Today’s guest is Celine Ventalon , CEO and founder of Émer , the menstrual underwear company based in Ho Chi Minh City. We discussed what menstrual underwear is and how it can benefit both women and sustainability efforts, the reasons why she created Émer, social and workplace stigmas that her team is working to address, how they approach the owners of factories with majority female workforces, women’s health awareness-raising efforts at schools, and more. Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here . ...
Jun 29, 2025•23 min
Today’s guest is Rich McClellan , Founder & Principal of RMAC Advisory and former country director of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in Vietnam. He’s an expert in public policy, investment, and economic reform across emerging markets. We covered The Economist ’s much-discussed recent cover story on Vietnam, the country’s international finance center ambitions, Resolution 68 and its focus on the domestic private sector, the ongoing government restructuring and provincial merger, s...
Jun 08, 2025•39 min
Today’s guest is Michael Rosen, the principal founder of Vietnam’s first independent whisky distillery, Về Để Đi . We discussed Về Để Đi’s background and why he pursued making whisky, what single malt means, the response to building a Vietnamese whisky brand and the growing prominence of brands from other non-traditional markets like Taiwan, the biggest surprises - good and bad - so far, the process of using local ingredients such as Vietnam’s first barley, their win at the recent World Whiskies...
Jun 01, 2025•32 min
Today’s guests are Thomas Jakobsen, Managing Director at Indochina Energy Partners ; and Angus McEwin, Managing Director at Monsoon Carbon . We discussed the key points of revised PDP; progress on transmission and the national grid; LNG development; current issues and opportunities around solar and onshore wind; Renewable Energy Certificates and voluntary carbon credits and their place in Vietnam’s energy market; Vietnam’s efforts to launch a domestic carbon trading system; the revival and forma...
May 25, 2025•36 min
Today’s guests are Dr. Nguyễn Thùy An, Historian and Labor Education Professional at the University of Maine, specializing in the history of U.S. foreign relations and Vietnamese history; and Dr. Sean Fear, Lecturer in International History at the University of Leeds, whose research focuses on the Republic of Vietnam. We discussed progress on reconciliation between Vietnam and the U.S., which took something of a hit following reporting that American diplomats have been told to avoid events relat...
Apr 27, 2025•57 min
Today’s guest is Minh Nguyễn, curator at Dogma Collection in Ho Chi Minh City. We discussed what Dogma Collection is, the socioeconomic context of socialist realism propaganda created from 1945 to the mid-1980s, the use of digitally rendered versions of this art for the upcoming reunification anniversary, the state of the contemporary art scene in HCMC and Vietnam more broadly, the exhibition ‘ A Radial System ’ and its presentation of war imagery from different viewpoints, and more. Follow Dogm...
Apr 23, 2025•37 min•Ep. 43
Today’s guest is Robyn McGuckin, Executive Director of P4G , who joined from Hanoi, where the 2025 P4G Vietnam Summit begins this morning. We discussed P4G’s goals and approach, the hurdles faced by many climate tech startups and the so-called ‘valley of death,’ the interface between climate tech startups and government, P4G’s national platforms, their nine partner countries, P4G’s success stories in Vietnam such as Stride and Alterno, how P4G connects with and assesses startups, climate tech fu...
Apr 13, 2025•31 min
Following the announcement of President Donald Trump’s shocking 46% reciprocal tariff rate on Vietnam, I wanted to get a quick initial reaction from return guest Kyle Freeman, a Partner at Dezan Shira & Associates who leads the International Business Advisory team and the firm's North American client services desk in Asia. Kyle was on the show in January when the trade situation between Vietnam and the U.S. appeared to be much warmer. With the caveat that this is a very fluid situation, we d...
Apr 03, 2025•14 min
Today’s guest is Khang Vu , a visiting scholar at Boston College with a Ph.D. in International Relations with a focus on East Asian Security from Boston College. Vietnamese foreign policy is one of his key areas of expertise. We discussed Vietnam’s success in avoiding Trump tariffs thus far, the planned China-backed Lao Cai-Hai Phong railway, Vietnam’s history of dealing with territorial disputes with China and potential lessons for other Southeast Asian countries, the government’s ongoing spree...
Mar 30, 2025•39 min
Neal Bermas is founder and chairperson of STREETS International , a social enterprise based in Hoi An that offers a fully-supported 14-month culinary and hospitality training program to disadvantaged and vulnerable youth living in poverty We discussed STREET’s focus on the hospitality sector, its functioning as a social enterprise, the demographics of the young people who receive support and the challenges they face, how the pandemic somewhat diminished the appeal of working in the hospitality s...
