The Bánh Mì Chronicles

In this episode of The Banh Mi Chronicles , I’m joined by Russ, a pop music enthusiast and co-host with DJ Louie XIV behind the Pop Pantheon Podcast , for a deep dive into the history and future of the concert-going experience. As “elder millennials,” we take a trip back in time to the era before cell phone cameras and social media have taken over the concertgoing experience. I reflect on the life...

On April 30, 1975, the Fall of Saigon changed the course of history forever, sparking a mass migration of Vietnamese refugees to the United States and across the globe. Today, 51 years later, we reflect on that legacy not just through the stories of those who left, but through the tireless work of those who went back to find the pieces left behind. In this episode (and with special thanks to my fr...

I’m super delighted to bring you a surprise guest on my show. He’s a Latin Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and one of Colombia’s beloved artists, Andrés Cepeda . He is set to kick off his US tour in Chicago on May 10th at the Riviera. As he is preparing for his tour, I caught up with him for a brief chat about his 30-year career legacy, his pride as a native Colombian, the growing success o...

Do you remember Lilith Fair in the late 90s? Have you ever attended a festival fronted by women headlining acts? In this “Chill-Out Chronicles” episode of The Bánh Mì Chronicles , Jung and I are taking a deep dive into the 1997-1999 phenomenon that was Lilith Fair. While the world remembers it as a “girls-only” music festival, we’re looking closer at the structural shift it represented in the indu...

This week on The Banh Mi Chronicles , I sit down with Katrina Pham , a Vietnamese American journalist with Borderless Magazine , a Chicago-based, immigrant-centered news publication. Katrina shares her reflections on the recent ICE raids in Chicago and the weight of reporting on stories that directly impact the safety and livelihoods of our neighbors. We dive deep into how the digital media landsc...

The countdown reaches its finale! In this episode, I’m joined once again by my friend and pop culture enthusiast, Anjali Misra , to wrap up our journey through the top 25 songs of the 21st century. While Part 1 set the stage, Part 2 dives into the “Chill-Out Chronicles”—the tracks that provided the vibe, the soul, and the soundtrack to our lives from #18 all the way to #25. In this episode, we dis...

The world is a lot right now. Between the headlines and the collective burnout, we all need a second to just pause and breathe. In the first of this two-episode special of the“Chill-Out Chronicles” edition of the pod, I’m joined by my good friend and resident pop culture nerd Anjali Misra . We are temporarily stepping away from the doomscrolling to get into a rabbit hole on another topic: What is...

Trigger/Content Warning : Kala and Randy discussing examples of state-sanctioned v*olence from ICE, law enforcement, and government agents Episode recorded on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026; 3:30 pm US Central Time In this emergency episode, I connect with Kala (He/They) aka “Your Protest Safety Kuya” to address the current wave of ICE raids happening at U.S. airports. He dives deep into the changing l...

TW/CW: Mentions of child ab*se, ICE v*olence, and other state-sanctioned v*olence. There was a brief mention of the late union-leader, Cesar Chavez during the recording of the episode on (3/10) before the recent allegations of s*xual assa*lt against Chavez came to light. A great honor to bring in Joon “J.S.” Park to the podcast. J.S. is a Korean American based in Tampa, FL, and currently serves as...

What does discovering an author who shares your similar lived experiences mean to you? I sit down with my friend and Khmer American content creator, Sophia Lee based out in the Boston area. She is the founder of the IG account BeyondtheMekong, which highlights books and writings by Khmer diasporic authors and other Asian American/diasporic authors. Sophia shares with me about her love of reading a...

Award-winning, critically acclaimed queer Korean author and literary translator Anton Hur makes a special appearance on this episode from Australia, where he’s currently doing his residency. I’ve known Anton for the past 10+ years, and have watched his ascending rise in the Korean and Western literary world. I asked him questions about his debut fiction novel, Toward Eternity, and what he has lear...

I’ve known Travis C. Lau since the beginning of the pandemic, as we follow each other on social media. My interview with him for this episode was the first real conversation I’ve had with him. From the moment I hit record, we hit it off like long-lost siblings discovering new things about each other. In this episode, Travis looks back on his complicated relationship with his parents and his relati...

