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 and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. Ali is the winner of the 2024 Arts Innovator Award and the 2014-2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize for her series The Buddhist Bug, a multidisciplinary and internationally recognized work that investigates displacement and identity through humor, absurdity and performance. Ali has performed and exhibited at the Haus der Kunst, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'art Contemporain Lyon, Jogja National Museum, Malay Heritage Centre, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, The Smithsonian, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Her artistic works have been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment of the Arts and the Art Matters Foundation. Ali’s pioneering poetry work with the critically acclaimed performance group I Was Born With Two Tongues (1998-2003) is archived with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. Currently based in Tacoma, Ali is also the co-founder of Studio Revolt, an award-winning independent artist-run media lab. Ali holds an MFA from School of the Art Institute Chicago (2010) and a BFA from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1998). Ali currently serves as a senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, Bothell where she teaches courses in Interdisciplinary Arts, Global Studies and Performance. She spends her time traveling and making art between the Asia-Pacific region and the US.

LinDa Saphan, a Fulbright Scholar, is an urban anthropologist and a prominent voice in Cambodian cultural studies. She has published extensively on Cambodia's early popular music. LinDa served as the lead researcher and associate producer for the documentary film Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll, and has acted as executive producer for several other film projects. She is the author of Faded Reels: The Art of Four Cambodian Filmmakers 1960-1975, published by the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2022, and Remnant of the Past: A Filmography of Cambodian Early Cinema in 2024. Since 2013, LinDa has been a professor of sociology, and in 2025, she became the Assistant Dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Mount Saint Vincent.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

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 while amplifying the voices of the marginalized. When not working on community initiatives, Chhun explores storytelling through various mediums, including his work as a DJ, connecting people through music.

praCh is an internationally renowned, critically acclaimed, award-winning artist. His debut album is the first #1 rap album in Cambodia, and Newsweek proclaimed him “The First Cambodian Rap Star.” His powerful lyrics not only entertain but also educate, with his music published by multiple publishers and used in Southeast Asian Studies. praCh has scored music for films like Rice Field of Dreams (2010) and Enemies of the People (2010), and produced award-winning films such as Paulina (2013) and Invisible Dance (2015). He’s the writer, producer, director, and performer of Khmeraspora (2023), a Cambodian-American musical experience in collaboration with the Long Beach Symphony. praCh has lectured at prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian, Brown, and Harvard, and been featured in major media outlets like ABC, BBC, and The New York Times. He’s received numerous honors, including being Grand Marshal of Long Beach’s Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Parade (2014) and the "Special Recognition" award from the Long Beach Symphony (2023). He is also the co-founder and co-director of the Cambodia Town Film Festival and serves on the Board of Directors for the Long Beach Symphony.

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 a Gold House Book Club pick, an American Bookseller’s Indie Next selection, and one of Kirkus Review’s Best Fiction Books of the Year. Amanda has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, PEN America, the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, the National Arts Council of Singapore, and the Fóndation Jan Michalski. She was previously fiction editor of Esquire Singapore.

Olivier Dhénin Hữu is a poet, playwright and director. Olivier Dhénin Hữu holds a master’s degree in the semiology of text and image from Paris VII and is a graduate of the Conservatoire national de région d'Amiens. He was artistic coordinator of the Théâtre du Châtelet from 2006 to 2008 and then of the National Drama Centre of Bretagne. Olivier was Resident at the Villa Medici - Académie de France in Rome in 2015, winner of the Anne Schlumberger / Fondation des Treilles writing prize in 2018, associate artist at the Scène Watteau since 2022, and now laureate of the French Institute/Villa Saïgon in 2023. His writing focuses on the poetry of language, the mute expression of actions and the silence of characters. By constructing a sensitive and lyrical literary work, centred on the passage of time and the mourning of memory, he aims to touch on the fickleness and fragility of the human being. His work is closely linked to music : several of his works have been adapted by Nicolas Bacri, Karol Beffa and Jacques Boisgallais. Paysage dans l’oubli (From on oblivion Landscape), the opera written and premiered in Saigon, is set to music by Benjamin Attahir. As stage director, he is pursuing a hybrid approach combining text and music, image and movement. In April 2025, a new play, inspired by the Saigon libretto will be premièred at Guimet national Asian Arts Museum in Paris : Partition vietnamienne (A Vietnamese Part)

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

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 University of Iowa, he is currently a creative writing fellow at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Vivian Pham is a Vietnamese novelist, essayist, and poet from southwestern Sydney. In high school she wrote a novel called The Coconut Children, which was published in March 2020 by Penguin Random House. Vivian is the 2024 Writer-in-Residence at University of Technology, Sydney. She is a course director and key tutor for Faber Writing Academy, where she designs and teaches a year-long course on writing a novel. Vivian holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Philosophy and Creative Writing from Western Sydney University. She’s currently adapting The Coconut Children for stage with Belvoir Theatre and screen with Exit Films.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

