Brown Girls Do It Too - Out with a Bang

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

After six incredible seasons of sex chat (and so much more!), Poppy and Rubina bring the curtain down on Brown Girls Do It Too. They share their highlights, what the podcast has meant to them and read emotional letters to each other – expect a few tears. Thank you for listening to the podcast and sharing your dilemmas with the Shagony Aunties. If you're in the UK, for more BBC podcasts listen on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3UjecF5

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. And now the end is near. And so we face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear. I'll state our case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway.

And more, much more than this. We did it our way. My way includes swearing. And my way includes themes of an adult nature. So this podcast episode will contain both. When was the last time you had sex? Because when brown girls get down, the world tends to have a little something to say. And we've got something to say right back. This is a podcast about sex, while we can't stop thinking about it,

talking about it, and doing it, and doing it well. Brown girls do it too. I'm Poppy and 100 episodes ago, I still have that rice cooker that I gave a shout out to in episode one of the series. Wow.

I'm Robina and 100 episodes ago, I was wide-eyed, bushy-tailed and having a lot more sex than I'm having now that's for sure. Still a hairy ass bitch though. You have long hair now. Long hair's through. Look how long your hair is. I'm just like a hairier ass bitch now. So dear listener, thank you for joining us for this episode of Brown Girls Did It Too which So dear listener, thank you for joining us for this episode of Brown Girls Do It Too, which is a special one because we have a bit of an announcement to make. This is the final episode of Brown Girls Do It Too here on the BBC.

I don't know if it's Gunfingers or Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma. It's not quite a Gunfinger is it? But it's the final episode. This is the final one. It's a bit of a conscious uncoupling of sorts, I'd say. Us being the Gwyneth Paltrow, the BBC being the Chris Martin. Exactly. Because Gwyneth went on to do Goop and stayed skinny. But Chris Martin is the BBC, you know, like cool, not cool enough. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? And the relationship with us in the BBC is always going to be the way that Gwyneth and Chris look after Apple. And look, everything in life has a beginning, middle and an end. And I always say like a good night out, you want it to continue. When you're having a great night out, you're like,

yeah, next, you're chasing the night. But actually, it's just not the natural order of things. Okay. And I'm a big believer in things coming to an end because then you can grow and move on to something different, right? And I guess that's kind of what we're doing. We did this series. I really love that you're saying that by the way, because every single party I've ever been to with you, you're literally still there when the host is being like, sorry, can you guys go? Like we got me and Bobby got chucked out of someone's 40th where they were like at the end he came up to us he was like how you guys doing? We were like you're having a great time. He's like yeah can you go? So I know I've said all of that and that's why I say that because

I'm always the last to leave. You need to tell yourself that. And I need to tell myself that. Like it. But you know what it's like the Lion King, the circle of life, right? When we started this, we thought this was going to be a pile of shit. Let's just be honest. We looked down on this podcast. I don't remember telling many people about doing this podcast and we did six episodes. I met you, I met Roya and we were like, that's the end of it. Then we won the British podcast awards. We won podcast of the year in 2020, a year where literally everybody was doing nothing but being at home and taking in content.

It was like an actual crazy thing that happened. And so that moment changed our life. You fast forward to where we are now. I really do feel like we've completed the circle. We've done so much. We've been in places, in rooms, on a live stage. When we started, I hated the title. Yeah, you always hated the title.

Because I was like, do we really need to call our podcast Brown Girls Do It Too? Why can't brown girls just do a podcast about sex and not have to say that we're brown in it? It feels like a lot of the times Asian people are invited onto platforms like the BBC, like other places, and their brownness is already so important to them. Like, it's like, we have to wear it and we have to always talk about our identity. And I was really anti that. But my God, I didn't realize there was so much to talk about. And I didn't realize how much it would resonate with people to talk about it.

I also sometimes love this idea that we're uncompromisingly making content for just other brown girls because we're fucking starving for it. We're starving for content about us. And like actually, who, what other platform would have commissioned this to be like boldly saying, we're making content for it. We're starving for content about us. And like actually who, what other platform would have commissioned this to be like boldly saying, we're making content for you. And you know, yes, of course you consume all other content. Who isn't watching adolescence? We get it. There's broad stuff, but those aren't our stories. When did you realize that this podcast was something?

