vietnamese american

Krista interviewed the wise and wonderful writer Ocean Vuong on March 8, 2020 in a joyful, crowded room full of podcasters in Brooklyn. A state of emergency had just been declared in New York around a new virus. But no one guessed that within a handful of days such an event would become unimaginable. Most stunning is how presciently, exquisitely Ocean speaks to the world we have come to inhabit— its heartbreak and its poetry, its possibilities for loss and for finding new life. 

“I want to love more than death can harm. And I want to tell you this often: That despite being so human and so terrified, here, standing on this unfinished staircase to nowhere and everywhere, surrounded by the cold and starless night — we can live. And we will.”

Ocean Vuong is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at New York University. His new collection of poetry is Time Is a Mother. He is also the author of a novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and the poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. He was a 2019 MacArthur Fellow. 

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired on April 30, 2020.

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We are in the final weeks as On Being evolves to its next chapter — in a world that is evolving, each of us changed in myriad ways we’ve only begun to process and fathom. So it felt right to listen again to one of our most beloved shows of this post-2020 world. In fact, Krista interviewed the wise and wonderful Ocean Vuong right on the cusp of that turning, in March 2020, in a joyful and crowded room full of podcasters in Brooklyn. Yet what’s most stunning is how presciently and exquisitely Ocean spoke, and continues to speak, to the world we have since come to inhabit — its heartbreak and its poetry, its possibilities for loss and for finding new life.

Ocean Vuong is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at New York University. His new collection of poetry is Time Is a Mother. He is also the author of a novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and the poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. He was a 2019 MacArthur Fellow.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Ocean Vuong — A Life Worthy of Our Breath." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired on April 30, 2020.

___________

Sign up for The Pause to receive our seasonal Saturday morning newsletter and advance invitations and news on all things On Being.

And: if you can, please take a minute to rate On Being in this podcast app — you'll be bending the arc of algorithms towards this adventure of conversation and living.

We're kicking off AAPI Heritage Month with Linh Nguyen, Senior Advisor for RUN AAPI.

We talk about being the only Asian women at the table in politics, how to get more AAPI Gen Z to get excited about and involved in politics, the importance of AAPI representation in politics, and how to better serve the Asian American community in politics. We even discuss results from one of the first, if not only, surveys on AAPI Gen Z and how they feel about the political climate and asian representation.

About Linh:
Linh Nguyen is a Senior Advisor for RUN AAPI and a Senior Advisor for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign for Governor in Texas. Linh has extensive political electoral experience, specializing in outreach strategy to young voters, Asian-Pacific Islanders, and communities of color. 

Linh joined the Democratic Party of Georgia as their AAPI Coalition Director for the 2021 Senate runoff elections. She rounded out the election cycle with the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s Office of Public Engagement to welcome the Biden-Harris administration where she consulted on creative programming with community partners. Linh also consulted on AAPI engagement in disaster relief and public health emergencies for Governor Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services. She spent the 2020 presidential year with Sen. Cory Booker and was the Political Director for #TheNew campaign: a creative collaboration between RUN AAPI and Meena Harris’s Phenomenal Woman.

Linh Nguyen: Twitter
Run AAPI: Website
Buzzsprout Affiliate Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1257539

Host, Nancy Wu: Website, Instagram, Twitter

Welcome to Progressive Opinions of Color (POC), a podcast that creates space for people of color in conversations about economics, politics, and culture. The goal of this podcast is to engage the state of the economy, and other pressing topics in politics, economics, and culture, all through perspectives inclusive of the lived experiences of people of color. Whether you're new to politics or already a huge politics nerd, we hope this podcast inspires community and conversation among us. Join us in reimagining politics and economics with underrepresented voices.

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"The journey is the oldest story known to humanity", says bestselling American author Amor Towles, whose third book is based on this archetypal narrative and takes a group of lost boys on an unpredictable road trip in The Lincoln Highway.

Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Anuk Arudpragasam with A Passage North and Vietnamese American Monique Truong's exploration of Lafcadio Hearn, the 19th century Creole cookbook author and Japanese folktale collector, in The Sweetest Fruits.

Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.

In this month’s issue of TulsaPeople, our cover story is about being mom. There are profiles of women who became moms during the pandemic. The importance of shifting the mental load. We also share snapshots of what motherhood looks like for a group of women spanning the metro. One of those women is my guest on this episode, Thuy Bui. 

I had a lot of fun getting to know her in the following conversation. 

Thuy is a mom to boys Nicholas, 17, and Tyler, 10. As you’ll hear, she loves being their mom. She quit her job as a nurse a couple years ago to spend more time with them as she saw Nicholas nearing high school graduation. 

She talks about how as a child she thought she wanted to be a teacher, and then how the COVID-19 pandemic made that a reality. She also discusses her timing in leaving nursing and how she’s stayed in touch with her former colleagues. 

