AEE 2361: Increase Your Lifespan and Listen Today
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This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2361. Increase your lifespan and listen today. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay

McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.

In today's episode, a listener asks us about the word lifespan and how it can be used. Today, get multiple scenarios to use this word and similar ones in English. Plus, which country has the longest life expectancy? Find out today.

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- Hello, Michelle. How's it going today? - I'm good, Lindsay. I have a question for you. - All right, I'm ready. - What would you say is a typical lifespan of a car? - It really depends on what car you have, Michelle. I mean, we have an old Toyota and at this point,

we're gonna drive her she's a she's a female and we're gonna we're gonna take her all the way to 300 000 miles that's what we've said and she and she is 20 years old actually no so yeah it's an old toyota 4runner

2005 or 2006. So that, but that's the best I think you can really expect. It's funny. You can get attached to your car, right? You can, I guess. Oh yeah, you can. Are you attached to your car? Um, no,

No, my car needs to be cleaned. I was, yeah. But I'm not attached to it yet. But I remember very specifically when we got rid of, we had, you know, one of those station wagons when I was a kid. I remember when my mom was going to, she was going to drop that car off and she was going to get her new car. And I remember it was sad.

totally i think it's it's a it's a thing when you're a kid because you associate your car with all with family trips right memories your parents a lot of times yeah kids do i i also got attached to our family cars yeah um it's sort of a weird thing but yeah why are we getting into what why did you ask me about the life span of a car are we getting into no reason mechanical knowledge today or what no god no um today we are

Going to be answering a listener question about the word lifespan. So this we're going to focus on part of this listener's question today about the word lifespan. But before we do that, guys, remember to hit follow wherever you listen to All Ears English so you never miss anything from us.

Yeah, guys hit that follow button. You know, we're in the new year now it's time to really kind of hunker down and get a great habit of listening to English five days a week with All Ears English. So if you believe in connection, not perfection, then come along with us and hit that follow button. Good stuff. Right. And send us your question, right, Michelle? Because we love it when we can base our episodes on listener questions.

Absolutely. Yeah. Actually, we were just talking about how we've gotten some really good questions recently. Lindsay, do you want me to read the question this time? That'd be great, Michelle. Could you do that for us? Okay. So unfortunately, I don't think that I have the name of this listener.

But it said, "Greetings, I really enjoy listening to your podcast. It's been so helpful for improving my English. Does lifespan apply only to living things or can it be used

for objects or ideas too. Thank you so much for your help. Looking forward to your next episode. Thank you so much. And it looks like this person gave us a five-star review. Lindsay, I don't know if you can find, if you know their name. Yeah, I don't know their name, but thank you to the listener. We love good questions. You can leave your question in your review wherever you listen.

or you can send your question over to [email protected]. Those are great ways to get your question into our queue and make sure it's a specific question, right? - Yes. - Yes. - Okay, so thank you so much. Lindsay, so what did I ask you first, Lindsay? We were talking about

car, right? Is a car a living thing? Well, it's not, although I made it sound like it is, like giving it a gender. But sometimes we do that and that's another story for another day. But yeah, it's not a living thing, but it does have a lifespan, meaning the amount of time in which it's functional, that you're still driving it, right? Right, right, exactly. So it is interesting that we can use lifespan about living or non-living things.

Yes. So, but this listener asked also about objects or ideas. So ideas, I don't really think so. To me, it's more about living things or objects. What do you think? Yeah, I really don't think I would say that for an idea having a lifespan. I would say maybe like a trend could have kind of a lifespan, a trend, like a way of thinking, a wave of thinking. Maybe you could say that movement had a lifespan. Would you say that?

Maybe. It doesn't feel very natural to me. Natural. Yeah. Yeah. There's other words that we could use for ideas that would be better, I think. Right. I'm thinking about, well, would you say it about maybe a trend like, oh, the lifespan of the skinny jeans trend or something like that? I don't know. Still, it feels...

Yeah. I mean, it doesn't feel 100% natural, but I think if you said it, people would get it. Know what you mean. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So to me, the word, you know, lifespan can sound actually a little bit scientific, right? Yeah, it does. It's really about the time something lasts, right? So the focus is on time. So let's do some examples. Lindsay, you want to do the first one? Yes. The average lifespan of a dog is 10 to 13 years, which is

way too short. When I think about that, I think Kiefer's halfway through his life. He's middle aged. Oh my gosh. I know. I know. I was just, I just saw something about them trying to make animals, dogs live longer. Did you see, I don't know. I swear I saw something. I don't know. Maybe I'd had a dream about it. I don't know. All right, here we go. The lifespan of the carpets we sell is about 20 years.