I think probably when we won the British podcast award. But also if you listen to me in episode one, I'm like, what we're doing right now is really radical. There's something you say in episode one, where you say, this is basically British Asian version of Saudi women driving. Right. You say that and I'm like, for us, it felt like what we were doing was really like edgy. Like we were doing something kind of dangerous. We were doing something that could get us in trouble. We were doing something that could ruin our careers. We were doing something that... Or relationship with our families. Absolutely. Like we were really playing with fire in episode one.

And the way that we do it with such joy, when you listen back, you're like, holy shit. Like we weren't scared. Yeah. But we were scared, but we weren't presenting as scared. Because we were scared. We were scared. I mean, well, I always talk about this moment where I was going to filter a story or censor it, self-censor and you were like, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this fucking

properly. It was a real turning point for me, but I realized I'm quite bitter about all the success we, you and I, and Roya, experienced because all of it happened during COVID. So you finally had three brown women with that level of success and people want to congratulate you. They want to pat your back, you know, all of the networking and the schmoozing. We couldn't do any of it. You fucking fell asleep. You didn't even know we won podcast of the year award. You were like, right. We won three awards for this podcast, three quite big awards. I haven't been on stage once to collect an award. Not once. I think for me, the first time I realized this was something really special is when

we started to get in getting those DMs. Because it's something that you said just before we started recording, like, this is a side hustle for me, but this means something to you. And it's when those messages started coming in, I was like, fuck, okay, maybe, maybe we are doing something quite rightly. This is cool. Yeah. I don't know what your background or why you wanted to get into the media industry. But for me, I always felt like it was a great tool to access lots of people, to be able to tell people about our culture,

our language, who we are. Because I always thought, I grew up in Britain, always thought I was a bit racist. How can I change that? Get into the media, change representation, do that kind of stuff. I'm a background character in the media. I'm the person behind the camera, behind the mic. I commission stuff. I work in the

back because I always thought that's where the power was. And actually I never wanted to be in front of a mic. This is like, I never had an interest in that. And being thrust into this space was really terrifying. So I was like, it's not where I want to be. But I found doing that it's almost like when you don't see the representation that you want, just be that representation. That was so Gandhi of me right there. I know. But I think you could be both because I am behind the camera. I also direct. I'm very much behind the camera. And I think you can have a life where you straddle both. And I think you're right. We're so starved of seeing brown, sexy, funny representation. Some of the funniest people I know in my life are women,

hands down. And I think when I started to see those comments from women saying, you two are funny, and I was reading a lot of the comments yesterday, like funny, seen and heard, your experience resonated with me. Like I forgot what this means to people. And this is the other thing,

when I did this podcast with you, I had one of my best friends said, you're so brave for doing this. And in my head, you're brave for taking a bullet. You're brave. Those women in Iran taking their headscarves off. That to me is brave. Talking about sex is like farting for me.

It's not a big deal. And yet, and not just in the brown community, we're especially bad. We put sex on this pedestal and we don't talk about it and we're ashamed of it. And it's like, why? Why do we do that? Somebody messaged us and said that they listened to this podcast while living in Saudi. I don't even know that you could access this podcast in Saudi in Saudi. I don't even know that you could access this podcast in Saudi like that's crazy. But what we hopefully have done a little bit with this podcast is been free and been joyful and shown all other women living in more oppressive communities in the UK, by the way, but shown them an alternative. The

other thing is we're, we are Asians, we're proud British Asians, but we're maybe not the standard Asian that you see in your drama. We're just not. And we got to be ourselves a bit. Yeah. ["Brown Girls Do It Too"] Brown girls do it too.

I think there's been some, so many highlights doing this podcast with you. We wouldn't even be able to talk about them all that we'd be here forever. But like all of the incredible women that we've met, like we actually got to have a conversation with Mira Sayal. I know. From Guinness World Records, that's crazy.

And Nina Wadia. Yeah. That is like childhood hero stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When they both came on, I was such a fucking little Bengali dweeb watching this on BBC2 at 9.30 at night and they're here on our podcast. I mean, you were still a Bengali dweeb when she came into the studio. You're like, oh my God, we love you, we love you, we love you.

