Podcast Intro promo & trailer scripts

[Music: a single low piano note, held] On the night of June the fourteenth, the Carver Feed Store closed at nine. Dana Pell was the last one out. She locked the side door, checked it twice, the way she always did, and walked to the end of the gravel lot. Her car was still there in the morning. Keys in her jacket pocket. Jacket on the passenger seat. The road out of town runs past the old quarry. It is two miles of nothing. No houses, no streetlights, one bend where the trucks slow down. Someone drove that road with her that night. Nobody saw her get in. [beat] For eleven years, the people of Harlow County have told each other what they think happened. Some of it is gossip. Some of it is in the case file. I'm Joanna Reese. This is The Quarry Road Files. Over the next eight episodes, we're going to sort one from the other. [Music: swells, then out]

[Music: soft pulse under] From Lantern Hill Audio. Every file has a name. Every name had a family. And every family is still waiting for a phone call that never came. Tonight, we open the drawer again. This is Cold Desk.

[Music: ticking pulse] Previously, on Ninety Days in Marlow. The bank manager who swore he never left his office. The cleaner who said she saw him in the car park at six. The CCTV that should have settled it, and the eleven minutes that were never recorded. This week, we finally spoke to the man who switched the cameras off. It took four months and a lot of letters. And he wanted to talk.

[Music: back in, low] Welcome back. Where were we? Right. So, day three of deliberations. The vote is eleven to one. And juror number seven, the retired schoolteacher, has just asked to see the receipts again.

[Music: slow acoustic guitar] If you grew up in Cass Valley, you know the feed mill, the Baptist church, and the Dairy Ring on Route 9. And you know about the Whitlow fire, even if nobody talks about it at Sunday supper. I was nine years old that summer. I remember the smell more than anything. It hung over the whole valley for three days. Five people lived in that house. Four of them got out. The sheriff called it an accident before the ashes were cold. My granddaddy didn't believe that. Neither did half the town. But in a place this small, you don't say it out loud. You just say it at the kitchen table, real quiet, after the kids go to bed. I'm Wade Tolliver. I'm a grown man now, and I'm saying it out loud. This is Sundown in Cass Valley. [Music: guitar rings out]

[Music: upbeat, light percussion] Every week I sit down with someone who built a business from nothing, and I ask them the questions their investors never did. What went wrong. What it cost. And what they'd do differently if they started again tomorrow. Some of them made it big. Some of them lost everything and started over. No buzzwords. No victory laps. Just the numbers and the people behind them. I'm Priya Nair. This is Margins.

[Music: easy acoustic bed] From the back office to the front counter. Real advice for people who sign the paychecks and sweep the floors. Pour a coffee. It's time for The Small Shop Hour.

[Music: mellow keys, slow beat] It's late. The kids are asleep, the inbox is finally quiet, and you're sitting at the kitchen table with a spreadsheet you don't want to open. You know the version of starting a business that gets talked about at conferences. The big raise. The launch party. The photo with the ribbon and the giant scissors. And then there's the other part. The month you couldn't pay yourself. The partner who walked. The night you seriously thought about getting a regular job and nobody would have blamed you. That's what this show is about. Not the highlight reel. The part after the lights go off. Every week I talk to a founder about the hardest stretch of their business, and how they got through it, if they got through it at all. I'm Theo Marsh. Make yourself a tea. This is Founders After Dark.

[Music: pompous brass fanfare] All rise. Court is now in session. Today's cases include a stolen parking spot, a group chat betrayal, and the last slice of pizza. The honourable judges are seated. This is The Petty Court.

[Music: jaunty ukulele] Hello, and welcome to Bad Advice from My Nan. My nan is eighty-seven. She has never once used a seatbelt, she thinks the internet is a building in Leeds, and she once told me the cure for a broken heart is a pickled egg. I love her. But every week, I test one of her tips on a real problem. So you don't have to.

[SFX: folding chairs, a coffee urn bubbling] Okay, everybody, let's find a seat. Grab a coffee if you want one. There's decaf in the green pot. We can't have anybody getting too perky. [pause] Welcome to Dad Jokes Anonymous. This is a safe space. Nobody here is going to roll their eyes at you. Nobody here is going to say, 'Dad, please, my friends are in the car.' We all know why we're here. Some of us said, 'I'm hungry,' and someone said, 'Hi, Hungry, I'm Dad.' Some of us pointed at a cemetery and said people are dying to get in. Some of us did both on the same road trip. It's okay. The first step is admitting it. [clears throat] Hi. My name is Gary. And it's been four minutes since my last pun. [beat] It was about the coffee. I said it was grounds for celebration. Let's begin.

[Music: soft pads, birdsong] Good morning. Before you check your phone, before the kettle, before the list in your head starts talking, just notice where you are. The weight of your feet. The air on your face. Unclench your jaw. Let your shoulders drop. One easy breath in, and out. Let's start there. [pause] This is Slow Mornings. I'm Anna Leigh, and for the next ten minutes, there is nowhere else you need to be.

