Transcript of S3/E7 Pt. 1 - Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English podcast with me, your host, Charlie. But don't worry, it's not another one man show today because we have an interview style episode for you. Yes, we do. And if you take the analogy of fishing - haha -, we have certainly caught a big one today. I reached out to this show that has been running for even longer than Luke's English podcast. Can you believe it? And they have around 1700 episodes in the archives. The podcast is downloaded 8 million times per month globally and has been ranked in Best of Apple Podcasts categories in 2018 and 19. So the name of the show is All Ears English, and Lindsay is the wonderful co host that got back to me straightaway and said she'd love to come on the show for you guys and have a chat about the culture she was born and raised in and those that she has been fortunate enough to experience during her time on this planet. So without further ado, let's get into a conversation with the delightful Lindsey McMahon from the All Ears English podcast. Hello, Lindsay. How are you doing today?

Lindsay:
Hey, Charlie, how are you? Thanks for having me on your show.

Charlie:
Oh, thank you very much for being here. It's an absolute honour. We were just talking before we jumped on the recording. And you said that you started back in 2013. Is that right?

Lindsay:
Yes. Yeah, it's been a long time. But you know what? We love it, so we keep doing it. So I think I might be podcasting until I'm old and grey.

Charlie:
It's actually a very feasible idea that, isn't it? It would.

Lindsay:
It actually is.

Charlie:
It would keep the brain active as well, wouldn't it?

Lindsay:
That's right. I mean, why not? If you can pick up a microphone, you could have a great conversation, then you can podcast. So I'm here for the long haul.

Charlie:
Brilliant. I love it. And also thinking about it whenever I speak to an older person or a person of a certain age, as I've been trying to teach people listening to this, they're actually full of wisdom, obviously, and it's so delightful to listen to their thoughts most of the time.

Lindsay:
Yes, 100%. I agree. Absolutely. There should be more podcasts by older people to share life wisdom. Right, because we want to learn things in life and not make the big mistakes. And how can we do that? Right?

Charlie:
Exactly. Yeah. So watch this space in 30 years.

Lindsay:
That's right. Exactly. Exactly.

Charlie:
Like and subscribe in 30 years. No, do it now anyway. So. Yes. Lindsay, before we go on to the warm up question, very quickly, where are you from?

Lindsay:
Okay. So I'm from the East Coast. I'm from a state called New Hampshire and a little town called Keene, which, by the way, fun fact is where Jumanji was filmed. Do you know the movie Jumanji?

Charlie:
I embarrassingly have.

Lindsay:
Oh, no, you're the only one. No.

Charlie:
No. I was going to say, I've embarrassingly watched the old, the new and the new sequel.

Lindsay:
Okay. Okay. Because usually I can count on people saying, oh, my gosh, I love that movie.

Charlie:
Right? Oh, I love it. I love it. But I feel like the latest ones, you know, the blockbusters with the rock, okay, they're less timeless, let's say. I love it.

Lindsay:
Agreed. Yeah, they're not quite as quaint, let's say. So the quaint one, the original one was filmed in my hometown. So that is my fun fact about where I grew up.

Charlie:
Yeah, very nice. Goodness me. My mind's gone blank. What's the amazing actor that did Flubber and Jumanji? What's his name?.

Lindsay:
Yeah, Robin Williams.

Charlie:
Robin Williams. Yes. Yes. So he was in your t..., he was in your town.

Lindsay:
He was. I remember catching a glimpse of him just running through the town square with the long hair. So it was quite, you know, a few months in Keene, New Hampshire.

Charlie:
Yeah, I don't I don't mean to pry, but how old were you then when you saw him?

Lindsay:
Oh, gosh, I don't remember. I must have been like a early teen, maybe 12. I really don't remember how old I was, but I remember being in school and some kids, like my brother's friends, were getting, you know, applying to be seconds and background actors, that sort of thing. So it was kind of a little taste of Hollywood in quaint New England.

Charlie:
Lovely stuff. Okay, cool. So, yeah, let's do this warm up and this is just a little fun. Buzzfeed quiz of your answers to these 15 questions will reveal what percent American you are not sure about the grammar there, but yeah anyway you get the point guys. So the first one Lindsay, is do you talk loudly in public?

