1 00:00:05,921 --> 00:00:23,121 Speaker 1: Approach production. Hi, welcome to Silent Secrets, a bedtime podcast 2 00:00:23,241 --> 00:00:31,041 Speaker 1: for curious minds. I'm jay, I'm glad you're here. This 3 00:00:31,441 --> 00:00:34,961 Speaker 1: is your time to let go of today, to settle 4 00:00:35,001 --> 00:00:40,601 Speaker 1: in and slow down, and let curiosity gently carry you 5 00:00:40,641 --> 00:00:45,280 Speaker 1: towards sleep. In each episode, I'm going to share a 6 00:00:45,321 --> 00:00:49,041 Speaker 1: true story of the unexplained, not to alarm you, but 7 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: to quiet your mind, to remind you that the world 8 00:00:52,561 --> 00:00:58,641 Speaker 1: is full of wonder and some things we'll never truly understand. 9 00:01:00,081 --> 00:01:04,681 Speaker 1: So take a deep breath, feel your body sink into comfort, 10 00:01:07,401 --> 00:01:10,881 Speaker 1: that the weight of the day drift away as we 11 00:01:10,961 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: begin tonight's story. Most people don't look at the ground 12 00:01:25,241 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: when they're crossing a road. They're watching the lights, listening 13 00:01:29,321 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: for traffic, thinking about where they need to be next. 14 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,681 Speaker 1: The street is just something you move across, until one 15 00:01:38,761 --> 00:01:47,521 Speaker 1: day you notice something that doesn't belong. A square set 16 00:01:47,801 --> 00:01:52,281 Speaker 1: into the asphalt to need to be a crack, too 17 00:01:52,321 --> 00:01:56,361 Speaker 1: deliberate to be a stain. You stop, and when you 18 00:01:56,401 --> 00:02:00,401 Speaker 1: look closer, you realize it isn't part of the road 19 00:02:00,441 --> 00:02:09,841 Speaker 1: at all. It's a message. The first time someone noticed 20 00:02:10,001 --> 00:02:13,881 Speaker 1: one of these tiles, it was easy to dismiss a 21 00:02:13,921 --> 00:02:18,841 Speaker 1: bit of street art, maybe a prank, something temporary. But 22 00:02:18,921 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: then another appeared, and another in different parts of the city, 23 00:02:25,721 --> 00:02:34,001 Speaker 1: in different cities, altogether, always similar, always strange, always saying 24 00:02:34,361 --> 00:02:40,841 Speaker 1: the same thing. The tiles were made of lino, the 25 00:02:40,921 --> 00:02:44,641 Speaker 1: kind you'd expect to see in an old kitchen, not 26 00:02:44,841 --> 00:02:50,761 Speaker 1: sealed beneath the layer of asphalt. Pressed into them were words, 27 00:02:51,960 --> 00:03:00,561 Speaker 1: not slogans, not advertisements, but statements about resurrection and Jupiter 28 00:03:01,561 --> 00:03:08,161 Speaker 1: and something called the Toynbee idea. And once you read one, 29 00:03:08,601 --> 00:03:17,361 Speaker 1: it's hard to forget it was ever there. What unsettled 30 00:03:17,401 --> 00:03:23,121 Speaker 1: people wasn't just a message. It was the placement. These 31 00:03:23,201 --> 00:03:27,441 Speaker 1: tiles weren't glued to the sidewalks or tucked awayne alleys. 32 00:03:28,761 --> 00:03:35,961 Speaker 1: They were embedded in busy roads, intersections, high traffic streets, 33 00:03:37,041 --> 00:03:44,841 Speaker 1: places where cars passed constantly, which meant someone had stood there, 34 00:03:45,921 --> 00:03:51,361 Speaker 1: Someone had knelt down, calmly and deliberately and stalled a 35 00:03:51,441 --> 00:03:59,961 Speaker 1: message into the road itself. At first, people thought it 36 00:04:00,041 --> 00:04:03,441 Speaker 1: must be a group, Surely this couldn't be the work 37 00:04:03,481 --> 00:04:08,481 Speaker 1: of just one person. But as the years passed, patterns 38 00:04:08,521 --> 00:04:14,481 Speaker 1: began to emerge. The wording stayed consistent, The idea didn't 39 00:04:14,521 --> 00:04:20,641 Speaker 1: drift The tiles didn't evolved into something else, They simply continued. 