Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great!
Learning a language is hard. With Easy Stories in English, you can learn English the natural way, without studying lists of vocabulary or complicated grammar rules. Every week, Ariel Goodbody, author and language teacher, will present a story adapted to your level of English. The stories will be hilarious, dramatic, and entertaining, but never too difficult. If you’re learning English and are tired of boring textbooks, then this is the podcast for you.
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- All levels
- L1 – Beginner
- L2 – Pre-Intermediate
- L3 – Intermediate
- L4 – Advanced
How the Narwhal Got Its Tusk
19/12/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 0:31:56 0 CommentsA blind boy lives in Greenland with his parents and his aunt. The aunt is always complaining, so the boy’s mother sends her away, but one night, there is a storm and the boy hears his aunt being struck by lightning. The aunt goes mad, and only the blind…
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The Giant Turnip
05/12/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:16:17 0 CommentsA woman grows a really big turnip. She wants to pull it out of the ground but she can’t. Her husband helps her, but together they still can’t pull the turnip out of the ground. How much help will they need?
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The Water Monster
21/11/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 0:17:02 4 CommentsDownload this episode as a PDF. Transcript Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great. I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for intermediate learners. The name of the story…
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Doggo and Kitty Tear Their Trousers (Advanced)
07/11/2023 Ariel Goodbody L4 – Advanced 0:26:35 2 CommentsIt’s a lovely day, and Doggo and Kitty go for a walk in the forest. But when Doggo gets into a fight with a rabbit, he tears his trousers, and now everyone is laughing at him! How can they mend his trousers when they’re just a dog and a…
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How to Teach a Language
24/10/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 0:28:13 0 CommentsIn this episode, I explore methods you can use to teach your language to your friend or partner. It builds upon the information in the previous episode How to Learn a Language, so I highly recommend listening to that episode first.
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The Path of Pins and Needles
10/10/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 0:27:06 0 CommentsRed loves playing tricks on the adults in her village, so one day her mother sends her to bring bread and milk to her grandmother. On the way, Red meets a strange man, Wolf, who suggests they play a game: he’ll walk the path of pins, she’ll walk the…
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The Three Goats
26/09/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:18:02 20 CommentsThree goats live happily in a field eating grass. But one day, there’s no more grass. They decide to cross a bridge to another field. But when they try to cross, a monster jumps out, and he wants to eat them!
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Simon’s New Job
12/09/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:18:29 20 CommentsSimon gets a new job, but everything goes wrong. He doesn’t wear enough deodorant and smells at work. He tries walking, taking the bus, the train, a taxi, but he always gets there too early or too late. One day, it all becomes too much…
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How to Learn a Language
29/08/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 0:45:25 22 CommentsIn this episode, I explain the theory behind second language acquisition, or the way that we learn languages and how best to study languages. I introduce Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Comprehensible Input and discuss the five hypotheses that make it up, and then explain how I used this theory…
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The Piper of Hamelin (Beginner)
15/08/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:19:54 24 CommentsRats come to the town of Hamelin, three times as big as normal rats. The townspeople don’t know what to do. But then a piper comes to town and says he can get rid of the rats with his music. The only problem? The price! But when the mayor…
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The Elephant and the Hare (Intermediate)
01/08/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 0:19:15 0 CommentsAn elephant is travelling to meet his family, bringing delicious honey as a gift. He stops to give a hare a ride over the river, but the hare smells the honey and can’t resist just having a taste…
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The King’s New Clothes (Beginner)
18/07/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:18:04 4 CommentsThere is a king who loves only his clothes. One day, two brothers come to town and say that they can make magic clothes for the king. If you are stupid or bad at your job, you can’t see the clothes. But what happens when the king can’t see…
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The Voice of Reason
04/07/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 0:31:13 9 CommentsIn a small town, the people look after each other. When someone is hungry, the others give them food. But one day, the Voice of Reason comes to town and changes everything.
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Four Windows
20/06/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 0:19:05 14 CommentsTwo people live in buildings next to each other: a clean man and a messy woman. Each day, they look through the window into the other’s flat and imagine what their life is like. But in the end, only one person knows the truth…
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Eyes, Teeth and Toenails
06/06/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:23:46 18 CommentsKen finally has his holiday. But his eyes hurt! Maybe watching TV will help. Lisa loves brushing her teeth – she does it EVERYWHERE. But what will happen when she goes to the dentist? Vladimir has beautiful, long toenails… but does his boss agree?
