Radio English Jessica Shattock
-
- Education
Radio English is a podcast for advanced learners of English. Every week Jessica Shattock and co-host Aggie Martin explain vocabulary from a BBC radio 4 programme called Desert Island Discs. Through listening to this podcast you will learn an incredible amount of words and phrases and become a much more fluent and confident English speaker.
Jessica Shattock founded Sky Blue English in 2012 and Aggie Martin joined as an English teacher in 2017.
-
Dame Sue Campbell
In today’s episode we’re discussing the Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Dame Sue Campbell, the Director of Women’s Football at the Football Association
We discuss some terms often used when talking about sport, such as 'to lag behind' and to 'have a competitive streak'. We also explain the verbs 'to collapse', 'to bombard' and 'to faint'. -
Michael Lewis
In today’s episode we’re discussing the Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Michael Lewis, a non-fiction writer and journalist. We explain some words related to his career, such as what a ‘trader’ is, what it means if someone writes under a 'pseudonym' and what is meant if something ‘mushrooms’. We’ll also discuss some of the useful phrasal verbs, such as 'set up', 'tune out' and to be 'torn between' two things.
Links
The original Desert island Discs interview
The notes on my blog
Facebook group
Trailer of Moneyball (YouTube) -
Rupert Everett
In today’s episode we’re discussing the radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Rupert Everett, an actor. We discuss what it means if someone has a ‘flash in the pan’ career and if they experience ‘lean’ periods. We also explain what it means if someone is described as ‘frosty’, ‘foxy’ and as having ‘a short fuse’.
Links
The original Desert island Discs interview
The notes on my blog
Facebook group -
Stephen Merchant
In today’s episode we’re discussing the radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Stephen Merchant, a writer, comedian and actor. He co-wrote the famous British sitcom ,‘The Office’, with Ricky Gervais. We discuss what a ‘sitcom’ and ‘mockumentary’ are and some of the phrases that are used in the interview, such as, ‘jack of all trades’ and when you would say that ‘butter wouldn’t melt in someone’s mouth’. We also talk about some vocab that is used to describe The Office like ‘dour’ and what it means when they say it is the comedy of ‘awkwardness’.
Links
The original Desert island Discs interview
The notes on my blog
Facebook group -
Heidi Thomas
In today’s episode we’re discussing the radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Heidi Thomas, a television screenwriter. Amongst many other words, we explain what some words related to the series, such as ‘a midwife’ and ‘umbilical cord’. We also talk about some of the useful phrases that are used like ‘out of the blue’, ‘free rein’ and what it means if something is ‘turned on it’s head’.
Links
The original Desert island Discs interview
The notes on my blog
Facebook group
-
Russell Foster
In today’s episode we’re discussing the Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Russell Foster, Professor of circadian neuroscience. We’ll explain what ‘circadian’ actually means and other science related words like ‘microscope’ and ‘lab’. We’ll also talk about what it means if someone 'takes someone under their wing’ and what a ‘badge of honour’ is.
Read through a list of advanced words and phrases from the interview on my blog
Watch Russell Foster's Ted Talk, called 'Why do we sleep'.
Join the discussion in the Facebook Group
If you have enjoyed today's episode and you have found it helpful, can you help me let others know about it too? Just leave a rating and review on itunes (and subscribe if you haven't already). That would be amazing! Thank you so much!