On Wednesday 5 August, our Artful Dodgers Studios launched season two of its Braided podcast.

Braided threads together the intimate, challenging, and triumphant stories of a group of young people from diverse cultural backgrounds who are living with difficult life circumstances, weaving a vivid tapestry of lives rarely glimpsed.

The six-part series connects young people with Victoria’s leading audio producers who work one-on-one with young people to bring to life the stories they wish to tell. Each episode is an intimate window into the daily challenges, lived experiences and individual passions of the creators.

Again Maluach, co-host of the series, says that producing Braided “has been a journey of self-discovery, friendship, learning and growth.”

The show’s creators share the frustrations of their buzzing fridges, the saving grace of Animal Crossing, and the peculiar camaraderie of this solitary time.

They take you inside their dreams, and out where they walk in the small hours. They bring you in on the phone calls they make, and the bedrooms they record in. They sit you in on group story meetings. And further in, on that which occupies their private hours – be that pending dread, navigating an all-white household during the Black Lives Matter protests, or the longing for the day they can, once again, get their hair braided among friends.

Join hosts Matisse Laida and Agum Maluach as they guide you through their own stories and those of the rest of the Braided team: Georgia Willmott, Reggie Chang, Kim Handley, Danny Hillyer, Mary Kato, and Elijah Augustine.

Hear the trailer, listen to Episode one and find out more at braidedpodcast.com.

Braided is available wherever you get your podcasts.