Nice. Or you should exercise, sleep and eat healthy if you want to increase your lifespan. So yeah, we haven't mentioned this yet, but the major way that this is used is actually about the human body, a life, someone's life. Like how long are you going to live your lifespan? Yeah.

Right. Average lifespan of, you know, like, for example, women tends to be longer than men in general, I think, across the world. And then lifespan can also vary based on where you're from, what country you live in. Right. Exactly. Yep. So or here's another one. Make sure you go back to cars. Make sure you get regular oil changes or in order to maintain the lifespan of the car.

Yes. Nice. Yeah. So let's talk about what we do to try to increase our lifespan. Interesting. Michelle, anything that comes to mind for you in terms of daily habits or activities?

I've been trying to exercise more. I've recently picked it up again. Nice. That's important. I think now, I don't know if you are into this, but now I've been really considering what I eat and the amount of plastic that I use. I was having a lot of plastic water bottles. Okay. I've been starting to become more aware of

I think this is happening to a lot of people I know. They're starting to think about plastic they use. I just bought new stainless steel containers for my kids' snacks. And so I would say that's something I'm starting to consider. Also, I think about, you know, I do like the idea of eating fewer chemicals. So I'm considering really, I'm starting to consider really what I

put in my body and yeah for sure yeah maybe eating less meat more vegetables so I would say that that's been my focus more so recently and then it's also about what you don't do right you know don't right like I don't I don't smoke I you know it's certain things like that so

For sure. Yeah. What about you? Well, I think there's just a lot more research coming out now about nutrition and ultra processed foods. And I try to I'm all about inflammation, anti-inflammatory stuff like, you know, the food that can bring down your inflammation in your body. Right. Like omega-3s and cherries and fruits and like strong polyphenols, that kind of thing. I really nerd out on this stuff, Michelle. Yeah, I really do.

no me too recently i've been getting into it i don't know maybe it's just something

something that happens and it's a trend right now i think people are talking a lot we're really raising the consciousness especially around processed foods it's true and also dyes that's a new thing oh yeah interesting right yeah if you have to put dye and like food coloring into your food something's probably wrong i think i think wasn't one of the red dyes was just banned it's gonna be yeah yeah that was big news so yeah anyway trying to increase our lifespans yeah so i think

the main way we use the word lifespan, you know, probably 60% of the time it is about, you know, the human life, right? Broadly about human beings and then, you know, in different parts of the world and, you know, ages and genders and that kind of thing. Yeah. Yep.

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Okay, Michelle. So there are other ways that we could say lifespan that might actually be better for what we talked about the lifespan of a trend, right? If we want to talk about trends or ideas, there might be better ways to say that. Let's see if we can explore here. What else? All right. Well, we're going to explore some similar ideas. So the first one is duration. So this is more used for objects, right? I wouldn't talk about a person's duration. That would be very weird. It makes it makes it feel too objectified. The person, right?

- Yeah, so you can increase the duration of your clothes by washing them according to the instructions on the tag. Yeah, the duration of your clothes, interesting. I've never used that for clothes, but I guess you could.

Yeah. Am I making that up? I mean, I mean, yeah, sure. Yeah. I don't know how long your clothes. I mean, Lindsay, I think we've talked about this. You and neither you or I really wash our laundry correctly. Is that right? Oh, no, no, no, never, never. I just don't have the time or the energy to separate my wides and my darks. And I often wash my jeans, which you're not supposed to. I know I commit all that. I know.

Next one is life cycle. So slightly more about the actual circle of life, like the Lion King. Shout out to the Lion King. We love it. It's a good one. The life cycle of something. This kind of talks about changes that things go through throughout their life too, right? So lifespan is about amount of time. Life cycle is about stages usually. Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. So today we will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly. Exactly. Yeah. Perfect. What else, Michelle? Life expectancy. So again, these are similar words. They're not, you know, words in the same vein, but they're not exactly the same. Life expectancy. So that's how long something will live. Now, would you use life expectancy for an object?

Would you use life expectancy for an object? No, probably not. I feel like you have to be alive. Don't you think?

you know more commonly that's how you would use it but i do think that like for example the life expectancy of a phone is probably about four years but it may not work that well even before then i feel like that sounds do you think that sounds natural or not or a little life expectancy it feels a little weird to me because when i think about again when i think about life expectancy i think about like human beings you know what i mean kind of yeah how long someone will live

but so i would generally advise to stay more around thing you know around humans but this actually leads me to a more interesting question michelle oh life expectancy around the world countries yeah oh do you know how low the us is we're pretty low aren't we we're very low we're very low so i'm looking at one one source and i want to encourage our listeners to go and research this um but i had heard this before based on this source world world

worldometers.info. It looks like we're number 48. Ooh, very low. Who takes the cake? Japan? Hong Kong. The top. This must be something about the diet in Asia. So number one, Hong Kong, two, Japan, three, South Korea, four, French Polynesia. Very interesting. So I would love to know what our listeners think about what determines lifespan. Like what's the secret of being at the top of this chart? What do you think it is, Michelle?

