Best Speak English With Films Podcasts (2025)

1
Donald Trump’s War on Culture Is Not a Sideshow 31:56

Play Pause

8m ago31:56

31:56

The term “culture wars” is most often associated with issues of sexuality, race, religion, and gender. But, as recent months have made plain, when Donald Trump refers to the culture wars, he also means the arts. He fired the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Republicans want to rename for him. His Administration fir…

1
Keeping My Family's Language Alive 27:35

9m ago27:35

27:35

Michael Rosen talks to Samantha Ellis, author of Chopping Onions on My Heart, about her efforts to keep alive the language of her parents: Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. Samantha grew up in London hearing her parents speak the language they spoke in their homeland of Iraq. Now she's keen to try and speak it herself, and to share the poetic expressions of Jude…

1
How Extreme Heat Affects the Body 17:17

4d ago17:17

17:17

The Korey Stringer Institute, at the University of Connecticut, is named after an N.F.L. player who died of exertional heatstroke. The lab’s main research subjects have been athletes, members of the military, and laborers. But, with the extreme heat wrought by climate change, even mild exertion will put more and more of us in harm’s way; in many pa…

1
How Big Tech Sets the Agenda in Trump’s America 32:43

7d ago32:43

32:43

Donald Trump is the most tech-friendly President in American history. He enlisted social media to win office; he became a promoter—and beneficiary—of cryptocurrency, breaking long-standing norms around conflicts of interest; and, in his second term, he brought Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest tech baron, to the White House, to disrupt the federal …

51
Speech difficulties 27:50

7d ago27:50

27:50

Michael Rosen asks what happens to people's sense of identity and social being when speaking becomes hard. Jonathan Cole has interviewed people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, vocal cord palsy, spasmodic dysphonia and post-stroke aphasia. They describe in their own words what the experience of not being able to express themselves is like, t…

1
A Palestinian Journalist Escapes Death in Gaza 26:43

11d ago26:43

26:43

Mohammed R. Mhawish was living in Gaza City during Israel’s invasion, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack. He witnessed the invasion for months and reported on its devastating consequences for Al Jazeera, The Nation, and other outlets. After his home was targeted in an Israeli strike, which nearly killed him, he fled Gaza. In The N…

1
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington on a Reunion Making “Highest 2 Lowest” 23:58

14d ago23:58

23:58

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington first worked together on “Mo’ Better Blues,” released in 1990. Washington starred as a trumpet player trying to make a living in jazz clubs; Lee, who directed the film, also played the musician’s hapless manager. They later worked together on “Malcolm X” and other films, but it has been nearly twenty years since thei…

1
Richard Brody Picks Three Favorite Clint Eastwood Films 16:16

17d ago16:16

16:16

With seven decades in film and television, Clint Eastwood is undeniably a Hollywood institution. Emerging first as a star in Westerns, then as the embattled cop in the Dirty Harry films, the ninety-five-year-old filmmaker has directed forty features and appeared in more than sixty. The film critic Richard Brody just reviewed a new biography of East…

1
Your Questions Answered: Trump vs. the Rule of Law 34:14

21d ago34:14

34:14

From the attempt to end birthright citizenship to the gutting of congressionally authorized agencies, the Trump Administration has created an enormous number of legal controversies. The Radio Hour asked for listeners’ questions about President Trump and the courts. To answer them, David Remnick speaks with two regular contributors: Ruth Marcus, who…

1
Jamaica Kincaid on “Putting Myself Together” 25:53

24d ago25:53

25:53

Jamaica Kincaid began writing for The New Yorker in 1974, reporting about life in the magazine’s home city. She was a young immigrant from Antigua, then a British colony; she had been sent to New York—against her wishes—to work as a nanny. Soon began a love affair with New York’s literary scene. “I had to change my name,” she tells David Remnick, “…

1
John Brennan, Former C.I.A. Director, on Being Targeted by Trump 26:49

28d ago26:49

26:49

In Donald Trump’s first term, he was furious that people were investigating his connections to Russia—“Russia, Russia, Russia,” he complained. Now, as Trump fulfills a campaign promise of retribution, his Administration has put the Russia “hoax” back into the headlines. They claim to have opened investigations into the former F.B.I. director James …

1
E52 Learning English Abroad? The HONEST Truth About Immersion Trips... 19:29

27d ago19:29

19:29

Improve your English listening with this advanced-level story. Oliver shares the real experience of studying a language abroad - the good, the bad, and the sweaty. What happens when you go abroad to learn a language? Does immersion really work? In this episode, I talk about my time in Montpellier: the grammar lessons, the teachers, the pros and con…