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Interview with Alastair about Pioneers of the Continuum
23/05/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:30:02 6 CommentsRecently, I worked with Alastair Budge on Pioneers of the Continuum, an eight-part audio drama featuring your favourite ESL podcasters as narrators. Today, we talk about Pioneers of the Continuum and Alastair’s other work. Alastair also hosts the English Learning for Curious Minds podcast, where you can learn about…
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Eileen
09/05/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:40:34 10 CommentsWith every month that passes, Eileen gets cleverer. The kids at school hate her, and her parents are afraid of her. There’s something not… human about this child. This story covers my feelings about AI (artificial intelligence). I talk a lot about an episode of another podcast, Your Undivided Attention,…
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Saint George and the Dragon
25/04/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:27:22 6 CommentsDownload this episode as a PDF. Transcript Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great. I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for pre-intermediate learners. The name of the story…
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The Rabbit Man
11/04/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:29:31 6 CommentsHeorhiy lives happily as a peasant, but one day a rich man comes to his house and tells him he has a family debt. Heorhiy works three years to pay it off, but the rich man doesn’t want to let him go, so he thinks of a way to…
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The Pancake Man
28/03/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:22:15 8 CommentsFrancis’s mother dies, and his father gets very sad. One day, Francis’s father starts making pancakes. Francis loves the pancakes, so his dad makes bigger and bigger pancakes. But maybe they’re too big…
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The Labyrinth
14/03/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:21:56 8 CommentsA woman keeps ending up in bad relationships. A businessman works so hard he has heart problems. A young man killed his friend by drunk driving and now he can’t stop drinking. All three of them are lost. All three of them go to drive. They go to the…
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The Hunt
28/02/2023 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:25:19 2 CommentsYou have nowhere else to go. Beth left. Kai attacked. Faruq crashed. You hid. So one day, you go to that place you’ve heard about, where you can buy a certain drug. It’s a crazy idea, but maybe you’ll feel less lonely. Your cat is your only friend left,…
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The Perfect Pet (Beginner)
14/02/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:24:09 13 CommentsRory has always wanted a pet, but his parents don’t like animals. When Rory finishes university, he decides to get a pet. First, he gets a dog, but then things start going wrong…
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Why Blood is Red
31/01/2023 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 0:19:03 10 CommentsIn the beginning, there were two brother gods, Kimesh and Musesh. Kimesh created the planets with loud fire, and Musesh created the plants and animals with calm thought. Everything was fine for a while, until Kimesh decided the world needed some more colour…
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Doggo and Kitty Do Their Laundry (Advanced)
17/01/2023 Ariel Goodbody L4 – Advanced 0:28:50 8 CommentsDoggo and Kitty want to be like the adults, and adults put on clothes when they go outside. But there’s a problem: Doggo and Kitty’s clothes are dirty! Well, they’ll just have to do laundry. That should be simple, right?
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Goldilocks and the Three Bears
03/01/2023 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 0:27:38 15 CommentsGoldilocks goes into the forest and gets lost. She finds a house with porridge by the window, and it smells so good… The old man who lives there would want her to go and eat it, wouldn’t he?
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 3 & 4
20/12/2022 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:39:52 0 CommentsEvery day, the lord of the castle goes hunting and Gawain stays in bed, bantering with the beautiful lady. Each night, Gawain and the lord exchange their ‘gains’ for the day. But Gawain cannot stop worrying about meeting the Green Knight, and when the lady offers him help, he…
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 1 & 2
13/12/2022 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:41:46 0 CommentsKing Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table lIve peacefully at Camelot. But on New Year’s eve, a terrible knight rides into the castle, made entirely of green. He gives them a challenge: a man must come and attack him with his axe, and if the Green Knight…
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The Spider’s Thread (Pre-Intermediate)
06/12/2022 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:23:02 10 CommentsKandata was an evil thief when was alive, and now he lives in Hell. Buddha remembers a time when Kandata did good, and decides to give him a chance to show that he isn’t truly evil. Will Kandata become good, or is he simply a bad person?
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Whose Child Is It?
22/11/2022 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:16:56 28 CommentsTwo women come to the king with a baby. Both say that the baby is theirs. Who is the real mother? The king must decide.
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The End
08/11/2022 Ariel Goodbody L4 – Advanced 00:21:23 6 CommentsOne day, God came down and took all life from earth. Except humans. But how can you survive in a world without life?
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Sisters, Sisters
25/10/2022 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:45:56 2 CommentsAngeline and Annabelle are a classic sister act. Annabelle writes the songs and they sing together, but Angeline gets all the compliments. When a music producer offers a deal to Annabelle, she realises she can’t let the opportunity go. But what starts as a harmonious collaboration soon turns into…
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I Bet I Could Taste It
11/10/2022 Ariel Goodbody L3 – Intermediate 00:22:38 6 CommentsIn this episode, I present the story I won second prize with in the 2022 Summer Reflex Fiction flash fiction competition, and I also talk about my recent ADHD diagnosis.
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The Last King of the Britons
27/09/2022 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:21:13 10 CommentsKing Herla is fighting a war against the Saxons and winning. A group of dwarves comes to his wedding and makes a deal with him: if they can come to his wedding, then in the future the king will go to the dwarf king’s wedding. He thinks the dwarves…
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The Boy Who Knew No Fear (Beginner)
13/09/2022 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:35:35 14 CommentsOne day, a young man called Anders hears his brother say, ‘Oh, those scary stories make me shudder!’ ‘I wonder what it means to shudder?’ Anders thinks, and he goes out on a journey to find out.
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Hector the Snail
30/08/2022 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:19:51 8 CommentsHector is a snail, so of course he’s very slow. But he dreams of becoming fast. He decides to find a wizard and ask the wizard to swap his body with an ostrich’s. What could go wrong? Well, a lot, actually…
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The Digital Fugitive
16/08/2022 Ariel Goodbody L4 – Advanced 00:21:51 4 CommentsThe war is raging on, and the government needs a part from her wheelchair. The only problem is, her wheelchair is now a part of her body. And she’s illegally modified it.
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The Turnip Princess
02/08/2022 Ariel Goodbody L1 – Beginner 00:21:52 23 CommentsA young man called Arran hates eating his vegetables. One day, his mother locks him out. Arran finds a house with a strange old woman inside, and a dog that talks. Will he find his way home, and will he discover the secret of the house?
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His Latest Experiment
19/07/2022 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:17:49 4 CommentsGod is trying to make humans, but something is wrong. His calculations look right, but the humans are staying babies for fifty years. What is the problem?
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The North Wind and the Sun (Pre-Intermediate)
05/07/2022 Ariel Goodbody L2 – Pre-Intermediate 00:17:06 10 CommentsThe North Wind and the Sun are always arguing about what true power is. Does power come from strength, or from kindness? So the North Wind challenges the Sun to a competition to see who is right.
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