rechelle's lifelyrics

I had several ideas for my August blog, including some of my newly created recipes, newfound ways to get from Eugene to Portland – and around Portland, or more things I’ve been learning about retirement finances. But I keep circling back to a question I’ve been turning over and again. “What am I really interested in at this point in my life?” I started thinking about what types of movies or YouTube videos I enjoy, what books I’ll reread every few years, or what interests me most in a conversation with people I know – or just met.

I want to hear the stories – about real people and their relationships. I want to hear about their struggles and triumphs, and how people they knew when they were young impacted them as they developed into the person they became. I realized this was the thing that kept drawing me back to podcasts like “Norah Jones Playing Along” and “Songwriter Soup.” It’s also why Ray and I watch so many “based on a true story” films or character-driven documentaries.

A couple of weeks ago, I was all caught up on the episodes for both of the podcasts I just mentioned, and I felt sort of sad. I wanted to have a go-to podcast for when I’m out and about, and some of the other ones I’ve found seem to have an agenda or focus that I’ve grown tired of after a few of them. I don’t remember what words I used that finally gave me what I was looking for, but my first few search results were less than desirable. And then, there it was: 100 episodes of Tom Rosenthal (singer-songwriter) interviewing random strangers sitting on a park bench somewhere in London (at first, but he also visited parks in Ireland). He doesn’t ask the participant their name, what they do for a living, or anything that would identify them personally, but the conversations are amazingly personal and poignant. He starts each conversation with such a simple question: “What is your favorite day of the week, and why?” I love to hear people’s answers, and how the conversations go into so many unexpected, deep, and thought provoking stories from there. The end of each podcast is an original song based on the conversation you just heard. Now that the project is complete, you can actually listen to all 100 songs, on Spotify, that were created for the podcast!

If you are interested in hearing stories from all walks of life from around the globe, I highly recommend the podcast, “Strangers On A Bench.”