 Hi everyone. Welcome to a real conversation between myself, Liz Wade, and right beside me is Adam Navas. Hi Adam. Hello Liz. Hello everyone. And today we are going to talk about our featured program, Northern Lights. So if you have not heard that program or seen that program, you can visit our website, www.spotlightenglish.com. And there you can listen to it and follow along with the script. If you would prefer to see that program on YouTube and follow along on the script that way, you can go to the little I in the top corner of this video and we will provide a link for that there. And today we'll just have a real conversation about that program. We've both listened to the program and looked through it. And we were talking about this a little bit before we started, but this is kind of a sciency program, isn't it Adam? Yeah. I'm excited to talk about this program and we can get into the Northern Lights and the program itself. But it's a very, I love topics or things in the world that are highly sciency. Like why are these Northern Lights happen? Electromagnets and the sun. But that are also like beautiful and inspiring and just how they can evoke an emotional reaction. So it's that it's that nice combination of things. I really like it because you know, sometimes you, well, I mean, in this case, you could be looking up in the north and you see these things and you wonder like, what is this? And we are going to put a picture or a little video, it depends on what I can find of the Northern Lights in this video. So maybe I'll just put it right here so that you can see what the Northern Lights look like. So you might see the Northern Lights or or even just some other thing in nature that you might wonder about. And what I what I love about spotlight is that, you know, you are practicing your English, but you're also learning a little bit about something in the world. Like why does this thing happen? Or what is it? What is it in? What is its place in culture? And before we get started on this program, I also wanted to mention that we have memberships now for Spotlight English. And you can check out memberships just by hitting the join button under this video. And that is not if you hit the join button, you're not paying any money right away, right? You can think about it and look at it. So feel free to hit that join button just to learn more about what our memberships are like. Memberships have a have different levels. So at the basic level, you'll get special emojis and badges to use on our channel. And then also we thank our supporters, any supporters, any members in every video. And then at an advanced level and the conversational and fluent levels, you also can get access to exclusive member videos, PDF scripts and also personal video shoutouts and be a member of our Facebook group. There's lots of really cool things there. And I have loved seeing our membership grow. So if that is something that you are interested in, you want to put more time into your English learning with these resources, please just hit that join button below. And while you're looking at those buttons below right now, just click like on this video. And if you're not subscribed, please subscribe, hit the little bell and you'll never miss any of our content. So whoosh, back to the Northern Lights. So, Adam, you were saying this program is a sort of a science program. So this program really goes through describing what the Northern Lights are. And again, I think I'm going to put another video here. There's just so many great pictures of the Northern Lights. Really, they are just lights that you see in the sky. Yeah, energy that you see in the sky in the north. And they're also called Aurora Borealis, which is a very fun name to roll around in your mouth. Yes, it sounds, I'm surprised my kids don't go to school with someone named Aurora Borealis. It seems very trendy. Yeah, it's very fun to say. But then what I love about this science program is it also has the stories of how the Northern Lights are perceived in cultures. So some of these older cultures that have noticed these lights over the years, what do they think they are? And then it goes into sort of the science explanation of what the Northern Lights are and ends with such a great poem, which that is a really great way to practice your English, but also talking about this particular thing. Well, I love that we included that poem because like you were saying earlier, humans, and this is kind of what we do a spotlight, we see something and we try to make meaning of it. Right? And sometimes, let's say something that is like an earthquake. You see an earthquake and it used to be people would be like, oh, the gods are angry and they're shaking the earth or they see the Northern Lights and they say, oh, those are our ancestors or those are our spirits dancing in the sky or they see the stars shooting and they make meaning of that. Right? And we make meaning in a, we kind of sometimes say, well, we look at science and we'd like to explain things to make meaning. But it's still, it's true. We have those reactions and we want to, you know, it's like the double rainbow and it's like people get excited about seeing these things, maybe not an earthquake or something like that. But it is, we have those parts inside us that we want to react to things and we want to get excited about what we see, even though we might have an explanation for it. Right. What I love is like all of these little, yeah, like, you know, making meaning of things, but these lights have been happening for the whole history of the earth. And it's interesting to me to see what these older cultures thought these lights were, what meaning they did give to these lights. Yeah. You know, the talks about the Viking period, they were images of