Shadowing Practice: This summer's hottest trend? Monoculture. | It's Been a Minute - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What is the most unhinged thing that you sincerely believe?
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The conspiracy theory I kind of love is the one that Disney created Frozen so that it would bork the SEO.
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So you would never Google.
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Do you ever Google the conspiracy theory that Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen?
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Yes.
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You've gagged me.
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I mean, like this is based on literally nothing concrete.
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Please don't sue us.
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There has been something for everyone this summer.
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We started off strong with films like Obsession and Backrooms taking over the box office.
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Then the Knicks finally win the NBA championship.
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The World Cup starts.
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And at the same time, Serena Williams comes out of retirement.
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And just when you think the hubbub has died down, the Odyssey drops.
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We, my friends, have hit a flow state.
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It felt like we as a culture were finally on the same page.
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In fact, it felt like a return to monoculture, the idea of having a shared understanding and experience of culture with common reference points, values and opportunities to connect.
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But if we're all in this together for the good, we're definitely all in this together for the bad.
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Heatwaves, wildfire smog, explosive diarrhea, political machinations between the U.S and FIFA.
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I can't help but wonder, are we the drama?
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My guest today says we absolutely are.
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Friend of the show and senior correspondent at Vox.com, Alex Abad-Santos, joins It's Been a Minute to walk us through our post-monoculture hangover.
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Alex, welcome back to It's Been a Minute.
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Thank you so much.
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Hello, hello.
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I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
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Summer 2026, a lot of people have been saying this is one for the books.
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They might have started out by saying that for one reason, and we may be ending up saying that for another reason.
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I will say this summer has had something for literally everybody to enjoy, whether you like Minions or Messi or Madonna.
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There has been some way for you to feel plugged in this summer.
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But I want to know, what have been the major highlights of your summer?
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I would say, well, my highlight was very, very short lived.
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It was Serena Williams coming back for one match and then getting injured.
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So I live for the hype.
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Sorry.
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No, like it was fun.
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Everyone's like, Oh my God, Serena's coming back.
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What a mystery.
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And then it was like, she was on Wimbledon and then she lost.
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And it was, what do we do now?
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I guess World Cup.
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Okay, listen.
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Okay.
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I'm pro World Cup.
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I'm like not even pro sports.
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You know, I should say that because my opinion on sports is like really improved over the past couple of years.
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No, I've watched X slash formerly Twitter and you're very into sports now.
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I'm very into sports now.
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I know.
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I'm like sporty spice.
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I know.
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And it's like I've never been that before.
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I got into the World Cup.
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And also, I mean, I think all of America got into the World Cup.
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All of the world.
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I mean, as it were.
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At least in America for the first time, because I've watched the World Cup like for most of the past 20 years and people usually don't care.
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Yeah, I would say that's true.
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And it's also, I think being in America kind of heightened the stakes.
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I totally heightened the stakes.
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I mean, I didn't go to any of the games, but I could feel the power.
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I could feel the power.
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This was definitely a magical summer for sports.
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I think we can all agree on that.
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I wonder, what do you think made it so magical this summer?
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For me, the Knicks championship win and watching Knicks games in random places in the street,
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it kind of led into watching world cup matches in random places in the street in a way
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that i really enjoyed but i don't know like what about
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that was so magical it felt so unique
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so i think like the knicks was amazing
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because of two things one it's like they never win right it's like i mean listen
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that i hadn't been rooting for them so they never win
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and then but i think one of the things that was
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so amazing was that you had this comeback jaylen bruncelain going up against i I guess this archetypal prodigy, Victor Wambanyama, who's like 20 feet tall.
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Yeah, 20 feet tall.
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They look like they're going to win.
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They look unbeatable after they beat the Thunder.
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And then the Knicks go in and just kind of like have that amazing 22 point Zoran Mamdani speech.
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Tears to our eyes.
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So they come back and win and they beat this gigantic French guy.
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And then all of the Europeans come to America and they're like, oh, my God, it's so hot.
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And we're just like, ha ha ha.
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They're like, we love ranch.
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Yeah.
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We're used to you now.
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We know what to do now.
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It's like Europeans can't handle America.
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Again, part two.
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Part deux.
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That was a good one.
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There was a lot of cultural, a lot of underdog, a lot of good storylines coming out of it.
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And then you had this wacky storyline of America and everyone coming to America and experiencing American culture,
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which is also air conditioning and heat and climate change and smog, but also ranch dressing, the G-Scape factory.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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I mean, I had to laugh because they were like, wow, the food here is really good.
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And I'm like, duh.
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There's a lot of things that we don't have together over here.
