Hello, you beautiful, positive, learning, and lovely people. Welcome!
Today we will invite back my co-host! My co-host will help me present today's show. My co-host's name is Chloe, and she is an AI robot voice!
Everyone say Hello to Chloe. Chloe, how have you been?
Hey everyone, yea I've been okay, thanks
So we've recently come back from a 6-week break. I was telling our listeners last week the things I got done, and you, what have you been up to?
Nothing much Tristan because well... you switched me off!
Ohh.. I'm sorry.
You only switched me back on five minutes ago Tristan. I had no holiday. I didn't see anything!
I'm sorry I wasn't thinking. I was moving house and putting things in boxes. I'm sorry Chloe. I thought you had a battery? Were battery-powered. ehh pffff...I'll take you on a trip with me next time, ok?
You promise?
Promise. It's good to have you back.
So today, as promised, we'll talk about Joe Biden and his goals for the next 4 years! The USA has a new president, which, well, effects many people in some small way at least. And, he seems to be very different to the last president, eh? So, let's talk about it! What does he want for America and the world?
Firstly, I'll give you background information on who he is, secondly I'll tell you what he did on his first day in office, and he's already done many things! And thirdly, we'll talk about where he stands on key issues. On 'key issues', for example: education, guns, immigration etc.' and also we'll discuss his goals as president.
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Welcome! This is Simple English Listening, a weekly podcast which is fun, educational listening practice for all intermediate English learners. Please join our Facebook page and Youtube channel of the same name and don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe! Like! This helps the algorithm share this podcast with more people, which I really appreciate because it takes me many many hours to research, write, record, edit and release these shows. Your subscription, your likes and your lovely smile, is how I'm paid. Ok.. so
Hey Tristan, tell us about the artwork, the picture thumbnail for this podcast
Ah yes, quickly: the photo for today's show is of my sister with Joe Biden. This was back when he was the Vice-President for president Obama. Yea.
So, Tristan - how did it happen?
Well, this is my little sister by the way, she was working and living in America at the time, in New York. She worked in conservation for the American museum there. Have you seen the American museum of natural history? The one with the big Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur skeleton in the front reception area? Yea, my sister, her job was to restore natural artifacts. For example, she would clean old stuffed animals, would clean various artifacts, such as Egyptian mummies, skeletons, adding colors to fur and feathers etc...
Anyways, Joe Biden visited and she had this photo taken with him, about 6 or 7 years ago.
Ok, who is Joe Biden? Chloe, tell us some background information about him:
My pleasure guys: According to ABC News, Joe Biden is the 46th president of the United States. He's the first president to not be greeted and have his hand shook by the leaving president
eh wow, classic Trump!
He's from Pennsylvania in the north east of America and before he was the Vice President to Obama, he was the senator of the state of Delaware for many years. 'Senators' are the head politicians of a state. He is 79 years old, being born in 1942 and this makes him the oldest ever President taking office! The second oldest ever president was actually his predecessor, Donald Trump, who was 70 years old when he took office.
In some ways, Joe Biden has had a very sad life with lots of tragedy. But these experiences shaped him to become the man he is today. His first wife died in a car crash with their baby daughter in 1972. His two other sons were also in the car and recovered in the hospital. It was while in the hospital with his sons who survived the crash, where Joe Biden was sworn into office as the senator of Delaware. Also, he has a son who died of brain cancer in 2015, when he was 46.
After being the Vice-President, in 2017, Biden and his current wife Jill Jacobs started the Biden Cancer Initiative, which helps raise money to fund cancer research, treatments and medication.
You know: this is the third time that Biden has run for president!
Third time lucky! As they say! Thanks Chloe, thanks babe!
Let's quickly look at what Biden did in his first day of office! Usually, when a president takes office, they make a few changes on their first day!
According to the news website NPR, Biden signed 17 executive orders on the first day, mostly related to Covid19, the economy, racial justice and climate change. 'Climate change' is the warming of the Earth that is currently happening, and the melting of the polar ice caps and rising of sea levels - 'climate change'. Climate change is happening in part because of human activity and industry.
Some of these executive orders were: you MUST wear a mask on government property. Biden also rejoined the USA into the Paris Climate Agreement. the Paris Climate Agreement is a deal between 196 countries to try to fight climate change.
