Describe a radio programme or podcast you listen to regularly.
A card about a podcast or radio show that is part of your routine. Habit and loyalty are the heart of the final bullet, so pick something you genuinely return to.
The task card
Describe a radio programme or podcast you listen to regularly.
You should say:
- what the programme is about
- when you listen to it
- how you first discovered it
and explain why you keep listening.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Describe the programme's format in one sentence — 'a weekly interview show about ordinary people's working lives' — and avoid retelling individual episodes. The listener needs the shape of the programme, not a summary of your favourite guest.
'When you listen' anchors the answer in your routine: on the bus, while cooking, during long runs. For 'how you first discovered it', a recommendation from a friend or an episode shared in a group chat is enough — the point is that discovery stories explain why you gave it a chance.
The common mistake is praising the content in general terms — 'it is interesting and funny' — without answering 'why you keep listening'. Loyalty has reasons: the hosts feel like company, it makes a boring commute disappear, you trust it more than the news. Choose two reasons and illustrate them.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
Describe the format, not just the topic
- Two people arguing, one long interview, a narrated documentary, a phone-in
- Length and rhythm — twenty minutes daily, or ninety minutes once a week
- The presenter's manner, which is usually the real reason people stay loyal
The listening habit itself
- Where you listen: commute, washing up, walking the dog, at the gym, in bed
- Whether you listen live or saved, and whether you skip anything
- Podcast listening is almost always paired with another activity — say which
Why you keep coming back
- One episode you still think about, described in a sentence
- It changes your mind reasonably often, which most media does not
- It is company rather than information — an honest and unusual reason to give
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHAT — weekly interview podcast, one guest, ~90 min, no ads
- WHEN — Sunday, washing up + walk, always alone
- FOUND — a colleague sent one episode, 3 yrs ago
- WHY STAY — she lets silences run; changed my mind on X
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The one I listen to religiously is a weekly interview podcast — one guest, no panel, no advertising, and episodes that run to about ninety minutes because they end when the conversation ends rather than when a slot does. I listen on Sunday mornings, almost always, and almost always while doing something else — the washing up first, then a walk if the weather allows it. I never listen to it with anyone else in the room, which I've only just realised saying it out loud. It has become a slightly private thing. I found it through a colleague about three years ago. She sent me one specific episode, not a recommendation of the show, which I think is the only way anybody actually starts a podcast. I listened to it on a train, and then I did the embarrassing thing of going back and bingeing about forty episodes of the back catalogue over the following two months. Why do I keep listening? The obvious answer is the guests, but honestly it's the interviewer. She does something almost no one else does, which is that she lets silences run. Somebody gives a half-answer, and instead of jumping in with the next question she just waits, sometimes for five or six seconds, which on radio feels enormous. And people fill it. They say the thing they weren't planning to say. There's one episode with a surgeon talking about a decision that went wrong where about four seconds of nothing produces the most honest thing I've heard on any podcast. So it isn't really a news source or an information source for me. It's closer to being taught how to have a conversation, and I've caught myself waiting longer before speaking because of it, which is probably the best thing any programme has ever done for me.
Why this works: Format is described before content, which keeps the answer out of the plot-summary trap. The habit section is specific about place, activity, and even the small self-discovery that it is a solitary ritual. The final bullet is built on one concrete technique with a named example episode, and it closes by naming a behaviour the listener has actually changed — a far stronger finish than saying the show is interesting.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- a weekly episode
The basic unit of a podcast; useful for describing the format.
- to tune in
Natural phrasal verb for listening to a programme.
- in-depth interviews
Long, detailed conversations; a strong collocation for the format.
- easy to dip into
Describes content you can enjoy without starting from the beginning.
- a loyal listener
Someone who returns to the same programme; fits the final bullet.
- to listen on repeat
To play the same episode again; shows genuine enthusiasm.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- I got hooked on it
- “I got hooked on it after a single episode and went back through the whole archive.”
- it is my go-to
- “It is my go-to whenever I have got an hour of housework ahead of me.”
- to binge the back catalogue
- “I binged the entire back catalogue over about two months, which I am slightly ashamed of.”
- it has stayed with me
- “There was one episode about grief that has stayed with me for years.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Radio and podcasts
Example questions
- 1What kinds of radio programmes are popular in your country?
- 2When do people usually listen to podcasts?
- 3Do you think radio still has a future?
Media and information
Example questions
- 1How do people decide which programmes to trust?
- 2Should public broadcasters be funded by the government?
- 3Can you suggest why some people prefer listening to watching?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Media, technology and culture. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.