american english - good talkshows for download

As I was looking for some good sites for downloading talkshows for improving my English skills, I ran into this website which I thought useful for learning English and maybe preparing for IELTS or TOEFL exam:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/past-programs-by-date.htm

So i was wondering if anyone knows any other website where I can download talkshows like this, about real-world social and political subjects?

Answer

You didn't give much background on your skill level and your specific needs (for example, do you need the transcript, do you prefer having native speakers pronounce words clearly, do you want any specific accents, do you need only sound or you prefer video clips, is online streaming enough or downloading clips for offline use is a must, and so on), I will answer your question in general.

_{(I know this might be off-topic, but I would like to provide a good answer so that it might be included in our FAQ some day.)}

I believe that it is likely that you would want either American or English accent. (In my opinion, most Australian accents are not very far off the English ones.) One advantage of American or English accent is that there are plenty of resources available online.

For American accents (AmE), I know that VOA has VOA Special English program. I believe that, for English accents (BrE), BBC also provides some useful resources for English language learning. One good starting point for their programmes is BBC Podcasts. You might also be interested in their 6 Minute English programme too.

Because I'm more familiar with American accents, I will discuss the resources for American accents specifically. For British accents, I believe that you could find something similar in BBC.

Most beginners to upper-immediate learners will prefer to have native speakers speaking not too fast and pronouncing each word rather clearly (the term for this is enunciation). If you are in these categories, I recommend you to start with VOA Special English program. The MP3 clips are freely downloadable, and most of them come together with a transcript.

However, if you are a more advanced learner, you might find that the speakers in most of the clips in VOA Special English will speak too slowly, and pronounce everything too clearly for you. (To the point that you might find the clips boring sometimes.) I would like to suggest NPR instead, for they provide radio programs broadcasted for native speakers.

One advantage of NPR is that about half of the news and their programs are audio available. And more often than not, the transcript is also provided. You might not really need the transcripts that much, but they can be helpful from time to time. To find NPR's audio clips, just browse their homepage and look for the Listen link. The MP3 clips are downloadable. You will also have the news summary, and often enough the transcript too.

For example, I've just checked out their site, and found these clips among many others:

NOTE: The Transcript link might be not that obvious. Just look right below the news title, on the right-hand side of the Listen bar, and you will find the link.