Award-winning chefs Tu David Phu and Anh Luu speak with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Chef Tu David Phu, recognized as a San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef, is a two-time TEDx speaker, Top Chef alumnus, acclaimed cookbook author, and storyteller. Growing up in Oakland, he began his culinary journey in his mother’s apartment garden, ultimately advancing to some of the nation’s top kitchens. His path has brought him to GiGi's, a Vietnamese-inspired wine bar in San Francisco, and inspired his Emmy-nominated PBS film Bloodline.

Chef Anh Luu, born and raised in the southern United States by Vietnamese immigrant parents, started her culinary journey at the age of 16, cooking in restaurants in and around New Orleans. After she and her family were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they moved to Portland, OR where Chef Anh attended the Western Culinary Institute and spent years honing her craft and creating new dishes by blending Vietnamese and Cajun/Creole cuisines together. Luu is formerly the chef-owner of Tapalaya, a vibrant Viet-Cajun bistro located on Portland’s bustling NE 28th Ave. Tapalaya after being open for nearly 11 years, has since permanently shuttered when Chef Anh returned to New Orleans in the spring of 2020. Her move back home was influenced by the sudden and tragic death of her mother, Tam Thi Tran, who is Chef Anh’s primary inspiration for her cooking.

As of March 2023, Chef Anh has created her own company, Busy Be LLC, that specializes in private dinners, culinary consulting, and catering events with her Vietnamese street food pop up, Xanh Nola. Check out ChefAnh.com to book a private dinner!

Chef Anh has earned notoriety by appearing on Food Network's Chopped, Food Network's Grill Dads, "Portland Cooks" cookbook, and went viral with her Phorrito pop ups. She most recently appeared as a hero in an episode of the Emmy award winning Nextflix show, Queer Eye.

Writer Khue Pham and runner/writer/designer Thi Minh Huyen Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen, pulitzer-prize winning author, and Philip Nguyen, Vietnamese-American studies scholar.

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Khuê Phạm is an award-winning Vietnamese-German journalist and writer. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she worked for The Guardian and NPR’s Berlin bureau before becoming an editor at the weekly Die Zeit. In 2012, she co-wrote “Wir neuen Deutschen”, a non-fiction book about second-generation immigrants in Germany. Her debut novel “Brothers and Ghosts” was adapted to the stage as “Kim” and will be published this year in Britain, Australia and the US. She’s a founding member of PEN Berlin and part of this year’s jury for the International Literature Prize of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. More at khuepham.de/english

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

Screenwriters Maegan Houang and Anchuli Felicia King converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen, pulitzer-prize winning author, and Philip Nguyen, Vietnamese-American studies scholar.

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Maegan Houang is a writer/director based in Los Angeles and Michigan. She is currently a co-producer on The Sympathizer (HBO) and previously served as a story editor on Shōgun (FX) and a staff writer on Season 2 of Counterpart (Starz/MRC). She also co-wrote Jamojaya directed by Justin Chon (Blue Bayou, Gook), which premiered at Sundance, and is currently writing Nekrokosm (A24) for director Panos Cosmatos (Mandy). In 2018, she received a VSCO Voices Creator Grant to direct In Full Bloom starring Kieu Chinh (The Joy Luck Club). The short film premiered on Short of the Week and played at festivals including Fantastic Fest, Atlanta, Oak Cliff, Indie Memphis, New Orleans, LAAPFF and Sidewalk Film Festival. She recently directed two episodes of the WGA Award Winning Three Busy Debras (Adult Swim/HBO Max) Season 2. Her new short film Astonishing Little Feet starring Celia Au and Perry Yung (Warrior, The Knick) is currently on the festival circuit with screenings at the Hammer Museum, MoMA, Palm Springs ShortFest and the American Cinemateque. Maegan has also directed music videos for artists such as Mitski, Vagabon, Charly Bliss and Hana Vu. Her videos have been recognized by SXSW, Noisey, Fact Magazine, UKMVAs, Stereogum, Pitchfork, and Vimeo Staff Picks. Her work primarily focuses on the complexity of the Asian-American experience, intergenerational trauma and her own experience living as a mixed-race American.