1
Dexter Filkins on Drones and the Future of Warfare 21:47

1M ago21:47

21:47

Since the end of the Cold War, most Americans have taken U.S. military supremacy for granted. We can no longer afford to do so, according to reporting by the staff writer Dexter Filkins. China has developed advanced weapons that rival or surpass America’s; and at the same time, drone warfare has fundamentally changed calculations of the battlefield…

1
Mayor Karen Bass on Marines in Los Angeles 29:02

1M ago29:02

29:02

The city of Los Angeles has declared itself a sanctuary city, where local authorities do not share information with federal immigration enforcement. But L.A.—where nearly forty per cent of residents are foreign-born—became ground zero for controversial arrests and deportations by ICE. The Trump Administration deployed marines and the National Guard…

1
Director Ari Aster Explains His COVID-Era Western “Eddington” 25:17

1M ago25:17

25:17

“I’m personally desperate for art that at least attempts to grapple with whatever the hell is going on right now,” the writer-director Ari Aster tells Adam Howard, a senior producer of the Radio Hour. “ ‘Eddington’ is a film about a bunch of people who . . . know that something’s wrong. They just—nobody can agree on what that thing is.” Many of us …

1
Michael Wolff on MAGA’s Revolt Over Jeffrey Epstein 26:29

1M ago26:29

26:29

The sense that the White House is covering something up about Jeffrey Epstein has led to backlash from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Even after the financier was convicted for hiring an underage prostitute, for which he served a brief and extraordinarily lenient sentence, Epstein remained a playboy, a top political donor, and a very good …

1
Carrie Brownstein on Cat Power. Plus, “Materialists,” “Too Much,” and the Modern Rom-Com. 1:00:46

2M ago1:00:46

1:00:46

For The New Yorker’s series Takes, Carrie Brownstein—the co-creator of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia”—writes about an iconic rock-and-roll image. In the summer of 2003, the musician Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, was transitioning from an indie darling to a major rock artist, and the staff writer Hilton Als wrote a Profile of her in The…

1
Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy. Plus, Susan B. Glasser on Why “We Are the Boiled Frog.” 38:14

2M ago38:14

38:14

In conservative economics, cuts to social services are often seen as necessary to shrink the expanding deficit. Donald Trump’s budget bill is something altogether different: it cuts Medicaid while slashing tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, adding $6 trillion to the national debt, according to the Cato Institute. Janet Yellen, a former Treasur…

1
E51 Can You Compete with Someone You Love? (The Results Are In!) 23:50

2M ago23:50

23:50

In this episode, we explore a subtle, often unspoken kind of rivalry - the sort that happens not in sports or business, but in close relationships. What does it mean to compete with someone you care about? Can it help you grow, or does it just create tension? Oliver and César share the story of their two-year French-learning journey, but things qui…

1
E50 Fifty Episodes Later: Do Anniversaries Really Matter? - Advanced English 17:59

2M ago17:59

17:59

In this special 50th episode of English and Beyond, Oliver and César reflect on one year of podcasting, what anniversaries really mean, and why they could often forget their own. From the challenges of staying consistent to the little victories along the way, we talk about how far we’ve come - and whether anniversaries are worth celebrating at all.…

1
Kalief Browder: A Decade Later 18:17

2M ago18:17

18:17

Kalief Browder was jailed at Rikers Island at the age of sixteen; he spent three years locked up without ever being convicted of a crime, and much of that time was spent in solitary confinement. In 2014, the New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about Browder and the failings of the criminal-justice system that his case exposed: unconsci…

1
U2’s Bono on the Power of Music 31:32

2M ago31:32

31:32

In 2022, The New Yorker published a personal history about growing up in Ireland during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. It covers the interfaith marriage of the author’s parents, which was unusual in Dublin; his mother’s early death; and finding his calling in music. The author was Bono, for more than forty years the lyricist and lead singer of…

1
“Super Gay Poems” 15:08

2M ago15:08

15:08

In 2024, Harvard University offered a course on Taylor Swift. It was popular, to say the least. That course was taught by a professor and literary critic named Stephanie Burt. In The New Yorker, Burt has written seriously about comics and science fiction, but she’s also considered great poets such as Seamus Heaney and Mary Oliver. Now, Burt has put…

1
Bret Baier On Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship with Fox News 34:54

2M ago34:54

34:54

The relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump is not just close; it can be profoundly influential. Trump frequently responds to segments in real time online—even to complain about a poll he doesn’t like. He has tapped the network for nearly two dozen roles within his Administration—including the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, a fo…

1
America’s Oligarch Problem 15:09

2M ago15:09

15:09

A mega-donor to the Republican Presidential campaign, Elon Musk got something no other titan of industry has ever received: an office in the White House and a government department tailor-made for him, with incalculable influence in shaping the Administration. But even with Musk out of Washington, it remains a fact that the influence of wealth in A…

