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We have been recycling for decades, yet only 9% of the world's plastic has ever been successfully recycled.

In this episode, we ask ourselves the heretical question, "is plastic recycling actually worth it?"

• A brief history of plastic usage
• How much plastic do we really use?
• The uses (and advantages) of plastic
• Plastic's advantages in food production
• Plastic's usage in medicine
• Plastic as a way to reduce energy usage?
• The durability of plastic
• The problem of what to do with plastic after we have finished using it
• What proportion of the world actually recycles?
• The environmental "cost" of recycling
• Plastic vs. cotton bags: the numbers
• Recycling + reducing + reusing
• Simple acts to reduce plastic usage
• Technological developments with recycling

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/plastic-recycling

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For thousands of years, humans have had ideas about mankind's potential impact on the climate.

In this episode, we look at how these ideas have changed, the men and women who have contributed to them, and ask ourselves why it has taken so long to start paying attention.

• Ancient ideas about mankind's impact on the climate
• The North American "rain follows the plough" theory
• Joseph Fourier & The Greenhouse Effect
• Eunice Newton Foote's discovery about CO2
• The theory that burning coal might be causing temperatures to rise
• Svante Arrhenius & global heating
• Guy Callendar, the amateur meteorologist
• The fear of a return to the Ice Age
• The Great Smog of 1952 in London
• Charles David Keeling attributes human activity to climate change
• Were rising CO2 levels good or bad?
• The establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• Modern climate change theories
• The role of the oil & gas industry
• Climate change deniers in US politics

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/history-climate-change

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He was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list in 1999, and he would only be removed after he was hunted down and killed by US operatives in 2011

In this episode, we will tell the story of how Osama bin Laden went from a shy, religious young boy to the world's most famous terrorist.

• The early life of Osama bin Laden
• His time at university
• Deciding not to join the family business
• The Iranian Revolution of 1979
• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• Fighting in the Afghanistan War
• The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces
• Why Osama bin Laden didn't want US forces in Saudi Arabia
• Losing his Saudi citizenship
• Launching Al Qaeda
• The 9/11 attacks
• Osama bin Laden's whereabouts after 9/11
• The killing of Osama bin Laden
• What was found in Osama bin Laden's compound
• Popular misconceptions about Osama bin Laden
• The legacy of Osama bin Laden

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/osama-bin-laden

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He was the American civil-rights leader who was a prominent spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Yet he grew too powerful and was killed by the same organisation he had represented.

In this episode, we look at the amazing life, impact and legacy of Malcolm X.

• The assassination of Malcolm X
• The early family life of Malcolm X ("Little")
• The death of Malcolm's father
• The teenage years of Malcolm X
• Going to prison and finding religion
• Joining The Nation of Islam
• Becoming Malcolm "X"
• Converting Americans to the Nation of Islam (including Mohammed Ali)
• Clip of Malcolm X speaking
• The attack on Hinton Johnson
• Becoming known to the press (and the police)
• Going on a global tour
• Malcolm X vs. Martin Luther King
• Breaking with the Nation of Islam
• The murder of Malcolm X
• His legacy on the civil rights movement

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/malcolm-x

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The game of chess played a vital role during the Cold War, allowing Russia and the United States to fight intellectual battles over a board game.

In this episode, we'll explore how the game of chess was used in a world where nuclear weapons could not.

• The modern-day political impact of Chess
• The life of Anatoly Karpov
• The start of the Cold War
• Why chess was the battleground for the Cold War
• History of chess & statesmanship
• The "Fried Chicken Tournament"
• Why the USSR had a head start on the USA
• The early popularity of Chess in the USSR
• The fighting of "proxy wars" in the 1960s
• The relationship between KGB & chess players
• The bizarre 1978 Chess Championship in Manilla
• The arrival of Garry Kasparov
• Chess in the modern day

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/chess-cold-war

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To some, he was a visionary who helped us understand our unconscious mind. To others, he was a sex-crazed maniac who made no contributions to psychiatry.

