Is This Economy as Awful as Voters Think? We Ask Our Expert.
The Daily

Is This Economy as Awful as Voters Think? We Ask Our Expert.

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 21, 202632 min
  • Interview
  • Business & money

The economy is one of the most important issues for voters in the midterm elections. President Trump has been trying to persuade Americans that they are wrong to be frustrated about the cost of living. Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, explains what the latest economic data actually says. Guest: Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading: Three charts that explain the economy as voters head to the polls.Higher energy prices lift U.S. inflation ahead of the midterms. P...

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I recently spent eight weeks on a research ship going to Antarctica with scientists studying the melting ice.

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 35%A2 33%B1 20%B2 11%C1 1%
  • 88% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 167 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 118 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

I'm Ray Jeong. I cover climate and the environment for the New York Times. I recently spent eight weeks on a research ship going to Antarctica with scientists studying the melting ice. 90% of the ice on Earth is sitting on top of Antarctica. It's a place that will affect all of our futures.

0:17

The planet's getting warmer, ice is melting away. Sea level rise is going to change our coastal cities. It's one thing to read about what scientists have discovered when they write papers, but it's another thing entirely to be there with them as they're taking the measurements, as they're puzzling through these big questions.

0:33

The New York Times' mission is to cover the world and Antarctica is one of the seven continents. It's a harder place to cover in many ways, but that's all the more reason the Times needs to find ways to do it. We want to bring you closer to the biggest stories that matter for how we all live in the world. If you'd like to support this work, you can become a subscriber at nytimes.com slash subscribe.

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