This is a podcast about an intriguing topic – deforestation and disease. For this one I put it into intermediate and advanced, although I think it’s more suited to upper-intermediate or advanced. I created ten questions and students can answer them while they listen. You can find the podcast here: shortwave. It’s 11 minutes long.

The podcast has a transcript so students can listen and read at the same time. I usually assign it as homework or extra listening practice.

The answers are given at the bottom.

Click here for the transcript!

Questions for the podcast:

1. What disease are they talking about in this podcast? When and where did it start?
2. How many people did it kill? What did the WHO say about how it started?
3. Who was the first person to get it? How did that person get it?
4. Why were the bats in the tree?
5. What does #wearethevirus means?
6. Has the coronavirus been good for the environment? Why/why not?
7. What happens every six seconds?
8. What does Amy Vittor mean by “as we destroy natural habitats, it’s kind of like poking a beehive. You know? Stuff will change, and stuff will shake out.”
9. What does Christina Faust say?
10. Is it going easy to stop deforestation? Why?

Extra Discussion Questions:

1. Are you surprised that deforestation is releasing diseases to the world? Why, why not?
2. What can people do to try to stop deforestation?
3. Do you agree with #wearethevirus?
4. Would you like to visit the Amazon forest? Why, why not?
5. Do you prefer living in the city or in the countryside? Why?

Answers to the Podcast:

1. They are talking about Ebola. It started in 2013 in West Africa.
2. It killed 11,000 people and the WHO said it happened because of deforestation.
3. The first person to get it was an 18-month-old boy who got it from playing in a hollow tree filled with bats.
4. They were in the tree because their habitat had been destroyed.
5. It means that people are the ones causing the problems in the planet.
6. It hasn’t because even though people are driving less and staying at home, there are more illegal activities going on, such as illegal logging and illegal poaching.
7. The world likely lost a soccer field-sized area of tropical forest.
8. She means there are a lot of terrible things that can come from the forests as we destroy them.
9. So, if a bat sneezes, it’s more likely to sneeze on another animal than a human. But when it’s low diversity, there’s not much else out there to help pick up that pathogen.
10. No, it’s not because it involves changing our world economy.

Downloadable Questions and Answers:

If you have any comments or suggestions, just let me know.

Find more podcast and even movie questions here!