5 fascinating podcasts to inspire your Business English students

Are you looking for new ways to engage your Business English students? But you have the feeling that you’ve already been through all the materials available on the web?
We totally feel you and the good news is: we’ve turned the internet inside out to find the most fascinating podcasts to inspire your Business English students and to make them learn English with podcasts. In this post, we’ll make you discover (or rediscover) the top 7 podcasts that made the cut!

Before jumping in, here are 3 reasons why we think podcasts are worth incorporating into your Business English classes:

1. They’re audio-only, meaning they require more focus than videos to understand: gestures and facial expressions aren’t there to help. Your students will pay attention to each and every word they hear, and get more out of their listening practice.
   
2. They discuss Business-related topics that genuinely interest your students, and they’re produced by some of the coolest business leaders on the planet. This means your students will get much more out of them than just learn English with podcasts -- they’ll learn awesome things, too. Some talks might even inspire their future career!
   
3. Your students can listen to them anytime and anywhere. Whether it’s while cooking dinner, on their commute, or in the shower, podcasts adapt to your students’ free time and not the other way around.

#1 No more stress when presenting? The Presentation Boss makes it possible

In The Presentation Boss, Thomas and Kate demystify public speaking. They do what they call “Speech breakdowns” during which they analyse other people’s talks to identify what makes them good. They’re super fun to listen to and some great tips come out of their discussions that your Business English students can apply when doing class presentations.

Bonus: Some episodes are around 10 minutes long and others can last almost an hour. This means that as a teacher, they’re easy to flexibly incorporate in your classes. Think of using shorter episodes as introductions to the next Business topic you’re going to cover.

• 10 to 70 minutes
• 99 episodes
• Still in production
• Australian English 🇦🇺

#2 Pep talks you didn’t know you needed: The GaryVee Audio Experience

Gary Vaynerchuk started by making DIY wine review videos on YouTube for his father’s family business. Today, he is one of the most prominent figures of US entrepreneurship and online marketing. In his podcast, he gives tips to redefine what being “successful” means when it comes to business, and discusses anything and everything to do with managing people, investing, and starting out as an entrepreneur.

This podcast is great for Business English students because Gary has a fun and approachable personality. He uses informal vocabulary and likes to break down complex business ideas. Your students will love learning with him and will probably crack up occasionally, too.

• 6 to 120 minutes
• More than 1800 episodes
• A new episode airs every day!
• US English 🇺🇸

#3 Teach the power of words with Negotiations Ninja

Whether your students want to know how to negotiate deals or how to get out of doing the dishes, Negotiations Ninja has them covered. In his podcast, Mark Raffan shares his own negotiation failures and successes. He also hosts experts from various business backgrounds to discuss negotiation strategies and tactics. No matter what career your Business English students are headed towards, those are skills worth learning!

Our ESL tip: Negotiation Ninja is great to teach vocabulary about business and sales processes, entrepreneurship, and venture capitalism.

• 15 to 60 minutes
• 205 episodes
• Still in production
• Canadian 🇨🇦 and British English 🇬🇧

#4 Take a business trip around the globe with The Business

The Business is a window into real, everyday business life. In this podcast, people from all around the world share their working lives’ experiences. In some episodes, guests also discuss Business English news articles.

Produced by Macmillan Education, The Business was designed specifically for ESL students and teachers. For each podcast, they list a target proficiency level and also offer transcripts and worksheets. Very handy!

We 💙: this podcast hosts guests who are non-native speakers of English. This provides an amazing opportunity to expose your Business English students to people and accents they can identify with!

• 2 to 6 minutes
• 21 episodes
• No longer in production
• British English 🇬🇧, Non-native Englishes 🌏(Italian, Lithuanian, Finnish and more!)

#5 TED Business with Modupe Akinola

Our last, but certainly not least recommendation is Ted Business. As its name gives it away, this podcast follows a similar format to TED talks. The range of business topics covered by the TED Business speakers is wide and includes getting a promotion, setting goals, personal finance, or even startups and innovation.

This podcast is great to teach your Business English students about public speaking and presentation skills. When you press play on an episode, the TED speech it contains is first introduced and contextualised by podcast host Modupe Akinola of Columbia Business School. After listening to it, Modupe summarizes its key takeaways into a mini-lesson.

• 15 to 75 minutes
• 25 episodes
• Still in production
• Native and Non-native varieties of English 🌏

Ready, set, listen!

We hope that through this article, we’ve convinced you of the value these 5 fascinating podcasts can bring to your Business English class and how they can help your students learn English with podcasts. Have a great time listening to them -- perhaps one or two of you will feel inspired by their amazing guests, just like we were!

You and your students can listen to any of the podcasts listed above on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. And remember, if you like these suggestions, be sure to show your support and share this article with your colleagues!

Flowchase teaches English learners to speak confidently, helping them succeed in both higher-education classrooms and in the workforce.  Find out how Flowchase can help you and your ESL students.