40 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,521 Speaker 1: By the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, the tiles were 41 00:04:26,561 --> 00:04:31,481 Speaker 1: being documented. Philadelphia became the center of them, but they 42 00:04:31,521 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 1: didn't stay there. They appeared in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, 43 00:04:38,521 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: even overseas, always the same voice, always the same belief, 44 00:04:46,641 --> 00:04:52,921 Speaker 1: as if someone was patiently repeating themselves, hoping eventually someone 45 00:04:53,041 --> 00:05:06,241 Speaker 1: would listen. People began asking the obvious question, what is 46 00:05:06,281 --> 00:05:14,961 Speaker 1: the Toynbee idea? Why Jupiter? Why resurrection? The answers were 47 00:05:15,201 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: never clear. Some trace the phrase back to an obscure 48 00:05:19,361 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 1: belief that humanity could one day bring the dead back 49 00:05:23,481 --> 00:05:30,441 Speaker 1: to life using advanced technology, an idea that blurred science, philosophy, 50 00:05:30,721 --> 00:05:35,721 Speaker 1: and faith. Others pointed to the film two thousand and one, 51 00:05:36,001 --> 00:05:42,721 Speaker 1: A Space Odyssey, a movie about evolution, transformation, and becoming 52 00:05:42,761 --> 00:05:46,881 Speaker 1: something more than a human, but none of it explained 53 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:50,601 Speaker 1: why someone would take this belief and press it into 54 00:05:50,681 --> 00:05:58,720 Speaker 1: the streets of real cities. What makes the Toynbe task 55 00:05:58,801 --> 00:06:03,801 Speaker 1: feel different from other mysteries is their patients. There was 56 00:06:03,841 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: no rush, no escalation, no attempt to attract attention, just 57 00:06:10,281 --> 00:06:18,161 Speaker 1: the same message installed again and again across decades, as 58 00:06:18,161 --> 00:06:21,801 Speaker 1: if the person behind it believed that time itself would 59 00:06:21,841 --> 00:06:28,921 Speaker 1: do the work. Over the years, the tiles changed slightly, 60 00:06:29,841 --> 00:06:37,201 Speaker 1: different fonts, different layouts. Sometimes the tone shifted. Some messages 61 00:06:37,281 --> 00:06:45,121 Speaker 1: sounded defensive, others almost pleading. It was as though the 62 00:06:45,161 --> 00:06:50,361 Speaker 1: person placing them was aware they were being misunderstood, and 63 00:06:50,401 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: replaced the tiles and the pavement. Eventually, many of the 64 00:06:56,481 --> 00:07:03,481 Speaker 1: tiles disappeared roadworks, reservicing and time. They were cracked apart 65 00:07:04,241 --> 00:07:09,241 Speaker 1: or buried under a new layer of asphalt. But if 66 00:07:09,281 --> 00:07:18,401 Speaker 1: you survived, faded, worn and half hidden, still saying the 67 00:07:18,441 --> 00:07:32,681 Speaker 1: same thing they always had. What's interesting about the Toynbee 68 00:07:32,681 --> 00:07:36,801 Speaker 1: tars is that they don't ask anything of you. They 69 00:07:36,801 --> 00:07:43,121 Speaker 1: don't demand belief, and they don't explain themselves. They simply exist, 70 00:07:44,201 --> 00:07:49,081 Speaker 1: quiet statements left behind by someone who may never want 71 00:07:49,121 --> 00:07:56,281 Speaker 1: to be known, only to be understood. If you're listening 72 00:07:56,281 --> 00:07:59,281 Speaker 1: to this now in bed, think about the streets you 73 00:07:59,321 --> 00:08:05,201 Speaker 1: walk every day. How many messages have been erased without notice, 74 00:08:05,841 --> 00:08:09,681 Speaker 1: how many beliefs were pressed into the world and quietly 75 00:08:09,761 --> 00:08:15,961 Speaker 1: paved over, and how many are still there waiting for 76 00:08:16,041 --> 00:08:24,081 Speaker 1: someone to look down somewhere beneath the road, a sentence 77 00:08:24,561 --> 00:08:32,241 Speaker 1: still exists, talking about resurrection, talking about Jupiter, not shouting, 78 00:08:33,121 --> 00:08:52,441 Speaker 1: not whispering, just waiting. Thank you for listening to silent secrets. 79 00:08:53,481 --> 00:08:56,601 Speaker 1: I hope Tonight's story has given your mind something soft 80 00:08:56,721 --> 00:09:01,961 Speaker 1: to wander through as you drift towards rest. That the 81 00:09:02,041 --> 00:09:06,321 Speaker 1: quieter the night wrap around you, Now that mysteries will 82 00:09:06,321 --> 00:09:12,761 Speaker 1: still be here tomorrow, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and 83 00:09:12,881 --> 00:09:19,801 Speaker 1: let's sleep take over until we share another secret next time. 84 00:09:20,881 --> 00:11:06,641 Speaker 1: Good Night, m du