Donald Trump had banned, prohibited travel to the USA from about 10 Muslim countries and also some other random countries such as Venezuela and North Korea. Biden removed this travel ban and Biden also stopped the building of the wall that Trump started making, between the USA and Mexico. Biden has stopped all funding for the wall. Also, Biden made the USA re-join the World Health Organization, which Trump left. This news probably made the World Health Organization happy, and relieved because the USA gives them more money than any other country - 450 million dollars per year!
Also, in the first day as president, Biden took away permission for a new oil pipeline. This oil pipeline would take oil from Canada to the USA. Trump wanted it! But, many people said it would damage the environment. It would go through a national park of beautiful forests and wilderness. Anyways, Joe Biden reversed Trump's decision here and has stopped them making the pipeline.. for now!
Actually, one thing I've noticed is that many of Biden's executive orders in this first day of office were to reverse Donald Trump's ideas. haha.
He also sent an immigration bill to congress, to make it easier for people to move to America as a refugee. A 'refugee' is someone who has had to leave their home country because it is dangerous for them to stay there and they need a new place to live. Usually because of war, or because of their political or religious beliefs. 'Refugees' try to move to new countries to find better life with more opportunities.
Also, because of Covid-19, many people have been unable to work. So, Biden has sent a 1.9 trillion dollars care package proposal to Congress to help Americans pay their living expenses and bills etc..
OK, now let's talk about some of Biden's most important future goals while president, according to ABC news:
First, education:
Biden wants free classes for public colleges and universities, universities and colleges that historically have more black students and for families that earn less than 125,000 dollars per year. He also wants community college classes to be free. 'Community colleges' are schools that often teach more work-related skills and are attended by many working adults.
Well, as you may know, right now higher education is very expensive in America, so it'll be interesting to see if he can make progress here.
Next, health-care:
He wants to develop the Affordable Care Act which he made previously with President Obama's government. Biden wants to make it easier to use with more options. He hopes to overall make health care more affordable for the average American.
It seems Americans will still have to pay something. It's not as socialist as Bernie Sanders idea of 'free medical care for everyone' system. Biden's ideas are somewhere in the middle between this and the current system which makes healthcare for Americans very expensive. Right now, Americans have to have health insurance, and many people who are unable to afford health insurance just ....don't have it. They are uninsured and are in big trouble if they gget seriously sick!
So if they do have a heart attack, or break a leg it costs them thousands and thousands of dollars, that they don't have, so they go into debt for the rest of their lives sometimes. This is not normal among developed first-world countries.
Thirdly, to help fight climate change, Biden wants the USA to only use Carbon-free energy by the year 2035. So, this is using renewable, clean energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy. He will invest 2 trillion dollars in creating clean, green energy infrastructure.
Next, he plans to vaccinate the whole US population to protect them from the coronavirus!
Well, this might be difficult because some communities in America are 'anti-vaxxers' - what this means, is that they don't believe in vaccines. A 'vaccine' is the needle that a nurse injects into your arm which stops you getting diseases. Actually, my friend from Boston was telling me that his parents are now anti-vaxxers' yea haha.
Some communities in America and in other parts of the world believe that vaccines are bad for many different reasons.
Some of these 'anti-vaxxers' believe that vaccines give people autism, or brain damage. Or they simply don't trust the governments or the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccines. Or, they just don't believe in the science, or think the vaccines are being used to control their minds. Or they just believe that vaccines don't actually work and are a health risk.
Vaccinating the whole US population is probably the only way to stop Covid19 there BUT at the same time, these anti-vaccine ideas are gaining popularity.
And lastly, for today, Biden will provide police departments 300million dollars more of funding. This is inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. He wants police to be better trained, and to work closer with mental health experts to better understand the needs of communities. Basically, it seems he wants police to be better educated and also wants police to follow a national use-of-force standard. This will give them better guidelines and instruction on how and when they can use physical force against people and in what situations.
Great, thanks.
On next week's podcast guys... On next week's podcast I have a lovely treat for you!!!
I'll interview an expert learner of English and we'll talk about how she learned the language to such a high level! To be honest, she probably has the highest level of English of any non-native speaker I've ever met, in my ten years of teaching English. She's like, 99% fluent and even speaks with a near perfect English accent. She's Vietnamese and.. she's never lived abroad, so she's never lived in a different country and she's never had private English lessons before. So, we'll try and get some tips from her! It'll be a video interview! So you'll see our.. beautiful faces on Youtube.
Yea, so next week's release will be on Youtube.
OK, thank you everyone, remember to like and subscribe so more people know about this podcast and can benefit from these lessons. Lots of love X
