The Bánh Mì Chronicles

(S8, EP 6)  For this week's episode, Nisha Mody steps in as guest host, and chats with Fiza Pirani, the founder of Foreign Bodies, an award-winning newsletter on immigrant mental health. Hear them discuss the meaning of immigrant mental health, and what it means for our Asian communities.  Tune in to hear this amazing discussion! Bio: Fiza Pirani is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and...

Trigger Warning:  Medical Scare (S8, EP 5) Meet Darro Chea, a Khmer American emo pop-punk artist originally from Brooklyn, NY.  Hear his story about what got him into music, and his survival from a threatening brain tumor a few years back.  Learn and follow his work now! Bio: Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, Asian-American artist Darro is fusing together the strongest and catchiest elemen...

S8, EP 4:  Sara Blanchard and Misasha Suzuki Graham, co-hosts of the Dear White Women Podcast join me for this week's episode as we talk about the genesis of putting together their podcast, what unlearning white supremacy and recognizing privilege means, and offering anti-racism tools.  Bio: Misasha Suzuki Graham: A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, Misasha Suzuki Grah...

(S8, EP3) Check out this episode w/author, journalist, and educator Erika Hayasaki who recently released her book, "Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family".  We talked about the release of her book, as well as the themes (e.g. adoption, adoptee trauma, diaspora) in "Somewhere Sisters." Bio: Erika Hayasaki teaches in the Literary Journalism Program at the U...

TW/CW:  Mentions of Anti-Asian hate, sexual violence, and gaslighting (S8, EP 2) Leslie Lew joins me for this week's episode as she talks about her work as a trauma-informed self-defense coach and what it means to break down the patriarchy and ableism in self-defense work.  We discussed the ongoing Stop Asian Hate movement, and what it means to reclaim one's courage.  Bio: Leslie is...

On Season 8's first episode, I interviewed leading nonprofit commentator, Vu Le about the issues concerning philanthropy, and why it's deeply flawed and rooted in white supremacy.  We chatted about what it's like to date a nonprofit professional, and why he believes in the full good of the Oxford comma.   Bio: Vu Le (“voo lay”) is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the former Executiv...

Thank you for your patience as I am finally back from my months-long hiatus.  Learn what's in store for Season 8.  Enjoy the ride with new episodes each week! Sponsored by: VietFive Coffee: Start your day right with VietFive Coffee.  Freshly grown coffee harvested straight from Vietnam and roasted in Chicago, VietFive offers rich quality tasting Vietnamese coffee straight to your so...

BONUS EPISODE: So I'm back for a moment with a new shared episode w/ Kenneth Nguyen from The Vietnamese Podcast and Tracey Nguyen Mang from The Vietnamese Boat People Podcast.  We discussed our experiences as podcasters from a Vietnamese lens, and the current landscape of Vietnamese podcasting today.  Check out our discussion and don't forget to follow each of our works! 

Season 7's "reClaim" is over and I'm here to share my closing remarks about the season.  Many thanks to the following guests of Season 7: Michelle Li, Ju Hong, Noor Hindi, Sotheara Lim, Soultree Camba, Marpheen Chann, Consuela Hendricks, Angela Lin, and Nidhi Shastri.   Season 7 is sponsored by the following: Nguyen Coffee Supply, America’s first specialty Vietnamese coffee company and p...

As Season 7 is about to soon wrap up, Nidhi Shastri rounds up this Season 7 guest lineup.  Nidhi is the founder and producer of her podcast, "Model Minority: Uniquely American".  She is a South Asian American based in Chicago. We talked about the process of starting her podcast which explores stories and issues of the Asian, African, and Middle Eastern American / diaspora, her upbringing...

(S7, EP 6): For this episode, I invited both Consuela Hendricks and Angela Lin, co-presidents of People Matter, a community-based organization whose mission is to uplift, unearth, and untether people in different communities in the Chicago area, particularly in Chinatown, McKinley Park, , Bridgeport, Bronzeville and more.  We talk about People Matter's work in improving race relations among B...

TW: Discussions of intergenerational & adoptee trauma (S7, EP 5) Marpheen Chann joined me for this week's episode. He's a queer Khmer American community advocate and now an author of his new memoir. We spent time talking about his memoir, going through his family's struggle with the US refugee resettlement after the Khmer Rouge genocide, and going through his experiences being adopted. We shar...

