All Politics Daily Training

Daily Training for February 10th: Congressman John Murtha

Democratic Congressman and outspoken critic of the Iraq war John Murtha died this week and today's Daily Training is a NPR report about his long military and political career.

Daily Training for January 26th: Task Force To Cut Deficit Without Hurting Recovery

Today's Daily Training is Ari Shapiro's interview with analyst Cokie Roberts on NPR. They talk about the proposal deficit commission as well as Obama's upcoming State of the Union Speech.

Daily Training for January 15th: Bill Clinton: What Haiti Needs

President Bill Clinton is the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti and has been asked by President Obama to team up with George W. Bush to lead the Haiti relief efforts. This is not particularly surprising, Clinton and President George H.W. Bush teamed up in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that struck Southeast Asia. For today's Daily Training we're going to listen to TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel interviewing President Bill Clinton about his long history as an advocate for Haiti and what needs to be done now to help them. 

Daily Training for January 5th: on NPR: Spain Sees Endless Season For Political Scandal

Political corruption in Spain was the focus of an NPR story on Monday and is today's Daily Training. Before you listen, take a look at these words:

Daily Training for December 23rd: El Gordo: You Have To Play To Win

Spain's El Gordo, world's biggest lottery, was the subject of a report on NPR and is today's Daily Training.

Daily Training for November 27th: Paying Ransom, Does It Exacerbate Pirate Issue?

Today's Daily Training is a National Public Radio story that ran about Spain this week:

Spanish leaders are scheduled to appear in Parliament Wednesday to defend their handling of the hijacking of a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking ended last week after Somali pirates reportedly were paid $3.5 million in ransom. Some people are wondering if Spanish fishing boats are in even more danger now.

Daily Training for October 15th: Spain on NPR

In addition to some US press coverage for President Zapatero's visit to the White House yesterday, Spain was also talked about on National Public Radio (NPR). It's certainly not good news, but I think it's interesting to see how your country is described in the foreign press (welcome to my world). As always, let's take a look at some words before you listen:

Daily Training for October 7th: Dogfighting Case Gets Its Day In Court

One of the big stories of the day yesterday was the Supreme Court's free speech case involving criminalizing the depiction of animal cruelty. Today's training is a NPR report about it. The US has several strong animal protection organizations as well as many that work to protect free speech which makes this an interesting case. Also, Spain  and its tradition of bullfighting gets mentioned as an example of depicting what may or may not be considered animal cruelty.

Daily Training for September 4th: a big fight on the radio

OK, it's going to be two trainings this week based on listening exercises--you can do it!  And this one is good fun because in American political interviews we rarely see a fight, especially on NPR (national public radio). NPR's Steve Inskeep interviews Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele about, what else? Health care reform.

Daily Training for September 2nd: What Makes Spain's Health Care System The Best?

Instead of more about the US health care debate, for today's training you will listen to an NPR story about Spain's health care system and why it is ranked among the best in the world. Hooray for Spain! I  am indeed a fan of Spain's health care system which I have enjoyed and appreciated for nearly 10 years without ever feeling the need to pay for private insurance.

Before you listen, take a look at these words before you listen:

• ranked (rated)
• World Health Organization
• creature comforts (details that make you feel comfortable)
• soothing (comforting)
• set foot (go to or enter a place)
• kidney (two bean-shaped excretory organs that filter wastes from blood)
• complaint (expression of grievance)
• family practitioner (doctor who diagnoses and treats the general illnesses and problems of patients and refers them to a specialist when necessary.)
• rationing (controlled distribution of resources)
• dare (to be courageous enough to try or do something)
• sure-fire (certain)

Now, listen to the story, it's 4:30 long so give it a second listen if you didn't get it all the first time.

Next, you can take a look at the transcript here if you were left with any doubts.

Tell me: did Jerome Socolovsky give an accurate picture of Spanish health care in this story?

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