AEE 2476: Out of Juice? How to Connect Over Dead Batteries

Summary

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All Ears English Podcast – Episode 2476

"Out of Juice? How to Connect Over Dead Batteries"
Published: September 10, 2025
Hosts: Lindsay McMahon (Boston/NYC) & Aubrey Carter (Arizona/Colorado)

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Lindsay and Aubrey dive into everyday English expressions that Americans use to talk about dead batteries—especially on phones and other devices. Tailored for intermediate to advanced ESL learners, the episode walks listeners through current slang, textbook phrases, and cultural nuances around tech troubles. The ultimate goal? To help listeners confidently connect with English speakers over a frustrating but universal experience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Talking About Dead Batteries Is a "Connection Moment"

• Relatability: Both hosts emphasize that discussing your phone dying is an authentic, natural way to bond with others because it's a common inconvenience.
• Learning Target: Listeners are encouraged to "connect, not perfect," using real, up-to-date English—especially in scenarios everyone shares.

"Believe it or not, this can be a connection moment if you have the right vocabulary."
— Aubrey, 00:57

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2. Essential Vocabulary & Idioms

a. Out of Juice

• Definition: Slang/metaphor for a battery that's out of power.
• Usage: Primarily for smaller tech devices (phones, laptops, smartwatches).

"It's out of juice. It's a little more trendy... right now, if you say something's out of juice, you mean the battery died."
— Aubrey, 03:14

• Example:
  "My phone is out of juice. I need to plug it in." (03:29)
  Aubrey notes it's the most common casual way to talk about a phone with no power.

b. Dead / Died

• Definition: Direct, simple, ultra-common way to say a device has no battery.
• Use for: Devices; also car batteries—but not "out of juice" for cars.

"My laptop is dead. I forgot to charge it."
— Aubrey, 04:18

"My car battery died. Do you have jumper cables?"
— Aubrey, 04:26

c. About to Die

• Definition: Something is nearly out of battery.
• Colloquial: Much more common than formal alternatives.

"My phone is about to die almost every time...this is how we say it: My phone's about to die."
— Aubrey, 06:01

• They rarely hear:
  • "My phone is about to be out of battery"
  • "My phone is low on battery"

d. Ran Out of Battery (Textbook English)

• Definition: More formal, less conversational.
• Use: Possibly in professional settings or with people you don't know well; mostly replaced by "out of juice" or "died".

"That's the textbook way to say it. For me, it takes too long to say."
— Lindsay, 07:08

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3. Phrases for Specific Situations

Car Batteries

• Use "died" or "dead", never "out of juice".
• Requesting help:
  • "Can you give me a jump?"
  • "Do you have jumper cables?"

"When we talk about car batteries, we do say they died or they're dead...But we don't say they're out of juice."
— Aubrey, 04:26

Portable Chargers

• Recommended for avoiding these situations, especially while traveling.
• These devices spark stories and further connection:
  Aubrey shares her experience about buying a portable jump-start kit for her car due to battery issues in the Arizona heat (05:17).

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4. Role Play: Connecting Over Dead Batteries

[10:00–11:44]

Scenario: Lindsay and Aubrey try to meet in Central Park, but tech glitches (dead phones) cause communication issues.

• Common expressions in context:
  • "My phone ran out of battery."
  • "Mine was about to die too, so I just sent a pin and hoped you'd get it."
  • "When my phone's out of juice, I don't know how to get anywhere."
• Reflection on pre-smartphone days (MapQuest, written directions)—shares nostalgia and points out how technology has altered social and navigation behaviors.

"It's crazy how much we rely on technology. When my phone's out of juice, I don't know how to get anywhere."
— Aubrey, 10:15

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5. Cultural & Social Commentary

a. Casual Language Creates Connection

• Using slang like "out of juice" and "about to die" makes you sound friendlier and closer to native speakers.

"There's something about using the more colloquial phrases...creates the bond between whoever you're talking about."
— Lindsay, 07:40

b. How Technology Changes Interaction

• Less need to ask strangers for directions or a jump, but also fewer spontaneous social interactions.
• Listeners are encouraged to find new conversation points and connection moments.

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6. Language Learning Takeaways & Listener Advice

• Key Chunks to Memorize for Connection:
  • "My phone's out of juice."
  • "It's about to die."
  • "Do you have a charger?"
• Be Aware of Register:
  Choose textbook English in formal settings, but go colloquial for warmth and authenticity.
• Practice with Role Plays:
  Useful to get comfortable with real-life phrasing.

