Happy 4th Birthday to English Learning for Curious Minds

Published on
December 5, 2023
|
Updated on
December 13, 2023
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📖
5
min read
This article may contain affiliate links
Written by
Alastair Budge

English Learning for Curious Minds was first published 4 years ago today. Here is a summary of how things have gone since then, and the main things we've done in 2023.

Happy 4th Birthday to English Learning for Curious Minds
Table of contents

On December 5th 2019, we released our first ever episode of English Learning for Curious Minds

It was listened to precisely 100 times, then…crickets (=”no reply or reaction at all”), or at least not for a while.

Fast forward exactly 4 years, and we haven’t stopped:

  • 400+ episodes created
  • 5 million downloads
  • Listeners from every country in the world (even the Vatican City…)
  • Members from 98 countries

2023 has been a great year, and here are some of the main things we’ve achieved:

For those of you who like statistics, here were our most popular episodes of the year:

  1. #344 | Adolf Hitler | Der Führer
  2. #372 | The War on Milk
  3. #332 | The Bizarre Life of Lewis Carroll
  4. #356 | The Ku Klux Klan: A History of Hate
  5. #394 | What Is Hell?
  6. #376 | Porn & Big Money
  7. #338 | The Tragic Life of Anne Boleyn
  8. #384 | Napoleon Bonaparte
  9. #412 | A Short History of Mental Health
  10. #364 | Do Idioms Really Matter?

And here are the most popular countries for the podcast

  1. Spain 🇪🇸
  2. Germany 🇩🇪
  3. Brazil 🇧🇷
  4. Turkey 🇹🇷
  5. Poland 🇵🇱
  6. Iran 🇮🇷
  7. Italy 🇮🇹
  8. United States 🇺🇸
  9. Mexico 🇲🇽
  10. Russia 🇷🇺

Like maps? Here’s one that shows the different countries listeners are based in. The darker the blue, the more listeners there are (Hello Spain!).

Listeners of English Learning for Curious Minds

Strangely enough, it seems like the show was slightly more popular with men than women last year:

And most of our listeners are in the 28-44 range:

And if you are in the mood for even more numbers, here are our most popular articles:

  1. How to Find a Conversation Partner in English
  2. What Is Comprehensible Input and Why Does It Matter for Language Learning?
  3. Connected Speech In English: What It Is And How To Learn It
  4. What is Shadowing And Why Should You Use It To Improve Your English Speaking Skills?
  5. Intensive Listening vs. Extensive Listening in English
  6. The Best Free Tools To Improve Your Writing In English
  7. The Ultimate Guide To Improving Your English Listening: A Step-by-Step Guide + 9 Listening Activities
  8. Input vs. Output—What Is the Right Mix for English Learners?
  9. The Definitive Guide to British Regional Accents
  10. My Favourite Episodes of English Learning for Curious Minds of 2022

We have some big plans for the coming year, and are actively working on these at the moment. 

If you have been following from Day 0, or you have only recently joined us on our journey, thank you. This wouldn’t be possible without you.

See you in 2024 ✌️

P.s. if you’re interested, you can read our “annual reports” (one and two).

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