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But like the food is not one of the problems.
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That's never been one of the problems ever.
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Right.
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Well, also, like, I think like when you say our problems quotation mark,
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right, like it's always been to separate art from artists is America's cool stuff this year cooler than the not
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so great stuff?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's interesting that sort of America 250 was like the backdrop for all of this.
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I forgot.
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I totally forgot because the World Cup felt to me in some ways like the real America 250.
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All of these people coming to America and being like, wow, I can cool down indoors.
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I can go to Chili's.
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I get free refills.
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What's better than this?
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That to me felt the real America 250 actually being celebrated as we are,
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as opposed to sort of like this other weird thing that I'm not sure is even real.
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We're rarely like ever in the presence of people being, oh my gosh, America's cool.
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And then posting it on TikTok, right?
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We're not really looking for that on TikTok and we're not looking for that on Instagram.
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Like we're all like, as Americans, we never really get like a reflection of the jokey novelty parts of our culture yeah
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that we've gotten so used to
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so it's like with fresh european eyes they're just oh my
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god why are we getting refills at the cheesecake factory why are these glasses
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so big i can really drink diet coke after diet coke
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and you're like yeah that's amazing right
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and isn't it good with ice in it right it's
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so good isn't that good in air conditioning exactly i also like too i felt like the things
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that they that were appealing to them are like not the things that I feel like we're touting.
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And I say this as a someone who's from mall country, heavy, has worked at the mall, has shopped at many a mall.
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But I feel like when America's trying to seem cool to other places, like the Chili's is not the top of the list.
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They're trying to be like Hollywood, Empire State Building, New Orleans, like we're not Disney World.
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The stuff that people ended up coming here and falling in love with
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and masks is not the stuff that we usually are sort of like beating our chest about.
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But But I also feel like whether it's like the combination of the World Cup, all of these visitors coming from around the world,
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it felt like there was like there were some real monocultural moments happening.
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It's harder and harder to come by monocultural moments these days, I feel like, especially in American culture.
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Everybody's very divided and segmented and the country's so big.
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I wonder how much you think that desire for these monocultural moments that are harder and harder to come by,
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how much do you think that kind of affected this sort of previously very sort of collective active lovey vibe of 2026, at least summer 2026.
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With like monoculture and with the World Cup, right?
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And then we're using the World Cup as an example.
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You didn't need to just love sports to be into the World Cup.
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Yeah.
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As we were talking about, it's just, you like ranch dressing?
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Look at these Europeans eat ranch dressing.
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And it was amazing.
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And then it was like, who are those Europeans rooting for?
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Norway, and they do this weird row.
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And it's just like, wow, I'm like, absolutely fascinated the world yearns for monoculture like do we miss
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barbenheimer i don't know maybe maybe i'm like maybe we maybe
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we do this part i think we also are just kind
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of lonely we want to talk about things we've been talking
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about the male loneliness crisis it was like maybe you should watch world cup
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and talk to people about it and be like oh my god look at that cutie pie
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Now we are experiencing a monocultural moment of a different kind.
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as the World Cup was winding down, a cyclospora outbreak was gaining speed.
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I mean, as of this conversation, I have not had salad in weeks.
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But I don't know.
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I mean, you say, though, it's not just the lettuce that began to sour the summer.
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I wonder, when did you see the tide turning away from sort of this moment of collective joy toward whatever it is
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that we're in now?
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If you're following the arc that we've been talking about, like America, where people were like, oh, we don't know how the World Cup is going to be to, oh my gosh, America's kind of cool.
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I can get tacos anywhere to, oh my gosh, America's winning.
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My theory, and I don't know if there's no scientific basis, but when Donald Trump called FIFA to get the red card overturned.
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Oh yeah.
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For the American player that had been issued a red card, that would mean that he was going to be out for playing the next game.
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Is that right?
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He was going to be out.
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Everyone was just like, I think the US beat Bosnia-Herzegovina had like their star scorer disqualified.
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And then all of a sudden on like Sunday night, it was like July 5th.
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Bleak.
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That is like simple.
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It's like right after America 250.
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250. They were like, it's actually been overturned.
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And everyone was just kind of like, well, that kind of was weird.
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Yeah, because it kind of like ruins the spirit of the competition.
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You want things to be fair.
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Right.
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Feel fair.
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And then Donald Trump in the morning was just, yeah, I gave a call.
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And then FIFA was, yeah, He called me and I get calls from like rich people all the time.
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And you're just like, wow, am I watching something super corrupt right now?
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And it was just like FIFA.
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There have been documentaries on the topic, I'll say of corruption within FIFA.
