing Practice: Get to Know TED's Podcast Hosts - Learn English Speaking with Video
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200 sentences
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I've literally never been on air without saying something embarrassing.
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That's the charm of your show, right?
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100% of the times I'm being recorded, I am embarrassing myself.
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Why would you need to be a better human if you were perfect to begin with?
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I'm starting at a very low place.
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Hi, I'm Elise Hu.
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I'm the host of TED Talks Daily.
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Hi, I'm Molly Graham, and I'm the new host of Work Life.
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Hey, I'm Manoush Zomorodi, and I'm the host of NPR's TED Radio Hour.
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Hey, hey, hey, I'm Cheryl Dorsey.
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I'm the host of TED Tech.
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Hi, I'm Chris Duffy, and I'm the host of How to Be a Better Human.
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We are so cute.
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We're like a little band.
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Trying too hard.
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That's so good.
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Oh, no. I believe this.
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Yeah.
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Or please, please stop.
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In good ways.
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Oh, please.
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Please, please stop.
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The person willing to hide the body.
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That is more than three words, that's actually disturbing.
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Hide the body.
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Exhausting, relentless, sparky.
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Ooh.
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Will break you out of a third world prison.
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Wow.
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Oh, you're a good friend.
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Yeah, that's nice.
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Because my best friend would say, always in a drive-through.
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Oh.
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A lot.
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What I've learned is very few members of this audio collective know how to count to three.
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No. And you all speak in prose as well.
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We break rules.
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That's so interesting.
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I'm a bullet pointer.
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Self-healing concrete.
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That's a good one.
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Absolutely fascinating.
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If I will build a city and an army, I'm going to have self-healing concrete.
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That's really cool.
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Okay, mine's a question that was sparked by a talk, which is the wearables guy can measure socialization.
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How do you measure socialization?
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It's listening.
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You haven't done the So it's the amount of time you're not talking?
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Okay, so what you're talking about, sorry, exhausting, relentless, sparky.
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He's my speaker this year, so he has his hearing aids, right?
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Which I assume we can find out are recording all of his conversations and making sure that he's interacting enough with people.
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Welcome to the world where we quantify all conversations.
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That's a transformational idea.
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That is transformational.
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Well, Manoush came on my podcast.
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This episode is not out.
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And we talked about what it's like to be in an industry that just gets disrupted all the time.
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And I think a lot of people are going through that and worrying that they're going to lose their jobs.
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And my takeaway from the episode was, what would you do if you believed your job was always going to exist and always going to be needed,
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needed, but the form it took was going to be really different.
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Ah.
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She's deep.
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I was just talking to a branding guy downstairs who laid
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some wisdom on me before I ran up here to talk to you all, and he said he always tells people what are the five things that you are most proud of doing,
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and then what's going to be the sixth?
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Whoa.
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I know.
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Literally never been on air without saying something embarrassing.
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That's the charm of your show, right?
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100% of the times I'm being recorded, I am embarrassing myself.
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Why would you need to be a better human if you were perfect to begin with?
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I'm starting at a very low place, so we're just trying to get me to zero.
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We cut all mine out.
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I just sound so...
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Editing.
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No, but that's part of it, right? it's like sounding a little like a little bit dumb
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because you want to get the person to explain things to you
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and you can never be sure like what your listener does know
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or doesn't know and so being a little bit embarrassing and and
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and vulnerable it's part of the host job description I really
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hate mispronouncing people's names I think that's where I feel most embarrassed
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because I get pronouncers and then I still have to like read like redo it over and over again, it's like, did your brain not get it the first time?
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Like, let's do it again.
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I also think that a unique thing about Ted's podcasts compared to other podcasts is that they're fact-checked.
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I'm sorry.
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Oh, that's so sad.
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What unique is that?
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Oh, very few other podcasts are fact-checked.
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Really, that's really rare.
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And so most of the things that I'm embarrassed by, listeners never actually hear, but I see in the edit where they're like, you said this very confidently, and that is in no way true.
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So I say a lot of that stuff.
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That's funny.
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I think I've bad-mouthed my husband in episodes.
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And in the end, it got through a fact check.
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I was going back to more of the embarrassing thing, but yes.
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I love the bromance between the tennis professionals, Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner.
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They are rivals.
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They are fierce rivals, but they're also friends.
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And it's really fascinating to watch their evolution and how they support each other.
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And I just love it.
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I live for that bromance.
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That's so sweet.
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I'm really into sour gummy worms.
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I've been making a lot of French toast casserole.
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Like every weekend, like I learned, the internet taught me.
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And so I make it for the family and I try to outdo myself every time.
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I'm obsessed with that now too.
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Yes.
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Mitochondria, like really into mitochondria.
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Part of the cell?
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Very minutiae answer.
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Okay.
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But you guys, you thought it was the powerhouse of the cell, right?
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It's so much more than that.
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It is sending information.
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And by the way, you get all your mitochondria, the genes of them are only from your mom.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Isn't that crazy?
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So I asked him to.
