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English Learning for Curious Minds | A More Interesting Way To Learn English episodes
- #636 | Victor Lustig: The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
In 1925, Victor Lustig convinced a Paris scrap-metal dealer that the French government was selling the Eiffel Tower.
His secret was a mixture of official papers, careful acting, and victims too embarrassed to report him.
He later returned to Paris and tried to sell it again.
- Victor Lustig reads that Paris may dismantle the rusting Eiffel Tower
- Born in Bohemia, Lustig learns languages, gambles and develops his skill at deception
- On Atlantic liners, he persuades wealthy passengers to invest in imaginary projects
- In America, he sells a fake money-printing box containing hidden real banknotes
- A Texas sheriff confronts Lustig, then receives counterfeit money as compensation
- Lustig uses forged ministry letters to invite scrap metal dealers to his hotel
- André Poisson buys the Eiffel Tower and pays Lustig a bribe
- Poisson stays silent from shame, so Lustig returns to attempt the scam again
- Lustig tricks Al Capone into paying him for returning an untouched investment
- Police arrest Lustig for counterfeiting; after escaping, he is recaptured and imprisoned
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/sold-eiffel-tower---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
25 min - #634 | Nuclear Power's Unlikely Comeback
Nuclear power was meant to disappear in much of Europe, but Germany, Belgium and Italy are changing their minds.
Rising energy demand, climate concerns and artificial intelligence are making old reactors and new designs attractive again.
- Germany’s Chancellor admits closing nuclear plants was a serious strategic mistake
- Belgium cancels its nuclear shutdown law and plans longer reactor use
- Italy approves plans to return to nuclear power after decades of bans
- Energy security and climate needs make nuclear support grow across political groups
- Wind and solar need nuclear’s steady electricity when weather conditions change
- AI data centres increase electricity demand and face long waits for grid connections
- Technology companies fund reactors, including Microsoft restarting a Three Mile Island reactor
- High construction costs delay projects, while governments support financing and smaller reactors
- Finland prepares deep underground nuclear waste storage, designed to last 100,000 years
- Fusion investment grows, promising low-carbon power without a possible reactor meltdown
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/nuclear-comeback---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
24 min - #631 | The Dark Side of Psychology | The Milgram Experiment
In 1961, psychologist Stanley Milgram tested how far ordinary Americans would go when an authority figure told them to hurt someone.
His disturbing experiment revealed the power of obedience and raised frightening questions about how easily good people can do terrible things.
- Adolf Eichmann's trial and the banality of evil
- Stanley Milgram studies obedience to authority at Yale
- Volunteers deceived with teacher and learner roles
- Shock machine with rising volts and scripted learner reactions
- Experimenter prompts encourage teachers to continue
- Sixty-five per cent gave the maximum 450-volt shock
- Variations test authority setting proximity and peer dissent
- Factors include authority distance and gradual escalation
- Ethical debates and belief in real shocks
- 2009 replication and the agentic state concept
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/milgram-experiment---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
27 min - #629 | “Please, Sir, I Want Some More": The Truth About Victorian Workhouses
Charles Dickens made the Victorian workhouse famous, but the reality behind Oliver Twist was even worse than fiction.
This episode tells how workhouses treated Britain’s poorest people, and how pensions and the welfare state finally replaced them.
- Oliver Twist and the image of hunger in workhouses
- Early poor relief and rising costs during the Industrial Revolution
- 1832 Royal Commission and 1834 Act creating national workhouses
- The harsh idea of less eligibility as a warning
- Who ended up in workhouses: the elderly, sick children, and women
- Small meals, family separation, and hard work like treadmills
- Andover scandal: starving people and an abusive, drunken master
- Charlie Chaplin's childhood in the workhouse
- Reforms pensions: National Insurance and 1948 changes
- Ongoing debates about welfare and supporting vulnerable people
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/victorian-workhouses---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
23 min - #626 | The Strange Story of Punch and Judy
He wears a red hat, carries a stick, and laughs as he beats almost everyone he meets.
This episode tells the odd, violent story of Punch and Judy, the puppet show that began in Italy and became a British seaside symbol.
It looks at how Mr Punch survived for over 300 years, and why many now question whether he still belongs on the beach.
- The swazzle and Mr Punch's strange squeaky voice
- Italian street theatre origins and Pulcinella
- Arrival in London in 1662 with Samuel Pepys
- From marionettes to glove puppets and slapstick action
- The 1828 book and forgery doubts
- Judy, the baby, the policeman, the crocodile and the devil
- Violent plot and the "That's the way to do it!" catchphrase
- Rise at the seaside with Victorian railways
- Mr Punch and the humour magazine Punch
- Modern decline, criticism, attempts to modernise, and an uncertain future
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/punch-and-judy---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
26 min - #624 | George III: The Real Story of the “Mad King”
In 1788, King George III began speaking without pause, talking to trees, and frightening his court.
He is often remembered as the “Mad King” who lost America, but his life was far more complex and tragic.
This episode looks at the devoted farmer-king, his mysterious illness, and what doctors now believe was really wrong with him.
- George III beyond the mad king stereotype
- Early life and becoming a British not German king
- Farmer George habits and love of family and science
- Seven Years War victory and heavy debts for Britain
- Missteps leading to American Revolution and independence
- His limited power as a constitutional monarch
- Onset of illness in 1788 and disturbing behaviour
- Brutal treatments by Francis Willis and their harm
- French Revolution pressure and long wars with Napoleon
- Later decline, Regency, and death at Windsor Castle
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/george-iii---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
26 min - #622 | A Short History of Fire
A million years ago, in a cave in South Africa, our ancestors did something no other animal has ever done: they controlled fire.
