Online English Listening and Podcasts

Online Listening Opportunities and Podcasts
ESL Lab This has a ton of Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced English conversations with questions and activities.
English Central -- listening, spelling, vocabulary, speaking -- although a short trial, it requires you to pay for most of the services.
Eng Vid --  Great material on grammar, spelling, pronunciation, and you listen to it to get the lesson!
Modern Family on ABC and on Hulu  (this is the TV show we started watching together)
BBC Learning English -- If you want some exposure to a British accent
PBS Learning Media  has a variety of subjects for any interest.
These Podcasts are favorites of mine.  They are more advanced than the listening above:
Radio Lab is an excellent NPR show from New York that specializes in fascinating, unusual scientific stories.  In class, we have listened to this episode about technology, and I like this long one one about the environment and this video about the end of the dinosaurs and the world
"This American Life" is excellent for sociology of the United States.  
http://www.npr.org also has tons of news programs on a variety of topics.
Radio Ambulante has material in English as well as Spanish.  The episodes that say "Un-Scripted" are in English.
Invisibilia - fascinating stories about the invisible dynamics that affect various aspects of our lives
Freakonomics - in addition to the great books, the podcast analyzes surprising dynamics in our economics and social lives
Two Guys on Your Head - two UT Austin psychologists give brief, smart interpretations of different ways that our brains work.  
Ted Talks are excellent as well!  
Listening to these for comprehension, looking up transcripts, and imitating speakers for their intonation and pronunciation can be excellent practice!


 If you want intelligent, complex American humor, "Futurama" or "30 Rock" could be good.  If you want to practice your British listening, anything on the BBC could be a good option.  If you want something lighter and easier, "How I Met Your Mother" or "Parks and Rec" might be good.

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