The Level Up English Podcast
🇬🇧 I'm Michael Lavers and this podcast will help you improve your English. I'm an online English teacher for students learning as a second language. In this podcast, I answer your questions about learning and help you achieve your goals in British English. Once a month I talk to a teacher or expert on topics related to language.
Episodes
302 episodes
#299 Why We Always Want More (Hedonic Adaptation)
In my last episode, I spoke about my cycling trip to Taiwan. While there, I had a lot of time alone to think to myself with no distractions. In this episode today, I'm going to share some of the things I was thinking about.One of these ...
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Season 1
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Episode 299
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35:49
#298 I Cycled 1000km Around Taiwan
I took 2 weeks off in October to ride a bicycle around the whole of Taiwan. It was over 1000km and took about 2 weeks to complete. Along the way, I had both good and bad experiences and there's a lot I'd love to share!I also filmed a lo...
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Season 1
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Episode 298
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1:05:17
#297 Don't Fall for the Comparison Trap
The Comparison Trap is when we get stuck comparing our lives to other people and feeling worse as a result.It's a common problem in language learning, and this is something that I often experience too since I was inspired to make this e...
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Season 1
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Episode 297
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44:28
#296 Be More Curious
Curiosity is an important thing to practice to be better English language learners and enjoy your life more. When we start learning a language, we’re naturally very open and curious to learning new things. It can be an amazing feeling w...
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Season 1
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Episode 296
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45:00
#295 Finding Your Dream Job with Megan Nicholls
Megan is a teacher from Manchester, UK who has been teaching for 10 years and recently made the move to online classes. Megan specialises in Business English for professionals and improving spoken fl...
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Season 1
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Episode 295
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46:26
#294 Are You Using 'Used To' Wrong?
Let's look at 3 ways we can use 'used to' in English. We'll look at the different grammar and way we structure these terms while answering fun and interesting questions on these topics.I encourage you to answer these questions either in...
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Season 1
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Episode 294
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36:21
#293 Will I Be Replaced By AI?
This is a really fun episode all about the recent progress of AI (Artificial Intelligence) - specifically in the area of audio and music.I share a few songs that were made by AI about this podcast that I think will blow your mind. I had...
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Season 1
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Episode 293
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53:08
#292 The MOST Unusual Places in the World
I'm exploring a topic I truly love today and looking at the most unusual and strange places on our planet.I'll be talking about the highest cities, hottest places, coldest places, and much more in today's episode. This is a great opport...
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Season 1
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Episode 292
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37:24
#291 Optimistic or Pessimistic?
In today's episode, we're exploring the topics of optimism, pessimism, and realism. These are different attitudes towards life and the future and can have a massive impact on your happiness and mental health.I go over the definitions an...
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Season 1
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Episode 291
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41:15
#290 Top 4 Business English Expressions with Paola (Talaera Talks)
Paola from the Talaera Talks podcast and I are doing a cross-post episode today. You can also find this episode and many more over on their podcast. The topic is all about job...
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Season 1
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Episode 290
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54:26
#289 How to Improve Your Work-Life Balance
One of the listeners suggested I talk about the topic of work-life balance. This is something I've been working on in my own life for many years, and I feel like I might have something useful to share on this topic.So in this ep...
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Season 1
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Episode 289
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24:26
#288 Reverse Culture Shock in the UK
I recently went back to my home country - the UK - for the first time in a quite a while and was fascinated by how the UK appeared to me after being away for a while.There was a lot that I found strange, unusual, and interesting that I ...
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Season 1
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Episode 288
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45:59
#287 I Took a Train from London to Romania
I just came back from a trip in Europe and I thought I'd get on the microphone today and review some of the good and bad experiences I had there.I made the adventurous decision to travel from London all the way to Istanbul by train (lis...
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Season 1
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Episode 287
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49:22
#286 A 1200km Pilgrimage (Fran from Step Up Japanese)
Fran from Step Up Japanese and I discuss a few different topics in today's episode, including:The Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage (walking around the Japanese island of Shikoku)The Tadoku ...
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Season 1
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Episode 286
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52:57
#285 Ask Me Anything 5
This is the fifth episode in the AMA series (Ask Me Anything) where the listeners of the podcast ask me questions about English learning, British culture, or maybe something totally unrelated.They're also fun, relaxed, and more casual t...
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Season 1
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Episode 285
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46:04
#284 8 Phrasal Verbs with 'Out'
We've done a few episodes on phrasal verbs now, including the verbs Turn and Set, and this is a continuation of that series, except today we're looking at a preposition: Out. I'll be covering 8 different phrasal verbs that are commonly ...
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Season 1
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Episode 284
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34:53
#283 Mind-blowing Facts About Body Language
I've always been interested in body language, and today I'd like to share that interest with you all.I'm going to be reviewing and reacting to some amazing body language facts from some articles while sharing my opinions, experiences, a...
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Season 1
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Episode 283
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41:12
#282 Learn English from the News - Stephen from SEND7
Stephen from the SEND7 podcast joins me today for a talk about the news. We cover a wide range of topics, such as learning English with the news, avoiding bias and fake news, how to deal with news anxiety, an...
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Season 1
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Episode 282
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54:39
#281 Outsmart Your Brain with Cognitive Biases
I'm so excited for this topic, because today we're looking at Cognitive Biases.This is how our brains can trick us into certain beliefs and behaviours. Learn about things like the Sunk Cost Fallacy, Loss Aversion, Confirmation Bia...
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Season 1
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Episode 281
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39:34
#280 6 English Animal Expressions You Need to Know
I first covered this topic back in Episode 215, but it's such a huge one, I think it's time for a Part 2.Today, I'm sharing 6 idioms related to animals that we use in daily conversa...
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Season 1
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Episode 280
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39:29
#279 How to Talk About Generations in English
Each generation has its own name in English, as well as distinct characteristics, differences, good points and bad points.In this episode, I review each one and share a little bit about them while hopefully sharing some new and useful v...
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Season 1
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Episode 279
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37:26
#278 What Your Dreams Really Mean
This is a fun episode where I cover the topic of dreaming in English. I start by sharing some strange and unbelievable facts about dreams, and then share some of my own wacky dreams and nightmares.I also go through a couple comm...
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Season 1
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Episode 278
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32:29
#277 Job Interview Success with Natasha Broodie
Natasha Broodie (lifewiththebige.com) first joined us on Episode 135. Today, Natasha is back to discuss her new book: "Swaggart: The Art ...
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Season 1
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Episode 277
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1:02:00
#276 Hack Your Life with the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, suggests that 20% of actions cause 80% of the outcomes. There are so many ways in which this shows up in life, so I'm going to be discussing it and talking about some ways we can...
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Season 1
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Episode 276
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37:30