1
Why Israel Struck Iran First 42:38

2M ago42:38

42:38

The Ayatollahs who have ruled Iran since 1979 have long promised to destroy the Jewish state, and even set a deadline for it. While arming proxies to fight Israel—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and more—Iran is believed to have sought to develop nuclear weapons for itself. “The big question about Iran was always how sign…

1
The Unfolding Genocide in Sudan 19:53

2M ago19:53

19:53

The New Yorker recently published a report from Sudan, headlined “Escape from Khartoum.” The contributor Nicolas Niarchos journeyed for days through a conflict to reach a refugee camp in the Nuba Mountains, where members of the country’s minority Black ethnic groups are seeking safety, but remain imperilled by hunger. The territory is “very signifi…

1
Barbra Streisand on “The Secret of Life” 26:14

3M ago26:14

26:14

Barbra Streisand has been a huge presence in American entertainment—music, film, and stage—for more than sixty years. She was the youngest person ever to achieve the EGOT, winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards by the age of twenty-seven. At eighty-three years old, Streisand is releasing a new album, “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2.” …

1
The Art of Listening 27:45

3M ago27:45

27:45

Michael Rosen talks to sociolinguist Dr Haru Yamada about how we listen in different ways across different cultures and social groups. It's the side of conversation that is not about talking, but which is equally - if not more - important to how we communicate. Haru is the author of 'Kiku: The Japonese Art of Good Listening', and she believes that …

1
John Seabrook on the Destructive Family Battles of “The Spinach King” 19:48

3M ago19:48

19:48

John Seabrook’s new book is about a family business—not a mom-and-pop store, but a huge operation run by a ruthless patriarch. The patriarch is aging, and he cannot stand to lose his hold on power, nor let his children take over the enterprise. This might sound like the plot of HBO’s drama “Succession,” but the story John tells in “The Spinach King…

1
E49 Summer Loving / Spanish Hell - Advanced English 20:23

3M ago20:23

20:23

In this sweaty, slightly chaotic episode, César and Oliver question whether moving to Valencia was such a great idea... in the middle of an early summer heatwave. Join us as we talk about the oppressive Spanish humidity, sweaty public transport, unexpected cockroach encounters, and whether torrid weather leads to torrid affairs. You’ll learn expres…

1
What Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Doesn’t Understand About Autism 30:23

3M ago30:23

30:23

When Donald Trump made an alliance with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he brought vaccine skepticism and the debunked link between vaccines and autism into the center of the MAGA agenda. Though the scientific establishment has long disproven that link, as many as one in four Americans today believe that vaccines may cause autism. In April, Kennedy, now th…

1
Ep. 1: The Fall - Pidgin English Bible Stories 7:42

3M ago7:42

7:42

Ep. 1: The Fall - Pidgin English Bible Stories #pidginenglishbiblestories #pidginenglish #adamandeve #biblestories Wetin Adam & Eve Do? Na who chop the fruit? Who dey blame who? And why snake enter the matter? This na the story of Genesis 3 told for Pidgin English, with voice acting, drama, and sound to bring the Bible come alive. 🎧 Listen as Adam,…

1
Lists 27:40

3M ago27:40

27:40

Most of us make lists in some form or other - from essential groceries to reasons to feel positive about life. In this programme Linguistics Researcher Jo Nolan talks to Michael about her interest in the language we use in their making and their uses in literature and society.Jo says the language we use in our lists is idiolectal - it reflects our …

1
Brian Eno Knows “What Art Does” 23:46

3M ago23:46

23:46

In the music business, Brian Eno is a name to conjure with. He’s been the producer of tremendous hits by U2, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Coldplay, and many other top artists. But he’s also a conceptualist, nicknamed Professor Eno in the British music press, and a foundational figure in ambient music—a genre whose very name Eno coined. …

1
Lesley Stahl on What a Settlement with Donald Trump Would Mean for CBS News 27:26

3M ago27:26

27:26

Lesley Stahl, a linchpin of CBS News, began at the network in 1971, covering major events such as Watergate, and for many years has been a correspondent on “60 Minutes.” But right now it’s a perilous time for CBS News, which has been sued by Donald Trump for twenty billion dollars over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris duri…

1
E48 Tuscany, Italy: The Good, the Bad and the Itchy - Advanced English 19:25

3M ago19:25

19:25

Is Tuscany really as perfect as Instagram makes it look? In this episode of English and Beyond: Advanced English Podcast, Oliver and César sit down to share the unfiltered truth about their recent holiday in Italy - and it’s not all rolling hills and Chianti. From postcard-perfect views and delicious dinners to mosquito bites, awkward group dynamic…

