868. How the USA is changing (with Lindsay McMahon from All Ears English)
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You're listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teachaluke.co.uk. Hello. Today on the podcast, I'm talking to Lindsay from All Ears English. Do you know about All Ears English, the All Ears English podcast? If you don't know it, then that is a surprise to me because...

All Ears English is an extremely popular, well-known and high-ranking podcast for learners of English. I'm sure you've come across it before, right? Yellow logo, Lindsay and her co-hosts, Michelle, Jessica and Aubrey, American English. Their episodes are full of positive energy. They promote personal growth through learning English. Their mantra is connection, not perfection. All Ears English. Of course you've heard of it.

Over a million subscribers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Ranked in the best of Apple Podcasts categories several times. And number one in the US education language courses podcast category. Lindsay and her team have been featured in magazines, right? Podcast magazine, language magazine and Forbes, which is impressive because, you know, when you're podcasting,

ends up in a magazine, when you cross from one medium to another, then you know that you must be doing something right. So, all ears English.

And Lindsay is a returning guest on my show. She's been on this podcast a few times before. Long, long-term listeners might remember her first appearance way back in episode 186. Of course you remember that. Ten years ago, 2014, she was on my podcast talking about culture shock, and she's been on the show a few times since then as well. We've collaborated quite a few times. I've also been on All Ears English a number of times too.

including recently. You know the way it works. You've probably got your

preferred or favourite podcasts for learners of English. Like maybe you listen to Luke's English podcast and you also maybe listen to All Ears English as well. You've got them both and you'll just be listening and checking out the podcasts and one day you go, oh look, Luke's on the All Ears English podcast. And then like on the same day or maybe a couple of weeks later, oh okay, Lindsay's on Luke's podcast. I see, I see what's going on. Yeah, we call that a podcast collaboration or a crossover.

And that's what we did recently. Just a couple of months ago, Lindsay and I decided that it was about time we collaborated again on a couple of episodes. So we invited each other onto our respective podcasts. I was on her show just a couple of weeks ago in episode 2140. Yeah, 2140 episodes. And we talked about differences between American and British English.

That was in a recent episode of the All Ears English podcast. We compared the vocabulary differences, pronunciation differences, communication style differences and more. Right. So if that sounds interesting, you could check it out. All Ears English, episode 2140. It's called The Subtle Differences Between American and British English with Luke's English podcast. So check it out. There's a link in the description.

And for Lindsay's appearance on my show in this episode, we agreed it could be really interesting to talk about Lindsay's home country, the United States, the USA, and what's going on there at the moment in terms of economic, political, social, cultural changes.

So that's what we're going to talk about. You'll hear us discussing things like the actions of unions and how that's been affecting workers' rights in the United States recently. The way that cities are evolving because of changes in people's working lives, especially since the things that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic with people working from home, remote work and other things like that.

We talk about property prices, the energy crisis, American people's attitudes about their government, trust in public institutions and other things of that nature. And also, I couldn't help adding my own comments about what's been going on in the UK as well in order to sort of compare and find similarities between our two countries. So,

Yeah, what's going on or what's changing in the United States and the UK as well a little bit. And it's a big year for both the UK and the USA. This year we have big elections coming up in both countries. There's a presidential election in the USA at the end of the year and a general election in the UK at some point. So those are very significant things.

So let's talk about the USA and the UK a bit as well. And there's plenty to talk about. I hope you find it all interesting. I'll talk to you again a little bit at the other end of this conversation. But now, without any further ado, let's get started. And here we go. ♪

Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast. Hey, Luke. Great to be on the show. Good to see you again. I know I've been on here a few times in the last six, seven, eight years. We've been podcasting for a while, both of us. So good to be back. It's good to have you back as well. And congratulations on the success of the podcast. That is impressive. What's the secret? I thought my podcast was the best podcast in the world, but apparently it's not. Yeah.

Well, you know, when it comes to podcasts, you know, downloads are always fluctuating. Our downloads are always changing. Things are changing in the podcasting space. But yeah, I mean, All Ears English has a large audience. And I think our secret is that we have a strong value. We know what we stand for when it comes to teaching English. And we can talk about that if you want a little bit. But

Yeah, we stick to our values on the show. Very specific reasons for learning English, yeah. Yes, you've got a very specific sort of catchphrase as well, which kind of defines what you do and the approach you take. And that is connection, not perfection.

Which is great. I do quote that sometimes, you know, when the need arises. I do say that and make that point. And I obviously reference you. I always say, as the girls from All Is English say, it is about connection, not perfection. But it's an important thing to remember. Can you just sort of remind us of what that means and why you chose that as your catchphrase?

100%. We stumbled on this as we were trying to articulate what we believed about learning English after traveling the world and teaching in Japan and South America and New York City. I think it was like episode 50. My original co-host and I were on there. We're trying to articulate what we believe and it came out. And then we said, oh my gosh, that's it. That is the reason we believe people learn English. Now there are, you have your linguists, you have your grammarians, but...

that's not who we talk to. That's not, you know, 99% of who we talk to and who we help are people who want to connect through English, whether it's at work or in our daily lives or going abroad for a business trip. It's always about connection. So it doesn't mean that we don't try to be correct. Of course we try to be correct. We work on grammar. We work on vocabulary. The question is, what do you do when you hear yourself make a mistake? Do you break eye contact? Do you shrivel up?

Because that is what breaks the connection. It's not your mistake. So that's the theory. That's the going idea is that it's not your mistakes that break connection. It's the way you act after you make a mistake. So let's maintain eye contact when we hear ourselves make a mistake and let's maintain the connection. Yeah, absolutely. And it's always worth remembering what the purpose of language is. It is to make connections. You know, language is not here to just sort of impose this sense that it has to be completely correct. That's not what makes it functional. Yes.

you know, yes. Language functions in, in its, in its sort of pragmatism, you know, in, in the effects that it has. Right. Um, yeah, we're super practical in the way we, we talk about language because I believe it's meant to be for the people out on the street. You're communicating. That's why we do it. It's not theoretical, but as you said, it is, you know, it,

You need a certain level of control over the language in order to be able to make it do what you want it to do and to achieve the sometimes fairly complex communication acts that we are involved in. And so, yeah, obviously, a level of control is necessary. And that relates to grammar and using the right words at the right times in the right way and...

getting your pronunciation under control and all that stuff. But the point is, the end result is making a connection with the person you're talking to. Yeah, I totally agree. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, great idea. Good catchphrase. So, Lindsay, it's been a few years since we talked. I think the last time...