Mar 23, 2025•30 min
Today’s guest is Kyle Freeman , a Partner at Dezan Shira & Associates who leads the International Business Advisory team and the firm's North American client services desk in Asia. We discussed the latest tariff threats coming from President-Elect Donald Trump, how Vietnam benefited from U.S. trade policy during his first administration, Vietnam’s exposure to potential trade remedies given its huge surplus and growing Chinese manufacturing investment, how export-focused companies are prepari...
Jan 12, 2025•31 min
Today’s guest is Nguyên Lê , an entertainment writer, copy editor, translator, and occasional screenwriter. He’s written for publications including /Film , The Houston Chronicle , Film Threat , and Paste Magazine . He’s also a member of both the Houston Film Critics Society and the Hollywood Critics Association - one of the few Asian members in their ranks. We discussed how Nguyên got into movies, the evolution of Vietnamese cinema over time, censorship, steps the industry could take to improve ...
Jan 05, 2025•44 min
Today’s guest is Huê-Tâm Jamme , an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Huê-Tâm explores the effects of new technologies on space and society, especially on how people move, work, shop, and socialize in cities - and she has extensive research experience in Vietnam. We discussed her theory of ‘productive frictions’ in urban areas; the impact of mass transit on daily life; misguided discussions of motorbike bans in urban centers; an...
Dec 29, 2024•39 min
Today’s returning guest is Nguyen Khac Giang, a Visiting Fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme under the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He was on the show in March for a conversation about the anti-corruption campaign, and he’s one of my go-to voices for insight into Vietnamese politics. We discussed the legacy of arguably the most consequential political year in modern Vietnamese history, Tô Lâm ’s strong performance as General Secretary so far, the dramatic streamlining of both ...
Dec 15, 2024•48 min
Today’s guest is Daniel Nguyen, the founder of Sông Cái Distillery . We discussed his background in community development in the United States and rural Vietnam; Sông Cái’s mission as a case study for adding value to agriculture unique to Vietnam; the relationship between ethnobotany, land value, and forest preservation; creating value for smallholder farmers through grains and botanicals not previously desired on the market; Sông Cái’s focus on averting land degradation and biodiversity loss; b...
Dec 08, 2024•31 min
Today’s guest is Katie Nelson, a climate change researcher at the International Rice Research Institute - or IRRI - in Hanoi. We discussed the role of agriculture - and particularly rice farming - in Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions, the importance of reducing methane emissions to reach international climate change goals, efforts to mitigate methane production in the country’s rice sector, the alternate wetting and drying farming method, and more. Related Links: In Vietnam, farmers reduce meth...
Dec 01, 2024•30 min
Today’s guest is Wessie Ling , a Professor of Transcultural Arts and Design at London Metropolitan University and Director of The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement, or CREATURE. We discussed China’s influence on fashion-making in Southeast Asia, from the fabric supply chain through design and sales; how fashion designers in the region feel about this influence and how these sentiments vary by country; steps Vietnamese designers are taking to highlight Vietnamese characteristics i...
Nov 03, 2024•35 min
Today’s guest is Jason Lusk, Managing Partner at Clickable Impact and co-author of the recently released Vietnam Climate Tech Funding Ecosystem Report 2024. We discussed why Clickable Impact and New Energy Nexus created this first-of-its-kind report, what ‘climate tech’ means in the Vietnam context and why funding for it has lagged behind the country’s other tech sectors, areas of climate tech poised for expansion, and what stakeholders in this space can do to ensure further growth. Download the...
Oct 06, 2024•24 min
Today’s guest is Greg Poling , director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. He’s also the author of the 2022 book ‘On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea.’ We discussed the current situation in the East Sea, which tensions between China and the Philippines have dominated; Vietnam’s ongoing effort to significantly expand the islands it controls and China’s silenc...
Sep 29, 2024•35 min
Today’s guests are Yen Vu , Assistant Professor and Major Coordinator in Literature at Fulbright University Vietnam, and Kevin Pham , Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Amsterdam. Yen and Kevin also host the excellent Nam Phong Dialogues , “a podcast with the purpose of making history (especially about Vietnam) accessible.” We discussed the creation of Nam Phong Dialogues and why they chose to pursue a podcast, the inspiration behind the name, the importance of making V...
