Two years ago I knew absolutely nothing about making a podcast. A year ago I knew slightly more than nothing (you can read my reflections after one year here), and today I know slightly more again. 

But I’m still learning every single day.

It's always fun to look back on how things have gone, and I want to share this with you, the listeners of the show.

Without further ado, here are some unordered reflections on the last 365 days (and the second year) of English Learning for Curious Minds.

OK, let’s start with a few bits of news from the last 12 months

• Our little team has grown - there are now four people involved in our mission of building a more interesting way to improve your English
• We got a beautiful new image for the cover of the podcast
• We made 104 new episodes, a total of 2,373 minutes (enough audio to keep you busy for a trip to the moon)
• The podcast was listened to 632,470 times by curious minds in 193 countries (that’s over two times as many as last year)
• We now have members from 71 different countries
• We launched our first challenges: the 30-day challenge and the Vocabulary Builder challenge
• We just finished our first 10-week course for curious minds, The Academy
• We started our “Icebreaker” format of meetups
• The podcast made it into the top 100 rated podcast in Spain & Colombia
• I realised that it was probably the most popular podcast produced in Malta, so a local media outlet kindly decided to write a story about it

For those of you who like statistics, here are some for you.

The most popular countries in 2021 were:

1. Spain  🇪🇸
2. Brazil 🇧🇷
3. Turkey 🇹🇷
4. Mexico 🇲🇽
5. Italy 🇮🇹
6. Colombia 🇨🇴
7. United States 🇺🇸
8. Poland 🇵🇱
9. Germany 🇩🇪
10. France 🇫🇷

The most popular episodes in 2021 were:

1. #134: A Short History of The English Language
2. #172: The Curious Taste of British Food
3. #158: George Orwell
4. #152: The French Revolution
5. #126: Chocolate
6. #136: Disney Part I: The History
7. #154: Las Vegas
8. #192: A History of Wikipedia
9. #142: Scotland
10. #162: The Genius of William Shakespeare

And some more statistics for you...

There are still slightly more male listeners than female listeners, but the gap is narrowing.

The most popular age group is 28-34, but it is quite well distributed across all age groups.

It’s currently in the top 100 most popular podcasts in both Spain & Colombia. Olé!

A few thoughts

The best bit is that it feels like we’re only just getting started. We have big, ambitious plans for 2022, and I’m already excited to share them with you.

So, if you are a long-time listener to the podcast, or you have only just discovered it, thank you for listening. If you’ve enjoyed listening to the podcast so far and are looking for an easy way to help support it, then you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app. 

They really do help, and I'm super grateful for each and every one.

If you are a member of Leonardo English, you deserve an extra thank you for being an integral part of this journey. And if you’re not yet a member, I’d love for you to check out our membership.

Here’s to another 365 days!

Alastair - Founder of Leonardo English

P.s. if you would like to read my reflections on the 1st Birthday of English Learning for Curious Minds, you can find it here.