Well, I mean, we just talked about half an hour ago, in fact, for your podcast. Right. We did. So I'll be turning up in an episode of the All Ears English podcast at some point. But before that, you said I think it was 2020. Yeah.

Was that during the pandemic or before? I can't remember. I'll have to look at the date. I have a feeling it was spring. I have a feeling it was before. Kind of before the world sort of changed forever. Yes, yes. Maybe it was just before. But anyway, so things are changing. The world is changing all the time. And so, you know, you're in the US, right? And I thought that it would be really interesting to talk to you about...

America today, and just to get a sort of view from the ground in terms of what it's really like in the USA these days. Tell us about living in America. What is the state of the country at the moment? How is it living in the US these days? And tell us a few things that you think are changing. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about this because I've been thinking about this lately, and that's why I wanted to bring it on your show. I've seen a number of shifts in our culture.

in politics, I guess, but also just politics are real. They affect our daily lives, our everyday lives, also kind of what people are doing, what young people are doing, how people are viewing life. So there's kind of three things that I wanted to talk about today. All right, so here we go. So the first big thing, I'll just say it in three words, unions are hot, right? So we're in a

Yeah.

Midwest was a, is, was more was a major car industry and unions dominated at that time. And then when we went into the Reagan era and the Bush era, we really went into more a big business era. Unions were weak. People didn't like unions. People are still skeptical of union. I'm still somewhat skeptical of unions as well, depending on what's going on. But I think

Overall, this is a positive thing because people in the US are able to negotiate for raises. There's been very high profile events that have gone on, like the Hollywood strike, the writer's strike. Did you hear about this, Luke, that happened last summer? Absolutely, yes. I did hear about the Hollywood writer's strike. It's also connected to AI and chat GPT and stuff like that. I think before we carry on and talk about that, I feel like we might need to define what

a union is? That's a good question. Yeah, good point. So a union is an organization that workers for generally larger companies can join. Usually it's by choice. You can join it. You can not join it. You pay dues to this union and they fight for you. So it's a collective bargaining thing where usually there's a president of the union and they will at certain times when things aren't right for you as a worker, they will go to bat for you and negotiate for raises, negotiate for time off, things like that.

That's what a union is. Yeah, we sort of associate unions with the slightly older industrial economic situation, right? So you mentioned the car manufacturing industry, which in the US was like such an important industry. I mean, these days it's called the Rust Belt, which is like this area...

in the United States, which, you know, places like Detroit and which other cities? 100%. So a lot of it is centered around Michigan. So Detroit, there are towns that are named after these cars. There's a place called Pontiac, I believe, Pontiac, Michigan. Yeah, they're all around that area. We did a whole unit on this in one of our courses. I actually went out there and interviewed people from these areas that are really, a lot of these places are down and out now because the car...

industry has boomed and kind of busted as cars have moved abroad to be manufactured abroad. Yeah. And that's why it's called the Rust Belt, isn't it? Because previously it was, was it the Iron Belt or the Steel Belt? Well, the Steel Belt is more in Pennsylvania, but yeah, you're talking about the manufacturing center of the country, right? So it all kind of blends together and unions were a big factor in the Steel Belt as well.

Right, okay. In the UK, yes, we also had... The unions were a huge presence in the country, especially in the 1970s, when things really came to a head where the unions really kind of had a lot of power, and they were really putting their foot down.

And negotiating hard with the government. And we had, especially like the steel industry and the coal mines. So mining. Yes. And then very similar to the US where you had Ronald Reagan arriving on the scene. Yeah. We had Margaret Thatcher who came along. Okay. So we've moved in parallel politically somewhat. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So Thatcher really sort of like fought hard with the unions and...

almost obliterated the union movement in the UK. And she changed the country, she liberalised the economy. We moved away from a manufacturing-based economy and towards a financial services-based economy. And the country has never really been the same ever since.

Yes, a very similar path of the US, right? We had Ronald Reagan, massive tax cuts. And then we had George H. Bush, also conservative. We had Bill Clinton, who actually made some conservative leading moves, even though he was a Democrat. And we're now kind of seeing the result of these, this more conservative economy.

We've had a lot of billionaires being created in the last 20 years due to this, but we've also got a lot of poverty in the... I mean, poverty is a relative term, right? I have to be careful using that word. It's different around the world, but...

the middle class is shrinking and it's due to these politicians that were quite conservative historically and it's trickling down now. Right? Yes, yes, yes, yes. And the result is that maybe sort of workers have fewer rights and less bargaining power than they used to. I mean, you know, the fact that you've got more billionaires now than you had before is also evidence of this. I mean, I don't know if the presence of billionaires is a sign of a healthy country or not.

I don't know. Because, you know, if you've got lots of billionaires, it just means that there's less money going around for everybody else. Right. I mean, billionaires? Like, who? In my opinion, who really needs to be a billionaire? Now, this is... Even that is a very controversial statement in the US, right? Because we believe in...

personal freedoms. If you want to become a billionaire, you should be able to become a billionaire. And I'm not a big fan of a state tax or things like that. So I'm a little bit moderate politically speaking, to be honest, but millionaires, maybe billionaires, that's pushing the needle a little, I think.

Yeah, especially when these days you talk about the 1% or the 0.1% where something like 99% of the wealth, like 99% of all of the money and capital and ownership is in the hands of 1% of the nation, then that's not a very healthy situation. Yeah, and we're seeing this shakeout now. And so we're seeing a massive increase in homelessness rates.

In cities like Phoenix, Arizona, there's entire homeless rows where you'll see streets and streets where businesses have gone out of business because there's so much homelessness on the streets. My city of Denver has a homelessness problem. You'd be shocked if you just took a flight into Denver and...

went downtown. And so anyways, coming back to what this has caused post-pandemic, I think people during the pandemic had a chance to be at home thinking through this and something happened. Something was ignited in people's hearts and souls around, hey, I want to be paid what I'm worth. So we've had some major high-profile wins like the SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood strike. And I think what tipped that one is that the actors got involved. Yeah.

Right. So it was the writers that went first and then finally the actors tipped it into a win for them. And the thing about the actors getting involved is that they suddenly weren't allowed to do all the press that they would normally do for their movies. Yes. That was part of the strike is that they weren't allowed. No one was allowed to talk about any of the new projects. Correct. Correct. Rippled out into the public consciousness.