[Music: chilled beat] G'day, and welcome back to The Recovery Room. The show where the hardest workout of the week is a nap, a stretch, and a proper feed. Feet up. Let's chat.

[Music: gentle fiddle, very low] Hello, you. I'm glad you pressed play. Maybe today was fine. Maybe today was the kind of day where getting out of bed counted as the main event. Either way, you're here, and that's enough for now. My name is Nuala Brennan. For forty years I worked as a nurse, mostly nights, mostly in rooms where people were having the worst day of their lives. And what I learned is that nobody needs a speech. They need someone to sit with them for a while. So that's what we'll do. Each week, a short story, a few honest words, and a little bit of quiet. You don't have to feel better by the end of this. You don't have to fix anything. You just have to listen, if you want to. This is Gentle Notes for Hard Days. Put the kettle on. I'll wait.

[Music: soft drone, fading] That's the end of tonight's story. You don't need to do anything now. The sheets are cool, your shoulders are heavy, and the day is finished with you. If a thought comes, let it pass by like a car on a far-off road. Let your breathing find its own slow rhythm. Thank you for spending this time with me. Sleep Well, Sleep Deep will be here tomorrow night. Goodnight.

[Music: vintage strings] From the Greywater Audio archive. One day in history, one story you didn't learn at school, told in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. This is Ten Minutes Past.

[SFX: wind, waves breaking on rock] Seventeen miles off the coast, there's a lump of black rock the size of a football pitch. No trees. No beach. No harbour. Just a stone tower, a little house beside it, and the sea on every side. For ninety years, three men at a time lived out there. They trimmed the wicks, wound the clockwork, polished the brass, and wrote in the log book every single night. Weather. Ships passing. Who had a cold. What they ate for tea. The log books survived. Shelves of them. And in those plain little lines, you can hear what it was like. The boredom. The jokes. The storms that lasted for weeks. And then, one December, the light went out. For two whole nights. I'm Callum Ross. This is The Lighthouse Keepers' Log, and this season, we find out why.

[Music: playful, bouncy] The woman who invented the folding ladder and never made a cent. The baker who accidentally created a new kind of glue. The teenager whose science fair project ended up in every hospital in the country. You've used their ideas. You've never heard their names. And a few of them were robbed in broad daylight. Forgotten Inventors is back for season two. New episodes every Tuesday, wherever you listen.

[Music: low drums, distant choir] Four brothers. One throne. A kingdom split down the middle by blood, marriage and a very old grudge. They signed treaties in the morning and broke them by supper. They swore oaths on relics and on their mothers. And one by one, they disappeared. Their mother outlived three of them, and she wrote everything down. This is Hollow Crown Chronicles. Episode one: the coronation nobody came to.

[Music: bouncy synth, rocket rumble] Hey, Story Rocket crew! It's Captain Juno, and I need your help to blast off. Are your seatbelts on? Click! Great. Count down with me. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. [SFX: rocket launch] We're flying! Now wave goodbye to Earth. Bye, Earth! Look out the window. Can you see the clouds? We're going right through them. Today we're landing on a planet made entirely of pancakes. Hold on tight, and don't forget the syrup.

[Music: music box] Hello, little one. Teeth brushed? Pyjamas on? Good. Snuggle in under the covers, and I'll tell you what happened at Willow Lane today. The foxes had a very busy day. Ready?

[Music: sneaky plucked strings] Welcome to Mystery Club for Kids, where every listener is a detective. I'm Agent Mo. This week, someone stole the prize pumpkin from the Fernbrook Fair. We have three suspects: a farmer, a florist and a magician. We also have two muddy footprints and one very nervous goat. Your job? Listen out for a green umbrella. It's the most important clue of all. Ready, detectives? Let's crack this case.

[Music: spacious synth] There's a moon in our solar system with an ocean under the ice. There's a star that blinks on and off every few hours, and we still don't know why. And there's a scientist somewhere right now, staring at a screen, about to change what we think we know. I'm Lena Ortiz. This is Orbit and Ink. Every week, one question, one guest, and no homework. Let's go looking.

[Music: driving news theme] A new species found in a parking lot. A comet heading our way, slowly. And the truth about your morning coffee. Spoiler: it's fine. Seven days of science in seven minutes. This is The Deep Field Report.

[Music: punchy drum loop] Two minutes left. Up by four. Ball in our hands. All we had to do was run the clock. Hand it off, fall forward, let the clock tick. That's it. And what did we do? We threw it. Deep. Into double coverage. On third and two. I watched that ball in the air for what felt like an hour. I knew. You knew. The guy selling popcorn in section two-twelve knew. [beat] But here's the thing. I've been doing this show for six years, and I've learned something. One bad call doesn't make a bad season. One loss in October doesn't decide anything. The teams that matter are the ones that show up the next Sunday and fix it. So today, we're not just going to yell about it. Okay, we're going to yell about it a little. Then we're going to figure out what happens next. I'm Rico Danes. This is Halftime Thoughts. Let's go.

[Music: organ riff] That's our show for this week. Thanks for pulling up a stool in the Clubhouse, and for putting up with my old stories. Keep your glove oiled and your hopes up. See you at the ballpark.