English Learning for Curious Minds – Details, episodes & analysis

Discover the incredible story of The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Robbery, where cunning criminals stole $18 million worth of maple syrup. 

In this episode, we'll learn about the surprising details of this sticky crime and the unusual fight between the free market and government regulation in the world of Canadian maple syrup.

• Maple syrup: liquid gold from maple trees
• Quebec's maple syrup market dominance
• FPAQ's role in regulating syrup production
• Quotas and the strategic maple syrup reserve
• The emergence of a maple syrup black market
• Convicted fraudster Avik Caron and his plan
• Coordination among thieves to steal maple syrup
• The execution of the year-long theft operation
• Discovery and investigation of the $18 million theft

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

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George Best is seen as one of the most naturally talented footballers ever, but off the pitch, he battled demons.

From his glittering career at Manchester United to his struggles with alcoholism, in this episode, we'll learn about the wild life of one of football's greats.

• Life and career of George Best
• Comparison with modern footballers
• George Best's early career
• His rise to fame in the 1960s
• Best's off-pitch controversies and lifestyle
• Struggles with alcoholism
• Decline in football career and final years
• Financial issues and generosity
• Legacy and what went wrong
• Final reflections on his life

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Robert Fortune, a Scottish botanist, pulled off one of history's greatest acts of corporate espionage: stealing the secrets of tea production from China.

In this episode we'll explore his daring adventure, the fascinating world of 19th-century tea trade, and how his actions forever changed the global tea industry.

• Robert Fortune's theft of tea from China
• Importance of tea to Britain
• Opium trade with China
• Impact of Opium Wars
• Restrictions on foreign travel in China
• Fortune's disguise and exploration
• Discovery of tea production methods
• Transportation of tea plants to India
• Success of the Indian tea industry
• Robert Fortune's legacy

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It has been 5 years since the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In part three of this three-part mini-series, we look at what has happened since then and ask ourselves whether we are any closer to knowing the truth.

• Recap of the story so far
• Vince Muscat starts talking to the police
• Melvin Theuma: the middleman
• Yorgen Fenech & 17 Black
• The phantom job
• Melvin Theuma starts getting paranoid
• The arrest of Melvin Theuma
• The letter to be passed to Yorgen Fenech
• Keith Schembri's lost phone
• The public inquest
• Political changes since Daphne's death
• The corruption and scandal involved in Daphne's murder investigation
• Will the killers ever be brought to justice?

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/daphne-caruana-galizia-part-3

A few months after Daphne's brutal assassination, the Maltese police raided a potato shed.

They would "find" three men who would later admit to being involved in the murder, but were they really any closer to the truth?

• The initial investigations of Daphne's murder
• The December raid on the potato shed
• Vince Muscat & The DeGiorgio Brothers
• How the police caught the hitmen
• November 2019: when everything changed
• The arrest of Yorgen Fenech
• The power goes out and Keith Schembri is arrested
• Yorgen Fenech promises to "spill the beans"
• Fenech's pardon request is refused
• The resignation of the Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/daphne-caruana-galizia-part-2

On October 16th, 2017, a 52-year-old journalist was blown up in a car bomb outside her home in Malta.

In part one of our three-part mini-series, we'll learn about who she was, and who might have wanted her dead.

• The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia
• Introduction to Malta
• Why small island countries are more prone to corruption
• The early career of Daphne Caruana Galizia
• Why Daphne Caruana Galizia was so popular
• Economic growth in 21st-century Malta
• “Malta is 17 miles by nine and flooded with cocaine, corruption, and filthy money”
• Daphne's corruption allegations in Malta
• Why Daphne was very unpopular with some Maltese citizens
• The attacks and harassment she faced
• Claims against Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri & Joseph Muscat

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/daphne-caruana-galizia-part-1

He was the 45th President of the USA and the most controversial in recent history.

In this episode, we look at the life of Donald J. Trump and examine how he went from real estate developer to the leader of the free world.

• The early life of Donald Trump
• His paternal and maternal influences
• Accusations of racism against Fred Trump
• Avoiding getting drafted in the Vietnam War ("bone spurs")
• Getting into business with The Trump Organization
• Early business controversies
• Going upmarket and entering the casino business
• A small loan of 1 million dollars
• Developing the family business and becoming a (self-reported) billionaire
• Business problems in the 1990s
• Becoming a TV celebrity after "The Apprentice"
• Donald Trump's business failures & controversies
• Trump's political alliances over the years
• His path to The White House
• A return to politics?

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

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It's one of the most controversial topics in modern Spain; some say it's a cultural art form, and others say it's a brutal form of torture.

In this episode, we look at the history of bullfighting through the ages and ask ourselves what lies ahead.

• The matador looks up to the crowd
• What happens in a bullfight
• The early history of bullfighting
• Bullfighting in the Iberian peninsula
• The first "anti-bullfighting" legislation in the 16th Century
• The development of "modern" bullfighting
• The different styles of bullfighting
• General Franco & bullfighting
• The opposition to bullfighting
• Bullfighting today
• Will bullfighting ever be banned in Spain?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Keywords: Learn English, vocabulary, lessons, idioms, aprende inglés, idiomas, aprender inglês, apprendre l'anglais, imparare l’inglese, ingilizce öğren,英語を習う, تعلم الإنجليزية