Seismic Airwaves

How is the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam compared to America? Bryan Nguyen, a Fulbright student researcher, arrived in Vietnam at the beginning of January 2020 when the pandemic was in its early stages. He eventually chose to stay in Da Nang as the U.S. State Department raised its travel alert to Stage 4, ordering Americans to evacuate their host countries and return home.

He spoke to two young Da Nang residents, Thiện Minh Hoang and Xuân Ha Vu Nguyen, a graduate student in environmental studies and an artist managing a small business, about their reaction and views of the COVID-19 fight in Vietnam. They talk further about how the pandemic has impacted their lives in terms of their studies and business. In addition, they chat about Vietnam’s community efforts to COVID-19 compared to the rest of the world, and how Vietnam has been recognized as a success story in their battle against this ever-evolving global pandemic.

Technical Level: 1/5

Fear Factor: 2/5

Liz Reardon “trains the trainer” for Mental Health First Aid, promoting peer-to-peer mental health support as a path of community resiliency. Liz joins this episode to talk about how to support each other in a time of isolation, pandemic social distancing, and mass trauma.

Technical Level: 2/5 

Fear Factor: 3/5

Victor Tran guest hosts this episode. The full interviews with Huang Xiang Yan and Maggie Lee are available as the episode Bonus in Mandarin Chinese. They talk about the experiences with the pandemic in Xiamen and Harbin, China, and how urban form has played a role in pandemic response. Victor summarizes the highlights of his interviews in English for this summary.

Technical Level: 1/5

Fear Factor: 1/5

Seismic Airwaves 是波特兰新建立的一个博客研究我们世界的灾难。今天，我是你们的主持人。我的名字是陈威舵，我的专业是城市规划。今天我请我的姨妈和我的中文老师来跟我们说说她们对冠状病毒的经验观察。

Technical Level: 2/5

Fear Factor: 1/5

Wade in the Water is a spoken word piece about Hurricane Katrina written and performed by Walidah Imarisha. It is part of her book of poetry Scars/Stars. This is released in advance of Episode 10 of Seismic Airwaves, which will be a conversation with Walidah about narratives of disaster and imagining the impossible as a tool to fight oppression.

Vivek Shandas works on visioning urban futures, social/environmental justice, and climate resilience. He joins the podcast to talk about increased high heat days due to climate change and impacts on health and community dynamics.

As the leading cause of death by natural disaster, heat is of especially high concern this Summer. With people isolated at home to limit exposure to coronavirus, normal measures to stay cool are less accessible.

Technical Level: 3/5

Fear Factor: 1/5

In collaboration with the Young Professionals in Transportation, Tom Mills from TriMet, Portland’s transportation agency, provides a window into questions public transit providers are dealing with right now: How to balance providing service in the present with the need to fund future service? Which routes should be modified, and how? Tom discusses how TriMet has gone about reducing bus service while upholding the mission of the public transit agency. He explains how TriMet’s Equity Index has been used in this process and provides insight into other adjustments in staffing, cleaning, and planning.

Technical level: 4/5

Fear Factor: 0/5

This is Part II of Sabina’s interview with Dr. Yu Xiao. Dr. Xiao gives an overview of how different professions such as urban planners and engineers are involved in disaster preparedness and recovery. She studies how businesses are affected by economic recovery and resilience efforts, both individually and regionally, after disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Sandy. The most important driving force in disaster preparedness and/or recovery efforts is not the plan; it’s the people.

Technical Level: 3/5

Fear Factor: 1/5

Why should saving lives always be the top priority? Sabina interviews Dr. Yu Xiao, an Urban Studies and Planning professor, about how businesses are affected by disasters. There are parallels with what’s currently happening during the COVID-19 pandemic and the different challenges small and large businesses face.

Technical Level: 3/5

Fear Factor: 1/5