Stand out guest for me, Mia Weston. Oh, so funny. Chicken Korma vagina. Oh, so good. And when she picked her vagina from the catalogue, the vagina loved her. And I was just like, Alicia Sweets as well. Yeah, was fantastic. The babe station, like, I'm just going to come here, babe, and I'm going to,

you're going to break me, you're going to fuck me and then take me to A&E and break me in half. And I just kept talking about like having diseases. So every time I tried to do it, she's like, stay away from diseases and come back. She was the one teaching us how to talk dirty. I think a pinch me moment was getting Jamila Jamil, who is huge, possibly one of the most high profile. And how down to earth she was. I know, she was amazing. And the other thing about doing this podcast, just in general, wasn't just the guests.

It just shows you that there's more than one seat at the table for brown women. Yeah. I mean, there's two of us, for example, but it also made me realize that like, when you are opening your circles and like practicing inclusivity and diversity in your workplace, like bringing in your brown colleagues

and friends, like I think we've always been a bit competitive with each other because we felt like there wasn't enough space. So like why would we share this naturally? We have this really thriving culturally rich scene now in the UK. Like you only have to look at what they're doing on Diet Prather and how that community has like totally evolved. They were at the VNA like doing a late night the other week. Like it's huge.

Anushka Shankar is doing like Brighton Festival this year. Yeah. If I'm going to be completely honest, before this podcast, I probably didn't have as many Brown friends. And if I'm going to be brutally honest, pushing away the Brownness, staying away from the Brownness. And I think since doing this podcast, I fully embrace my Brownness to the point where I went to this rave called Indo Warehouse. It's basically Bollywood techno rave. And I was like, smell that sweaty cumin, I fucking love it. And I am so leaning in to my brownness. Not that I was competitive, I've always been quite generous, but it's like that thing you say when you walk into

an office and you see the, you want to be the only brown in the village. And it's like, if there can be three of us initially and now two, we can absolutely help other brown women. We should all be helping each other. Yeah. And we don't need to change ourselves for mainstream culture. If you stay true to what is your experience, you'll find your audience. Yeah, exactly. And if you help each other and support each other, I mean, some people-

The other thing I do quite a lot as well now is if I'm walking down the street and I see an Asian girl, I try to make eyes with her straight away and give her a big smile. And I never did that before doing this podcast. I'll be like, yeah, I got you. I see you. You're good. You're good. I guess I'm really enjoying and celebrating my identity and my brownness and other brown women. Another highlight episode was getting Joy TK on. Oh, yeah. She was really... She's very funny. She was a really good guest because she was so not what I expected and I often feel like I'm always misunderstood and I did the thing

that people always do with me and she was fucking hilarious. Yeah you know we've had like the OGs and women that are older than us that paved the way and hopefully we've you know given them as much respect as you would like touching their feet in the podcast way. And then we've had like this new generation of young British Asian girls that are coming up that are like smashing it, like total trailblazers. Like I love the girl from Picture This, Anushka Chadha, who's like so funny.

And if you've seen that film, she's so good in it. She's a scene stealer. And she was just wonderful to meet as well. And I'm really excited about what like people like that are gonna do like following their careers. I also loved getting all these Gen Z guests as well because... Stay! But I gotta say like while that is is like you know kind of funny for us to laugh about it's also really humbling because you're like wow you felt like we were young and we were like on that and

then you realize that even that generation one generation has happened now and those younger people, they are having a completely different experience to us. And so we think like our British Asian experience is this like unique thing. And it's like, so is that. Another thing I think this podcast has done is bridge that gap between those two generations. Because I think what people do, the media does pit brown women against other brown women, black women against other black women. That's what they do. And then it's like Gen Z women against geriatric millennials, millennials, right? That's cool that we tapped into all of that. Cause I really don't have much like oldie

foggy chat or Gen Z chat. So I don't know what's going on there. It was really fascinating having these Gen Z guests. Cheritha Chandran was amazing. She was the one that said we should be listening to older women and taking their advice. Oh, you know what? Sometimes we had those Gen Z lot on and I'd be like, why are you so wise? Like it was scary. I'd be like, why are you so smart? Like, just be young, just be stupid, just be a bit stupid. Like, what the hell? We look like Kevin and Perry go large and they were in their white waistcoats.

