Shadowing Practice: Johann Hari on addiction - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong.
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The idea of addiction we've all got in our heads, that story, comes partly from a series of experiments that were done earlier in the 20th century.
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You get a rat and you put it in a cage, and you give it two water bottles.
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One is just water, and the other is water laced with either heroin or cocaine.
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The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and almost always kill itself quite quickly.
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In the 70s, Bruce Alexander, professor of psychology in Vancouver, comes along and he looks at this experiment and he noticed something.
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Ah, we're putting the rat in an empty cage.
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It's got nothing to do except use these drugs.
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Let's try something a bit different.
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So Professor Alexander built a cage that he called Rat Park, which is basically heaven for rats, right?
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They've got loads of cheese, they've got loads of colored balls, they've got loads of tunnels.
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Crucially, they've got loads of friends, they can have loads of sex, and they've got both the water bottles, the normal water and the drugged water.
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But here's the fascinating thing.
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In Rat Park, they don't like the drugged water.
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They almost never use it.
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None of them ever use it compulsively.
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None of them ever overdose.
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You go from almost 100% overdose when they're isolated to 0% overdose when they have happy and connected lives.
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What if addiction isn't about your chemical hooks?
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What if addiction is about your cage?
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What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment?
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This has really significant implications.
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The most obvious implications are for the war on drugs, right?
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We punish addicts, we shame them, we give them criminal records, we put barriers between them reconnecting.
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Now, there's a place that decided to do the exact opposite, and I went there to see how it worked.
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In the year 2000, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe.
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So one day, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition got together, set up a panel of scientists and doctors to figure out what would genuinely solve the problem.
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And they came back and they said, decriminalize all drugs, from cannabis to crack.
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But, and this is the crucial next step, take all the money we used to spend on cutting addicts off,
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on disconnecting them, and spend it instead on reconnecting them with the society.
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But the biggest thing they did was the complete opposite of what we do, massive program of job creation for addicts and microloans for addicts to set up small businesses.
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And when I went and met the addicts in Portugal, it's fascinating, what they said is, as they rediscovered purpose, they rediscovered bonds and relationships with the wider society,
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and the results are in.
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Injecting drug use is down in Portugal, according to the British Journal of Criminology, by 50 percent.
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Overdose is massively down, HIV is massively down among addicts, addiction in every study is significantly down.
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We talk all the time in addiction about individual recovery, and it's right to talk about that.
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But we need to talk much more about social recovery.
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We created a society where, for a lot of us, life looks a whole lot more like that isolated cage and a whole lot less like Rat Park.
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What I try to do now, and I can't tell you I do it consistently and I can't tell you it's easy, is to say to the addicts in my life that I want to deepen the connection with them,
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to say to them, I love you whether you're using or you're not, And if you need me, I'll come and sit with you,
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because I love you and I don't want you to be alone or to feel alone."
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And I think the core of that message, you're not alone, we love you, has to be at every level of how we respond to addicts,
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socially, politically and individually, because the opposite of addiction is not sobriety.
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The opposite of addiction is connection.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Johann Hari on addiction”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: addiction, addicts, rat, cage, loads. This video has 44 sentences and 684 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:32. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| addiction noun | /əˈdɪkˌʃən/ | A state that is characterized by compulsive drug use or compulsive engagement in rewarding behavior, despite negative consequences. |
| addict noun | /ˈæd.ɪkt/ | A person who is addicted, especially to a harmful drug. |
| cage noun | /keɪd͡ʒ/ | An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation. |
| overdose noun | /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌdəʊs/ | An excessive and dangerous dose of a drug. |
| fascinate verb | /ˈfæsɪneɪt/ | To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone. |
| reconnect verb | /ˌɹiː.kəˈnɛkt/ | To connect again or differently. |
| rediscover verb | To discover again; especially something previously lost or forgotten. | |
| massively adverb | /ˈmæs.ɪv.li/ | In a massive manner, in a way that appears large, heavy or imposing. |
| implication noun | /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/ | The act of implicating. |
| isolate verb | /ˈaɪ.sə.leɪt/ | To set apart or cut off from others. |
| compulsively adverb | In a compulsive manner; obsessively. | |
| crucially adverb | /ˈkɹuːʃəli/ | In a crucial manner. |
| decriminalize verb | /diːˈkɹɪmɪnəlaɪz/ | To change the laws so something is no longer a crime. |
| deepen verb | /ˈdiːpən/ | To make deep or deeper |
| disconnect verb | /dɪskəˈnɛkt/ | To sever or interrupt a connection. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| come along verb | To accompany. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get together verb | To meet, to gather together, to congregate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Ah, we're putting the rat in an empty cage.
- Let's try something a bit different.
- What if addiction isn't about your chemical hooks?
- What if addiction is about your cage?
- What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as they've, you're, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/, crucially /ˈkɹuːʃəli/, punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, socially /ˈsoʊʃəli/
- Long words — get the stress right: implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/, decriminalize /diːˈkɹɪmɪnəlaɪz/, sobriety /səˈbɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like addiction, addict, cage.
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.