Writer and illustrator Thi Bui and writer Vu Tran converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Thi Bui is a writer and artist from Việt Nam, California, and New York, now planting roots in New Orleans. Best known for her graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do, which tells the story of her family amidst Việt Nam's struggles for independence, she has also been a longtime educator in public high schools, a professor of comics, a public speaker, an organizer and artist-act...
Jan 23, 2026•55 min
Filmmaker Bao Nguyen converses with Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pullitzer prize-winning writer. ABOUT THE GUEST Bao Nguyen is an Emmy- and Grammy-nominated Vietnamese American filmmaker whose work explores memory and myth. His films have premiered at major festivals including Sundance, Cannes, and Telluride, and he directed Be Water, ESPN’s most-watched 30 for 30, and The Greatest Night in Pop, Netflix’s number one English-language film in its debut week and a multi-Emmy, Critics Choice, PGA, and Grammy ...
Jan 05, 2026•39 min
Award-winning writer Ocean Vuong converses with Pulitzer Prize-winning host Viet Thanh Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUEST Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother , as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous . A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award, he used to work as a fast-food server, which inspired The Emperor of Gladness . Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he current...
Nov 17, 2025•57 min
Writers Aimee Phan and Christina Vo converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen in this special live episode, in partnership with KALW . ABOUT THE GUESTS Aimee Phan was born and raised in Orange County, California. She is the author of two books for adults, We Should Never Meet: Stories and the novel The Reeducation of Cherry Truong . Her most recent book is The Lost Queen , the first book in a young adult fantasy duology. She has received fellowships and residencies from the NEA, Ma...
Oct 26, 2025•53 min
Cathy Linh Che and Christopher Santiago converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Chris Santiago is the author of Small Wars Manual, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in April 2025, and Tula, winner of the 2016 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry and a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. His poems have appeared in POETRY, Conduit, Copper Nickel, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, American Public Media’s The Slowdown, and elsewhere. The recipient of f...
Sep 26, 2025•57 min
Abbigail Rosewood, Travis Snyder, and Katherina Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Katherina Nguyen is a creative technologist building ways to better connect with the past and future. She led high-impact design systems development for organizations like Harvard Kennedy School and Google, and currently works on AI storytelling tools at Meta. A Bay Area native and 1.5 generation Vietnamese-American via the H.O. program, she has been exploring her evol...
Sep 05, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Francois Chan, Kim Ly, and Nguyen Phan Que Mai converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of The Sympathizer , Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War , The Refugees , and Race and Resistance: Literature, Politics and Asian America . His most recent book was Chicken of the Sea , a children’s book written in collaboration with his son Ellison. His most recent book is The Committed. He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arno...
Sep 05, 2025•1 hr 19 min
Dao Strom, Hoa Nguyen, and Thi Bui converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Born in the Mekong Delta and raised and educated in the United States, Hoa Nguyen has lived in Canada since 2011. She is author of several books including Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008 and Violet Energy Ingots which was nominated for a Griffin poetry prize. Her forthcoming book, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure is a poetic meditation on historical, personal, and cultural pressures pre...
Aug 29, 2025•57 min
Bao Phi, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Cathy Linh Che, and Paul Tran converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS A two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, Bao Phi has appeared on HBO Presents Russell Simmons Def Poetry, featured in the live performances and taping of the blockbuster diasporic Vietnamese variety show Paris By Night 114: Tôi Là Người Việt Nam, and a poem of his appeared in the 2006 Best American Poetry anthology. His poems and...
Aug 29, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Kieu Chinh, Bao Nguyen, Jenni Trang Le, and Viet Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Bao Nguyen is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles and Saigon. His work has appeared in the New York Times, HBO, Vice, NBC, ARTE, among others. He was the producer and cinematographer of NUOC2030 a feature sci-fi that opened the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale and was awarded the Tribeca Sloan Filmmaker Award. In 2015, he directed the documentary fea...
Aug 22, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Phuc Tran converses with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUEST Phuc Tran was born in Sài Gòn Việt Nam, his family fled to America in 1975, and he grew up in Carlisle PA. Reared on a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons, John Hughes, Star Wars , Bones Brigade videos, and bootlegged cassettes of Minor Threat and TSOL, he graduated high school in 1991. He majored in Classical Languages and Literature at Bard College—how did no one talk him out of that?—got his Master’s Degr...
Aug 22, 2025•49 min
Marc dela Cruz, Qui Nguyen, Diep Tran, and Susan Lieu converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Marc dela Cruz got his start in theater in Seattle with the Northwest Asian American Theatre, ReAct and the series Sex in Seattle , while a student at the University of Washington. After finishing his degree in International Studies with a minor in Japanese he continued training and performing around the Seattle area with Village Theatre and the 5th Avenue Theatre. In 2...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Dao Strom, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Sophia Terazawa, and Vi Khi Nao converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Dao Strom is a poet, musician, writer, and interdisciplinary artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author/composer of several hybrid-literary works, including the poetry-art collection, INSTRUMENT, and its musical companion of song-poems, TRAVELER’S OD...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Tu David Phu, Genevieve Erin O'Brien, and Mark Padoongpatt converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Tu David Phu is a Vietnamese-American, Top Chef Alumnus, and SF Chronicle Rising Star Chef from Oakland. Chef Tu’s Vietnamese-California cuisine began garnering press and accolades, first in 2016 with his weekly pop up dinners “ĂN – a Vietnamese Dining Experience.”; then in 2017 San Francisco Chronicle named him Rising Star Chef. In 2019, he was a featured contesta...
