Improvements coming this fall

We have some changes improvements coming to Plain English this fall:

1. The English expressions you learn may or may not appear in the main story. This will let us focus on those expressions that are most useful to you, whether or not you heard them in the first half of the lesson.
2. Each month will have a theme with three or four episodes. (The remaining four to six episodes will be about current events and trending topics.) This will let us intentionally create stories about a wide variety of topics, so everyone has something fun to listen to.

This month’s theme is fashion. The first episode about fashion will be on Thursday, when we’ll talk about why it’s so hard to find an outfit that fits you well.

Here’s a special episode I created about the topic:

And here’s the text of the special episode:

Well, I knew this would happen. I didn’t know when, but I knew it would happen someday.

Oh hi—it’s Jeff. We’re just coming off our summer series of episodes about daily life in the U.S. I wrote all those in June.

And over the summer, I had some time to think about the podcast. I’m going to introduce a few changes—no, not changes, that sounds scary—a few improvements. And I wanted to share them with you.

The first thing is something that’s been nagging me for a while. It’s not always easy to pick an English expression out of the main text anymore.

Here’s what I mean. Since the early days in Plain English, the episodes have all been the same. I tell a story in the first half. Then, in the second half, I show you how to use an expression. And I always look for the expression in the text of the story. So you’re learning an expression that you heard that day.

But here’s the thing. We’re now 700 expressions in, and I can’t always find a new expression in the story to use. Don’t get me wrong: there are still many more expressions and phrasal verbs for us to learn together. They just don’t always appear in the main podcast text.

So what am I getting at? Starting this month, I’ll still share an English expression with you in every episode. But it won’t necessarily be one that you heard in the main story. And I might refresh some expressions that we’ve talked about previously.

That’s the first ch—improvement. Here’s the next one. I looked back in our catalog of old episodes and I noticed that I tend to talk about the same types of topics a lot—business, technology, politics, things like that. I want Plain English to be for everyone. So I need to fill in some of the gaps with new types of topics, so that everyone has something fun to listen to.

So starting this month, I’m going to pick a theme for the month. And each month, three or four episodes will be on the theme. And in the first few months, I’ll pick themes that haven’t gotten a lot of love around here. Of course, all the other episodes in the month will be about what’s going on in the world, just like normal.

Now, we haven’t talked a lot about fashion here at Plain English. So this month, our theme is going to be fashion. And I’ve got four episodes in the month of September that will all be about fashion.

I’ll pick a new theme every month. And you never know…I might give you the chance to vote on one of the future themes, too.

That’s enough change for one day. Look out for that first episode about fashion on September 12. It’s about why it’s so hard to find an outfit in a good size.