TW/CW: Discussion of G*nocide, State-Sanctioned V*olence, Racism Jenny Chan, Executive Director of Pacific Atrocities Education (PAE), joins me as a guest for this week’s episode as we discuss the many parts of Asian American history during the 19th century to pre-World War 2 that have been forgotten in US History, and the racialized harm and v*olence that Asian Americans experienced during that t...

TW/CW: ICE Raid violence, imprisonment, and deportation Recorded on 2/5/2026, 9:05 am Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of SEARAC (The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center)joins me as a guest for this emergency episode regarding the current ICE raids happening in Minnesota and across the US. In Minneapolis-St Paul, ICE and CBP have been doubling down efforts to detain residents, including those with...

To honor and celebrate Black History Month, I invited Chicago journalist and author Arionne Nettles to discuss her research and experience with Black Chicago’s long-lasting impact on Black culture through music, journalism, literature, politics, social justice, and so on. We talk about Chicago-based media magazine Jet’s impact on covering Emmett Till’s murder, which propelled the start of the Civi...

TW/CW: Mentions of child exploitation, sexual violence towards women, fraud, and other potential community trauma. For this special episode, I invited my good friend, past guest, and longtime Khmer American community leader, Sina Sam, to the show to discuss the allegations made against Khmerican founder, Phatry Derek Pan, involving financial grifting, child exploitation & predatory behavior to...

This week on The Banh Mi Chronicles, I did a total kiki with the multi-talented writer, dancer, and creative benedict nguyễn (she/her). Benedict joined me as we dived deep into the genesis of her debut novel, Hot Girls With Balls (Catapult 2025). We explore the nuances of writing trans stories that center joy and athleticism, the reality of navigating social media as a public-facing creative, and...

(Trigger Warning: Mentions of S*xual Violence during this recording) This episode is the last of 2025! It brings me great joy to invite former pin-up model and lead singer of Nylon Pink, who recently released her memoir, “Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty,” to wrap up the final podcast episode of 2025. Kaila recounts her experience as a former pin-up model in the earl...

In this deep-dive episode, I chat with 2x Emmy-award winning producer and director, Jon Hill , Director of Creative Video at Fox Sports Digital. We kick off with some spirited discussion on Chicago and Philly sports , before switching gears for a profound conversation about Jon’s award-winning feature film, Above the Clouds . Jon shares the introspective journey of making his debut film, explainin...

This week, I caught up with longtime Chicago Uptown community leaders and co-owners of the new Haibayô Cafe , Hac Tran and Jennifer “Nuky” Pham . Join us as Hac and Nuky take us into an intimate look at the history of the Asia on Argyle neighborhood—a historic cultural center for Chicago’s Chinese and Southeast Asian communities for the past 50 years. The Mission of Haibayô: Their work in co-found...

This week, I’m joined by my friend and fellow podcaster, Kenneth Nguyen , the host and creator of the acclaimed The Vietnamese Podcast . He was my guest host on my then-farewell episode in 2023 when I was sunsetting the podcast, and he’s back on my show, to remind me that he was right that I would come back to the podcasting sphere, and here I am now! With hundreds of episodes recorded, Kenneth ha...

This week, I brought the multi-talented French-Canadian comedian and personality Tranna Wintour to the podcast. We dived into the current political noise in her own backyard (Canada), but also what she has observed in the States. A major focus of the conversation was Madonna’s legacy. We dissected how difficult the last 20 years of her career and persona have been for some to stand by, and how thi...

In continuation of the current Chicago ICE Raids, and recent SNAP benefits crisis affecting Chicago's Chinatown community, I invited two dedicated community leaders in the Chinatown community: Grace Chan McKibben and Andrew Frangos , to discuss the rapid response efforts in Chinatown and surrounding neighborhoods. In a time when federal actions are creating widespread fear and instability, we...

In a profoundly moving conversation, host Randy Kim welcomes Dorothy Chow , the Chinese-Cambodian American host of the father-daughter podcast, "Death In Cambodia." Dorothy shares the deeply personal and powerful genesis of her show: creating a space for her father to share his survivor experience from the Cambodian genocide. This podcast wasn't just a historical documentation; it be...

I decided to record a solo episode to gather my thoughts since returning to the podcast a few months ago, and how wild it's been recording emergency episodes amid the chaos Chicago has been experiencing with ICE and CBP raids. I also talk about my reaction to content creator Nathan Ramos-Park's reel about how Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora are deciding to live in Asia, and how that...