Lindsay:
I would say I probably do. I love these questions. I can't wait.

Charlie:
And do you feel like that is an American thing?

Lindsay:
Yeah, for sure. Of course, we don't know how to tone it down. We don't know how to understand that the whole world doesn't want to know the drama of your life, right? Yeah, we do. We don't... I don't know why we are so tone deaf in that sense.

I love it. I love the honesty. All right. Yeah. The next one. Do you wait to be seated at a restaurant?

Lindsay:
Oh, I would say I usually do. I usually walk in and I expect someone to come up to me and seat me. Yes.

Charlie:
I don't know what angle they're trying there. I would assume, you know, based on the last one that they're trying to say that if you're American, you go and sit down yourself. But I think in America, service is so good that I normally think that you would be taken to your seat. What do you think?

Lindsay:
Yeah, it's a good question. I was also trying to figure that out. I don't know. I think it depends on where you're comparing it to, right? It just depends on other countries that we're comparing this to. But I mean, I think most of the time someone will come up to you. It's pretty rare. Most restaurants don't want you to just sit down unless it's fast, casual or something.

Charlie:
That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm aboard. Okay, the next one. Do you take advantage of free refills?

Lindsay:
No, that I don't. Unless I'm in a diner, a classic diner, and I'm lingering over a bad cup of black coffee. In that case. Yes, but when it comes to soda. No, I don't. I don't go that direction. No.

Charlie:
So if it's a bad cup of coffee, you want more?

Lindsay:
Yes, absolutely. You know why? Because there is something about the American Diner experience that is just so American. You know, some parts of my culture I don't love, there are some parts that I'm not proud of and that we can talk about that stuff, too. But I love American diners. It's bad food, greasy food and bad coffee. But you just want to linger because it feels so... Feels so local and traditional.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah, I respect that. And I'm imagining like with McDonald's, for me, I would never really go to McDonald's more than two or three times a year. And it's a guilty pleasure and I enjoy it when I'm there.

Lindsay:
Sure.

Charlie:
Is it like that with a diner? You don't go often, but when you do, you embrace it or you go every week?

Lindsay:
Yeah, I would. No, I definitely don't go every week. Absolutely. I would say when the circumstances arise that it makes sense to go with some friends. Maybe you're out late or it's the morning. You just want to go out for breakfast. That makes sense. I would not go every week to a diner, no.

Charlie:
Okay, Yeah. Sorry. Was that a yes or a no?

Lindsay:
You know what? That's so hard, right? It's a little ambivalent. Let's just say yes. Yes, I do. Because the coffee I do.

Charlie:
Okay. Do you make small talk with store employees? I like this.

Lindsay:
Oh! I want to say no. I'm going to say most of the time no. However, these days I live in a friendlier place than where I grew up. And so I will if they start. But let's say no, generally not.

Charlie:
Okay. So where did you use to be? Where were you before that wasn't so friendly? And where are you now?

Lindsay:
Well, I mean, the East Coast, right. So the eastern U.S., it's known for maybe being a little colder on the surface, warm below the surface, but a little colder. Now, I'm in Colorado and people I mean, there's so much sun here. People can't not smile. So people just they do smile at each other. Yeah. And they do make conversation because they're happy.

Charlie:
Yeah. I remember one of the first lessons I taught was a group lesson when I moved to Santiago in Chile and it was an online one. So I was a bit confused why I was online and why I was, you know. But the lady said, I think cultures depend on like how close they are to the equator, depending on like civilisation. So like the Nordic countries, they were too cold, so they got shit done and then the warmer ones are very happy to chill and be happy by the beach.

Lindsay:
Yeah, there might be something to that. There might be something there.

Charlie:
Probably oversimplified but yeah. Anyway, yeah. So you don't, you don't do the the small talk.

Lindsay:
With no let's say no we'll give that a no just for the sake of getting the quiz done.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you talk to random strangers, though?

Lindsay:
I mean, I will if they start a conversation with me, so I don't start a conversation.

Charlie:
Okay. Do you smile at the people you pass on the street?

Lindsay:
Yes.

Charlie:
Like it. In England,

Lindsay:
No.

