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BBC LearningEnglish.com Hello, I'm Jackie Delson and you're listening to weekend at with bbclearningenglish.com.
Do you enjoy cycling, taking your bike out and getting some exercise or fresh air?
What about cycling with absolutely no clothes on?
Well, I've never tried it myself, but hundreds of people all over the world have, and they think it's lots of fun.
This weekend the world naked bike ride takes place.
People in cities from Vancouver to London will be getting out their bicycles and taking The question is why?
Conrad Schmidt is the man who's linking up cyclist groups from around the world for this event.
He spoke to me over the telephone from Vancouver and he's going to give us some answers.
What reasons does he give for the naked bike ride?
It's about getting a message out there that cycling is good for people and it's good for the planet
and if we're going to be sustainable we're going to think about other things besides car culture.
just making a happier, healthier planet." Well Conrad said, cycling is good for people and good for the planet.
He uses the word sustainable, a word we often hear in connection with the environment.
It means to do things without causing damage to the environment.
A nice phrase he also used was getting the message out there,
which means making sure people know,
or you could also say, making people more aware, aware, a word that Conrad will use next when talking about climate change.
There's still a lot of people that don't even believe it's real, there's a whole lot of different levels of awareness around the world.
So the naked cyclists want to raise awareness, but why do they have to take their clothes off?
Couldn't they just do a big bike ride with their clothes on?
What reasons does Conrad give?
Well, okay, to be really honest, it's just a lot of fun, but it's also there to symbolise
how frail a human body is compared to a car and the whole idea of simplicity and also a nice challenge.
There's something kind of empowering about riding your bike naked, the whole world tells you, and it's always good.
don't do this and one of the silly rules in this world is that somehow nudity is really really dangerous, which it just isn't.
Conrad said the nakedness was symbolic.
The is to show how frail or how weak the human body is compared to cars and the idea of simplicity.
He said there's something empowering about riding your bike naked, empowering meaning it makes you feel good and strong.
Aurora is from the United States.
She decided to link up with other groups and organized an annual nakedness.
What kind of message does she want to get out there?
We can have fun for free and we can bring into question all of these kind of consumerist habits.
Aurora used the phrase bring into question, which means to challenge.
She talked about bringing into question consumerism.
consumerism, the idea that it's good to spend money on products or and own lots of expensive things.
So what was it like organizing a naked cycling day for the first time?
What did Aurora's friends think?
Nobody believed me that it was going to happen and not even my friends and they thought it
was ridiculous but then everyone managed to show up and I think they thought no one was really going to be naked.
But we all just dashed our clothes away and I think it was very liberating for a lot of people.
and the mood was very joyful.
Everyone just seemed so happy to be there.
So no one believed it was going to happen at first, but when it did, it was liberating.
We heard the word empowering before, meaning to make you feel good and strong.
Liberating means to make you feel free and happy.
So that's what the cyclists thought.
What about everyone else?
What about ordinary people on the streets and to the media coverage?
media coverage, the way the media reacted to the event.
Was there a good reaction?
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
The media coverage was very positive.
just cheered and screamed and applauded.
Aurora says there was a good reaction.
Very including the media coverage.
That's all for Weekender.
I don't know what you'll be doing this weekend but you could always get your bicycle out and go for a ride.
Whether you're dare to do it without any clothes on though is another matter.