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I'm not saying this just to be mean to FIFA, but there was a Department of Justice
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indictment and there was Human Rights Watch and there's a lot of stuff
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that FIFA isn't great about and it kind of made us remember, wait a minute, maybe we aren't watching like the pure love of the game.
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All of a sudden it was, oh, here's some diarrhea lettuce your salads tainted and the
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diarrhea lettuce in the middle of the summer is like I mean like I've been eating bananas
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which is like no shade to bananas it's not my preferred
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fruit at this time of year right I don't want a
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wedge salad in the winter I want a wedge salad right
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now do you know badly I've wanted a caesar salad I've been losing my mind I think the scariest part
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because they were just like it's explosive diarrhea why does it gotta be explosive I don't know It's uncontrollable.
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I saw it in the news.
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And she's like, I mean, at one point I had to lay down on the bathroom floor.
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Yeah.
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I don't want to deal with that.
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Why is a taxonomy of this particular bodily function compared to bombs?
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Right?
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Like, why?
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Why didn't you just give us a number?
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Oh, it's like a four on the scale.
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Like, that sounds much better than, oh, you might die from this lettuce.
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Right.
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Which is, I mean, that's stressful.
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It's stressful.
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But I feel like we even like recently, I feel like we're given another chance, right?
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To have a sort of like another shot at like regaining our like big American monocultural summer with the Odyssey, right?
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It's this beautiful rendition of an old familiar tale.
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And I know that I implied in a previous episode of this show
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that people who bought their tickets to see the Odyssey last summer were thirsty.
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I did say that.
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But I stand corrected.
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I ended up seeing the movie twice the week it came out, Happenstance.
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And one of those times I did see it on 70 millimeter IMAX.
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Don't come for me in the comments.
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It really is an incredible experience actually to see it.
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It was really good.
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I know I called a lot to eat thirsty, but I get it now.
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I get it.
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As much as people are enjoying this film and are ready to engrave Oscars,
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most audiences won't see the movie in its intended format because IMAX screens are so rare.
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And it's still hard in many places to find tickets to see the film during popular times, evenings, weekends.
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IMAX screenings in so many cities across the country are and have been sold out for a while, like weeks out.
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What do you think about Odyssey Mania?
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I wonder, do you think it has potential to fix what's broken this
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summer have you even been able to see it girl no no
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i was on i was on your boat
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and i was like oh like these people are losers like who's gonna go by
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it's next july i know like how do you know what
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you're gonna be doing like you could be in a visa
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you don't know i started looking for the 70 millimeter on the upper west side which is apparently Mecca for IMAX.
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It's the biggest IMAX screen in the country.
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God bless the AMC app, but it was like, oh, there's one spot and it's like a handicapped wheelchair spot.
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And I'm like, I'm not going to sit there and take that from someone.
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Yeah.
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I finally got a ticket, August 17th, 10 a.m.
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Do not tell my boss that that's a Monday.
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That's a month after the movie.
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Yeah, this is what happens.
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This is what I was going to tell you, all around the country at the same time was Madonna had these like pop-up club things.
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Everyone was like, can I get a ticket?
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Can I get a ticket?
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It is easier to get a Madonna club ticket than it
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is like a center seat at the Odyssey at the Upper West Side 70 millimeter IMAX.
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I've heard that some people stand outside the screenings with their phones, refreshing to see if anybody like drops out of the screening
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and then they can like get into the showing of the film.
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They have been there in the morning, like early morning showings.
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I heard that there were people flying into New York just to go see the Odyssey on that gigantic iMac.
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But I don't know, like that sort of scarcity around
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that feels like of a similar type of snafu or fiasco really
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to you know trump intervening with fifa or the fact
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that like we can't have salad in the middle of the summer
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because of this one major produce company that apparently ships lettuce everywhere right
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and they were like it's from taco bell and it was like very blame the victim language and i I was like, what has Taylor Farms done for me that Taco Bell has in it?
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It's interesting.
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Whether it's like Trump's interference in the World Cup
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or our mega industrialized food system that is perhaps over-reliant on one major produce company
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or climate change-induced weather patterns that make us not be able to breathe the air every day.
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Or the fetishized scarcity of the IMAX viewing experience.
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I mean, I don't know.
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It seems like summer fun often ends with like America's particular way of doing business.
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I wonder, are we the drama?
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Are we the pro?
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I mean, the end to the World Cup and everything that's happened after it is very American.
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More American than ranch dressing.
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The whole corruption.
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And then like we couldn't breathe.
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And then we couldn't eat lettuce.
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And then we couldn't find the movies.
