English Learning for Curious Minds | A More Interesting Way To Learn English
by Leonardo English · 321 episodes
EducationLanguageLearning
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 En...
Latest episodes
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26 min
#639 | What’s Wrong With Italy’s Economy?
Italy builds Ferraris and Lamborghinis, welcomes millions of tourists, and produces food, fashion and design admired around the world. Yet beneath all that beauty, its economy has…
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25 min
#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, an…
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24 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…
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27 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…
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23 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 pe…
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26 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 Ita…
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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…
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25 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 bra…
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23 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…
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25 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 I…
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32 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, dispossessi…
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24 min
#612 | Should Britain Abolish Jury Trials? (English Listening Practice)
Who should decide if you are guilty: the state, or a group of 12 ordinary citizens? England is now considering getting rid of jury trials for thousands of cases. It would be the bi…
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20 min
[From The Vault 🔐] Thomas Cook | The Father of Modern Tourism
From The Vault 🔐 — normally a member-only episode, unlocked this month for everyone.--He has been called the father of modern tourism and was responsible for opening up the world t…
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22 min
#609 | A Short History of Blasphemy in Britain (English Listening Practice)
When Thomas Aikenhead was hanged in 1697 for questioning the Bible, it was the last time someone was executed for blasphemy in Britain. But it didn't mean that debates around blasp…
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24 min
[From The Vault 🔐] Penny Dreadfuls | “The Victorian Video Game”
From The Vault 🔐 — normally a member-only episode, unlocked this month for everyone.--In 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed high in the Andes. Stranded in freezi…
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26 min
#607 | The Life of JD Vance (English Listening Practice)
JD Vance grew up in a struggling Ohio town, escaped poverty, and wrote a memoir that made him famous across the world. Then, having spent years attacking Donald Trump, he became hi…
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26 min
#604 | Otto Warmbier: The American Tourist Who Never Came Home (English Listening Practice)
In 2016, a 21-year-old American student was arrested in North Korea after allegedly stealing a political poster. Weeks later, he appeared in a strange public confession and was sen…
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24 min
[From The Vault 🔐] Flight 571: Survival in the Andes
From The Vault 🔐 — normally a member-only episode, unlocked this month for everyone.--In 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed high in the Andes. Stranded in freezi…
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26 min
#602 | AI & Learning English in 2026 (English Listening Practice)
Ever since ChatGPT was released, people have declared the "death of language learning". It still hasn't happened. Today, we'll look at how AI can help with reading, writing, listen…
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24 min
#599 | Man's Best Friend: The Remarkable History of Dogs (English Listening Practice)
Why do dogs understand us so well, and how did the "wild" wolf become man's closest companion? This episode tells the remarkable story of how a partnership thousands of years ago c…