Today’s guest is Joshua Zukas, a travel writer who has been based in Vietnam for over a decade, writing guidebooks, creating audio tours, and contributing stories to publications like The Economist. His latest Vietnam guidebook, for Bradt Guides, will be published later this month.

We discussed the process of writing a comprehensive guidebook on such a fast-changing country; unique aspects of the book, such as its focus on Vietnamese myths; the risks of overtourism in places like Hoi An and Sa Pa; favorite lesser-known spots to visit; and more.

Join the waitlist for Joshua’s guidebook to get 25% off the physical or digital version, and check out his website for more examples of his writing.

Related links:

Tourism is breaking records in Vietnam. Is that all it’s breaking? (Adventure.com)

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Today’s guest is Daniël Stork, the outgoing Consul General of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City.

We discussed the tight economic relationship between Vietnam and the Netherlands, the EU’s largest foreign investor here; the shared water-related challenges the countries face thanks to their river deltas; major takeaways from his four years in the country; reflections on the art and LGBTQ communities; and more.

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Today’s guest is Celine Ventalon, CEO and founder of Émer, the menstrual underwear company based in Ho Chi Minh City.

We discussed what menstrual underwear is and how it can benefit both women and sustainability efforts, the reasons why she created Émer, social and workplace stigmas that her team is working to address, how they approach the owners of factories with majority female workforces, women’s health awareness-raising efforts at schools, and more.

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Today’s guest is Rich McClellan, Founder & Principal of RMAC Advisory and former country director of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in Vietnam. He’s an expert in public policy, investment, and economic reform across emerging markets.

We covered The Economist’s much-discussed recent cover story on Vietnam, the country’s international finance center ambitions, Resolution 68 and its focus on the domestic private sector, the ongoing government restructuring and provincial merger, semiconductor ambitions, and the genuinely exciting place that Vietnam finds itself in at the moment.

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Today’s guest is Michael Rosen, the principal founder of Vietnam’s first independent whisky distillery, Về Để Đi.

We discussed Về Để Đi’s background and why he pursued making whisky, what single malt means, the response to building a Vietnamese whisky brand and the growing prominence of brands from other non-traditional markets like Taiwan, the biggest surprises - good and bad - so far, the process of using local ingredients such as Vietnam’s first barley, their win at the recent World Whiskies Awards, and more.

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Today’s guests are Thomas Jakobsen, Managing Director at Indochina Energy Partners; and Angus McEwin, Managing Director at Monsoon Carbon.

We discussed the key points of revised PDP; progress on transmission and the national grid; LNG development; current issues and opportunities around solar and onshore wind; Renewable Energy Certificates and voluntary carbon credits and their place in Vietnam’s energy market; Vietnam’s efforts to launch a domestic carbon trading system; the revival and formalization of nuclear energy plans; and what to look out for in the coming years.

Related link:

Vietnam’s Energy Plans & Reality

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Today’s guests are Dr. Nguyễn Thùy An, Historian and Labor Education Professional at the University of Maine, specializing in the history of U.S. foreign relations and Vietnamese history; and Dr. Sean Fear, Lecturer in International History at the University of Leeds, whose research focuses on the Republic of Vietnam.

We discussed progress on reconciliation between Vietnam and the U.S., which took something of a hit following reporting that American diplomats have been told to avoid events related to reunification; how the teaching of the war in Vietnam has evolved; perspectives on the Republic of Vietnam over time; the role of reunification in modern Vietnam; the state of reconciliation within Vietnam and between Vietnam and the overseas diaspora; and what is missing from international perspectives on reunification and the war more broadly.

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Today’s guest is Minh Nguyễn, curator at Dogma Collection in Ho Chi Minh City.

We discussed what Dogma Collection is, the socioeconomic context of socialist realism propaganda created from 1945 to the mid-1980s, the use of digitally rendered versions of this art for the upcoming reunification anniversary, the state of the contemporary art scene in HCMC and Vietnam more broadly, the exhibition ‘A Radial System’ and its presentation of war imagery from different viewpoints, and more.

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Reframing War Memories via the Western-Vietnamese Photographic Perspectives (Saigoneer)

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Today’s guest is Robyn McGuckin, Executive Director of P4G, who joined from Hanoi, where the 2025 P4G Vietnam Summit begins this morning.

We discussed P4G’s goals and approach, the hurdles faced by many climate tech startups and the so-called ‘valley of death,’ the interface between climate tech startups and government, P4G’s national platforms, their nine partner countries, P4G’s success stories in Vietnam such as Stride and Alterno, how P4G connects with and assesses startups, climate tech funding challenges unique to Vietnam, the significant of the 2025 P4G Vietnam Summit, and more.

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Related link:

Vietnam's Climate Tech Ecosystem (Vietnam Weekly Podcast)

Following the announcement of President Donald Trump’s shocking 46% reciprocal tariff rate on Vietnam, I wanted to get a quick initial reaction from return guest Kyle Freeman, a Partner at Dezan Shira & Associates who leads the International Business Advisory team and the firm's North American client services desk in Asia.

Kyle was on the show in January when the trade situation between Vietnam and the U.S. appeared to be much warmer. With the caveat that this is a very fluid situation, we discussed the tariff announcement, why Vietnam got hit so hard, and what we might expect moving forward.

Editor’s note: In the episode, there’s a mention that the tariff rate imposed on Vietnam is the second-highest of any country. It is the fourth-highest.

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