I think it might be what you eat. What do you think? Yeah. Well, I have a feeling it's a combination between what you eat and how often you move. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Because I remember when I lived in Japan and again on this chart, Japan is number two and I would want to validate this against other charts, but I remember how much I moved just walking to the train all the time. Yep.

I didn't really drive. Trains cover the whole country. It's just amazing the amount of walking I did. So I want to hear from our listeners on that, Michelle. Maybe we could do a follow-up on this idea of lifespan across the world. It's so important. Yeah. Yeah. That would be interesting. Okay. I'm going to look into that lifespan around the world. So, yeah.

lindsay here's here's another question uh well what's the longest time you think you've had a piece of technology and what is it wow that's a great question well i actually had my last computer for quite a while i had it for about five years and i just got a brand new one but yeah you did get a new one congrats yeah shout out to dell it lasted me a long time

So the lifespan of that computer. Yeah, I guess you could say lifespan of a computer. I think that makes sense to me. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. All right, guys. So now we are going to share results from a poll we did on Spotify. Guys, we've been doing these really fun polls on Spotify. And this was from episode 2337 of All Ears English. This was called Why Do Americans Love Bulk

buying. So if you haven't, well, and maybe, hey, also connected to lifespan, what you're eating. This might be connected to why we're number 48. That's hilarious. I was not thinking about it at all that way. But yes, so head on over and listen to that episode. But what was the

question on the poll for that. Yeah, the question was, you know, is Costco a big connection topic in your culture? So not necessarily are you a Costco shopper, but is it a connection topic? Do you talk about it? Are there jokes about Costco? Are there, you know, shared, is there shared enthusiasm around the Costco idea, right? Yes or no. So it was an interesting even split, Michelle. Yes was 52% and no was 47%. Interesting.

Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. Some Costco fans and some Costco fans more than I actually thought. But it is a global concept now, for sure. Should we go into a quick role play before we finish? Let's do it. Here we go. So I am a salesman and you are looking for a new couch. All right. Here we go.

Alright, so how long do these couches typically last? Well, the duration is based on how they are treated, so you definitely want to use the cleaner every six months. Oh, so that increases the lifespan? Oh, for sure. The life expectancy is about five years if you aren't careful and 20 years if you are. Whoa, what a difference. Yeah, in the life cycle of a couch, the length of time really depends on how much you rough it up.

Interesting. Good to know. Good to know. I didn't know that I had to use a special cleaner for my couch. Geez. Yeah. I, yeah. I'm learning a lot here. All right. The goal though, is to be not be on the couch too much. Right. So that's true. Above higher than 48 on the list. Exactly.

So many connections we're making in this episode. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's break this down. So you said, well, the duration is based on how they are treated, right? So the duration of like how long the couch will last is based on how it's treated. Okay. Yep. And then I said I use the cleaner every six months. And you said, so that increases the lifespan?

Mm hmm. Perfect. And then you said, oh, for sure. The life expectancy is about five years if you aren't careful and 20 years if you are. And then I said, yeah, and the life cycle of a couch, the length of time really depends on how much you rough it up. So again, this is extreme, right? We're not going to use all of these in once. However, you know, another point is it's kind of silly, right? The life cycle of the couch. This is

to me a point of having some fun with the language, right? We don't say the life cycle of a couch. Obviously the couch isn't living. It doesn't have, you know, we don't think of it as a butterfly or, you know, but it's not going to get married one day and like, you know, have like typical life cycle moments. But sometimes we do things. We've talked about this before personifying objects. Yeah. Yeah. So, so this can happen.

So, right. Yeah. I mean, or, or like how I put a gender on my car right at the top of the episode, we do persona. Maybe it's time to revisit that topic on all airs, English, Michelle of personifying objects. Come back to that. We did an episode a long time ago. That would be kind of cool to come back to. Don't you think? Right. Yeah, absolutely. I do think so. Interesting. Yeah. And we're going to have a good

poll. Maybe the poll today will be related to the lifespan around the world, life expectancy around the world. We're going to ask some kind of questions. So come over to Spotify and participate in the poll, guys. All right. Good stuff. And don't forget to hit follow on all ears English. Yes, absolutely. What's the takeaway for today? What do you think? Well, I mean, this is such a diverse topic. You can talk about anything from how long people live around the world to how long certain items will live or survive or last.

Right. So just try to dive into trying one of the ways we talked about today and try it out. Just try it out. Right. Absolutely. All right. Well, this was a lot of fun. Thank you to our listener for that question. We love them. Please continue to send us your very good questions. All right, Michelle, take care. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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