Charlie:
People in the north do more. People in the south... Actually, I did a little social experiment of my own, just literally just looking. And I was on the train from my parents home, which is like an hour out of London.

Lindsay:
Okay.

Charlie:
Each stop that got closer to the centre of London, everyone started to make less eye contact, less smiles, more.

Lindsay:
Yeah,

Charlie:
You know, rigid...

Lindsay:
Isn't that interesting.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Lindsay:
Yeah. I wonder, what is it about cities that cause us to feel like we kind of need to protect ourselves and curl up in that way? It's a good question.

Charlie:
I would I would guess that it's the frequency. Otherwise, you're smiling constantly, aren't you?

Lindsay:
Yeah. Right, your face might get sore. True.

Charlie:
Got to save the smiles. All right. Are you sometimes overly polite?

Lindsay:
Maybe, yes. I would say I'm probably a yes for that.

Charlie:
Yeah. Do you think you smile too much?

Lindsay:
Probably, yes.

Charlie:
Mmm. Have you ever been told that you smile too much?

Lindsay:
I've been told to smile. Right, because that that, you know, just smile. You're fine, right. But yeah, I don't know. There's just a bit of a feeling of if you're not smiling, you know, is something wrong? Right. So there's a little bit of that. So I would say maybe I smile too much. I don't know. Yeah.

Charlie:
Have you spent any time in Germany?

Lindsay:
Yeah, I was just there in the winter, actually. Ha.

Charlie:
Did they find you... That you smiled a bit too much?

Lindsay:
Oh, probably. I'm sure they thought I was very weird. I'm sure. Because, yeah, I do think that there are things about American culture and German culture that are pretty different, right? Yeah, absolutely. But I loved it. It was fantastic.

Charlie:
Yeah. My partner and I, we lived in Ohio 2015 to 2018 and then we went to Nuremberg, Germany.

Lindsay:
Yeah.

Charlie:
A few years, so it was a bit of a contrast. Yeah.

Lindsay:
Big difference. Yeah. Wow.

Charlie:
I like this next question. Do you own a ton of baseball caps?

Lindsay:
Oh, that one. I'm a no. No, I'm not a baseball... Yeah, no, people around me love baseball, but I'm not really. Yeah, no.

Charlie:
But the baseball cap, I feel like it's still very much part of the fashion. Is it?

Lindsay:
Yes, but not for me.

Charlie:
Not for you.

Lindsay:
Not for me.

Charlie:
Okay. And do you tip when you eat out?

Lindsay:
Yes, absolutely.

Charlie:
I don't think you'd be able to eat out if you if you didn't tip.

Lindsay:
No, no.

Charlie:
Just counting how many? Yeah, we're nearly, nearly there. Okay. So that's a yes. Do you add ice to almost everything you drink? Oh, good question.

Lindsay:
That's a great question. No, I don't.

Charlie:
Can you tell the listeners why that's a good question, in our opinion?

Lindsay:
I just think it's funny because I know a lot of like, for example, you know, people in the US have been known to add ice to like a chardonnay or something to make it even worse. Yeah, that is definitely something I try to avoid for sure. Any kind of like adding ice to any kind of alcohol, right? Kind of. A lot of times just waters it down, obviously, and makes it lower quality. But we yeah, some people will do that. I'm thinking like a Miami vibe or something. A Florida vibe. That's not my my vibe much.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. You're more classy than that.

Lindsay:
Yeah.

Charlie:
I also think of, you know, as soon as you get sat in the restaurant, they give you a huge cup of water with... Full of ice, right?

Lindsay:
Yes, that is true.

Charlie:
And again, the contrast going to Nuremberg, I was... I asked for some water in a cafe and they looked at me as if like I had upset them or something. And then they gave me a puny shot of water and they said, Yeah, there you go. That's all you're having. If not, you know, if that's not enough, you can order some sparkling. But yeah, it's it's part of your culture to have a lot of hydration, I feel like.

Lindsay:
I guess so. That's so funny.

Charlie:
All right. Do you sometimes go to the store late at night?

Lindsay:
Um, not as much, but I like that I know I can go if I need to, so I'm a no on that. But I would if I needed to. And it's good that I can.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were shocked when we came to Australia. They shut everything. Well, they shut the cafes sometimes at like two or 3 p.m..