Anchuli Felicia King is a playwright, screenwriter and multidisciplinary artist of Thai-Australian descent. King’s plays have been produced by the Royal Court Theatre (London), Manhattan Theater Club (New York), Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), American Shakespeare Center (Staunton), Melbourne Theatre Company (Melbourne), Sydney Theatre Company, National Theatre of Parramatta, Belvoir Theatre (Sydney) and La Boite Theatre (Brisbane). She is under commission with the Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company. Her play “Golden Shield” had its Off-Broadway debut at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2023. As a screenwriter, Felicia has written episodes on “The Sympathizer,” the TV adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel starring Robert Downey Jr and Sandra Oh (HBO), and “Mary and George” (AMC), a historical drama series starring Julianne Moore. She has also written episodes for "The Baby," a dark horror comedy produced by Sister Pictures for HBO/Sky, "The Twelve," a trial drama for the Foxtel Group and “Deadloch,” an Amazon original series. She has several original series in development, including projects with AMC, BBC Studios, A24, See Saw, CJ Entertainment and Warner Brothers.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

Writer KT Nguyen and multimedia artist Tammy Nguyen speak with guest host Ly Tran and host Philip Nguyen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Tammy Nguyen Bio

Tammy Nguyen is a multimedia artist based in Easton, CT whose work spans painting, drawing, printmaking and book making. Intersecting geopolitical realities with fiction, her practice addresses lesser-known histories through a blend of myth and visual narrative. She is the founder of Passenger Pigeon Press, an independent press that joins the work of scientists, journalists, creative writers, and artists.

@tammowhammo on Instagram

https://tammynguyenstudio.com/

K.T. NGUYEN is a former magazine editor. Her features have appeared in Glamour, Shape, and Fitness. After graduating from Brown University (just barely), she spent her twenties and thirties hopping from New York City to Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, and San Francisco. She’s now settled just outside Washington, D.C. with her family and their adopted terrier Alice. You Know What You Did is her debut novel.

Ly Tran

LY TRAN is the author of the memoir, House of Sticks, winner of the NYC Book Awards Hornblower Award and named one of Vogue and NPR’s Best Books of the Year. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, Yaddo, and Millay Arts.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

Journalist Tina Nguyen and sculptural/digital storyteller Tuan Andrew Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

TINA NGUYEN is a national correspondent and founding partner for Puck, covering the world of Donald Trump and the American right. Previously, Nguyen was a White House reporter for Politico, a staff reporter for Vanity Fair Hive, and an editor at Mediaite. Nguyen graduated from Claremont McKenna College and lives in Washington, DC.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s work explores the power of storytelling through video and sculpture. His projects are based on extensive research and community engagement, tapping into inherited histories and counter-memory. Nguyen extracts and re-works dominant, oftentimes colonial histories and supernaturalisms into imaginative vignettes. Fact and fiction are interwoven in poetic narratives that span time and place. Nguyen (b. 1976, Saigon) holds a BFA from the University of California, Irvine and a MFA from The California Institute of the Arts. Nguyen is a founding member of The Propeller Group, an entity that positions itself between a fake advertising company and an art collective. Accolades for the group include the main prize at the 2015 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and a Creative Capital Award. Nguyen’s work has been included in major international festivals, biennials, and exhibitions including, in the past year, the 12th Berlin Biennale, Germany; Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo; Aichi Triennale, Japan; and Biennale de Dakar, Senegal. His work is included in the permanent collections of institutions including Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; SFMoMA, San Francisco; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.

Screenwriter and novelist Brandon Hoang and filmmaker Elizabeth Ai speak with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Brandon Hoàng is the author of the young adult novel Gloria Buenrostro Is Not My Girlfriend and the middle grade The Crossbow of Destiny. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Brandon grew up coveting the Baby-Sitters Club books and slurping noodles. Before he was a writer, Brandon was an animation executive. Now a screenwriter by day and novelist by night, he currently resides in Portland, OR with his wife and two daughters.

Elizabeth Ai is an award-winning Chinese Vietnamese American storyteller and filmmaker. Her directorial debut, New Wave, premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival and was awarded a Special Jury Mention for Best New Documentary Director. Ai writes and produces independent feature films and branded content for companies including ESPN, VICE, and National Geographic, for which she won an Emmy. She produced the documentary features Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe (2008), and A Woman’s Work: The NFL’S Cheerleader Problem (2019). Her narrative features include Saigon Electric (2011) and Ba (2024). She’s an alumnus of Berlinale, Center for Asian American Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Film Independent, Firelight Media, Sundance, and Tribeca. Her work is supported by Adobe, California Humanities, Cinereach, Ford Foundation, Independent Television Service, Knight Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Sundance.

This episode is sponsored by AppLovin. AppLovin’s leading marketing platform provides developers a powerful set of solutions to grow their mobile apps. AppLovin’s technology platform enables developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. The company’s first-party content includes over 200+ popular, engaging apps and its technology brings that content to millions of users around the world. AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with several offices globally. Learn more at ⁠⁠applovin.com⁠⁠.