"Connection lives in the places that everyone experiences daily...focusing on learning the language for those situations, it really punches above its weight."
— Lindsay, 13:50

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I need to start carrying a portable charger so I'm not stuck when my phone's dead. I don't know how anyone ever met anyone before phones."
  — Lindsay, 10:21

• "Before that, you would have, like, written directions, right? And we would get lost all the time, pulling over to ask people where...how to get somewhere."
  — Aubrey, 10:30

• Why it Matters:
  Sharing these phrases and stories not only helps with English fluency but also with fostering connection in real-life situations.

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Important Timestamps

• [03:14] – Introduction and practical slang: "Out of juice"
• [04:18] – "Dead / Died" for batteries
• [05:46] – Car batteries: when do you need a "jump"?
• [06:01] – The chunk: "About to die"
• [07:08] – Textbook English comparison ("ran out of battery")
• [10:00–11:44] – Role play: phone trouble & real-world connection
• [13:50] – Takeaway: Everyday situations fuel real connection

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Closing Takeaway

Learning and using up-to-date, conversational English about dead devices is a powerful way to participate naturally in daily interactions. Simple phrases can lead to memorable connections, help you bond over shared frustrations, and show cultural fluency.

Recommended next step: Listen to Episode 2471 for more on "out of energy vs. out of power" and stay tuned for more practical American English tips!

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Remember: Connection, not perfection!

Transcript

[A]

This is an Allers English podcast. Episode 2476 out of Juice how to Connect Over Dead Batteries.

[B]

Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, usa. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com subscribe do you find yourself having the same conversation about your phone battery dying all the time? Believe it or not, this can be a connection moment if you have the right vocabulary. Listen in today.

[C]

This episode is brought to you by kpmg. Making an Impact is how KPMG helps make the difference. KPMG applies advanced tools and strategic thinking to convert data into actionable knowledge and deliver value by improving performance through transformation, modernizing processes with technology, harnessing the power of data, navigating complex M and A transactions, and enhancing trust among stakeholders. Go to KPMG US Advisory to learn more. KPMG make the Difference hello there, Aubrey.

[B]

How are you doing today?

[A]

I'm great. How are you, Lindsay? Good.

[B]

Aubrey, do you have the experience that your phone dies in the middle of the day sometimes?

[A]

Absolutely. I am really terrible about remembering to charge my phone at night. So then I just get up and go in the morning and by about midday it's like low power. I need to just plug it in.

[B]

Yep, same here. If I don't charge at night, it will definitely die by like 4pm the next day. So.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So annoying.

[A]

Yes. This is tricky and interesting. The vocabulary we use for devices dying batteries running out of power, which is a little different than when we're talking about other electric maybe the electricity for a house cutting out. So part one was vocabulary for that about power cutting out. Stay to the end for details. If you missed that, you can definitely listen to these out of order. Yeah.

[B]

And some of this is also different from physical energy running out too, right? Aubry?

[A]

Yeah, we talked about that in part one because there's a common mistake where someone will say they're out of energy, thinking that means out of power. Because we do use energy to mean. Yes, electric power sometimes very tricky.

[B]

Good. So go and find all the other parts. You'll make sure you get the whole series here. And also, what should our listeners do? Aubry?

[A]

Yes, be sure to hit follow so you don't miss any of our episodes. If you're following the Podcast. You probably already heard part one, so, yeah, definitely. Wherever you listen to podcasts, hit follow right here on Allers English.

[B]

All right, let's start with the first essential term our listeners need. I like this one, Aubry, because it sounds very. Sounds kind of cool to me. I don't know.

[A]

Yeah, I agree. It's out of juice. To say something's out of juice. It's a little more trendy. Like, this is maybe a little more slang. Maybe eventually we won't say it this way anymore, but right now, if you say something's out of juice, you mean the battery died. Exact battery power.

[B]

Exactly. So, for example, my phone is out of juice. I need to plug it in. Yeah. You hear this very. It's common, right?

[A]

It's very common. It's probably the most common way right now, at least in the States, to say that something has. Is out of battery power. Or you might say, I keep forgetting to charge my Apple watch. It's out of juice every time I go to wear it. This happened for me. I tried to have an Apple watch for a while, and I just never remembered to charge it. So it was always out of juice.