In this episode, we'll explore the fascinating life and works of Sigmund Freud.

• The early life of Sigmund Freud
• Theories of the mind in 19th century Europe
• Meeting the love of his life, Martha Bernays
• Freud's first medical "treatment": cocaine
• Moving to Paris and studying with Jean-Martin Charcot
• The idea of the unconscious mind
• "The plunging of sexuality in theory and practice is not to my taste’"
• Opening his own "talking therapy" practice
• Coining the term "psychoanalysis"
• The publication of The Interpretation of Dreams
• Freud & The Oedipus Complex
• The publication of The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, and the idea of "Freudian slips"
• His friendship with Carl Jung
• The First World War breaks out
• Deteriorating health and final years
• The complicated legacy of Sigmund Freud

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/freud

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He was Britain's most famous hangman and was responsible for the executions of up to 600 prisoners.

In this episode, we'll explore the curious life of a man who ended people's lives for a living.

• The unusual boyhood dream of Albert Pierrepoint
• Executions running in the family
• Capital punishment in the UK in the early 20th century
• Becoming an assistant executioner and working with his uncle
• Conducting his first execution
• The "long drop"
• Executing Nazi war criminals
• Becoming a pub landlord
• Why Albert Pierrepoint was so successful
• Controversial hangings in the 1950s
• Was he really a kind and gentle man?
• Retiring from his job as an executioner
• The beliefs of Albert Pierrepoint about capital punishment
• Legacy in books, films & TV

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/albert-pierrepoint

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Part three of our three-part mini-series on The Atomic Bomb.

Ever since the atomic bomb was dropped, people have been asking whether it was actually necessary.

In this episode, we'll explore the arguments for and against the use of atomic weapons in World War II, and look at how this has changed the world we live in.

• Recap of the journey to dropping the bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki
• The American reasons for dropping the bomb
• “It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful…”
• Arguments against dropping the bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki
• #1: Drop a demonstration bomb somewhere else
• #2: Japan would have surrendered without a bomb
• #3: The use of atomic weapons is ethically unacceptable
• American counterarguments
• The scientists who were against dropping the atomic bomb
• Post-war theories about why the atomic bomb was used
• Was Japan really close to surrendering?
• Nuclear proliferation since 1945

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/atomic-bomb-aftermath

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Part one of this three-part mini-series on The Atomic Bomb. 

In this episode, we explore the discovery of nuclear fission, the key scientists involved, The Manhattan Project and the race to develop a functioning atomic bomb.

• Early ideas about atomism
• Modern atomic theory in the 19th and 20th centuries
• The discovery of nuclear fission
• War breaks out in Europe
• Einstein and Szilárd's letter to President Roosevelt
• The Manhattan Project
• The first atomic test in Nevada
• “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/manhattan-project

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It has gone from luxury to necessity, and there are over 2 billion air conditioning units in the world today.

In this episode, we'll take a look at how air conditioning got started, why people didn't mind being hot in the past, and what the true cost of staying cool might be for future generations.

• Staying cool is nothing new: Romans & Egyptian methods
• Ding Huan & the rotating fan
• Why people were afraid of creating cold artificially
• How the Dutch magician Cornelis Drebbel tricked King James I in 1620
• Benjamin Franklin getting sweaty one July in Philadelphia
• Primitive air conditioning by pumping air over ice
• Did people actually mind that there was no air conditioning?
• Willis H. Carrier & the first air conditioning unit
• Convincing the US public that it was something they needed
• 1920s sweaty American cinemas
• Spending $600,000 on an air conditioning unit in 1932
• The boom of air conditioning in the US
• How many households around the world have air conditioning in 2021?
• The impact of air conditioning: the good, the bad & the unexpected
• Environmental impact of air conditioning
• Future of air conditioning in the developing world
• New air conditioning technologies: high & low tech 

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/air-conditioning

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