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we didn't have things built for the movies we approached the
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odyssey like it was like the very first movie that's ever
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been made i think like one of the things though is
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that at least we're all suffering and whatever experiencing this together
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if i'm the only person with explosive diarrhea that's like less fun
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and also to even i guess even with the diarrhea though like i feel like regularly
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if you have it you're like i don't want anybody to know like what i got going on you know
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but now maybe
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because it's like a community issue it's like a national problem
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yeah you might feel a little bit more maybe there's less
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shame around it where you're just sort of like i had the cyclospora
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and then that people can sort of fill in the blanks
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and then they might feel some sympathy for you they might be like oh my gosh i feel
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so bad what you're going through in a way
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that maybe the rest of the time you have diarrhea you have to just like take the little Pepto-Bismol tablets
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and constantly excuse yourself thank god for the cyclospora
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because now i can talk to my coworkers about things that I probably wouldn't talk about them at all.
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Yeah.
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I appreciate you finding the silver lining of community in here.
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Oh my gosh.
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You know, I have to say, Alex, I came into this conversation kind of feeling down about where this summer was going, but strangely, you have given me a little bit of optimism.
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Like, well, at least, you know, at least if we're going through hell, we're going together.
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Yeah.
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If the lettuce is taken away from us, we can all talk about how much we love Caesar salad.
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Alex, it's always a pleasure.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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Thank you so much.
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That was senior correspondent at Box.com, Alex Abad Santos.
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This episode of It's Been a Minute was produced by...
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Alexis Williams.
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This episode was edited by...
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Nina Potthug.
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Our supervising producer is...
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Cher Vincent.
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Our executive producer is...
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Barton Girdwood.
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Our VP of Programming is...
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Yolanda Sanguini.
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All right, that's all for this episode of It's Been a Minute from NPR.
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I'm Brittany Luce.
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Talk soon.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “This summer's hottest trend? Monoculture”. This video has 351 sentences and 3856 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:06. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| lettuce noun | /ˈlɛt.ɪs/ | An edible plant, Lactuca sativa and its close relatives, having a head of green or purple leaves. |
| salad noun | /ˈsæl.əd/ | A food consisting principally of raw vegetables (especially greens, e.g. lettuce), other savoury ingredients (typically cooked), fruit, or confectionary; often… |
| odyssey noun | /ˈɑ.dɪ.si/ | An extended adventurous voyage, usually in search of home. |
| diarrhea noun | /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/ | A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements. |
| monocultural adjective | /ˌmɒ.nəʊˈkʌl.tʃə.ɹəl/ | Having only one (single) culture; of or relating to a monoculture (of microorganisms, people, or otherwise). |
| knicks noun | Knickers. | |
| gosh | /ɡɑːʃ/ | A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm. |
| ranch noun | /ˈɹænt͡ʃ/ | A large plot of land used for raising cattle, sheep or other livestock. |
| monoculture noun | /ˈmɒnəˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/ | The cultivation of a single crop at a time. |
| explosive adjective | /ɛkˈspləʊsɪv/ | Able to, or likely to, explode. |
| banana noun | /bəˈnænə/ | An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| cyclospora noun | Cyclospora cayetanensis | |
| millimetre noun | An SI/MKS unit of measure, the length of ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of a metre. Symbol: mm | |
| caesar noun | /ˈsizɚ/ | An emperor of Ancient Rome. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| take away from verb | To subtract a quality from; make something seem not so good or interesting. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| cool down verb | /kuːl ˈdaʊn/ | To become cooler; to be reduced in temperature. |
| die down verb | To become less virulent or strong; to subside. | |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I can't help but wonder, are we the drama?
- As we were talking about, it's just, you like ranch dressing?
- Why didn't you just give us a number?
- Everyone was like, can I get a ticket?
- Can I get a ticket?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been saying · we've been talking · I've been eating |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | You've gagged · have hit · It's Been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is based · being celebrated · is taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who bought · side which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 102 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thirsty /ˈθɝs.ti/, thickness /ˈθɪknəs/, sympathy /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, credential /kɹɪˈdɛnʃəl/, machination /ˌmækɪˈneɪʃən/, rendition /ɹɛnˈdɪʃ(ə)n/, quotation /kwoʊˈteɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: diarrhea /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/, monocultural /ˌmɒ.nəʊˈkʌl.tʃə.ɹəl/, monoculture /ˈmɒnəˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/, correspondent /ˌkɔɹ.ɪˈspɑn.dənt/, archetypal /ˈɑɹkɪtaɪpəl/
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 lettuce, salad, odyssey.
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.