EPISODE 49: I Go To Extremes

Strangers on a Bench

Tom Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ 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 : 'Unconditional' by Martin Luke-Brown

Stream it here : https://ffm.to/unconditional-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? Do do. Do, do. Yeah? Yeah. Fantastic. Well, so the way this works, everyone gets the same start question and same end question. And then the middle bit is just what happens the magic of the middle
0:55.1	and what do you do with it well it just becomes a podcast is where people listen to podcasts it's called
0:59.6	strangers on a bench strangers on a bench and i'm on the bench you're famous if you weren't if you
1:06.0	weren't before you are now um okay first question you Yeah. Do you have a favourite day of the week?
1:14.0	Not necessarily. I'm retired now. I used to like Fridays a lot, but today they all clump into one.
1:24.1	They're fused into one. Yeah. Okay, well let's pick a random day. Let's pick
1:27.7	tomorrow. Tuesday. Tuesday. What is your idea of the ideal Tuesday lived on the earth?
1:34.7	I wouldn't do anything different than I do right now, currently. I've just moved back to
1:42.6	Sheffield after being in Jersey for 40 years.
1:46.0	40, 40 years.
1:48.0	40 years.
1:49.0	Just moved back on Friday.
1:51.0	Oh, welcome back.
1:52.0	Thank you, Tom.
1:54.0	But anyway, I'm getting away. I digress.
1:56.0	So, Tuesday, I would get up.
1:59.0	What time are we getting up?
2:01.5	Getting up about eight and then I'll shower and then I'll...
	...

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