Lindsay:
Oh no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
I remember. I think Margot Robbie is Australian is she not? Do you know if that's true? Margot Robbie, the actress?

Lindsay:
Who is it? Um, I don't know.

Charlie:
The blonde one in quite a few films recently.

Lindsay:
Oh, here we go. Yeah, she just came up. Australian actress.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, she's Aussie. Yeah, I remember she was interviewed and they said, What do you like about America? And she said, How I can go to the store in my pyjamas at like midnight.

Lindsay:
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. A lot of things you could do late at night, which people like, you know, it's like this 24 hour culture.

Charlie:
Hmm. Yeah. Some of the supermarkets are literally 24 hours, aren't they?

Lindsay:
Yes. Yeah. And actually, I was just talking about 24 hour... They have a brand here called 24 Hour Fitness where it's just that's their brand. That's their USP. Unique service, right. Unique proposition. You can go any time. You can work out at three in the morning. Yeah.

Charlie:
That spilt over to England actually and I went to a company... a gym called The Gym. Very arrogant. Almost as arrogant as my podcast.

Lindsay:
Right?

Charlie:
Yeah. It was 24 seven and it was weird. I once went at three in the morning just to see what it was like and yeah, it was, it was a very odd experience.

Lindsay:
And what was it like? Was it just dead?

Charlie:
It was dead, but they were like four or five zombies in there. Just, yeah.

Lindsay:
Just doing the 3 a.m. workout thing. Okay. All right. Well, to each his own, right?

Charlie:
Okay. And this one, I'm going to make it the last, if it's not. Do you love wearing sneakers? I would say trainers.

Lindsay:
I do. I don't know what kind of trainers - See, everything I wonder what the question is about. So I don't love to wear running shoes or like athletic shoes, but I love sneakers as a fashion statement.

Charlie:
Mm hmm.

Lindsay:
Like, I love a pair of, like, converse or something cool. So. So I think what they're getting at is that Americans are known, right, for travelling the world in running shoes and awful khaki pants, a pair of white running shoes, a little sack around their waist. And it's just terrible fashion, right? So in that sense, I'm going to say no.

Charlie:
Okay. What about, like, the Steve Jobs kind of vibe?

Lindsay:
Ooh. Hmm. No, I think he still had running shoes. It's the running shoes that I struggle with, that I just don't think go well with anything. With jeans. Yeah.

Charlie:
So like a pair of Jordans, are they sneakers?

Lindsay:
Oh no. I would say kind of more like oh like just kind of cooler looking sneakers. I would like to wear.

Charlie:
What brand are we talking? New Balance?

Lindsay:
New Balance can make some cool stuff. I would wear a new Balance, because they've become like a little more fashionable over the years. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, the the scores are in. Are you excited to see how American you are?

Lindsay:
Yeah, I want to know my score. Let me know.

Charlie:
You are. You are 64.80% American.

Lindsay:
Yeah, that sounds about right. It feels right. It feels right.

Charlie:
Right. Yeah. I don't know you yet, but I get that that is actually weirdly quite accurate. Maybe.

Lindsay:
Yeah. Sometimes these tests are oddly accurate.

Charlie:
Yeah, complete science. Yeah. Okay, so that was the little warm up. Very nice. So I will have told people a little bit more about your show in the introduction, but could you just tell us in your words, what you do?

Lindsay:
Yes, absolutely. So I am the host of the All Ears English podcast, and we are a podcast that's designed for global professionals. Right? Our listeners are from all over the world. We want to help them connect in English, right? We want to help them get beyond the old ways of thinking when it comes to English, get beyond the grammar, trying to be perfect and actually just connect. So that's what we do. We publish four days a week and we love doing it.

Charlie:
Wonderful, wonderful. And who's we?

Lindsay:
So that's my team. So my co-host is Michelle Kaplan and then Aubrey Carter is my other co host, and Jessica Beck is sometimes on the team. So there's a team of four of us as teachers, and then we have a small support staff as well.

Charlie:
Brilliant. Yeah. And so you've been doing it for a long time and I'm sure from what I hear when I listen to them, you're very professional, very slick production team between you. And so you've moved to Colorado. Is that something that you've been wanting to do for a while and because of your podcast, you've been able to go wherever you want?