Yes. That put everything to a halt. And then once you start to affect people's TV and people's movie entertainment, unfortunately, that's where it starts to... You start to have wins. And so they had a win. I mean, I know... I don't know the exact details. They got some wage increases. They got some guarantees around AI. Although...

we don't know what's going to happen with AI in the future. I don't know if they felt like, I guess any good negotiation is never a win on either side, right? It's just good enough for both sides, right, Luke? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And then the United Autos, autoworkers had a win and 25% increase in base wages through 2028. Starbucks has had mixed results, but they are unionizing, which is something we haven't seen historically at all around Starbucks. So yeah, unions are hot, Luke. Yeah.

This is very interesting. I hadn't actually realized that the unions were rallying in this way in the United States today. I was aware of the Hollywood writers' strike, but I wasn't really aware of the other things you mentioned there. Is this something to do with having a Democrat in charge in the White House?

I think so. You know, Joe Biden is known to be like Union Joe. Like he is, he's the guy who has built a brand for himself, whether it's just PR, whether it's true. I think it's partly true. He wrote Amtrak. Amtrak is our belabored train system. Really, really weak, really poor compared to all European trains. He would ride Amtrak up from Wilmington, Delaware, which is a very working class town where he's from up to DC every day. So he would be sitting next to the people.

Right. And so he's known as a union guy or a pro-labor, a pro-everyday person. And so I think it is. He actually showed up. It's the first time a U.S. president has ever showed up to a union negotiation or in support of the unions, which was a huge deal. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah. And I think Gen Z. Sorry, go ahead, Luke. I was just going to compare it to the U.K. So in the U.K., we have a conservative government still, and they've been in power since 2010. Right.

And we are really feeling the effects. I mean, the Conservative Party is, in English you would say, it's on its last legs at the moment. You know, after Brexit, after the sort of disastrous way they handled the coronavirus and the economic situation. And it's frankly a huge embarrassment. I mean, this government is appalling and everyone agrees, really. And they are just desperately kind of clutching at different sorts of populist ideas.

policies to try and maintain power. But there's going to be an election next year, similar to the US. You're going to have a presidential election. So we've got an election coming up. Everyone expects the Conservatives to be out. But in terms of unions in the UK, the big thing over the last couple of years has been the trains. So you mentioned Amtrak. In the United Kingdom, we don't have a nationalised rail network anymore. It was sold under Margaret Thatcher.

to private companies, the understanding being that the market, the competitiveness of the market would make sure that services would be as good as they can be, right? That's the idea. Right, right. These different private train companies around the country would compete and provide the customers with the best service. Well, in fact, what actually happened is that the train companies, similar to the water companies and other ones,

Basically, their bottom line was the most important thing. And so the shareholders got their profits and not enough money was being invested in the train networks. And train staff, drivers, but all the other people who work on trains were really not getting paid a fair wage. And the unions stepped in.

And there's been this long running negotiation over the rights and pay of train staff. And it's been in the press a lot. And the, you know, Mick Lynch is the union leader and he's an incredible person because he's been like maybe the most vocal and articulate, um,

critic of the government recently and I think he sort of damaged the Tories, that's the Conservatives quite a lot just by simply being interviewed and by applying simple common sense to the situation.

So anyway, I just wanted to add that, you know, just to add the UK's perspective to a similar situation. Yeah, sure. Sure. I mean, I think it's normal that societies flip from one side to the other. There's always a backlash no matter what direction you're going. Conservative moves back to liberal. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, you know, you have issues with antitrust when you have, yeah, we're going to privatize an industry and then there's really one company that's dominating. Right. And then that's not good for that's not letting a private business serve society. Yeah. And their focus is on privacy.

Making sure that the shareholders get their big dividends, you know, and that the company directors get their bonuses, you know. Right. Like, I'm sorry, but the idea that competition results in the best service for customers isn't always true, you know.

Totally. When companies, their main objective is to essentially scrape profit out of the whole enterprise. Yeah. And then you see large companies, you know, doing a round of layoffs and you see their stock surge. It's just something is out of whack, right? Something's not quite right. So, I mean, that's kind of what it is.

the biggest shift that we've seen. And it'll be really interesting to see what Gen Z does, right? Because this translates down in the US to a new generation of workers entering the workforce that never really went to the office, right? They're working from home because they graduated into the pandemic and they're asking for more money. They're asking for what they're worth. Sometimes I think their asks are a little out of reality. Like they're going to have to reconcile with what's realistic, but

it's probably a good thing, you know, in the long run, it's a good thing, I think, for workers. So you talk about Generation Z, that's basically the younger generation that are coming into the workforce now. Yeah. Yeah. The generation before millennials. So people who are in their 20s, like early 20s right now,

Yeah. Yeah. It's a new way of looking at how to ask for what you're worth at work. Gen Z, millennials. And then is it Gen X? Gen X. Yes. Correct. I think I'm in, I think I'm between millennial and Gen X actually. I don't know what that's called. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. So yeah, we're talking about Gen Z, the younger generation coming through and the

Assessing the sort of the working environment of today. Yeah. Yeah. And also there's the shift from being loyal to a company and now kind of being loyal to one's own career and oneself. That's the shift I've seen on the individual level.

Right. We don't stay at companies for a lifetime. And that was before the pandemic that had changed. Yes. That's even more amplified now. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. And there's a very this this sort of fluid workforce in terms of changing from one job to another, maybe a bit more regularly, but also in terms of location, that the pandemic allowed everyone to. Well, it forced everyone to work from home.

And that's kind of stuck with us, hasn't it? That culture. Yeah, it's really interesting. And it's like WFH, work from home versus WFA, work from anywhere. I'm seeing a lot of people in my circle kind of taking their laptops and having a well-paying full-time job in tech with benefits, everything. But taking the laptop, I'm going to fly to Boston for the weekend. So I'm going to be at the airport logging on from the airport. This is really common now. And it makes me wonder what's going to happen to cities. Yeah.

right? Because cities were kind of coming back. They were getting safer. They were having a boom and now they're having a bust. They're coming, you know, they're becoming more sparse. You don't see people downtown as much anymore on certain days. So it makes me wonder how are things going to change within the US demographically? Yeah. Yeah. Because you've got these big cities. I mean, obviously we think of the major ones like, you know, Manhattan. I feel like Manhattan may be a different case because it's

What could happen with that and similarly with London and maybe Paris is that to an extent these city centre areas, these sort of downtown areas become...

