The discovery of infrared light

Astrophysicist and science communicator Neil De Grasse Tyson gives us one of his “lightning” lessons on how infrared light was discovered by William Herschel, building on the discovery of white light by Isaac Newton.

David Bowie on costumes and makeup

David Bowie explains how he talked his band members into wearing the extravagant costumes and makeup that became their signature look, and how blush and mascara became part of their dressing room routine.

Pronouncing British place names

Lucy from English with Lucy helps us to understand the eccentric pronunciation of British place names, that are often pronounced very differently from how they’re written.

To be or not to be

Where do you put the accent, or “stress” as we call it in English, in a phrase? On a word that’s important for the meaning? OR on a connecting word? There are many different opinions…and no definitive answer…

Forrest Gump’s accent with Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks explains how he learned the accent for Forrest Gump from the actor who played the character as a child, Michael Connor Humphreys. It’s interesting that one of the characteristics of the boy’s accent is something that Italians tend to do - the hard G at the end of words ending in “ing”.

“Would” isn’t always conditional

In this famous scene from “Pretty Woman” Julia Roberts’ character Vivian uses the modal verbs “would” and “will” not as conditional and future, but in their meaning connected with “will” as “volontà”. When she says “Nobody will help me” she isn’t talking about the future, she means “nobody wants to help me”. And when she returns to the shop the next day she uses the past form of “will” in this meaning, when she accuses the snobbish shop assistant: “You wouldn’t wait on me”. In this scene we can find the conditional “would” too, used by the shop assistant when she says to Vivian “I don’t think this would fit you”.

The creative process of Wish you were here

David Gilmour reveals the story behind the writing of one of Pink Floyd’s most iconic songs, in which his initial riff sparked off the creative process of Roger Waters and resulted in a song that seemed to exist in its own right just waiting to be discovered.

The art of chocolate

In this TED talk, master chocolatier and pastry chef Amaury Guichon talks about his craft and how he arrived where he is today. He gives a hands-on demonstration in front of the audience and shows the truth of his own belief that chocolate art is not only for beauty but must taste good too.

How to create change talking about why, not what

Simon Sinek talks about how to create change in a world which resists change. He talks about innovators, early adopters, the majority, and laggers, and explains why early adopters are the target group for implementing change successfully in companies.

English life and language in the Middle Ages

The pronunciation of English has changed a lot over time, and this is one of the reasons why the pronunciation of a word often doesn’t correspond with how it’s written, because the spelling of words was standardized but the pronunciation continued to change. Professor Dorsey Armstrong gives a demonstration of how some words were pronounced in the Middle Ages and answers questions about medieval history, talking about the structure of castles, instruments of torture, hygiene, Game of Thrones, sleeping habits and many other aspects of medieval life.

Rhythm in spoken English

One of the things about English that make it so difficult to understand is the rhythm - some sounds are strongly accented and some are so weak that they’re difficult to hear. In this video Dr Geoff Lindsay talks about weak forms in English - those syllables with no identity that are written with various different letters but aren’t pronounced as you might expect.