Lindsay:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I started the podcast in Boston and then my partner and I moved out here in 2019 just before the pandemic. And in terms of quality of life, it's definitely better out here. So I'm pretty much here to stay.

Charlie:
Yeah. Very shrewd of you to predict that you needed somewhere outdoors like that. Yeah.

Lindsay:
Kind of. Yeah. Once you get a taste of it, it's pretty good.

Charlie:
Lovely stuff. Okay. You did, correct me if I'm wrong, but you did psychology at university.

Lindsay:
I did my undergraduate. I did.

Charlie:
And your undergraduate. Okay. So in the UK we go from what we call sixth form or college, which is six, 17 and 18 years old, which is kind of like the extension of normal school where you're focussing on three or four subjects and then once you've got good tests, good, good results from your tests, you go straight to the main degree that you've got and you've got that for three years. Traditionally, I think in, in America it's slightly different isn't it?

Lindsay:
Yeah. I mean so in the US we do four years of high school and then at 18 or 19, in some cases you would go into college. So your freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year and then you would declare your major, usually your last two years of college. So usually you'd spend your first two years doing like a basic curriculum, gen ed, and then you would decide what you're going to focus on in college and then obviously graduate school and masters if people do that. All right?

Charlie:
So you you did psychology. And what did you think of it?

Lindsay:
It was great. Psychology kind of gets a bad rap in the States as people saying it's the major people do when they don't know what else they want to... They don't know what they want to do. Right? And I guess that was actually kind of true for me, too. But I think there's a lot of secrets we can learn in in psychology. And if anything, it can get us thinking in the right way, because in the end, life is just all about people and it's about how people think. So if we understand that, we can do a lot of things in the world, right? Create a lot of good, help a lot of people, inspire a lot of people.

Charlie:
Yeah, very true. Very true. Yeah. It's funny the perception people have. In England I'd say that people have this assumption that it's a degree that will lead you nowhere. Well, some people think that. And just to be clear, guys, I did psychology. That's why we're talking about this. We both did psychology. I'm not having a go at Lindsay. So, yeah, that's the perception. It was the perception. I imagine it's it's probably evolved somewhat. Do you think it has for you?

Lindsay:
Yeah, I don't know. I haven't been around the undergraduate environment in so long. Right. The college campus. But I think, honestly, I kind of wish I had done something like finance or business because I could have used those skills now. Right. Making a P and L. You know, how to run a pivot table on a spreadsheet. I would love to have those skills now, but I suppose I can hire for those. But I think now, you know, in the US honestly people change their careers so much that they change their career, they change their job, they move around. I don't think any major locks you into anything.

Charlie:
I love it. Yeah. So did you immediately come away from graduating to then starting the podcast?

Lindsay:
Oh, no, no, no, no. It was much later. Yeah. No, I did some travelling and moved to New York, so there was a lot in between and we can talk about that if you want. But yeah, no, I needed a little life experience first, for sure.

Charlie:
No, let's go back to the psychology. So can you remember any of the modules that you did?

Lindsay:
Yeah. So I thought about this a little bit to prep for today. I actually went back to my website of my university. And so some of the things just to jog the memory, right? I did a social psychology. I remember that class. I remember they called it bio cognition. But that was neuroscience, right? Abnormal psych, psych of personality, learning and motivation. I think there was a class psych of sex, psych of human sexuality, which everyone was always really excited about. Right?

Charlie:
You've taken the words out of my mouth!.

Lindsay:
So things like that, yeah.

Charlie:
That's funny. Do you remember going, did you do the psych of sex one?

Lindsay:
I did. Of course. Of course. I was a college kid, too. I mean.

Charlie:
Yeah, I really remember some of those lectures. They were very eye opening for me. Can you remember any particular moments?

Lindsay:
I just remember I had the nuttiest advisor. She taught the psych of sex class and also the abnormal psych class, a social psych class. She came in, she would come into class barefoot, like with no shoes on. And I never knew why. Like, it was just so she was a little wacky. But yeah, I remember, you know, I took a learning and motivation class, like I said, and I remember training rats. So for our final project, we had to take care of rats. We were given a rat, had to keep it alive and do and, like, do little experiments.