Like almost like a city theme park. There are places where you go for the day to have a shopping experience or something or leisure experience rather than a place that you go to do your job. Right. But it makes you think like if New York City just becomes Times Square for tourists, is it even New York City anymore? Because do tourists go for other tourists or they go to see what life is like in New York City? Right. Yeah. Who knows? Yeah.

Yeah. I just, I pulled a stat from Forbes that they're saying now, as of June, I don't know if this is probably, it's probably an updated stat here. There was 50% occupancy in Midtown Manhattan, like downtown New York City for the office buildings. And that's going to bring- 50%. They were half empty, those buildings, office buildings. And it might be edging up to 60, 65 now. But the question to me is, is it always going to be

less than before? Or is it going to fully come back? Because that means that vendors, that lunch spots, delis just don't have the business they need, right? So the question is, yeah, it's more an open question. Like what's going to happen to these big cities, San Francisco, Manhattan, Chicago? We saw people relocate. Did you see that in the UK? Did people like buy second homes or move out of London? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's always happening, but it certainly happened a lot more easily and people were a lot more ready to do it. You know, when they realized, oh, I can just work from anywhere, then I might as well just be anywhere. And yeah, a lot of people are moving out of the city for sure. Okay. And are they, have you seen anyone move back to the city because their works called them back? They're all kind of staying in the countryside. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. We're seeing, you know, second tier, third tier cities become more popular. And this collides with the price of the cost of living. Like even though New York City is half empty or three, a quarter empty, it's still really expensive to live there. So people are, the math's just not making sense for people anymore, you know? So they want a cheaper cost of living. And that's another big trend. Like our housing costs are up 50% since 2019. Yeah.

Oh, really? Yeah. What? Housing costs are up 50% since 2019. Yeah. That's from the Wall Street Journal. I don't know if you listen to the journal podcast. It's a great show. Brings in economics and politics. Great show. That was a quote they studied since 2019. Housing costs in the US are up 50%. Oh my God. And not to mention energy costs as well, because I don't know if in the States it's the same, but in the UK there's been a huge energy crisis.

Even though the energy companies recorded record profits, where literally all the consumers, their energy bills doubled. With the war in Ukraine and various other things, suddenly the cost of energy just went up like that. And of course, it just got transferred directly to the customers. And some people just couldn't afford to heat their homes anymore.

Oh my gosh. Here's me trashing the government again. I am not a fan of the conservative government. Yeah. But meanwhile, they're kind of going, we've got to reward the energy companies. You can see where their priorities are. It's just to allow the energy companies to take away these huge profits. Meanwhile, there's people just freezing in their homes. It's just mad. It's crazy, isn't it? That's wild. That's crazy. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so I wonder what would New York be like? I mean, as an example, if like all of the office workers leave and you've just got these empty spaces, including, as you said, restaurants and delis where people would be buying their lunch and that's all empty. But that kind of real estate has still got a ton of value. It's got value. So surely...

other things are going to come in to sort of take the place of these people who aren't there. Yeah. What else could happen in these spots? It's actually very interesting. I mean, I think a more, even a more dramatic example is San Francisco because San Francisco was the hub for, right? So Silicon Valley and like the Facebook crowd, they all, many of them lived in San

San Francisco and bust to Cupertino or wherever their offices are. And so that's the city I think is even more at risk. That'll be really interesting to see what happens with San Francisco. Have you been to San Fran? Yeah, yeah. A couple of times. You like it? Yeah, I loved it. It's a really cool place. It's a cool city. It's a cool city. But

These guys, especially the people that work in Silicon Valley, are especially work from anywhere, right? Literally. It's almost required to hire people in this sector now to have to have that ability. And so that's the one that I think I could see...

New York companies coming back before San Francisco. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. So big shifts, big shifts in what people want to. I think urban life was kind of in style pre-pandemic. And now there's just a big question mark. A lot of people are saying, I want space for my dog to run around. I want to go hiking on the weekends. I want to be closer to nature. So my question is, does that continue five years from now? Or do we want to come back to the cities and have the urban life? Yeah.

That's the interesting part. And very interesting clash of cultures to an extent. If these metropolitan people who previously lived in cities are going out to more rural places, then it's interesting what happens in those rural areas. Because in the States in the past, there's been quite a large cultural divide between the metropolitan side of things and the rural side of things. And if these things are mixing together, that's

surely good, a good thing. Yeah, that's really fascinating, right? So brands like Sweet Greens, do you know the Fast Casual salad brand? Do you guys have that brand? I mean, Fast Casual is hot in the States. Okay, you take McDonald's, how fast that is, and then we don't want McDonald's anymore. We want salads. We want healthy fast food. So Fast Casual, salad bowls, things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That idea. I'm sure that's... We've got that too. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. So expanding delivery routes out into the suburbs to deliver to people working on their laptops in their living rooms in the suburbs, that changes everything, right? That changes a lot of things around cost of living. Now, where are those workers going to be living? Can they afford to live in the suburbs now? Because now people have bought houses out there. So everything's in flux. I feel like it's just a big question mark. Yeah.

You know, these shifts, what really happens. Yeah, very interesting stuff.

And so, you know, I was mentioning the state of the Conservative government and how they'll probably be elected out, I guess. So we'll see. We'll see what kind of government we get next time round. Who knows? I mean, who knows? The Conservatives have a knack of holding on, especially when you get to election day, people sort of get to the polling booth and they're about to cast their vote. And then they're kind of like, oh,

no, I don't think I'll risk it, you know, because the conservative vote is traditionally the sort of safe vote, the economically safe vote. So we'll see. But anyway, what about in the States? What's the kind of relationship with the American citizens and their government? That's often a very complex relationship, isn't it? Yeah. Well, I mean, I can't even get started on what's going to happen this fall, right? This is going to be stress to the max this fall, depending on what ends up happening with the

Who's running for president, right? What do we end? Do we end up with the same matchup of Donald Trump and Biden? But that's for later. Let's save our...

minds for later. I'm sure we'll all be going crazy. But yeah, so I think there was a weird shift that especially institutions like public health, right? In the pandemic, we had Anthony Fauci. I don't know if you know the name. Yeah. Yeah. So he was the head guy of the Department of Health or I'm not sure which anyways, the ones that were doing the research on the pandemic. And

