B2 – Upper Intermediate
Billionaires’ Bunker or El Refugio Atómico is a 2025 Netflix thriller series very rich families hiding in a luxury, high-tech underground shelter because they thought that a nuclear apocalypse was upon them.
It is not so far from what is happening in real life. We’ve seen how several billionaires seem to be preparing for doomsday by having their own bunkers built.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript talking about why billionaires are building bunkers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2026/ep-260129
Vocabulary Questions:
- What is a “prepper mentality”? “Part of the prepper mentality is to question what you would do if the apocalypse happens.” Use the term in a sentence.
- What does “compromise” mean here, “No matter what happens, no matter what comes our way, if you’re a tech billionaire, you’re going to be able to live through that comfortably without compromising your lifestyle, without compromising the standard that you have.”? Use the word in a sentence and give a synonym.
- What does “to be kidding” mean here, “When you watch TV in the US – when you turn on a, kind of, US TV channel – what happens is that there’s usually some ads about freeze-dried food. I’m not kidding.” Use the idiom in a sentence and give a synonym.
Discussion Questions:
- What comes to your mind when you hear the word “bunker”?
- Why do you think billionaires are building bunkers? Is it only a mere mark of societal status or they are preparing for something we do not know anything about? Share your thoughts.
- Would you consider building a bunker and preparing for disasters? Why or why not? If you had one, what would you like to put in it?
- What do you think you would do if the apocalypse happened?