BBC World Service’s Dear Daughter returning with a second season

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The BBC World Service says its award-winning podcast, Dear Daughter, is returning with a second season.

Last year, Dear Daughter was crowned ‘Podcast of the Year’ at the British Podcast Awards. Season two will start on 27 February 2023, with host Namulanta Kombo.

There will be fifteen new episodes, once again featuring letters of advice for daughters everywhere. Namulanta was inspired by her own young daughter, Koko, to start writing letters and to create a “handbook for life”. Her idea won the BBC World Service’s first International Podcast Competition in 2021 and since then, Namulanta and Dear Daughter haven’t looked back.

This season features extraordinary personal stories, including:

Celebrated novelist Isabel Allende, who reads the letters she wrote to her late daughter who was in a coma, and tells of the garage full of letters the author has from her daily correspondence with her own mother over three decades.

A woman, who thought she would never find love because of her chronic illness, explains how an unexpected romance changed everything. When she couldn’t walk – he just got her a wheelchair and took her out on trips

A survivor of the Rwandan genocide, who tells Namulanta the story of her escape from the country aged 12, and how she learned to accept the kindness of strangers

A grieving father, who reads a letter to his daughter about the challenges of bringing her up alone after her mother’s death from cancer – and how the Joe Wicks Workout brought them closer together

 There will also be letters from Dear Daughter listeners about coping with the pressure to have children, dealing with chronic illness and what to do when you realise you’re turning into your mother.

Namulanta Kombo usually works in the development sector in Nairobi and had no experience of podcasting before entering the BBC competition. She is 39 and has 2 children, a daughter and a son. She says, “I grew up watching and listening to the BBC and sometimes I have to pinch myself just to make sure it’s me. What I have learnt making Dear Daughter has massively impacted my life”.

Jon Manel, BBC World Service Podcast Commissioning Editor, says: “Dear Daughter appeals to listeners around the world with its warm, thoughtful, intimate conversations, often with themes only too familiar to many other parents and children. We are really excited to launch season 2 with more letter-writers telling their own extraordinary personal stories, from Mozambique to Moldova.”

Dear Daughter was crowned both “Best Family Podcast” and “Podcast of the Year” at the British Podcast Awards in 2022.

Dear Daughter will launch on 27 February on BBC Sounds and most other podcast platforms.

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