Charlie:
Oh, my goodness. This is amazing. So,

Lindsay:
Lab rats.

Charlie:
You took it home with you like it was in your pocket, like on a film kind of thing, or...?

Lindsay:
I couldn't take it home, but I had to show up to the lab and feed it like two or three times a day and make sure it was good. Check on it. It was like my little pet.

Charlie:
Yeah. So not quite Ratatouille kind of style, but still.

Lindsay:
Not quite. We almost got there. We got tight. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Did you did you bond?

Lindsay:
We did. I mean, why not?

Charlie:
And do you feel like you managed to motivate it to do something?

Lindsay:
Yeah, I actually don't even... This is so long ago I'm doubting myself here, but I don't remember what the research study was. It was something around that learning and motivation. So maybe this inspired me to understand learning, but I don't remember what the you know, we kept the rats alive. That's the important thing.

Charlie:
Yeah. I find this question hard to answer myself, but. So I'm going to ask you instead.

Lindsay:
Okay, go ahead.

Charlie:
Have you felt like you've brought that learning how to learn psychology side of it into your website and your podcast and everything around it?

Lindsay:
Yeah, the learning how to... Go ahead.

Charlie:
Yeah, just the the process of learning and how to tap into the best way people can learn individually.

Lindsay:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I took from my undergraduate was more of a study in human nature. Like how humans are. And this kind of leads to, you know, our our whole thing, our whole reason for being is, is our slogan connection, not perfection. Right. The connection piece. I think that that more informed... That's probably why I went into psychology, because I'm really interested in what makes humans tick. Like why, why we do what we do. And for me, the biggest insight is the whole point of learning is for connection. So I go to that and I think that inspires our listeners on our show because everything comes back to how can you use this teaching to connect? Yes, we're going to learn it. We're going to remember it. We're going to use some techniques to learn, but then ultimately we're going to do something more important with it. Right?

Charlie:
Yes. Yeah, I really agree with that. I remember teaching the idea that actually stems from mindfulness of being in the moment when somebody's talking to you. So instead of, you know, it's hard as a podcast interviewer to try and do this all the time because you feel like the pressure of making the conversation continue and progress for the listener. But it is... I find the best conversations come from when I'm actually truly trying to zone in on what you're saying to me rather than like, Oh, what's, what's the next question? Because it's kind of coming back to the ego and and thinking about how can I show this person I'm self important, I'm good or whatever. So yeah, oh.

Lindsay:
Yes, yeah.

Charlie:
Coming back to the communication part of it.

Lindsay:
Yeah. It's like getting out of our own heads, right?

Charlie:
Yes. Yes. Do you find that difficult to do or you're okay with it?

Lindsay:
Yeah. I mean, this is an ongoing... Oh, who? I mean, I think everyone finds this difficult. I definitely do quite a bit of meditation. So I was just on a meditation retreat on Saturday. It was the first time I've done that in a couple of years, but a full day of meditation, it was great. It was great and I need that and that helps me to try to get there. But it's a constant challenge. Staying present.

Charlie:
Yeah. So I got into it massively when I was 22 and I was, I was... I did do a few classes with eight year olds trying to teach them how to meditate. And I did some workshops and then I decided to teach English instead.

Lindsay:
But oh, nice.

Charlie:
But so the meditation was a big part of my life then, and I go back to it occasionally, but I'd love to get back into it. You know, it's a classic saying I'd love to get back into it, but yeah, you manage to do that right, right now or just recently.

Lindsay:
Yeah.

Charlie:
When I think of trying to get back into it, I sometimes think my life is actually quite... I'm quite happy. So I don't feel the need to be five, 10% more happy. Right. I'm imagining that that's something similar to where you're at, but you manage to take action on it.