OK, I got to say one thing for the Gen Z, if you're listening, just dress like a toddler. There is no need for you to be wearing all black all the time. Although what? Probably you've dressed in all black today. I've just come back from holiday and I don't know how many kgs I had to put a sack dress on, okay? Whereas I'm wearing something that my three-year-old probably would wear. I think I've learnt so much from Gen Z and not just from the shit that I read, but having them here in the studio because you're right, their experiences are so different to us. They've had phones and iPads and we didn't.

Also just that the British Asian experience is so diverse, but like the black community, I'm hoping we have a new collective. That's part of Branghaws too, that's part of a lot of other things that are out there for us, but like we can all collect under one umbrella and feel good about that. Like we have connections, we have stuff in common. Every ethnic community says we're not a monolith and that is completely true. But what is true is there is an absolute Venn diagram of experiences. Yeah. And it's not just being seen through the white lens, right? We're not looking at ourselves and talking about ourselves through what, how a white person might experience us.

We're experiencing each other. We're like, I see you if you're Bangladeshi and I'm Indian and where we see that, like we get to talk about that. And I don't really know any other podcast or platform that sees brown people not through a white lens. For me, the ultimate highlight is where the podcast has taken us. It has taken us from on stage at Sadler's Wells to being interviewed by some major publications to touring the country together, to the premiere in Leicester.

Do you know what I mean? We have been everywhere with it and met brown girls from across the country all ages. I think that access to people has just blown my mind. I've never met so many people in my life, so many brown women in my life, since doing this. One of the most memorable episodes for me, because you and I, we're always trying to be funny, don't we? We always want to laugh. And I think I had this connection with you. It's probably my first connection and bond with you is when we started getting teary about race traitors and losing this whole, because obviously I was very much with my partner at the time, losing a whole part of our lives and a whole part of

our identity because we were with non-Asian guys. Yeah. And I turned around to you and said, I'm never going to have an Indian wedding. Yeah. And your partner's never going to call your mom, mom. Yeah. And something in me really, it really, really resonated with me because my mom doesn't speak English. How am I going to speak to your husband if I can't speak English? I think that is one spark of a thousand sparks I've had with you on this, where I've looked at you and thought, I feel exactly the same way or I had the exact same experience. And having all of that and knowing that people are listening, feeling that same thing is like there is a real connected community that we made because of that because we just voiced our experiences brutally, honestly,

maybe too honestly sometimes. I mean, what's next for Brown Girls Do It Too? You can always go to the back catalogue and listen to every single episode from the start, which I've started to and let me tell you, it's very funny. It's my new like little running thing. I'm like, Oh, I'm going to go to the back catalog. You listen to us when you're running. Do you know what? When we first started the podcast, I never listened back to them because I was too self-conscious. Yeah.

Like I just was like too self-conscious about it. I remember. Yeah. And now I'm like loving going back because I just think we've evolved. We've grown so much. We've grown so much. I've had a relationship for now almost 10 years and I have two children and human beings came out of my vagina after putting all that shit in it for so long. Two things finally came out. And you moved out of London, which is quite a big move. I did everything that I thought rebellious young Robina would never do. I didn't want

to get married, didn't want to have kids, didn't want to buy a house. I'm still not married, because I still don't want to do that. But I have a house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you're in a civil partnership, which is even better. I'm in a civil partnership, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And I thought I was going to have the life that you had, which is marry my ex-partner, definitely have children, get a bigger house, settle down, and I've gone the other way. And I just sometimes I'm like, I love life, life happens. It throws curve balls at you. I guess the biggest highlight is probably meeting you. Yeah, 100%.

We are an unlikely friendship. Oh my God. We are such an unlikely. The most unlikely friendship. And I was gonna say something that you said a few moments ago, we are so different, but so similar. And when you talk about experiences and you said, yeah, that really resonates, our backgrounds are different, our upbringings are different. There is a real universal truth

between us. Like we, we see the world. I guess this is why this creative collaboration works, because there isn't ever a time where you say something and I'm like, I completely disagree with it. Yeah. Or from a creative point of view. It's like so much trust and respect. So much trust. But also bountiful chemistry.