At first, they said, don't wear masks. And then after a few weeks, they said, yes, do wear masks. And people had a major problem with that. All of a sudden, simple health guidance became super partisan. And we became really divided. I'm curious if this happened in England. You know, it was like, if you're wearing a mask, you're liberal, kind of, or you're...

gullible. You believe the government, if you're not wearing a mask, like the perspective from them was that they were suspicious of the government. They don't trust anyone. They don't want to be told what to do. And some of this is in the DNA of American culture, not being wanting to be told what to do, but it just became really partisan. And we're just talking about beating a pandemic, you know? Yeah. So yeah, I,

I was aware of that in the States and, you know, we're all aware of the kind of the more libertarian elements in the United States who are sort of like, you know, really ruthlessly anti-government, you know, in any form at all. Even, you know, like from outside of the States, we look at you guys and we kind of think, okay, so Barack Obama just wants to introduce public health care, free health care so that anyone can afford to go to hospital if they need to, blah, blah, blah. It sounds totally reasonable, but...

And yet there's a lot of Americans who are like, you know, holding their guns and going, this is, you know, this is like a, what about my liberties? It's like they just want to, if you break your leg, you can just get, you know, like what's the matter? So we totally see that and we see the way that is. So in terms of the masks and the response to that, yeah, there was in France and in the UK, there was a sort of kickback against it.

But not to the same extent as in the US. So we still have those elements, those sort of elements that maybe have a slightly more conspiratorial way of thinking about these things. And so naturally, especially when the vaccine came in, there were a lot of people who were against the vaccine and had decided that it was...

Well, I mean, I think there's actually a sliding scale in terms of the vaccine because to an extent, you know, some people were sort of saying they're injecting 5G chips into your arm. They were, you know, what?

But other people then have a actually fairly legitimate sort of sense of restraint about it. But it's like this thing, you know, like the Oxford vaccine or whatever vaccine it is, it's been rushed through. It hasn't been properly checked. And in fact, there are side effects that can affect people's hearts. And so, you know, and then at the same time, other people are going, but this pandemic, you know, it can kill so many people. And we've just got to get on top of this. So that was a very intense time.

And yeah, there was a lot of distrust knocking around. There was a lot of distrust. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I felt bad for the people who were just trying to do the research and communicate the research. I mean, the way science works is that it's always changing. We didn't know much about the pandemic when it first broke out. We needed the research. And then we got the research. We got a little more information. And then you inform the public, but especially the heads of these departments like Fauci or I'm

Forgetting her name now. There was another woman that was heading up the Department of Health. They really got torn up in the media and became like a scapegoat and everyone blamed them. It was tough to watch. It was tough to watch. Yeah. Yeah. It was a pretty scary time for many reasons. Yeah. And just sort of watching...

you know, you just see some conversation about the subject and like go into the comments section of YouTube. It's like, oh my God, oh God, look at the attitudes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's been a shift. I feel like I was thinking to myself, what if the pandemic had broken out, let's say in the nineties, I think,

I think the attitude would have been different towards just listening to the guidance and saying like, at least yes, around the, around the vaccine. Sure. You know, everyone has their right to question it and, and, and touch and go around that. But masks, I think there would have been less resistance to masks.

That's my opinion. So that shifted a little bit. Yeah. The way the internet has evolved and stuff. And on one hand, it's allowed a certain level of, let's say, citizen journalism to happen and a certain level of freedom of information. But on the other hand, it has led to a large breakdown of trust in public institutions. Yeah.

Yeah. I think the internet is the key. Look like that's the thing that's changed since the nineties, right? We are all connected and that allows us to kind of be in our echo chambers. Right. So really these shifts, like just to kind of sum it all up, it's just all a question mark. We don't know. I think it's too early to say what were the effects of the pandemic? What has really shifted in American culture? Are these permanent shifts or are we going back to the way things were? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know either, but it's very interesting to see how things are going to pan out.

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So this episode, Lindsay, I think is going to be published in January 2024. So it's quite apt, really, that we're talking about looking to the future and so on. And just generally, yeah, of course, we all hope and pray that as we move into a new year, that we get a more stable future.

and reasonable situation, not just in our countries, but everywhere around the world. We just hope that... Can everyone just go back to normal, please? I know. Can we not have so much stress when we watch the news or turn on the... Open up the New York Times, right? I know there are reasons. There are reasons for everything. But anyway, this is sort of what we hope for, isn't it? I suppose.

Very interesting, Lindsay, to have this conversation and also to be looking to the future. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in terms of elections in the US and the UK this year. Yes. Yeah, great. Okay.

Yeah, good. Very interesting in-depth conversation there. You know, I think, yeah, I think for your listeners, I mean, these are great conversation starters. And that's what we always say on All Ears English, you know, take what you've heard today and start conversations, right? This is how we work through stuff. I think as a global community, how do we work through the division that's going on? We talk about it.

In the US, people aren't talking anymore, right? Yes, it can be dangerous to talk about things when everyone's feelings are so heightened by, as you say, the echo chambers that they exist in. And, you know, we get together at Christmas with different members of our family or extended family.

and these things come up and they can be flashpoints. They can be points, big points of disagreement. And it's, it's very distressing really, you know, the, the, we really need to try to be reasonable and sort of listen to each other as much as we can and avoid those sorts of knee jerk reactions. Yeah. I mean,

I think for me, like at first there is that, there's that knee jerk. My ego is linked to this, right? My position on this. But then if I sit down and I have like a full dinner with someone, I start to get to know them as a person. And then that's where things can start to break down for me, you know, because now there's a human being in front of me and there's a reason why they think this. And so then I can try to understand that their history, their family, all these things.

That's, I feel like, how we're going to get through the moment of division globally. We get back to connection, not perfection again there. Just have dinner with people and make connections. Kind of, yeah. Okay. Lindsay, thanks so much for talking to me on the show. And thanks for inviting me onto your podcast as well. Of course. We don't know which number episode that will be yet. But I guess in the show notes for this episode, you'll find a link to that episode as well if you want to know it. It's going to be about...

differences between British and American English. Yes, 100%. Always a pleasure to work with you here and be on each other's shows, Luke. And thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Pleasure. All right. Have a lovely day and speak to you soon. You too. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye.

So here we are. This is the end of the episode, more or less, although I'm going to sort of ramble a little bit at the end here like normal. Let's see. First of all, thanks again to Lindsay for this episode. It was very interesting to listen to her talk about the United States and to get her comments and observations and the rest of it. Interesting stuff. I hope that you found that interesting too.

