Dear Daughter

About Dear Daughter

Extraordinary letters written from parents to their children with Namulanta Kombo. Sharing amazing real-life experiences, parenting advice, family stories and life lessons. Dear Daughter is an award-winning podcast from the BBC World Service about love, life, family, and raising children. It is the brainchild of Namulanta Kombo, a mother on a quest to create a ‘handbook to life’ for her daughter, through the advice of parents from all over the world. Each episode, a guest reads a letter they’ve written to their children (or their future children, or the children they never had) with the advice, life lessons, and personal stories they’d like to pass on. Expect unbelievable true stories, inspirational advice for parents, and moving accounts of families, relationships and raising children. Share your letter! What do you want to say to your kids? Or the next generation? Do you have thoughts on motherhood, fatherhood, or parenthood to share? Whether you are a mum or mom, dad or papa, grandparent, uncle, aunt, daughter, son or just want to write a letter, send us a Whatsapp message on +44 800 030 4404 or visit bbcworldservice.com/deardaughter. You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ZFHNV8v7qgTm1zbKbkwsvR/dear-daughter-privacy-notice (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ZFHNV8v7qgTm1zbKbkwsvR/dear-daughter-privacy-notice)

Publisher

BBC World Service

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Nov 2021

Latest episode

21 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

53 of 89 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   21 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary - Love Stories

   Host Penny shares her decades-long search for answers after a sudden breakup with Mark, revealing a surprising truth that reshaped her understanding of their love story.

2. 

   5 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The importance of education

   Marco shares with Namulanta Kombo his profound commitment to educating his daughters, inspired by his mother's sacrifices, revealing the deep-seated value of education.

3. 

   29 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Adoption day

   Fleur shares her emotional journey of adopting her daughter on short notice after fertility struggles with host Namulanta Kombo, revealing the profound impact of that life-changing day.

Inside a recent episode

Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary - Love Stories

Published 21 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And did you feel disapproval from your family, from your friends? I mean, from people on the street when you were out in public? It wasn't spoken about with my family. My mother's policy was to ignore it. They just didn't ever, ever, ever talk about it. Just silence. And there was never much communication between my parents and me. My friends, all my friends from school thought Mark was lovely. And in fact, they actually said to me, Penny, I'm so pleased that you're going out with Mark. We really wanted him to get a nice girlfriend. All my mates at Trent loved her. They knew our situation. And I'd lived in England for so long that I'd kind of assimilated myself into society. […]

Who has been a guest on Dear Daughter

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Marco
• Fleur
• Yasmina
• Tamaki
• Brenda

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.4 / 5

167 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

199 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 66 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

73

Social presence

97

YouTube

0

Engagement

98

Contact Dear Daughter

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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Questions about Dear Daughter