Yeah. Like I have so much to say to you always. Yeah. Even if I spent all fucking day with you. Like that's the thing. I think you just had this amazing energy. You just have this really great contagious energy. I know that people are listening and they can feel it, they're like listening to the

podcast and they can feel your energy coming through. It's like, and we've got so much more left to give. You and I have so many exciting projects. We're doing some shows at Soho Theatre together next. And we're also doing Edinburgh Fringe together for the first time ever. We've got live shows coming up. You and I are great writing partners. We love to write some jokes. We are good writing partners.

Some jokes. We have fun together. Yeah. And we will continue this until we start having fun. And I hope we get to have fun forever. Yeah. And that's the other thing we hope, I really hope a listener takes away. I think there is a lot of serious Asian people, British Asian people out there who take themselves really seriously. Way too seriously. Way too seriously. And I'm from a family of people who take themselves very seriously. And I hope that we've allowed you in some way to be able to make fun of yourself and enjoy your life. Even if you had to be that doctor, you had

to be that lawyer, you had to buy the bends, you had to do stuff that maybe you didn't want to do, find the fun in that. Find the joy in your life. I have this secret theory that actually the most repressed Asian people are the funniest, but because their parents made them go down the STEM subject route, they're actual fucking low-key clowns. Yeah, they have to be. They have to be, right? Because all day they're like buttoned up Tarik, aren't they? Buttoned up Tarik!

Buttoned up Tarik, if you're listening, come here and I'll unbutton you down. Hello, I'm Namulanta Kombo, the host of Dear Daughter. What do you want to tell your daughter about your own life? What would you want her to know about the world? Please write her a letter and share it with us. Your advice, your hopes, your fears and your jokes. I want to hear it all. Visit our website at bbcworldservice.com slash dear daughter for more information on how to send us your letters.

See you soon. Something I've loved about doing this podcast is our Shaggy Aunties segment. Oh, very fun. Yeah. So let's get into it. You've reached the Shaggy Aunties call center. Want advice you can't ask your real aunties for? Like, how do you ask for what you want in bed? Not sure which hole is a goal? Where do anal And now for one last time, it's time for the Shaggyney aunties! Please remember to ask the bill payers permission before calling us Shaggyney aunties are not medical professionals and bear no responsibility for the consequences of your own actions. Hi girls, I'm four years into a hopeless relationship with a wonderful, kind man who I feel safe with and love, but who has no drive and I don't know whether to call it

a day. We don't live together and realistically won't make the step forward as his life is chaotic, but I'd like to move away to the closest city, which is 35 miles away. His mum died in 2023 unexpectedly, and this has meant that he has taken over the care for his family member, which I'm starting to resent. This is the healthiest relationship I've been in and the most in love I've experienced. It's a classic heart overhead situation. Do I call it a day and prioritize my future or do I stay with him and settle for second best? Thanks in advance from a long time listener.

Lots to take in there. I mean, I think you've answered your own thing. Why would you ever want to settle for second best? And even if you're thinking that, even if that's what you're going into relationship thinking, the relationships do. It's actually Charlotte and the bald one Harry from Sex and the City. Remember they broke up because he said, everyone looks at me and thought I was like an ugly one. I never thought you did too. Cause she had felt like she'd settled for second best and then she comes 360 and she's like, actually, you're the best. But you should never enter a relationship

thinking that you're settling. Cause that's the crazy way to start something. Also, let's really dissect this. Four years, okay, wonderful kind, you're in love, but he's got no drive. He's taking care of a relative. You're resenting that and it's going to only get worse. But yet they say this is the healthiest relationship

they've been in. So I don't know about this person's past experiences or past relationships, but I think if you're four years in, you have to look to the future. It doesn't show signs of getting any better. It'll probably stay the same, which means it will get worse. And that means you need to do something drastic and call it.

You could, you know what, you could separate and realize, oh my God. Do a Harry and Charlotte from Sex and Sexy. Do a Harry and Charlotte from Sex and Sexy. Do a Harry and Charlotte from Sex and Sexy and do a 360, but you need that separation away to know what you really want to get perspective. So I say, call it a day. Call it a day.

