EFL worksheet: Russell Brand’s new podcast

The British standup comedian and political gobbermouth Russell Brand has gone back to school (well, university) (well, SOAS) to learn more about politics, and he’s sharing his new knowledge in the form of an excellent new podcast in which he (making the most of his celebrity connections) interviews leading figures from areas related to religion and global politics. This lesson uses the first episode, which is an interview with the political philosopher Brad Evans called ‘Can we really stop terror?’. It will work well with upper-int(+)/advanced EFL/ESOL students with an interest in  global issues and also with EAP/IELTS classes.

Worksheet

1. Preparing to listen

On your phone or tablet, google the following to find out who or what they are and then compare notes with a partner:

Russell Brand                      Ed Miliband             Brad Evans               SOAS

Now see if you can find anything they have in common.

2. Podcast – gapfill

Try to identify the missing words. Remember that a) you won’t be able to understand every word and b) you don’t need to!

Part 1 (0.50 – 8.43)

1. I’m doing a three-year __________ in Religion and Global Politics.
2. His work introduced me to the relationship between governments and _________.
3. …the sudden lurch to the __________ as demonstrated by Brexit and the rise of Trump.
4. I realized this was a very complex world and I realized I didn’t have the artillery to engage in this __________.
5. What do you say to someone like me who feels __________ with politics but doesn’t know quite where to begin?
6. Our power to change the world is still __________ to these nationalistic models.
7. We feel __________ because we know change is not going to happen through those kinds of mechanisms.
8. One of the purposes of an academic is to ask how we can __________ the right types of questions.
9. What is the historical __________? What makes this moment this moment?
10. Why is it that we often put the blame on the __________ of the most vulnerable?

Now check your answers with your partner.

Part 2 (8.43 – 17.57)

1. There is no such thing as Muslim __________ separate from US imperialism.
2. The term terror has a much broader historical __________.
3. If you look at the old colonial seafaring powers, they had the __________.
4. On the one hand you had powers trying to establish __________.
5. The best way to understand any political regime is to understand the relationships of __________ that it’s engaged in.
6. Liberalism says it has a __________ over these terms – universality, rights, security, justice – but it doesn’t.
7. He doesn’t stipulate one precise point about what this shared universal __________ system actually looks like.
8. The idea that liberalism can transform the world for the better is __________.
9. People are denied the most fundamental political right, which is the right to __________.
10. You have these impoverished communities who are taught by the media and people like __________ to fear these people who are deeply vulnerable.

Now check your answers with your partner.

Part 3 (17.57 – 26.07)

1. Whose story is the __________ story, and how do they get to maintain it?
2. You get people to __________ the conditions they should find intolerable.
3. Global capitalism today doesn’t require __________ of the world’s population.
4. Why doesn’t that idea get __________ more?
5. People are working in such __________ environments today, they can just turn on the TV and be filtered a message which is comforting to them.
6. It’s what the late Zygmunt Bauman called ‘__________’.
7. We live in an age of what I’ve called ‘__________’.
8. You have to __________ them from trying to achieve the kind of lifestyles that we’ve been selling to them.
9. The ways in which certain elites are operating is having __________ consequences for people on the planet.
10. One of the questions we need to ask is ‘where is the __________?’.

Now check your answers with your partner.

3. Discussion

Now you’re going to have a conversation about what you’ve heard. Think on your own for two minutes about the following question:

How does the conversation relate to a) your life b) your country c) your view of the world?

You can take some notes if you wish. Look up or ask your teacher for any vocabulary you might need.

Now get into a group of three or four and compare your reactions to the podcasts for ten minutes. One person in the group will need to report back to the whole class on what is said so they need to write down any interesting points. Remember that you don’t have to agree with each other – if you have different points of, explore them, but remember that this isn’t Facebook – be respectful!

Homework

Using your phone, either with a classmate or on your own, make a 5-minute podcast in which (similarly to what you just did in class) you talk about your reaction(s) to the podcast. You might want to listen to the rest of the podcast before you start, but you don’t have to.

HEALTH WARNING: You might find the ambivalence of your students upon hearing that 60-70% of the world’s population is surplus to the requirements of global capitalism somewhat dispiriting.