1
Ep. 10: 7 Lessons from 'Gifted Hands' (Part 2) 14:09

3M ago14:09

14:09

Ep. 10: 7 Lessons from 'Gifted Hands' (Part 2) #GiftedHands #BenCarson #EnglishPhrasalVerbs Listen to Part 1 here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1832398/episodes/17039523 In this episode, we learn 7 insightful English Lessons from Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (a 2009 film), about the life of Dr. Ben Carson, a world-renowned neurosurgeon at Johns…

1
The Welsh Language with Huw Stephens at the Hay Festival 27:50

3M ago27:50

27:50

In a special recording at the Hay Festival, Michael Rosen talks to bilingual Welsh radio and television presenter Huw Stephens about the Welsh language. And then Huw gets Michael to try reading 'Dyn Ni yn Mynd i Hela Arth, also known as We're Going on a Bear Hunt.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University.…

1
Louisa Thomas on a Ballplayer’s Epic Final Game; Plus, Remembering the Composer of “Annie” 23:59

3M ago23:59

23:59

In honor of The New Yorker’s centennial this year, the magazine’s staff writers are pulling out some classics from the long history of the publication. Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker’s sports correspondent, naturally gravitated to a story about baseball with a title only comprehensible to baseball aficionados: “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.” The essay was…

1
Cécile McLorin Salvant Performs Live In-Studio 26:18

3M ago26:18

26:18

When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in The New Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is rooted in jazz—in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Abbey Lincoln—and she has won three Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Bu…

1
E47 Overrated & Overhyped: What We’re All Pretending to Like | Advanced English for expressing opinions 20:42

3M ago20:42

20:42

In this episode of English and Beyond: Advanced Edition, Oliver and César explore a question we all secretly ask ourselves: “Do I actually like this… or do I just think I’m supposed to?” From five-star restaurants and summer holidays to podcasts and museums, they take a light-hearted but honest look at things that might be a little overrated, a bit…

1
The language that changed the world 27:27

3M ago27:27

27:27

Michael Rosen hears the fascinating story of the origin of all Indo-European languages from Laura Spinney, the author of Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. Today, nearly half of humanity speaks an Indo-European language and Laura has been investigating how that came to be.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with t…

1
From “On the Media” ’s “Divided Dial”: “Fishing in the Night” 33:49

3M ago33:49

33:49

This special episode comes from “On the Media” ’s Peabody-winning series “The Divided Dial,” reported by Katie Thornton. You know A.M. and F.M. radio. But did you know that there is a whole other world of radio surrounding us at all times? It’s called shortwave—and, thanks to a quirk of science that lets broadcasters bounce radio waves off the iono…

1
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on President Joe Biden’s Decline, and Its Cover-Up 49:50

4M ago49:50

49:50

Nearly a year ago, a Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN, began the end of Biden’s bid for a second term. The President struggled to make points, complete sentences, and remember facts; he spoke in a raspy whisper. This was not the first time voters expressed concern about Biden’s ag…

1
The End of the Full Stop? 27:53

4M ago27:53

27:53

The use of punctuation is rapidly changing within the quickfire back-and-forth of instant messaging. Are these changes causing misunderstandings? Presenter Michael Rosen and his guest Dr Christian Ilbury discuss. Is the full stop on the way out? What about capital letters? Exclamation marks and question marks seem to be holding their ground, but wh…

1
Percival Everett’s “James” Wins a Pulitzer 20:17

4M ago20:17

20:17

A year ago, Percival Everett published his twenty-fourth novel, “James,” and it became a literary phenomenon. It won the National Book Award, and, just this week, was announced as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. “James” offers a radically different perspective on the classic Mark Twain novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”: Evere…

1
Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: “Speak in Plain English” 28:38

4M ago28:38

28:38

When Elissa Slotkin narrowly won her Senate seat in Michigan last fall, she was one of only four Democratic senators to claim victory in a state that voted for Donald Trump. It made other Democrats take note: since then, the Party has turned to her as someone who can bridge the red state–blue state divide. In March, Slotkin delivered the Democrats’…

1
E46 Movies: Popcorn to Plot Twists | How to Talk About Films in Advanced English 18:07

4M ago18:07

18:07

What makes a film critically acclaimed, atmospheric, or even box office poison? In this episode of English and Beyond, César and I (I'm Oliver!) dive into the full cinema experience - from noisy popcorn munching to unexpected plot twists - and explore the vocabulary and expressions you need to talk about movies like a native speaker. Whether you’re…

1
Street Names 27:10

4M ago27:10

27:10

Michael Rosen talks to sociolinguist Philip Seargeant from the Open University about where our street names come from, including Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate in York, and Michael's old address, Love Lane. Also, have you ever thought about the difference between a street and a road? Are there regional differences in the names given to streets? And why are s…