Do Aliens Exist? How to Connect Over Extraterrestrial Life

All Ears English Podcast

The All Ears English podcast explores the cultural phenomenon of discussing aliens and UFOs in American conversation. Hosts Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon break down why this

Key takeaways

• President Trump ordered the release of previously classified U.S. government documents regarding unexplained aerial phenomena in May.
• Opinion polls cited indicate one-third of Americans believe aliens exist and 17% report personally seeing a UFO.

Main topics

• UFO and alien terminology
• American cultural conversations about extraterrestrials

Notable quotes

UFO just means unidentified flying object.

Conclusion

Listeners gain practical English phrases to navigate culturally charged

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) This is the All Ears English podcast. Do aliens exist? How to connect over extraterrestrial life. Speaker 1 (0:08) 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 host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, 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. Speaker 3 (0:58) Have you ever had a conversation about aliens from outer space in English? Today, find out why this is a hot topic in the U.S. right now and how to approach it to strike up a great conversation. Speaker 2 (1:17) Has this ever happened to you? You're mid-sentence and you hear yourself slow down. You simplify. You avoid the word you actually want. That moment adds up in meetings, interviews, and everyday conversations. It weighs on you and makes you feel isolated. It becomes harder to make real connections. Our free two-minute fluency quiz helps you identify what interrupts your flow and your connections and how to fix it. You'll get your English level, B1, B2, or C1, and you'll figure out where to go from here. Start now at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y. S-C-O-R-E. Speaker 1 (2:23) Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hello, Aubrey. How are you doing today? Speaker 3 (2:27) I'm excellent. I'm excited to talk about extraterrestrials with you today, Lindsay. Speaker 1 (2:32) Do you believe in aliens? Do I believe in aliens? I really don't know what my belief is there. I went to Roswell once in New Mexico, which is a place where, I don't know, they're... A rumored crash site. Mm-hmm, crash site. Yes, and I left feeling like I did, but now I'm not so sure. Speaker 3 (2:53) I've seen several documentaries where I finished it, like convinced, like someone will be talking about being abducted or something and they seem so believable. But then I get on with my life and I'm like, no. No, you're like, no. Yeah, no. It's really tricky. Speaker 1 (3:07) So a little wishy-washy. We're both a little wishy-washy, it sounds like. Speaker 3 (3:10) Yeah. But this is really a fun and common topic of conversation in American culture. I talk to people about this a lot and a lot of people have a lot. A lot of people have some kind of experience or know someone who has seen something. My father saw a UFO when he was young and my husband and I saw something. Because really, UFO, we're going to talk about what it means. It just means something unidentified. You don't know what it is. So it could actually be a military aircraft or something from another country that you're just not familiar with. Who knows? There's Speaker 1 (3:42) probably an Speaker 3 (3:43) explanation, Speaker 1 (3:43) but maybe Speaker 3 (3:45) not. Speaker 1 (3:45) It reminds me of the conversation that you might have about ghosts. Do you believe in ghosts? Because I feel like some of those sightings also could have been paranormal, right? Exactly. Speaker 3 (3:54) Very Speaker 1 (3:54) possible. Yeah, for sure. So these are conversations. Yeah, these are, you know, do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe in aliens? These conversations definitely come up in American culture with native speakers. So we're going to learn how to have this conversation today, Aubrey. Speaker 3 (4:09) Exactly. But first, we want to thank some reviewers. We are so grateful for everyone who rates and reviews the podcast. It's like a thank you letter to us. We read them and we try to give you a shout out, anyone who leaves a review. Speaker 1 (4:22) Yeah. So a huge thank you to Milad Asampoor from India, who left us a review. Thank you to Sana Kaviani on June 21st. S-S-T-T from the UK. Huge thank you to these amazing listeners for reviewing our show. So thank you. Yes. And guys, leave your review for the show. If you want to hear your name announced out loud, we'll do our best to call you out on the show. All Speaker 3 (4:49) right. Absolutely. Yes. Leave us a review, rate the show. It also helps others find the show. And yeah, it's always nice to hear that great feedback when anyone leaves a comment. Speaker 1 (4:59) For sure. All right. So there have been some big Steven Spielberg films, Aubrey. We wanted to mention Speaker 3 (5:06) a few. So a lot of movies have come out recently that have been really big about aliens, basically. Disclosure Day. Steven Spielberg did this film that topped the global box office earlier this summer. And Steven Spielberg also did E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is an older film from 1977. Have you seen both of those, Speaker 1 (5:28) Lindsay? Oh, I've seen E.T. I remember watching E.T. as a kid. It's so sweet. It's so sweet. Speaker 3 (5:34) And Speaker 1 (5:34) it Speaker 3 (5:34) holds up. I watched it with my kids.