Should we do another one? Hi Poppy and Rubina. I just wanted to say I loved your hair episode. So much resonated with me as a brown girl that has had every length of hair, pixie, tinea, waist length. And I'm also currently on my way back to long hair. I've been listening to the podcast since the beginning.

Actually started during one of my stints working at the Fringe. I'll be seeing you again this year. I was one of the six brown people in your audience when you came to the BBC before. We love you, thank you so much. That was literally a audience full of raincoats. You touched so many topics that made me laugh

and have helped me over the years. Regardless, love the podcast and everything it represents. Thank you for doing what you both do. Oh, so nice. Okay, there's another one. Hi guys, loving your podcast. I only just discovered it and I can't believe I didn't find it earlier. The topics you speak about are so, so important and speaking as a girl from an Indian Muslim background, hearing you guys speak so candidly about these topics, especially with similar religious backgrounds to me makes me feel so seen and heard. Keep doing what you're doing, Tanya. This afternoon I'm listening to the Big D. Is that Big D death?

The death one. Big D dick. My best mate, 72 and I, next time she comes to stay are going to start arranging our own funerals. I think you must have been eavesdropping on our last conversation, Selena, Newmarket. Aw. Big D, dicked to death. That's what this podcast has been. We've been dicked to death. Not exactly how I'd put it, but sure. So one thing we did a while ago was write each other letters. And a lot of you probably have been tuning in because this has been a quite a long term evolving relationship, friendship, situationship, whatever we want to call it. And I'm going to read a letter I wrote to Poppy. To Poppy, it is no secret that when I first met you, I did not like you. I thought you were brash, cocky, way too pretty. And worst of all, you knew it.

We first met in the BBC canteen and it was awkward. What the fuck were we about to do? Why did the BBC want us to do a sex podcast and call it brown girls do it too? I thought that sounded lame and from meeting you for a few minutes I knew it would never work. A week later we met in a pub and you arrived 30 minutes late. You doubled booked for an evening so breezed in, ordered a Prosecco and monologued about some barista who definitely fancied you. You had an alarming amount of confidence, which I found in equal parts intriguing and terrifying, a level I'd never seen before in an Asian woman. I remember the exact moment I started to melt with you. It was in series one when you told us how

much you enjoyed rimming and how you'd have rimming coupons because you understood it was something you couldn't ask for all the time. It was the brutal honesty with which you shared this information and the love and compassion you'd have rimming coupons because you understood it was something you couldn't ask for all the time. It was the brutal honesty with which you shared this information and the love and compassion you'd express for your partner of the time that made me realize there's more to this poppy than I thought.

Almost six years later, and boy have I sipped the Kool-Aid and joined the harem of people who have fallen massively in love with you. I genuinely think it's punk how confident you are. White man levels of self-bel belief, it's truly inspiring. You're incredibly generous sharing your last satsuma, your granola crumbs and always giving me half of your wagon wheel.

From being eight months pregnant bouncing on a space hopper to laughing till we pee because my Indian accent is so bad. All the time spent with you is full of fun and smiles that will leave me wrinkly when I'm old. We toured the country with our live show of our podcast and I brought along my partner and my baby to every town. We became family across those months. You helped me out with my son, chose excellent places for us to eat and together we looked out for each other. Thanks for holding my hand when I couldn't hold it together and making me laugh really hard and loud but mostly thanks for your confidence. May a bit of it rub off on everyone you meet as it holds great power. I even think I'm a bit cocky now, but

the better for it. You once said that you have two one friends, pops, I would blow up shit for you. And I'm so glad we're here. Co-presenters, creative partners, and of course, family friends. Robina. Oh, that's so nice. This made me feel a bit emotional. Dear Rabina, you're not meant to love me. Hell, you're aren't even meant to like me. And yet after six years of friendship, we somehow just fit.