Interesting, interesting, interesting. It'd also be interesting to see what happens in those elections which are coming up. Presidential elections. Is it in November, December? Certainly near the end of the year. What's going to happen? Will Donald Trump return? Will Joe Biden hold on to the presidency? Will Trump even be allowed to run for president? Or will he be in jail? I don't know.

We'll see, won't we? We'll see what happens. And what about the UK? There's going to be a general election. We don't know exactly when it's going to be, but it's almost certain to happen this year. I think it legally has to happen at some point this year.

Will the Conservatives hold on to power? Will we have Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister? Will the Conservatives decide that they need to get rid of Rishi Sunak even before a general election? Because he's not popular. He's not a popular leader in or out of the Conservative Party. No one seems to like him very much.

So maybe they'll chuck him out and we'll have another prime minister, yet another conservative prime minister who hasn't actually been chosen by the electorate. How many has it been in the last few years? Of course, we had Theresa May, who took over from David Cameron, and then she got replaced by Boris Johnson. Excuse me.

And then Boris got replaced by Theresa May, excuse me, for about five seconds. And then Rishi Sunak came in. Maybe we'll get someone else before the election. The polls seem to suggest that the Conservatives are going to lose. They're going to lose quite badly. This is what the polls suggest. Who knows? I mean, we'll see. I've talked about this during the episode a little bit, didn't I?

I don't mean to get overly political on this podcast, but every now and then it's interesting to talk about these things. So British and American English, that's what you just heard, the two versions. And remember, episode 2140 of All Ears English, you can hear me talking to Lindsay about differences between American English and British English, including things like pronunciation, accent.

vocabulary, and general communication style. And it's called the subtle differences between British and American English because, you know, for the most part, British and American English are, you know, really similar, right? It's the same, it's still the same language, just slightly different versions. But for the most part, it's all exactly the same. So it's easy to, and I say this in the episode, it's easy to sort of, what's the word for it, overestimate the differences between

Or to imagine that the two languages are vastly different. They're not. For the most part, it's exactly the same. We share the same words, the same grammar. But there are certain subtle differences. Obviously, when a British person speaks to an American person or vice versa, we know instantly. When I meet an American person, I'm pretty certain instantly that they're from the United States. Maybe Canada, because that's so similar.

And normally in the United States, they can tell that they're speaking to a British person. Obviously, it depends. Some Americans in some part of the country, they don't know. Like, oh, where are you from? Are you from Australia? I've had that a few times, actually, on holiday in the United States. And people are sort of like, where are you from? Are you Irish? No, I'm from England.

But, you know, for the most part, exactly the same. Anyway, listen to episode 2140 of All Ears English and you'll hear us talking about those differences and things like that. Okay. All right. So coming up on Luke's English Podcast soon. I sound like a professional presenter, don't I, when I say that? Or like a sports presenter. Coming up next on Luke's English Podcast, we've got all the goals from Saturday's football match.

Anyway, coming up on Luke's English podcast over the next few weeks, what have I got in store for you? So I've got a couple of other conversation episodes in the pipeline. I mentioned some time ago that I've got an episode about UNESCO and working at UNESCO. That's probably going to be the next episode, probably.

So I haven't, you know, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about that. That hasn't disappeared. That's coming. So there's going to be that. And also I've got an episode with a returning guest, a popular returning guest who will be back on the show with some news, interesting news to share.

And other stuff too. I've got about two more conversation episodes and then we'll be back to the other types of episodes that I do on my own. Yes, including some story episodes. I know that those story episodes are popular. That might be the main reason why I recently got a million views on YouTube because people like subscribe story episodes, please. And then I'm like, here's some other things that you didn't necessarily subscribe for.

But it's okay. I know that the story episodes are popular. More story episodes are coming. Right? Now, those story episodes are a little difficult to prepare. They take a lot more time to prepare. Also, it's not always easy to find appropriate stories for those episodes, right? Because, ideally...

the stories will be the right length. So that means not too short, but not too long. If a story is too short, I mean, to be honest, I did an episode about a 100-word story. That's just 100 words. And that episode was popular, and there was loads of stuff to be discussed and explained in just that 100-word story. If it's a good 100-word story, that could be a really good idea. But

So, you know, you want a story that's short, a story that's not too long, because if a story is, even if it's a short story, if it's still more than a few pages long, makes it difficult to turn it into a podcast episode, because naturally what I want to do is tell you the story and then obviously use it to teach you English, which means going through vocabulary and maybe grammar as well, and possibly pronunciation in terms of reading the story out.

So if a story is too long, then that just becomes impossible, really, because like with the Sherlock Holmes story I did last year, I read out the story and then just spend a bit of time summarising what you've heard and then continue like that until the story's finished. And that's like over an hour, just even for a story that's about 10 pages long.

So even short stories can be too long. So, you know, it can be difficult to find exactly the right stories for...

for story episodes on this podcast, and then it takes a little bit of time to prepare them. Also, you know, you've got to choose the right story from the right period of time. I've got to think about what kind of English. You probably don't care. You don't really care really about all these details, do you? And I probably shouldn't worry about them too much either. I should just basically find some interesting stories. If they're short enough for me to go into detail about the language, then great. If they're longer, then I can just

kind of have fun digging into the performance part of sharing the story with you and then summarizing bits as we go. Anyway, it's all good. It's all good. And I've got some story stuff coming. A short one.

where I can go into the language a bit more, and a longer one, which hopefully you'll just find entertaining, and you'll just get swept up and carried away with the story. And I'll help you to understand the main events of it, okay? Also, I've got my own, by the way, I've got my own short stories, which are basically anecdotes from my life, which I've written down,

And I mean, I often obviously share stories and anecdotes on this podcast anyway. They're usually just things I tell you spontaneously rather than stories which are written down. But I have actually written down a lot of my stories and I use them for premium episodes. Right. I have a premium series called Storytime. I've published, I don't know how many Storytime episodes, five, is it six episodes?

And those storytime episodes are basically true stories which I've written down and then which I use to help you learn English. And I've done ones about my childhood, sort of moments when I got into trouble at school, something that happened to my brother, and, you know, just some fun stories from childhood. I've got more storytime episodes planned as well. I've got loads of other stories to tell. Anyway, so...