Sep 22, 2024•51 min
Today’s guest is Kelly Vo, Founder & CEO of Dear Our Community and co-founder of Map Me - both of which you’ll hear about in this episode. I’ve known Kelly for a while and she’s a vital part of the sustainability community here in Vietnam - it took a while to schedule this discussion, a testament to how busy Kelly is with her various endeavors, but I’m very glad it happened. We discussed her work with Dear Our Community, getting young people engaged in sustainability, the importance of busin...
Sep 15, 2024•38 min
Today’s guest is Skye Maconachie, co-CEO of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. I sat down with Skye at Blue Dragon’s busy office in Hanoi to discuss the organization’s ongoing response to Typhoon Yagi, which killed at least 262 people ; the needs of flood-hit communities in the capital; the difficult situation in mountainous areas ravaged by deadly landslides; the importance of long-term support; and the resilience of the people of Vietnam. This episode was recorded on a phone, so the audio qual...
Sep 14, 2024•24 min
Today’s guest is Trường Trần, Captive Manager of the Cúc Phương Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program for Save Vietnam’s Wildlife , or SVW. He’s been with SVW since 2017 and is deeply involved in their conservation work, particularly their pangolin and Owston’s civet captive breeding programs. We discussed these breeding programs, SVW’s anti-poaching work, research and monitoring of endangered species, the prominence of pangolins in the illegal wildlife trade, the biggest threats to Vietna...
Sep 08, 2024•31 min
Today’s guest is Washington State Senator Joe Nguyễn, whose district covers West Seattle and neighboring areas. Senator Nguyễn is Chair of the state senate’s Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, and one of the few Vietnamese-Americans in a state-level elected office. We discussed the state trade mission to Vietnam he joined in April and his takeaways on renewable energy and other issues, his approach to the relationship between Washington State and Vietnam given his Vietnamese backgro...
Aug 18, 2024•26 min
Today’s guests are Eddy Malesky, Professor of Political Economy at Duke University, and Paul Schuler, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona. They are two of the five co-authors of the 2023 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, or PAPI. PAPI is “the country’s largest, annual, citizen-centric and nationwide policy monitoring tool.” Eddy was previously a guest on the episode about the Provincial Competitiveness Index , which I recommend c...
Aug 04, 2024•55 min
Today’s guest is Jack Nguyen, CEO of InCorp Vietnam , a corporate services firm that helps foreign businesses set up and operate in compliance with local regulations. We discussed Vietnam potentially losing out on major investments due to uncompetitive tax incentives; the main concerns of companies considering entering the Vietnamese market; Vietnam’s strengths in attracting investment; the ongoing increase in Chinese investment; whether exporters should be concerned about future tariffs or poli...
Jul 28, 2024•34 min
Today’s guest is Eddie Thai, co-founder & general partner of Ascend Ventures Vietnam, or AVV . Few people in Vietnam have more tech funding experience than Eddie, and he’s been a great source of insight over the years. We discussed tech here in the context of the global ‘funding winter,’ the country’s tech strengths and weaknesses, what Eddie looks for when deciding to invest, Vietnam’s nascent AI industry and the rising importance of ‘sovereign’ AI, his wish to see Vietnamese founders aim b...
Jul 21, 2024•34 min
Today’s guest is Bernard Kervyn, founder of the NGO Mekong Plus . We discussed how the organization’s work has evolved given Vietnam’s rapid economic growth over the last 30 years, shifting their focus to people who live on less than US$1 per day, offering microfinance while avoiding its well-documented risks, the different ways communities support each other in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the broader goal of eliminating - not alleviating - poverty. You can support Mekong Plus’s work here . Get fu...
Jul 14, 2024•39 min
Due to scheduling issues, there isn’t a new guest today, so I’m taking this opportunity to revisit two previous episodes in the context of a pair of recently passed regulations. The first is the amended Law on Social Insurance, which goes into effect on July 1, 2025. I discussed Vietnam’s social insurance system with Tu Phuong Nguyen, a lecturer of Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne, in February. Today, I’m sharing the context she provided on previous social insurance reform efforts, o...
Jul 07, 2024•21 min
Today’s guest is Kim Le, founder and CEO of CL2B - short for Closed Loop to Balance - a consulting boutique that facilitates decision-making across sectors and stakeholders to accelerate the circular economy transition in Southeast Asia. We discussed what ‘circular economy’ means in the Vietnam context, how the informal economy already embraces circular principles like reuse and repair in contrast to developed markets, the need to understand the different circularity contexts between the global ...
Jun 23, 2024•33 min