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It's a matriarchy.
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Yeah, it's a matriarchy.
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That's exactly right.
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It is a matriarchy.
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And it is like when you build muscle, it builds more mitochondria so you have more energy.
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And then it sends it to all the different cells throughout your body.
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I love medicine.
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I know.
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That's fascinating.
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That's good, right?
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That's really cool.
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Yeah.
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There is this amazing TikToker who does a whole bit about how she's the receptionist in heaven.
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And she started it as like a funny thing.
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And then she started getting all these inbound emails for people to do receptionist for someone
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that died and for her to talk.
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And now she's this grief counselor, basically.
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She's writing obits.
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Or performing obits.
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And she wrote a book, and I'm obsessed with her.
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Oh, that's really good.
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We should talk about our favorite creators, or the creators that show up on our feeds the most.
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Yeah, the creator that shows up on my feed a lot, who I really like, is maybe an eight-year-old boy.
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I don't mean that in a creepy way.
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His name is Easy Peasy Jordan.
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And he cooks, and all his meals are cooked in a rice cooker.
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It's really amazing.
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Kids who cook are fascinating.
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Easy Peasy Jordan, check it out.
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Mine is SB Mowing, and he clears overgrown lawns.
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Oh, yeah.
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Very satisfying.
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Huge fan.
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Huge fan.
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I bet.
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Don't do it.
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You should know how to log off.
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Step back away from them.
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I've actually got to think about my real answer.
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Well, my answer is you've got to have a great team.
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I don't feel like I am good at this without an awesome team.
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And our producers and engineers and fact checkers, as you mentioned, shout out to the fact checkers,
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and editors like make me sound and feel much more intelligent than I actually am.
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So, shout out.
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So, podcasts are like all on video now
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or podcasts are moving towards video and I feel like something that gets lost is fidelity to sound.
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And so I think you should still care about quality audio.
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I also think that if, especially if you're doing an interview show, like all of us do some version of an interview show,
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I think the number one thing you should think about is it not being about you.
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Yeah.
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But what are you actually curious about in the other person?
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When are you going to start that, Chris?
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Sunday soon.
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Oh, burn.
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That's true?
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I'm just kidding.
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I love Chris.
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He's the best.
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To the point, especially when we think of follow up questions, it's like you really have to think about what would my audience want to ask?
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Like, what are they, if they were sitting in this chair, what would they want to know?
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Yeah.
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And so you're right.
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It's not about you.
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It's not about sounding smart or making it like an advertisement for this person.
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It really is the Susie and Joe are listening and they've got this turned on and they're like, oh, see, I want to know this about this, about that.
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Make three episodes before you decide you actually really want to do this.
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Try it out.
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See what it's like.
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That's actionable.
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Yeah, don't commit to anything.
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You might hate this.
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Or maybe three scratches the itch.
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Or maybe you're like, damn, I am good at this.
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I'm ready.
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Just think we don't test things enough before we say like we're all in.
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Yeah.
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I think visualizing who you're making it for, having a person in your head who you're trying to talk to has been really valuable to me.
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And I think also following your own natural curiosity just to make it all about me, obviously.
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But like, if it's not interesting to you, then it's definitely not going to be interesting to someone else.
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Thank you.
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What You'll Practice in This Lesson
Ready to boost your English speaking skills while getting to know TED's podcast hosts? This lesson uses a lively conversation between the hosts to help you practice shadow speech, improve your pronunciation, and get comfortable with natural, conversational tone. Whether you're prepping for IELTS speaking practice or just want to sound more fluent, this video is a fun way to learn English with YouTube. You'll mimic real-world dialogue, pick up casual phrases, and work on keeping up with a friendly, fast-paced chat.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases to Learn
- Charm: The quality of being attractive or pleasing (e.g., "That's the charm of your show!")
- Relentless: Unstoppable or persistent (e.g., "Exhausting, relentless, sparky")
- Prose: Ordinary written or spoken language (e.g., "We all speak in prose")
- Wearables: Tech devices worn on the body (e.g., "The wearables guy can measure socialization")
- Drive-through: A service where you get food without leaving your car (e.g., "Always in a drive-through")
Practice Tips for Shadowing Success
The hosts talk quickly and casually, so start by watching the video once to get the gist. Then, try shadowing—pause after each line and repeat it, matching the speed, tone, and even the laughter! Focus on copying the natural pauses and emphasis (like how they stress "100% of the times"). For improve English pronunciation, pay attention to short, relaxed words like "literally" and "actually"—these are easy to mumble, but clear pronunciation makes you sound more fluent. If the pace feels tough, slow the video down (most YouTube players let you adjust speed) and build up. Remember, the goal is to sound like a friend, not a robot—so don't be afraid to be playful with your tone. This is perfect for shadowspeaks practice because it's real, unscripted, and full of the kind of language you'll use in daily life. Keep at it, and you'll be nailing conversational English in no time!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being recorded · was sparked · be needed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've learned · haven't done |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | talk, which is · Kids who cook |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.