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Strangers on a Bench

EPISODE 47: The Time I've Got Left

Strangers on a Bench

Tom Rosenthal

Documentary, Bench, Random, Society & Culture, Park, Strangers, Conversation

4.8 β€’ 1.7K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tom Rosenthal approaches a stranger on a park bench and asks if he can sit down next to them and record their conversation.

This is what happened! 


Produced by Tom Rosenthal

Edited by Rose De Larrabeiti

Mixed by Mike Woolley

Theme tune by Tom Rosenthal & Lucy Railton 

Incidental music by Maddie Ashman


End song : 'There We Go' by Tom Rosenthal 

Stream it here : https://ffm.to/therewego-soab


Listen to all the end songs featured on the podcast (so far) on one handy playlist :

https://ffm.to/soabendsongs


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Instagram : @strangersonabench


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, sorry to bother you.

0:05.0

Can I ask you a slightly odd question?

0:09.0

I'm making a podcast called Strangers on a Bench

0:14.0

where essentially I talk to people I don't know on benches for 10 or 15 minutes.

0:19.0

Are you up for that? Do you want to give it a go? First question. Is there a day of the week that you favour?

0:49.3

Yeah, I guess there is a day of the week I favour. I fear it might be a slightly unoriginal answer,

0:56.6

but you've asked me the question therefore I need to answer it honestly.

0:59.6

You do?

1:00.4

So it's Friday because the weekend is ahead of you,

1:05.2

and it's shifted a bit because of circumstances recently,

1:10.2

but broadly it's still the same because everyone

1:12.9

sort of decompresses on a Friday and they're allowed to have a bit more fun, including me.

1:20.9

That makes perfect sense.

1:22.7

Can you tell me why it was Friday initially and why socialisation is still Friday?

1:26.9

It's still the same answer that Friday was the night when everybody would decompress

1:30.3

and you're sort of allowed and encouraged to do that.

1:33.3

But the circumstances that have changed is I've been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

1:38.3

So I was thinking about retiring anyway because I've got to a stage in my life when it felt like that might be quite fun.

1:47.6

You can do all those things that you've dreamt of doing.

1:52.3

And then I was diagnosed with terminal cancer and then I was forcibly retired.

1:58.4

And I realized immediately that I was never going to do a day's work again and that didn't

2:03.3

upset me at all. I mean I've had great fun in my career so I'm not suggesting I hated my job.

...

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