Talk Me Into It
This American Life

Talk Me Into It

B1IntermediateNovember 2, 20261 hr 1 min
  • Documentary
  • Politics

It’s the midterms! This week’s show is about people changing their minds and not changing their minds — and the people trying to do the persuading. Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new video, A Night of Stories and Improv. (00:00:00) Prologue: In Detroit, Rose Johnson tries to convince other Black voters to vote for Abdul El-Sayed. Her friend isn’t having it. (7 minutes) (00:07:30) Act One: In Montana's Senate race this year, Democrats have been caught up in a messy cloak-and-dagger fight, with longtime big-name Democrats not endorsing their own nominee...

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by a failed Canadian surgeon.

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A1 45%A2 32%B1 14%B2 8%C1 1%
  • 91% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 161 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 210 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

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0:00

On the next through line from NPR, the surprising story behind the discovery of insulin, led by a failed Canadian surgeon. The best way to describe it would be a reluctant hero. It's a story rife with personal grudges and many, many dogs.

0:19

Listen to NPR's through line in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. So sure, over $11 billion is being spent on advertising for the election next week.

0:40

But of course, in addition to the ads, there are still human beings out there in this election trying to persuade the old-fashioned way, person to person, in one-on-one conversations. Which is where you really see what people are made of and how they're deciding who they're going to vote for.

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