Thuy runs lifestyle blog HeyThuy.com, which is linked in the show notes. We discuss how this came to be and what it’s life like as an influencer. She also runs an online hair accessories company, Micale Lynn. We talk about the return of scrunchies and banana clips, and what trends she saw at the recent Dallas market, plus how the pandemic has impacted her work.  

Thuy is a first generation American, whose parents immigrated here in 1975 around the conclusion of the Vietnam War. She shares what life was like growing up on Tulsa’s east side and attending East Central High School in the 90s and how it’s different than the world her boys are growing up in.

I learned a lot in this conversation and had a good time chatting with her.  

Following my conversation with Thuy, hear a catchy fun tune from Tulsa’s And Then There Were Two. More on that later. 

OK let’s get this going.  

This is Tulsa Talks with Thuy Bui. 

This month’s issue of TulsaPeople includes a photo essay of my time spent documenting life and nature along our city limits. You can see it at TulsaPeople.com. It was nice to get out and drive around Tulsa and see how diverse it is outside my midtown bubble. I’ve always found driving rural roads to be a relaxing, peaceful experience. I also enjoy long road trips and am overdue for putting some miles on the car. 

So why am I talking about driving? Closing out this episode is Tulsa band Then There Were Two singing “Come take a drive on route 66 with me” in their single “Take A Drive.” This is a fun one. 

You can hear them live on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 4pm at the Williams Green for the PAC's Arts In The Air concert series. You can also listen to them on Spotify and their Facebook page is Facebook.com/AmyandAustin. 

I’m going to go back to daydreaming about a road trip now.  

Here is Then There Were Two with “Take a Drive.” 

This episode is produced by Morgan Phillips and Tim Landes.

Welcome back, guys! We got another spotlight, and this time, we have Don Tran, a former Marine Raider who served 12 years in the military and the Co-Founder of Underwater Torpedo League (UTL) and Deep End Fitness, joining us.

In this episode of the “This Is For Us Podcast,” Don and I spoke about his troubled youth and the lack of direction he had growing up, making the tough decision to jump into the military, wanting to make his family proud, the difficult process of becoming a Marine Raider, what his highs and lows were during his military career and how he’s now trying to take what he learned in the military to help others become better versions of themselves.

You can follow Don Tran on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ddooonnnnn or check out his company Underwater Torpedo League (UTL), at https://utlnation.com/.

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In today's episode, we're speaking with entrepreneur Chris Ngo, co-founder of The Leverage, a fashion house agency recently said to be the next global conglomerate in menswear by Forbes .

During this conversation, Chris and I talked about his growing up in poverty, being exposed to a sweatshop at a young age, what motivates him, why he decided to create The Leverage, how Chris and his co-founder turned 80k of their life savings into an 8-figure business, what his first expensive purchase was, what's the secret to his success and where he envisions his company will be in the next few years.

You can follow Chris Ngo on Instagram at www.instagram.com/chris_theleverage or his website at http://www.the-leverage.com/.

If you enjoyed the content, don't forget to subscribe!

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Today’s episode features an individual with an inspirational story. 

His name is Tu David Phu, and he’s a Vietnamese-American Chef based out of Oakland, CA. He’s worked at many Michelin Star-rated restaurants all around the US and was a contestant on Season 15 of the top-rated cooking show 'Top Chef.' In 2017, Tu was named 'Rising Star Chef' by the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2019, he was named a 'Smart Catch Leader' by the James Beard Foundation to promote sustainable seafood options.

Tu and I talked about his rough childhood experience living in Oakland, CA, during this conversation. Tu goes into detail on how some nights he would go hungry, how he did not have access to fresh food (which a lot of us take for granted), the rollercoaster of a journey he went through to learn about his identity, what community means to him, how food saved his life and gave him purpose, and getting the call to appear on Top Chef. 

As a bonus, we even talked about an incident during Top Chef, which involved a fellow contestant sabotaging Tu’s dish.

The story behind his love for food is so raw and organic that it’s hard not to root for the guy. I’m extremely grateful I could connect and have this conversation with Tu, and I look forward to working with him soon. 

You can follow Chef Tu David Phu on Instagram at @cheftudavidphu or check out his website at ChefTu.com.

Thank you for tuning in, and don't forget to hit subscribe!

SOCIAL MEDIA:

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I have an ex-UFC fighter and former Middleweight Strikeforce Champion Cung Le, joining me in today's episode. We talked about everything from his humble beginnings and how being bullied propelled him to become a champion to where his motivation comes from. We talked about his thoughts on Covid-19 and how he handled a situation where he was recently confronted by a car full of racists during a car ride with his family.

You can follow Cung Le on Instagram at @cungle185.

Thank you for tuning in, and hit subscribe!

SOCIAL MEDIA:

The Asian Menswear Podcast -- @asianmenswearpod
Mike Tran -- @asianmenswear
Leo Chan -- @levitatestyle

EMAIL US:

asianmenswearpodcast@gmail.com

JOIN THE OFFICIAL ASIAN MENSWEAR DISCORD:

The Asian Menswear Community (click here)