(S7, EP 4) Soultree Camba (they/them), Filipinx Marshallese American artist, creator, and longtime friend joined me for this week's episode. They shared their experience transition from immigrant organizing to healing and artistry work. Soultree talked about the importance of honoring independent artists for their time and labor, as well as their upcoming projects.  Soultree gives a special p...

(S7, EP 3) Sotheara Lim, founder of Khmer Renaissance which is a community-driven Instagram platform that celebrates the Khmer identity and experience, talked about what led him to create his digital platform.  We discussed how the deficit-level approach when there are only stories told about the Khmer culture and people through trauma, specifically with the Khmer Rouge genocide can often be...

TW: Mentions of Palestinian & state-sanctioned violence / Covid Trauma regarding evictions  --  (S7, E2) Noor Hindi (she/her/hers) stopped by for this week's episode back in April as she is preparing for the release of her debut poetry collection book, DEAR GOD, DEAR BONES, DEAR YELLOW coming out this May.  We talked about her journey in poetry including her critically acclaimed...

TW / CW: Discussions of Undocumented Immigrant Trauma (S7, EP 1) To kick things off, Ju Hong joined me for this season 7 official 1st episode as he shared his experiences in immigration activism as an undocumented Asian immigrant. He talked about the moment when he interrupted President Obama's speech in 2013 when he called him out on the administration's inaction on immigration and its record dep...

(Season 7 Opener): After being (mostly) away for 6 months since my last season, I am back and set to kick off Season 7 with a new lineup, new stories, and a new theme called, "reClaim."  reClaim. is about documenting our own lived experiences as part of our history and future-making, how reclaiming our stories through our agency sets us up to reimagine a world that we want to live in, and to...

TW / CW:  Police Violence, Mental Health, Adoptee Trauma   I sat down with Fe and Gareth Hall who are the parents of Christian Hall and joined with Nicole Henriquez, .  Christian was a 19 yr old Chinese American adoptee who was murdered by police in a mental health crisis in NE Pennsylvania on 12/30/2020 for an upcoming emergency episode of my podcast.  Currently, no one has be...

Re-live my interview with Vietnamese-American singer TRACE from (S4, EP 1) who joined me on Season 4 when this episode was aired back in January 2021.  This is an exclusive video interview re-release through Spotify. TRACE, at the time, was just fresh off her latest single and video release, "Cool Women". TRACE shared her experiences becoming a singer-songwriter in the American indie music sc...

Trigger Warning:  Discussions of child abuse Relive my interview with Phuc Tran, author of his 2020 critically-acclaimed childhood memoir, "Sigh, Gone" . This interview was recorded back in December 2020 after spending the Covid lockdown year promoting his memoir virtually.  This video version can be seen exclusively through Spotify. Look below for more information on this episode. Origi...

Exclusive re-release of my previous interview w/ Joshua Nguyen, poet and author of his recently released poetry book, "Come Clean".  Check out the video on Spotify.  PS. Joshua and I did not, at the time, intend to release this as a video episode. He would have showed off of his Houston Rockets jerseys including one from the departed James Harden, and I for one am glad that I did not hav...

Re-release of my previous interview w/ MILCK from Season 3, Episode 11 (S3, EP 11) We reached our final guest to close out Season 3 continuing the theme, "Where Do We Stand?".  MILCK (Connie Lim) is an Asian-American recording artist who first received international attention for her song "Quiet" which became viral during the Women's March in DC in 2017.  It would be named by Billboard M...

Season 6 Finale!!!! .. We reached the conclusion of Season 6, "Unfinished Business", and with that said, I am taking a hiatus from recording new episodes until next summer.  After 80+ episodes in two years, it will be great to finally take a step back and give myself some time to pause and reflect on my work.  What an amazing run it has been for me thus far, and I couldn't be more gratef...

(S6, EP 9) Nisha Mody is my final guest for this Season 6 series.  Nisha is a healing & wellness coach, content creator behind @HealingHypeGirl on Instagram, and her podcast MigrAsians, and a former long-time librarian. We talked back in mid-summer when she transitioned from her work as a librarian to being an independent healing coach.  In this episode, we discuss how wellness and h...

(S6, EP 8) Vĩ Sơn Trinh joins me for this week's episode as part of Season 6's "Unfinished Business".  Vĩ Sơn is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese-American photographer, storyteller, and nurse.  We spoke back in June about his experience being a nurse during Covid and the daily realities that he and his colleagues faced during the pandemic.  We talked about what led him into nursing after...