[B]

Oh, yes. I think Apple products. But I've been surprised with the. The ring, the. The aura ring. It's not. It an Apple product, but it actually charges. You can charge it for 30 seconds and it lasts for a week. It's amazing.

[A]

Oh, that's impressive. If only our phones could stay charged that long. Only could you imagine that would be am. Maybe one day. Right, Maybe one day.

[B]

And then the most super, super common thing that we hear is dead. Or died.

[A]

Right, Exactly. Like my laptop is dead. I forgot to charge it.

[B]

Yep. Or my phone just died. Do you have a charger?

[A]

Yes. My car battery died. Do you have jumper cables? So this is one thing to note, that when we say out of juice, this works for every electrical device, like smartphones, Apple watches, laptops. But when we talk about car batteries, we do say they died or they're dead if they run out of battery. And you need a jump, like with the jumper cables on your car. But we don't say they're out of juice. We wouldn't say, my car's out of juice. This is more specific to batteries for, like, electric devices. Technological devices.

[B]

Exactly. So you might say, can you give me a jump or can I get a jump from you? That's very colloquial language.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And it just refers to connecting one car to another to start, restart the car right on the side of the road.

[A]

Has that ever happened to you, Lindsay, where you need to jump somewhere?

[B]

No, it luckily hasn't. Shockingly.

[A]

Oh, you are very. It's happened to be so many times, like a crazy amount of times. I finally bought their things. It's like a kit where I can jump my car just with the kit. It like some kind of tiny generator, like holds enough power in it so that I don't have to flag somebody down or ask someone else give me a jump. Because for some reason that happens to me. I think in Arizona, part of it is the heat drains batteries. So it happens a lot when you're living somewhere this hot.

[B]

That makes total sense.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

100. Yeah. No, I just haven't really had that experience. Interesting. Well, that's good that you can be more self reliant now.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because it is kind of awkward to find some stranger and be like, do you have jumper cable? Or can you help me jump my car?

[B]

For sure, for sure. And then what else, Aubrey, Is there something else we say?

[A]

Yeah, well, we wanted to point out there's this phrase, this chunk we use when we say something's about to die. We really almost never will say, like, my phone is about to be out of battery or my phone is low on battery. We just don't. We'll say my phone is about to die almost every time. I've been listening since I planned this. Like, how do people say this? This is how we say it. My phone's about to die.

[B]

Oh, it's so common. It's so common, everyone.

[A]

And we wouldn't even say. We wouldn't say, my phone is about to be out of juice. My phone's about to run out. We don't. We'll say like, it's out of juice, it's about to die.

[B]

So our listeners just need to remember that chunk about to die just for phone battery. Okay. Or. Or laptop.

[A]

Laptops. Yeah. Yeah. We wouldn't know this about a car but for like anything where we can see how much battery life we have. Phones, Apple watches, laptops, all of these. If we see the batteries low be like, oh, my phone's about to die. Does anyone have a charger?

[B]

Yep. Nothing more natural than saying that I love it and then ran out of battery. That's just more textbook, I guess. Sorry I missed your call yesterday. My phone ran out of battery. I just. It's definitely. That's the textbook way to say it. For me, it takes too long to say.

[A]

Yeah, I think we've sort of replaced this with out of juice. Right. Especially it's more conversational. Like maybe if you're at work and you're talking to someone you've never met before, maybe you might say out about it. Because out of Juice is very casual. Yes, but it's also faster, like you said.

[B]

Exactly. What's another example?

[A]

Just for the textbook phrase here, I might say, I need to plug in my laptop. It's about to run out of battery. But it's true. I agree that that is what this means. That's probably what we'd learn in a textbook. We don't hear it very often. We would probably say it's about to die.

[B]

Yeah. And there's something about using the more colloquial phrases like out of juice that kind of, I don't know, creates the bond between whoever you're talking about. Just being more casual creates more connection, I think.

[A]

Absolutely. Definitely. Yeah.

[B]

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[A]

Okay. Yes, it does happen all the time. So, like, you are going to want to connect about this. This. In this role play. Lindsay and I are friends. We're trying to meet up in Central park in New York City, but we're having battery issues.

[B]

Here we go.

[A]

All right, start us out. Oh, I finally found you. I was wandering around for, like, 15 minutes.

[B]

I tried texting you, but didn't hear back.