In those early days of the podcast when we were getting to know each other, you declared drunk, I'm so annoyed that I like you. And then I would roll my eyes and I'd reply, it was only a matter of time babes. We were cast for this podcast like the brown spice girls or the brown sugar babes is probably more apt. I flippantly said yes to something that would change the course of my life. And much like you, I was doing it for the shits and gigs. When I met you in the non-sexy BBC canteen, my immediate thoughts were, oh, here we go, the Brian Hermione Granger. I knew you didn't like me,

but we were thrust into a studio together, given mics, and well, the rest is history. First there was three, shout out to Roya, and then there was two, just us two. And in order to make this work, we had to make our unlikely friendship work. I often think back to the first day we recorded, you looked me in the eye and you said,

Poppy, if we're gonna do this this, we're going to do this fucking properly. And my God, have we done this fucking properly. From winning podcasts of the year during peak COVID when we thought no one cared about Asians to recording another six seasons of the show with you, this journey has been more exhilarating than a ride at rubber dingy rapids. You've rocked at least a dozen different hairstyles, welcomed two children and moved out of London. at rubber dingy rapids. You've rocked at least a dozen different hairstyles, welcomed two children and moved out of London.

Meanwhile, I ended a decade long relationship, sported one hairstyle longer than that relationship and attempted being a full-time slag by venturing into online dating for the first time ever. We turned this podcast into a live show, we toured the country, we did a TEDx talk after I went on a bender, which I tried to keep secret from you and failed, and we're doing the Fringe. I pinch

myself as I look at what we've created and I think about what this podcast means to me. This podcast has made me fall in love with my brownness, it's made me fall in love with brown women who get us, and it's made me fall in love with you. You may well be, ugh, you may well be one of the most extraordinary human beings I've met. I often say, I often used to say you are the brown Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but actually you are Rubina Babani. You are you and one of a kind. Barney. You are you and one of a kind. I thought I was pretty fucking fearless before I met you, but you make me feel like the two of us can do anything together. We have a rule. You jump, I jump. From the Titanic, obviously. Nothing about life makes sense.

Nothing about how we got here makes sense. But what does make sense is reading this love letter to my great friend. Because like Jack and Rose, we just fit without the steamsakes. Yours ever pops. Sorry. Sorry, Woo. Sorry. Everyone's fucking teary. Right. Let's start. Let's finish. Ah, right. Can we thank this fucking team? Yes, let's do it. Can we say thank you to this brilliant, brilliant team? Talented, really lucky to have this team that have supported us and made this podcast with us. Zaina, who has come into her own. Yeah, brilliant producer.

Who is so brilliant. We want to thank you for just absolutely being the ultimate brown girl that does it too. You are incredible, honestly. Gwonyi is not here. Gwonyi's produced the show collectively with Zayn number four and to Rehan who started it to Calik, who commissioned it to Roya who was there at the start. To so many people at the BBC who have supported it, Louise Catenhorn, Andy Worrell.

Yes. We also want to just thank like Sana who's done all the socials for us. Let's talk about Sana here because Sana, she's 24 but Sana is really 54. Thank you so much for all the work you've done on socials and Maya who always is, she always gets the angles right. She's a brilliant videographer.

I have really loved this team and I've loved what we've created and I'm so proud of us and you guys make us feel safe. We feel seen, we feel heard and we are so proud of you guys and we hope that you go on to brilliant things and we will back you to the hill. Yeah, absolutely. Not that you need a reference from us, but if you did need one. We have power. We have some power. We have some small power. And some notable guests and supporters we'd love to shout out. Jamila Jamila, Mira Sahel,

Nina Wadia, Ash Sarkar, Sangeeta Pillai, Seema Anand, Purnabell, Diet Paratha, Joy TK, Raj Kaur from Pink Ladoo, Eshan, Akbar, Asim Chadri, Deborah Francis White, Fatihah Al Ghori, Chirithra Chandran, Dr. Raveena. Talks all about our vaginas. Sindhu V, Radhika Apta, Bishi, we loved you having you all and all the other amazing guests that we've had. And if you don't know any of those people and you listen to this podcast, go and find their episodes, go and seek them out and support your local Brown girl. And I guess one, the biggest shout out of all

is to our listeners, right? Thank you for listening. Thank you for every DM you sent. Thank you for every time you listened or told a friend or spoke about us in groups, in big groups with your friends. Thanks to everyone who rolled out to come see us live. All the trauma bonding.

We love trauma bonding. Come and speak to us. We are not saying goodbye. This is just come see us live. All the trauma bonding. We love trauma bonding. Come and speak to us. We are not saying goodbye. This is just, see you soon. Bye. Au revoir. Au revoir. Brown girls do it too.