ÁCCENTED

Comedians Will Pepper and Danny Plom converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Will Pepper is a Vietnamese American comedian based in Los Angeles whose comedy blends sharp storytelling with painfully honest observations. He’s a recurring performer on the Uncle Roger Show, with episodes featuring him reaching over 10 million views, and his stand-up clips have amassed...

Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong and NBC anchor and investigative journalist Vicky Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Betty Duong  represents more than 400,000 San José residents on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. She proudly represents District Two, comprised of Downtown, the East Side, Little Saigon, and the surrounding neighbo...

Poets Barbara Jane Reyes and Karen Llagas converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS Barbara Jane Reyes , born in Manila and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an acclaimed Filipina American poet and author of several books, including Gravities of Center (2003), Diwata (2010), and Letters to a Young Brown Girl (2020), with Daughtersong Diaspore forthcoming in 2...

Evyn Le Espiritu Gandhi, Asian American Studies professor, and Cathy Linh Che, writer and multidisciplinary artist, converse with Viet Thanh Nguyen. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi is an associate professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (Tovaangar). Dr. Gandhi’s first book, Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonizatio...

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 longti...

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 n...

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...

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 f...

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 North...

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...

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 Are...

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 Thous...

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 L...

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 Classi...

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...

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, inc...

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...

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 seve...

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...

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 Poe...

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 Boo...

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...

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 co...

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 P...

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...