[A]

Oh, sorry about that. My phone ran out of battery.

[B]

No worries. Mine was about to die too, so I just sent a pin and hope you'd get it.

[A]

It's crazy how much we rely on technology. When my phone's out of juice, I don't know how to get anywhere.

[B]

Same. I need to start carrying a portable charger so I'm not stuck with my phone's dead. I don't know how anyone ever met anyone before phones I know or.

[A]

Or got anywhere found. And I remember so often getting lost. Before we had gps, I was living in New York, and I would print out from MapQuest directions. And before that, you would have, like, written directions, Right. And we would get lost all the time pulling over to ask people where, somewhere. How to get somewhere.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. You would print out maps of the city of New York. Or you mean like.

[A]

No, like. Like Map Quest. Do you remember MapQuest? I do.

[B]

I absolutely remember.

[A]

Yeah. We'd go to MapQuest and put in the. Where we were in the destination, and it would print out, like, a long list of directions. And then before MapQuest, we would have had to just write that down. We'd ask someone how to get there, and we're like, writing, turn left on Market Street. Turn right on First True Avenue.

[B]

But I do wonder, though, with all this new technology, because we don't really have to talk to anyone anymore, like with the jumping thing or with asking for directions. Like, there's maybe some aspect of life that gets lost a little bit. Right?

[A]

That's true. We just have to find other ways to, you know, other things to talk about if we're not having to ask someone for directions. It's true. Yeah. We could take that time to have a better conversation about something less stressful.

[B]

Yeah, no, that's a good point. Let's reallocate that energy to something better. Yes. Love it. All right, let's go through this role play real quick. Aubrey, what did you say first?

[A]

Yeah, so first you had said you had texted me but didn't hear back. So I said, oh, my phone ran out of battery. So it means it died, right?

[B]

Yep. And we said that's the more textbook phrase. You can say it. You just might not feel like you have the time or the energy to say it.

[A]

Right. And really, as I read this, I'm like, I would say my phone died. My phone died. I very rarely would say ran out of battery. It is. Does almost feel antiquated just because there are faster ways to say it that are more common.

[B]

You might say my battery died.

[A]

Oh, yeah, my battery died.

[B]

Combine the two. Yeah. So then I said, no worries. Mine was about to die too. Yes.

[A]

Wow. Yeah. And this chunk, really. If it's about to run out of battery, this is how we'll say it. About to die. There's all these other. We just don't really say it any other way. It was about to die.

[B]

Yes. 100. So for our listeners, guys, memorize that chunk and use it. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then the last thing you said, Aubry, was when my phone's out of juice, I don't know how to get anywhere.

[A]

Yeah. Meaning out of battery. Right. When it's dead. When it's out of juice. And then you said, yeah, I need to carry a portable charger so I'm not stuck when my phone's dead, meaning out of battery. And I did. I took one of those portable chargers the. On the last trip we went to Cancun and it was so much better. I was able to use it on the plane when I ran out of juice. And it was just sort of peace of mind knowing that I had this backup if my phone died.

[B]

Because it's really scary when you think like, I'm going to be out of the house all day, won't have access to a car to charge it. In a car, where are you going to charge? You know?

[A]

Right. We don't want to have to deal with that.

[B]

But look at this topic, right? It's not just the fact that your. Your phone dies frequently. It's also the fact that people don't really know how to navigate anymore without the phone. So these are two sub conversations that create connection for our listeners to start.

[A]

Right. What a fun conversation we had just talking about how we used to get by before gps. Right. It is interesting. I really want to be sure to share with you. Part one was episode 2471. Out of energy or out of power. What's the difference? So here we highlighted this very common error. Easy to make. So be sure to scroll up and catch that one if you missed it.

[B]

Yep. And. And I mean what we've just said is the takeaway. You know, we've said this this summer quite a bit. Connection lives in the places that everyone exper the things that everyone experiences daily, right. That you can resonate with that person because you know exactly what they're going through. So focusing on learning the language for those situations, it really punches above its weight, don't you think?

[A]

Aubrey I totally agree. We've all been inconvenienced. When our phone dies, our laptop dies. So this is definitely something that you can connect with someone about your shared experience. You got it.

[B]

All right. Great stuff today, Aubry. I'll see you in the next one.

[A]

Awesome. See you next time.

[B]

All right, bye bye. Thanks for listening. To all ears. English Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluency score and if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

[A]

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