About story episodes, it takes time to find the right stories, to prepare them, to record them. I can't just do story episodes all the time. I will do some, but I'll also continue to make plenty of other types of episodes too, just like I've always done. You know.

I think also that's better for your English as well, because you get to hear a variety of things. So you've got to hear a variety of things. You've got to hear different voices, different accents, different sound conditions, different subjects, different topics. All of these things are in my mind when I plan and prepare episodes. I've got lots of different episodes in the pipeline in various stages of preparation. So anyway, after a couple of conversation episodes...

You'll get some solo episodes with some stories. I've got some sort of joke stuff, some dissecting the frog stuff, and all kinds of other stuff. Okay. I wonder what you think, what you have thought, or what you thought while listening to this episode. Share your comments in the comments section. And also, I'm curious to know where you are and what's going on in your country at the moment.

Obviously, you know, we might end up getting into political stuff. I don't want to have some big argument in the comments section. Maybe that's up to you. But always, I always encourage you to be respectful, right, and diplomatic in the comments section, just as I would expect my students to behave correctly in a classroom of mine. Similarly, I want to kind of extend that

sentiment towards my comments section where I expect people always to be polite and respectful and, you know, to just use basic politeness. But anyway, you can let us know where you're from and what's going on in your country. Do you have similar observations? Are there similar trends happening where you are? Let us know in the comments section. That could be interesting. Talking of comments...

Responses to the previous episode, which was the one with Nick Peachy about multimodal communication. It was very nice to see lots of positive responses to that. People saying things like what? Well, first of all, people saying that they didn't struggle to understand the conversation. And the reason that people made that comment is because I had said in the introduction that I was a bit concerned that

Or I predicted that people would write, oh, I can't understand, I can't understand Nick. Because that does happen quite a lot when I get guests. I say quite a lot sometimes. When I have guests on the show, people often sort of comment that they can't understand the guests. It's partly just because they're not used to it. Or, you know, surprise, surprise, it could just be a question of level of English, you know.

You know, that's kind of the whole point. I want to get you familiar with different voices. It's important to practice listening to other people, not just me, in less than perfect audio conditions. But for the Nick Peachy episode, yeah, people saying that they understood it and that...

They found it very interesting. So that's great. Also, at the end of that episode, I was kind of like reflecting on some of the things that Nick and I were talking about, including things like what

what my podcast room seems to say about me. And I was saying that I was considering making it more minimal, even installing a curtain or something in the background. I actually had decided not to do that because I just don't think it's possible. But a couple of people commented saying, no, no, no, don't change your background. It looks great. It's kind of authentic. It tells us about who you are and all those things. So, you know, that's nice. Thanks for the encouragement. What else?

What else? What else? People commenting about the values that my podcast has. Now, Lindsay in All Ears English, she's like totally on top of this kind of thing. And she's defined, she defined quite a long time ago what the values of her podcast were and its connection, not perfection, which is a decent kind of statement to make. For me, I guess...

From the very beginning of my show, it was real British English, right? So it's British English, obviously, because that's the version of English that I speak. But it's real British English in the sense that, you know, it's about authenticity and about being genuine and trying to show you how English is spoken, you know, by people, you know, just being...

spontaneous and genuine and natural and that sort of thing. Anyway, thank you for your comments in response to the last episode. It was nice to read your words. I think I'm going to stop recording this now. Am I going to stop now? I think I'm going to stop now. I think so. Yes. I mean, why would I continue? I don't have any specific other things to talk to you about.

You know, the only other reason to continue now would just be to hang out for a little while. Should we do that? Should we just hang out for a little bit? Okay. Obviously, I'm going to talk. We're not just going to sit here and, like, get on our phones. Yeah, let's just hang out together and we'll just sit there on our phones. No, I'm not going to do that. Shall I try and play a song? Shall I try and do that? It's been a long time since I did that. Now, I've got... See, the thing is, if I try and do a song...

there's a chance that it'll get blocked on YouTube. And if that does happen, I'll have to edit it out and it'll only be in the audio episode. So anyway, let's see. I've got no idea which one I'm going to do. I haven't done, I used to, you know, long-term listeners will remember that I've used to sing songs at the end of episodes quite a lot. By the way, if you don't want to hear me singing a song, if that's not your cup of tea, then that's the end of the episode. Thank you very much for listening and I'll speak to you next time. Nice one.

Otherwise, if you want to stick around and listen to a song, then be my guest. What am I going to do? Let's try Across the Universe, Beatles. Let's try. I can't promise. To be fair, I have not practiced this recently. I've got to get all of this set up as well, right? Got to get the microphone. I've struggled to get it all set up. Okay, okay.

So what's this song about? I'll let you work it out for yourself. The words, there'll be a link on the page for this episode on my website for the words, for the lyrics and the chords as well. And John Lennon wrote this when he was in India in 1968. And they were off on a meditation retreat doing transcendental meditation near the banks of the river Ganges.

They spent a couple of months over there, a way to escape from the sort of madness of their lives, to try and find a bit of peace and peace of mind. And John wrote this when he was out there, and it's very inspired by that period. And the words are nice. They've got a nice rhythm to them, a nice cadence. The chorus goes, Jai Guru Deva Om. So that's a reference to like Indian, an Indian guru. ♪

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. They sliver... If you see or hear lots of edits in this, it means that I got the song wrong and I've had to cut and edit. Right? Because...

I'm not able to, I'm not a professional musician, so I'm not able to just pick up the guitar and just instantly perform like this perfect song. Professional musicians, they perform every night of the week in front of audiences, you know, if they're on tour or something. And so it's just, they're just totally in the zone, in the musical zone. For me, it's like, just shove me in front of a group of learners of English. Sure, I can just snap into it.

put a guitar in my hand and it might take me a little while to just get myself together. All right. Okay. All right. Hold on. According to my notes, I should be playing this in a different part of the guitar. According to my notes, I should be playing this at a different part of the guitar because apparently it's easier for my voice. One, two, three, four, five, six, all the way up on the sixth fret of the guitar. Up there. Is that even in tune?

It'll do. Professional show business. One, two, three, four, five, six. Let's see if I can actually get this done before the sun goes down. MUSIC

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe. Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, possessing and caressing me. Jai Guru Deva Om

Nothing's gonna change my world Nothing's gonna change my world Nothing's gonna change my world Nothing's gonna change my world

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes. They call me on and on across the universe. Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox. They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe. Jigaroo.

Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world. Sounds of laughter, shades of life are ringing through my opened ears, inciting and inviting me.

Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns and calls me on and on across the universe. Chai Guru Dei Om Nothing's gonna change my world.

Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world. If you're wondering, who is this Dave that you keep singing about?

That's Jai Guru Deva. I don't know who Jai Guru Deva is. I mean, I guess he's an Indian guru, right? Who is Jai Guru Deva? Jai Guru Deva Om. This is a Sanskrit mantra.

notably known for being recited in the songs across the universe by the Beatles, and All This Is That by the Beach Boys. Jai means victory or glory to. Guru, as you know, means master or teacher. And Dev, that's Dev, not Dave, means divine. So it's not like glory to the great teacher Dave. Dev means divine. So it's basically glory to the divine master.

And OM is considered to be the primordial sound of the universe, the eternal vibration that vibrates through every single one of us at all times. So basically, all glory to the divine master that is the eternal vibration of existence.

And on that note, I think it's time to say goodbye. So thank you very much for listening to this podcast. Have a lovely afternoon, evening, morning or night, and I will speak to you next time. But for now, it's just time to say goodbye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Actually, we're still not done yet. You thought it was the end. It's not the end because...

The video version of this episode did get flagged up on YouTube for copyright reasons, as I thought it might do. And so the video viewers didn't get to hear that wonderful music that you just heard. And yeah, I'm sort of being sarcastic or self-deprecating. Anyway, instead of playing them the song, what I did for the video version was...

Let them see me play so they could still see the visuals. But I replaced the audio part because it's the audio bit that got flagged, right? So what I did was I over the top of the video, I just talked about the song and read out the lyrics.

and so that's what I'm going to play now at the end of this episode. Okay, so this is the audio track from the video version of this episode where I'm actually just talking about the song and giving a little bit of background information about that song. There's a bit of a story behind it and then I read through the lyrics as well. Okay, so that's what you're going to hear now and here we go.

Okay, so this is the bit that I have to remove from this video version because the song, as I said, got blocked on YouTube or it got copyright flagged.

So I'm not able to actually play the audio to you, as I said before, but you can still listen to this if you listen to the audio version of this podcast episode. So here I am. I'm just going to kind of talk to you while you can see the visuals of me sort of stumbling my way through this version of this song. And I'll read the lyrics to you. Actually, before I do that, let me just sort of give a few bits of information about the song.

So John Lennon wrote this song in India, as I said, after having an argument with his wife, Cynthia. Cynthia was with him in India and John was sort of struggling at that time. He couldn't, he had sort of difficulty sleeping. He'd had an argument with his wife and

And I think he was lying there feeling very frustrated and irritated. He went away. All these words came to him. I think it was like words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. I don't know if that's a comment on the way that his wife was just going on at him, but he certainly felt irritated.

So he said, I was lying next to my first wife in bed and I was irritated. She must have been going on and on about something and she'd gone to sleep and I kept hearing these words over and over flowing like an endless stream. I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of a cosmic song rather than an irritated song. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it.

But I was slightly irritable and I went downstairs and I couldn't get to sleep until I'd put it on paper. So that's interesting that he kind of was just in this irritated mood. These words were spinning around in his head. He just...

had had an argument with his wife, couldn't sleep. And so the song sort of like forced its way out of him, it seemed. But it actually, when you listen to it and listen to the words, it's very cosmic and very peaceful. And obviously he was inspired by the meditation that he'd been doing because they were out there in India trying to find peace of mind and

I think for John it was actually a very difficult period because despite the meditation and the peaceful setting, I think that he was going through serious changes. It's all very complicated, a lot of complicated psychology. And so it's like a weird combination of like frustration, probably going through changes, you know, the way that sometimes when you're going through big personal changes, it can seem very noisy in your head and so on.

Anyway, that's where the song comes from. And yeah, if you listen to the words, they're very cosmic and they're very sort of peaceful. And you definitely get the impression that a lot of these images come from probably the mental space that he was in after having spent a lot of time meditating. And I think I mentioned this lyric before.

at some point in this part of this episode, I can't remember now, I said I thought that the chorus part, which is Jai Guru Deva Om, I think I say that that's a reference to a guru, but it's not actually a reference to a guru. It's a mantra, right? A phrase that you say when meditating, intended to lull the mind into a higher consciousness. The words are in Sanskrit and they mean, I give thanks to Guru Dev Om.

who was the teacher of the Maharashi. Okay, so Gurudev was a guru. Okay, because I'm trying to work out what this means. I read one thing that said this is a reference to consciousness, transcendental consciousness itself. And then I've also read something that Gurudev is an actual person. Apparently he was the teacher of the Maharashi who was their guru.

The om at the end is the drawn out om used in meditation to relate to the natural vibration of the universe. You know, you know the natural vibration of the universe. While visiting the Maharashi in Rishikesh in India, John purchased a set of brass bracelets with the word Jai Guru Dev imprinted on them. The bracelets are now in the possession of Julian Lennon, his son, and were on display at the White Feather Monastery.

The Spirit of John Lennon exhibit at the Beatles' story in Liverpool. So the lyrics go like this. Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe. Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, possessing and caressing me. Jai Guru Deva. Nothing's gonna change my world.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes. They call me on and on across the universe. Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox. They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe. Jai Guru Deva. Om. Nothing's gonna change my world.

Sounds of laughter, shades of life are ringing through my open ears, inciting and inviting me. Limitless, undying love, which shines around me like a million suns. It calls me on and on across the universe. Jai Guru Deva. So there you go. Those are the lyrics of the song and some comments. You can listen to the song. I think it's on the original Let It Be album.

I don't think that John was ever particularly happy with any of the recorded versions of that song. And I feel like maybe the Beatles never really did the song justice enough.

in the recording studio. I feel like they could have done a better version of it, but they didn't manage to do it. Obviously, my version now, that's it, right? This is the ultimate version, isn't it now? Of course. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. So there we go. We're actually at the end of the episode now. And this episode took a strange turn, didn't it, at the end? We went from how the USA is changing to nothing's going to change my world and the

vibration of the universe. So I think it's a good point to stop. I'll now let you get back to the timeless vibration of the universe. But thank you very much for spending this time with me here at Luke's English Podcast. Speak to you next time. But for now, it's time to say goodbye. Bye, bye, bye for the second time in this episode. Bye, bye, bye. Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teacherluke.co.uk.

Whoa, easy there. Yeah.

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