Aug 08, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Thao Nguyen converses with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUEST Thao Nguyen, also known as Thao, is an American singer-songwriter originally from Virginia and now based in San Francisco. She is the lead musician of the band Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, and has collaborated with Joanna Newsom and Andrew Bird. Outside of the band she has collaborated on projects with several artists including Merrill Garbus, The Portland Cello Project, and Mirah. Her music is influenced...
Aug 08, 2025•52 min
Nguyen Phan Que Mai converses with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning writer in both Vietnamese and English. Her eight books of poetry, short fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese have received the 2010 Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, the Capital’s Literature & Arts Award, and First Prize in the Poetry Competition celebrating 1,000 Years of Hanoi. Her debut novel and first book in English, The Mou...
Aug 04, 2025•42 min
Kim Thuy, Vincent Lam, Eric Nguyen, and Thi Bui converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and Sa...
Aug 04, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Lan Cao, Duong Van Mai Elliott, Le Ly Hayslip, and Marcelino Truong converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Lan Cao was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in the middle of a war that devastated all Vietnamese in both parts of Vietnam. Amidst this violence, Lan found solace in books. Her love of reading and writing began early in her childhood when her parents gave her a copy of 1001 Arabian Nights . She was fascinated by the story about a woman who saved her own life and ...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Bao Nguyen and Carol Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Bao Nguyen is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles and Saigon. His work has appeared in the New York Times, HBO, Vice, NBC, ARTE, among others. He was the producer and cinematographer of NUOC 2030 a feature sci-fi that opened the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale and was awarded the Tribeca Sloan Filmmaker Award. In 2015, he directed the documentary feature, LIVE FROM NEW YORK! w...
Jul 18, 2025•41 min
Tung Nguyen, Thi Bui, and Tram T. Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Franc...
Jul 11, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Loan Thi Dao, Nghiep "Ke" Lam, and Dkauj lab Yang converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Loan Thi Dao (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies at St. Mary’s College of California. She specializes in Southeast Asian refugee migration and community development, immigrant and refugee youth, social movements, and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Dao has published on topics related to memory and war in cultural productions, V...
Jul 11, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Thien A. Pham. Bao Tran, and Ham Tran converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Thien A. Pham is a producer/director with accomplished experience in over 20 different languages and markets. While pursuing a film degree at Cal State University, Long Beach, Thien founded what is now known as 3388 Films, a media & film production and distribution company specialized in Asian and Southeast Asian content, with a mission to create with intention and connect diverse ...
Jul 10, 2025•53 min
Jes Vu, Kieu Chinh, and Ysa Le converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Kìêu Chinh is a legendary actress with a long successful career dating back to 1957. Throughout her career, she has played female leads in 22 feature films in Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taipei, India, as well as in American productions shot in Asia such as Operation CIA, co-starred with Burt Reynolds. She has also appeared in over 80 television shows. Along with journalist...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr 8 min
James Huynh, Yvonne Y. Kwan, Danny Thien Le, & Thu Quach converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS JAMES HUỳNH grew up in desert-turned-suburbia Fontana, CA and is the son of Vietnamese refugees who come from the city of Huế, Việt Nam. James is a PhD student in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is also a Health Policy Research Scholar, a fellowship funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His scholarly and activist...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr
Hoa Nguyen, Joshua Nguyen, Susan Nguyen, and Truong Tran converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Hoa Nguyen is the author of several books including Red Juice: Poems 1998 – 2008 and the Griffin Prize nominated Violet Energy Ingots. Her latest collection of poems, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure, published by Wave Books in 2021, is the winner of the Canada Book Award and nominated for a National Book Award and the General Governor’s Literary Award for Poe...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Writers André Dao and Kevin Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen, pulitzer-prize winning author, and Philip Nguyen, Vietnamese-American studies scholar. ABOUT THE GUESTS André Dao is an author and researcher from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. His debut novel, Anam, won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Voss Literary Award. In 2024, he was named a Sydney Morning...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr
Multimedia artist Anida Yoeu Ali and urban anthropologist LinDa Saphan converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Anida Yoeu Ali (b.1974, Battambang) is an interdisciplinary artist whose works span performance, installation, new media, public encounters, and political agitation. Raised in Chicago and born in Cambodia, she is a woman of mixed heritage with Malay, Cham, Khmer and Thai ancestry. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation an...
May 09, 2025•59 min
Musician and filmmaker praCh and multimedia artist and activist Silong Chhun speak with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Silong Chhun is a multimedia artist and communications specialist at Washington State's Office of Equity who uses art to advance social justice for all communities. As co-founder of the Khmer Anti-Deportation Advocacy Group (KhaagWa) and a co-founder of the award-winning Southeast Asian Comedy Collective, he focuses on sharing his cultural heritage w...
Apr 04, 2025•55 min
Writer from Singapore, Amanda Lee Koe, and playwrite from France, Olivier Dhenin, converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Amanda Lee Koe was born and raised in Singapore and has lived in New York, Beijing, Berlin and Bangkok. Her debut novel, Delayed Rays of a Star (Doubleday, 2019) was named a Most Anticipated Title by ELLE, Los Angeles Times, Thrillist, and USA Today, and one of NPR's Best Books of The Year. Her most recent book, Sister Snake (Ecco, 2024) was...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Emerging writers Steven Duong and Vivian Pham converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Steven Duong is the author of At The End of the World There is a Pond (W. W. Norton, 2025). His poems and short stories have appeared in publications including The American Poetry Review, The Drift, and the Yale Review, as well as The Best American Short Stories 2024, selected by Lauren Groff. The recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Kundiman, and the Un...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 9 min
