Learning English Podcast - Tree Planting Holiday, Robot Market, Oldest Black Hole

On today's podcast, Dan Novak and Ashley Thompson host the show while Dan tells listeners what they will hear.

First, Faith Pirlo has a story about a surprise public holiday for tree planting in Kenya. The country aims to plant 15 billion trees in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The holiday was decided upon in a cabinet meeting and put into effect over a very short time.

Then, Greg Stachel reports on the robot market. He says some companies are abandoning efforts to make robots look like people. Instead, they are making robots that are designed for the jobs they do. Other companies, however, want to make humanoid robots that look and act like people.

After that, Caty Weaver has a story about the discover of the oldest black hole yet by scientists. Researchers say the black hole formed only about 400 billion years after the beginning of the universe. The Webb Space Telescope took the image of the huge, ancient black hole.

Following the report, Caty and Dan have a discussion about why a black hole is called an "object."

Finally, Andrew and Jill explore nouns with special endings, especially -er, by using Anna's adventures in Let's Learn English.
Then Dan and Ashley sign off.

Kenya Surprises Public with Holiday to Plant Trees
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...

Do We Need Human-like Robots?
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...

NASA: Scientists Discover Oldest Black Hole Yet
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...