In this bonus episode, Andrew tells the story of the most stressful morning he’s had in a long time, and it all started with something small that ended up in a place he couldn’t reach. Listen along to learn some vocabulary that will help make your English more natural and to improve your listening fluency.

The brand new Culips app is live!

Study this episode with an interactive transcript and vocabulary glossary: Open this lesson in the Culips app.

Tell us about your own terrible morning! Record a two-minute audio story and Andrew might share it in a future episode: Record your story here.

Study Materials for This Episode

• The interactive transcript and vocabulary glossary are free for everyone. No membership needed.
• The comprehension quiz and the PDF study guide download are for Culips members.
• Become a Culips member to get study materials for every episode, live speaking classes, ad-free audio, member-only perks, and more.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice.

Keep an ear out for these expressions during the episode:

• Wiggle room
• Flush
• TMI
• Minuscule
• To fall between the cracks
• To lull someone to sleep
• To emit
• Tongs
• To rig up
• A last ditch effort

What does a heat wave actually do to your day? Andrew and Anna compare their summers from opposite sides of the world. Anna is in Madrid, where a hot day reaches 40 degrees and the blinds stay closed until evening. Andrew is in Seoul, where the rainy season just ended but the humidity stayed. They talk about air conditioning, lost sleep, cold showers, and the wildfires that burned west of Madrid this summer.

Keep an ear out for these phrases during the episode:

• Not so fast
• Respite
• Bar none
• To do one’s business
• Bone dry
• To burn to a crisp

Study Materials:

Episode link: The 2026 Spain wildfires

Culips members get an interactive transcript, a helpful study guide, and ad-free audio for this episode. Take your English to the next level by becoming a Culips member. Become a Culips member now.

Members can access the ad-free version here: Click here.

Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice: Join the Culips Discord server.

Have you ever asked the internet about a health problem before asking a doctor? In this episode, Andrew and Anna talk about using AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini for health advice, and whether you can really trust them. Andrew shares a small health problem of his own and the answer he got from AI, and together they work out when a chatbot is actually helpful and when it is time to see a real doctor. Along the way they get into how confident these tools sound, who should be responsible when the advice is wrong, and what a visit to the doctor might look like in the future.

To build your fluency, try listening to the episode more than once and saying the new expressions out loud until you feel comfortable using them yourself.

The Best Way to Learn with This Episode:

• Culips members get an interactive transcript, a helpful study guide, and ad-free audio for this episode.
• Take your English to the next level by becoming a Culips member. Become a Culips member now: Click here
• Members can access the ad-free version: Click here.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice. Click here to join.

Keep an ear out for these phrases during the episode:

• To get something checked out
• First port of call
• To take something with a grain of salt
• Off you trot
• Hypochondriac
• To go through the roof

In this bonus episode, Andrew picks up the story he started last time and tells you what happened next. He heads out to the edge of the city on a hot summer evening and gets home much later than he planned. Listen along to learn some vocabulary that will help make your English more natural and to improve your listening fluency.

The Study Materials for This Episode Are Free:

• The interactive transcript, study guide, and quiz for this episode are free for everyone. No membership needed.
• Become a Culips member to get study materials for every episode, live speaking classes, ad-free audio, member-only perks, and more.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice.

Expressions

• To set the stage
• To count down the days
• Headlining
• The tail end
• A certain je ne sais quoi
• When all is said and done
• Boy, was I wrong
• Artsy-fartsy
• To rub someone the wrong way
• To write off

How do you get from intermediate English to sounding almost like a native speaker? Jesús Florez did it, and he’s back on the show to tell Andrew how. He explains the years he spent creating his own English immersion at home and names the four shows that finally moved him up to an advanced level. Listen in to hear his story and his advice for taking your own English to the next level.

Free Resources and Links

The interactive transcript, study guide, and quizzes for this episode are free for everyone. No membership needed.

• Become a Culips member to get study materials for every episode, live speaking classes, ad-free audio, member-only perks, and more. Click here to join.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice. Click here to join.
• Jesús’s YouTube channel
• Jesús’s Instagram

Keep an ear out for these phrases during the episode:

• A long time in the making
• To shift gears
• Give or take
• To lend itself to (something)
• A cut above (the rest)
• It bears repeating

Have you ever gotten a second chance at something you thought you would only get to do once? In this bonus episode, Andrew talks about the first Culips meetup in Seoul and then tells the story of trying to see one of his favorite bands play a second time. Listen along to learn some vocabulary that will help make your English more natural and improve your listening fluency.

The Study Materials for This Episode Are Free:

• The interactive transcript, study guide, and quiz for this episode are free for everyone. No membership needed.
• Become a Culips member to get study materials for every episode, live speaking classes, ad-free audio, member-only perks, and more.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice.

Expressions

• A turnout
• To talk into the void
• To be taken aback
• A high-water mark
• Now or never
• Once-in-a-lifetime
• To shell out
• When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
• Someone’s mind is made up
• To go through

What if there were a copy of you at work, answering emails and joining meetings while you slept? After Anna read a BBC article about people who are building AI versions of themselves, she brought the idea to Andrew, and the two of them talk about what these “digital twins” could mean for the rest of us. They look at the same question from three sides, the worker, the boss, and the business owner, and they keep coming back to one worry. If a company has a copy of you, do they still need you?

Read the original BBC article on digital twins here:

The Best Way to Learn with This Episode:

• Culips members get an interactive transcript, a helpful study guide, and ad-free audio for this episode. Take your English to the next level by becoming a Culips member. Become a Culips member now: Click here
• Members can access the ad-free version: Click here.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice. Click here to join.

Keep an ear out for these phrases during the episode:

• The bottom line
• To not sit right with someone
• Joe Blow
• The cat’s out of the bag
• M.O. (modus operandi)
• Dog-eat-dog

Have you ever looked up from your phone and realized that an hour just disappeared? In this Catch Word lesson, Andrew and Indiana teach you how to tell someone to “touch grass” and how to describe a person as “terminally online” or “chronically online.” They explain the difference in tone between these expressions, why “touch grass” can sound like a real insult, and when each one is appropriate to use.

The Best Way to Learn with This Episode:

• Culips members get an interactive transcript, a helpful study guide, and ad-free audio for this episode.
• Take your English to the next level by becoming a Culips member. Become a Culips member now: Click here
• Members can access the ad-free version: Click here.
• Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice. Click here to join.

Keep an ear out for these phrases during the episode:

• To touch grass
• Terminally online / Chronically online
• To be cooped up
• To be wrapped up in something
• A break with reality
• To get the last word