EPISODE 84: Called To The Fanny
Strangers on a Bench
Tom Rosenthal
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
*Content warning - suicide*. 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 : 'Ella's Still Alive!' by Lizzy and The Palm
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, sorry to bother you. Can I ask you a slightly odd question? |
| 0:08.5 | I'm making a podcast called Strangers on a bench where essentially I talk to people I don't |
| 0:16.9 | know on benches for 10 or 15 minutes. Are you up for that? Do you want to all of a sudden? |
| 0:48.3 | You know, it's a terrifying proposition, solving to a stranger on a bench, no, because it's just life. |
| 0:55.5 | And it's all possible. |
| 0:56.4 | You ready? |
| 0:57.0 | I'm ready. |
| 0:57.8 | Great. |
| 1:01.0 | Do you have a favourite day of the week? |
| 1:03.1 | Not really, no. |
| 1:05.1 | I guess Friday. |
| 1:09.1 | But it kind of is meaningless because I work any day. |
| 1:12.2 | So I think that's just ingrained left over from school. |
| 1:19.2 | Yeah. Okay. Let's imagine a Friday. Okay. You have complete freedom. You don't have to work. |
| 1:26.0 | Mm-hmm. How would you spend that day? What for you represents a really good day spent on earth? |
| 1:32.1 | I'm in the very fortunate minority where I love my job. So realistically probably a day. Doing the job. Probably doing the job. |
| 1:40.6 | I mean it's it's a fucking slog. Am I allowed to swear? |
| 2:02.6 | Just have. Okay. Well, I've done it now. And you've done it now and you are allowed to swear. Okay. Yeah, it is a fucking slog. The job? Yeah. Right. But you like a slog. Love a slog? I would feel like it was a day well spent. I think if I was left to my own devices, I probably would like sleeping. He just rossed away. You wouldn't know what to do. |
| 2:01.0 | No. I mean, what I usually do on my own devices, I probably would like sleeping. You just rothed away. |
| 2:01.8 | You wouldn't know what to do. |
| 2:02.9 | No. |
| 2:03.3 | I mean, what I usually do, to be fair, is that this is my favourite place in London. |
... |
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