Fire cooked our food, shrank our guts, grew our brains, and gave us the deep sleep and fireside stories that made us human.
This is the story of our species' oldest technology, and how the same flames that built the modern world may now threaten it.
- Wonderwerk Cave evidence of controlled fire by Homo erectus
- Early humans managed fire for warmth, light and safety
- Cooking increased calories, shrinking guts and growing brains
- Chimps prefer cooked food but cannot make fire
- Fire enabled deep sleep on the ground, improving memory
- Night fires fostered storytelling, language, imagination and community bonds
- Fire shaped domestic roles and early pair bonding theories
- Humans learnt to make fire by striking and friction
- From wood to coal and oil, powering industrial transformation
- Environmental costs from burning fossil fuels
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/history-of-fire---
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25 min - #619 | Wyatt Earp | The Man Behind the Legend (English Listening Practice)
In 1881, a 30-second gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona made Wyatt Earp a legend of the Wild West.
Earp was a gambler, a lawman, a fugitive, and later a showman who told his own legend for cash.
So who fired first at the OK Corral, and how did Hollywood turn a frontier opportunist into a symbol of American justice?
- The gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone
- Background on the Wild West and fast-growing frontier towns
- Wyatt Earp was hunter, driver, gambler, brothel keeper
- The Cowboys held power and feuded with the Earps
- Conflicting accounts of who fired first and surrender attempts
- Trial cleared the Earps but the town stayed divided
- Attacks on Virgil and Morgan, then Wyatt Earp took revenge
- Earp fled Arizona, wandered West running saloons and gambling
- Boxing scandal damaged his name across the country
- Hollywood and a book remade him as a hero
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/wyatt-earp---
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24 min - #617 | Bob Denard: The Mercenary Who Ruled the Comoros (English Listening Practice)
In 1975, a French mercenary landed in the Comoros, a chain of small islands off East Africa, and decided he was going to run the place.
Bob Denard staged four coups, converted to Islam, built a farm, and controlled the country from the shadows for over a decade.
It was a story of Cold War deals, shifting loyalties, and one last coup that ended his run.
- Location and poverty of the Comoros Islands
- French rule and 1975 independence under Ahmed Abdallah
- First coup by French mercenary Robert Denard
- Denard's mercenary past and French Africa links
- Ali Soilih's radical rule and the Moissy youth militia
- 1978 coup restores Abdallah and Soilih killed
- Denard becomes Comorian farmer and leads Presidential Guard
- 1989 power struggle and suspicious death of Ahmed Abdallah
- 1995 final coup and French Operation Azalee intervention
- Denard's trial and death in 2007
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/bob-denard---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
26 min - #614 | The Conquest of Ireland: How England Never Left (English Listening Practice)
How did a small band of Norman soldiers in 1170 begin 800 years of English control over Ireland?
It started as a deal between rival Irish kings. It ended in plantation, dispossession, and a divided island.
This is the story of how a short-term alliance became a centuries-long occupation, and why it still shapes politics in Ireland today.
- Anglo-Normans enter Ireland: Diarmait seeks Strongbow’s help.
- Henry II claims authority; Dublin-centred foothold established.
- The Pale forms; Normans adopt Irish ways, Old English.
- Henry VIII breaks with Rome; declares himself King of Ireland.
- Surrender and regrant changes land and inheritance rules.
- Elizabeth I’s conquest; Nine Years’ War threatens English control.
- Battle of Kinsale defeat; O’Neill’s submission follows.
- Flight of the Earls ends Gaelic political power.
- Plantation of Ulster seeds division leading to later partition.
- Cromwell’s massacres; “To Hell or to Connacht” resettlement.
Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/conquest-of-ireland---
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---Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية
32 min
About English Learning for Curious Minds | A More Interesting Way To Learn English
From the publisher's feed
Are you looking for a more interesting way to learn English?
English Learning for Curious Minds is an English podcast for intermediate and advanced English learners who want to improve their English listening while learning weird and wonderful things about the world.
If you want to learn English naturally, improve your English listening skills, and discover fascinating ideas at the same time, this podcast is for you.
Every episode helps you improve your English through interesting stories, history, psychology, business, culture, science, and strange-but-true events from around the world. Instead of textbook exercises or boring grammar drills, you’ll learn English through ideas worth talking about.
This is an English-learning podcast for curious adults — people who want to build confidence in English, improve listening comprehension, expand vocabulary in context, and enjoy the process of learning.
This podcast is spoken in clear, British English.
Whether you want English listening practice, vocabulary in context, or simply a way to learn through ideas worth talking about, you'll find episodes designed for intermediate to advanced learners and spoken at a speed you can understand.
Every episode comes with:
* Interactive transcripts
* Subtitles
* Key vocabulary explanations
* Bonus learning materials
* PDF study packs
You’ll hear episodes about history, psychology, language, business, habits, strange stories, culture, communication, and the ideas that shape how people think and behave — all designed to help you improve your English naturally.
Questions we help listeners answer include:
* How can I improve my English listening?
* How can I learn English without boring textbooks?
* What is the best English podcast for intermediate learners?
* How can I build vocabulary in context?
* How can I stay motivated while learning English?
Join listeners in 189 countries and discover a more interesting way to learn English.
Find bonus episodes, interactive transcripts, subtitles, vocabulary explanations, and more at www.leonardoenglish.com
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