Lindsay:
Yeah, 100%. It's so true. I mean, if we want to get into this, right. They say this a lot in in meditation, in I mean, for me, it's Buddhist practise, but it doesn't have to be that for everyone. Right? It's sometimes it's just, you know, meditation, mindfulness, your practise deepens in times of what they call suffering, right? When you are really challenged by something in life. And that's definitely true. That's been true for me, too. I'm in a good place right now, but that's why I know I need to do it now because, you know, life... Ups and downs for life, right? And that's fine. So it's kind of like this is the harder time to rededicate to it. But for me, it's an ongoing kind of dedication that I have to say, yeah, every night it's like, okay, I'm going to go sit for even just 10 minutes, right? It doesn't have to be an hour. So it's like every day I have to re... kind of just put myself again to it.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's good. Are you quite good at committing to things like this on a daily basis?

Lindsay:
I think I'm pretty good at that. Yeah, I would say I'm pretty disciplined.

Charlie:
Have you always been?

Lindsay:
Probably, yeah. I got teased sometimes by my partner about that. Like I'm pretty like when I know I should do something, I'm pretty good about making sure I do it and getting into a routine. And I mean, that's why we have 1700 podcast episodes, right?

Charlie:
My God, I'm on 70. You're on 1700. Oh my god!

Lindsay:
So sometimes it can get out of control. But when you love doing it and it's just part of your, what you think you should be doing in life, you just do a lot of it. So yeah.

Charlie:
Goodness, yeah. I think I've missed quite a few questions that I was trying to be in the now, but...

Lindsay:
That's good. That's okay.

Charlie:
So I remember my... One of my best friends at uni, I spotted one of her like to-do lists and she had. Wake up. Go to the toilet. Do my teeth. Make lunch. Do all these, mic-. It was like micromanaging herself. Were you like this?

Lindsay:
That's really interesting. No, I would not say I ever had, you know, go to the bathroom on my list. But there is something interesting about that, right? Because we were talking earlier. Okay. Learning and motivation, right. The class from college. How do we apply this now? We know that when we have this endowed progress, the endowed progress of fact, we know that if we do make a little like crossing off a list, two things are crossed off. The list is huge. You actually become more motivated to keep going. So maybe that's what she needed to do, you know, to get herself going. I get that.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. I keep meaning to build a wall chart and be able to get a red pen and do like an X on every day that I achieve my Spanish language goals.

Lindsay:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome.

Charlie:
It's immensely satisfying. Satisfying. And I guess that's that's the advantage of having a pen and paper, isn't it? You can really feel the completion.

Lindsay:
Hmm. I think so. So there is something to that. Yeah.

Charlie:
Okay, so wait, wait, wait. We didn't. We didn't get back to the rat. We need to have them complete story of the rat. Anything...?

Lindsay:
Just to tell you that I had a pet rat in college, and that was it. And I loved that rat. I loved that rat. Yes. No, that's it. I mean, that was my yeah. We had a I know we had a final thesis, but I do not remember what we did.

Charlie:
Okay. He didn't turn into Peter Pettigrew, did he?

Lindsay:
No, he didn't.

Charlie:
No, you didn't think at all at the moment when Harry Potter was coming out that you were one of the characters, did you?

Lindsay:
I never thought that. I never did. Okay.

Charlie:
Just me. All right, guys. So that is the end of part one. We've got part two and part three coming up. In part two, we're going to discuss a book called The Culture Compass. I'm going to read out the American values that this author believes they have and see whether Lindsay agrees with it and whatnot. And then in part three, we're going to go into some more personal stories, hopefully of Lindsay's travelling adventures. She's been around the world, so perhaps we can get some stories from her. But yeah, if you're here just for part one, thank you very much for stopping by. I'll leave links in the show notes of Lindsay's podcast, but the best place to find you is just simply Google All Ears English. Yeah?

Lindsay:
Yeah, absolutely. If they're already listening to your podcast, they can just stay right in whatever app they're in and they can just type All Ears English into the search and they'll find it.

Charlie:
Lovely. If you like to click on things, check the show notes of this episode. But yeah, thank you very much, Lindsay, and I'll see you in part two.

Lindsay:
Thank you, Charlie.

Charlie:
We will be leaving part one there for today. But don't worry, we have part two and three round the corner for you to enjoy. But first make sure you utilise all of the learning resources available to you for this part. And then when ready, I'll see you in part two to continue the conversation. Thanks again for supporting me. This is my full time job. So here's to many more episodes of the British English podcast to help you improve your English.