young women who were dead. That's a little bit. Okay. Or they were like huge fliers in the north or, you know, people believing that they were dead spirits coming to visit them, which in some of these are like nicer stories, but then the scarier stories or the, you know, that they weren't that they weren't good things. Yeah. I think it's really interesting. So like, I mean, how does that, how does your interpretation of the northern lights work in your life? Right? Like, cultures? Because of course, there are many things that are good and bad and clearly so. But there are also things, whether it's northern lights or maybe a lucky number or something that that we give meaning to that it happens, right? It's more about us than it is about the thing itself. It's what we need at that time or it's it's what we fear at that time. And I think it is, yeah, the northern lights are a great, they force you. So I've got it. So I've seen the northern lights. Really? Yeah. I'm in it because you jealous. Well, the conditions where we live in Michigan, we aren't like it has to be just right and it has to be very dark. It's true. I have heard that it is possible to see, like, you know, that it'll be on the news or whatever. But yeah, it's not common to see them here. No. And I'll be, so you must have been further north. We were, we were further north. And I was a little younger. But I will be honest, there are certain things in the world or the universe in this case that kind of freak me out. So one of like, for example, one of those things is that your heart can never stop beating. Yeah. Like when I think about that, and I think your heart, like when you're sleeping from the time you're born to the time you die, your heart has to just keep beating. I don't like it. I also don't like thinking about, like I know that scientists have said the earth is, it will eventually fall into the sun, but it will be like a billion years from now. So when I think about the solar system and the universe and that our earth just goes around the sun and that these northern lights are caused by the sun's energy, this big fiery fall of energy, like I get a little panicky sometimes when I'm like, well, what if it just stops? What if it just like goes and it all ends? Sorry, spotlight friends, you're getting a little insight into this is a little view into your mind, Adam. I don't think about these things all the time. Yeah. But there are times in my life when I see this thing that is beautiful and inspiring. And I think, well, we're all going to die. Well, what I thought when I read this program, I did actually learn what causes the northern lights I had not known before. Yeah, so you're saying that the energy off the sun, so I think it's sun flares, right? It's like sun storms off the sun. And then they reach the earth, but they're affected by the earth's magnetic field, which I think is really interesting. I'm not sure I'm freaked out about it. Well, it's not like I see the northern lights and want to cower, but my brain thinks the natural, the natural like, oh, I have to think about this, which leads me to think about that. And which leads you to think about your place in the world and how you are so little how big the universe is. Yeah. How we have no control over any of it. Yes, the illusion is broken. This science program got like really deep philosophically. Yes. Well, you know, we, I think it's a fascinating program. And if you haven't read, or if you haven't watched it, please go do. We have, we have several programs like this. I don't know if we have a science and technology playlist. I don't know. We do have a program about the sun specifically, which I think is it's, well, it is actually one of our most popular programs. So you might want to check out that program about the sun before we, yeah, and I will make a playlist about science and technology. I think that's a really good one. Speaking of like other questions of our world or things, we do have a mini playlist about our bodies. So like, why do I sneeze? Why do I hiccup? And why do I, there's another one that I always forget. Why do I sneeze? So like a chew or hiccup? No, it's not cough. Anyway, check out that playlist. It's a mini playlist. It's only three programs and it's all really interesting content. But what I would encourage you to do is to really read through this poem at the end. I think it's just, it's, you know, now that you have the context of the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, it's a great way to practice your English. But it's also a great way to think about things in a different way. So with that encouragement, again, if you liked this video, please hit the like button below that really helps us spread our videos on YouTube. Subscribe and then hit the little bell so that you never miss a notification. Check out joining. We have a lot of resources there and we'll be adding more resources every week. Again, you can request whatever program scripts you want for a PDF that you keep forever. Yeah. And I hope you keep listening to Spotlight. Make sure if you're listening to this as a podcast, check out our YouTube so that you can see what we look like. If you're listening to this on our website, same thing. There's a link for each video. Check those out and yeah, continue your journey. And yeah, I guess that's all we have to say about the Northern Lights. I think we've covered all that we know about the Northern Lights. Yeah. Leave us a comment below. If you live in the North, have you ever seen the Northern Lights? Are they common in your area or would you love to see the Northern Lights? Or what sort of things do you see in the sky where you live? I would love to see those answers. Yeah. Anyway, until then, listen, watch, practice and learn Spotlight out.