The Vietnam Weekly Podcast

Today’s guest is Nguyen Khac Giang, a Visiting Fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He’s a repeat guest as well and joined me for a similar year-end conversation in 2024.We covered the administrative restructuring and its broad impacts, increasing private sector involvement in the economy and infrastructure, General Secretary Tô Lâm’s foreign policy and the move away from ‘bamboo diplomacy,’ the rise of the military and police in business, and the upcoming National Party Congress.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Chris Tran, a content creator, a Vietnamese language educator, and more. We discussed the storm relief fundraising campaign he is a part of, how such campaigns are perceived, the resilience of people here, his work with The Ba Lô Project supporting Vietnamese deported by the Trump administration, the importance of preserving the Vietnamese language, and more. Donate to typhoon relief efforts here. Learn more about The Ba Lô Project here.Follow Chris on Instagram to see more about his community work.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Anaïs Ca Dao van Manen, author of ‘Vietnam: The Cookbook,’ which features 445 recipes from across Vietnam, including dishes from ethnic minority groups. Phaidon is releasing the book this Wednesday, October 22. She’s also the founder of Yeshi, the casual Taiwanese restaurant with two locations in HCMC that some listeners are likely familiar with.We talked about Anaïs’s culinary background, how she came to work on the cookbook, learning over 400 recipes while traveling across Vietnam to access the country’s incredibly diverse cuisine, splitting time between working on the book and running a restaurant, and more.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Elizabeth Ai, writer and director of the documentary New Wave. We discussed the deeply personal nature of the project; how New Wave music provided a safe space for young people who didn’t consider themselves fully Vietnamese, but also weren’t fully accepted by America; the rewarding challenges of producing the movie through the pandemic and having her first child; and more.Follow New Wave on Instagram for updates on screenings and streaming availability.The Curious Subculture of Vietnamese New Wave (Saigoneer)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Vân Vương, Saigon Children’s Head of Fundraising & Communication and a key organizer of the upcoming U-GO Far: Vietnam - Cambodia Cycle 2025. The first edition of the ride, held last December in partnership with U-GO and ISF Cambodia, raised over US$50,000 for female students in Cambodia in Vietnam.We discussed the U-Go program and Saigon Children’s involvement, the first U Go Far charity ride last year and Van’s experience as both an organizer and participant, meeting scholarship recipients along the way, ensuring transparency during a fundraising campaign, goals for the second ride in November, and more.Related links:The Evolution of Charity Work in Vietnam (Vietnam Weekly Podcast)Helping the Disadvantaged During Lockdown (Vietnam Weekly Podcast)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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 & RealitySubscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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. Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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. Follow Dogma Collection on InstagramReframing War Memories via the Western-Vietnamese Photographic Perspectives (Saigoneer)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee.Related link:Vietnam's Climate Tech Ecosystem (Vietnam Weekly Podcast) Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

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.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Khang Vu, a visiting scholar at Boston College with a Ph.D. in International Relations with a focus on East Asian Security from Boston College. Vietnamese foreign policy is one of his key areas of expertise.We discussed Vietnam’s success in avoiding Trump tariffs thus far, the planned China-backed Lao Cai-Hai Phong railway, Vietnam’s history of dealing with territorial disputes with China and potential lessons for other Southeast Asian countries, the government’s ongoing spree of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership upgrades, the importance of Cambodia and Laos to Vietnam’s strategic security, the ‘era of national rise’ and its foreign policy impact, and more.Recent articles by Khang: What Southeast Asian Countries Can Learn from Vietnam’s History of Negotiating Territorial Disputes with China (The Diplomat)Vietnam’s ‘Era of National Rise’ and the Risk of Imperial Overreach: Lessons from 1975 (The Diplomat)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Neal Bermas is founder and chairperson of STREETS International, a social enterprise based in Hoi An that offers a fully-supported 14-month culinary and hospitality training program to disadvantaged and vulnerable youth living in povertyWe discussed STREET’s focus on the hospitality sector, its functioning as a social enterprise, the demographics of the young people who receive support and the challenges they face, how the pandemic somewhat diminished the appeal of working in the hospitality sector, STREET’s success in placing program graduates in a job, and a digression into Vietnam’s tourism sector more broadly.Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is 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.We discussed the latest tariff threats coming from President-Elect Donald Trump, how Vietnam benefited from U.S. trade policy during his first administration, Vietnam’s exposure to potential trade remedies given its huge surplus and growing Chinese manufacturing investment, how export-focused companies are preparing for another Trump presidency, and more.Related Links:US trade deficit with Vietnam soars beyond $110 billion, as weak dong boosts exports (Reuters)The Fiction of Western Unity on China De-Risking (Foreign Policy)Trump’s Tariffs Helped Northern Vietnam Boom Like Never Before. What Now? (The New York Times)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Nguyên Lê, an entertainment writer, copy editor, translator, and occasional screenwriter. He’s written for publications including /Film, The Houston Chronicle, Film Threat, and Paste Magazine. He’s also a member of both the Houston Film Critics Society and the Hollywood Critics Association - one of the few Asian members in their ranks.We discussed how Nguyên got into movies, the evolution of Vietnamese cinema over time, censorship, steps the industry could take to improve its standing both here and internationally, and his current screenplay work.Nguyên’s recommendations for essential contemporary Vietnamese movies:* The Rebel (Dòng máu anh hùng - 2007)* Song Lang (2018)* The Moon at the Bottom of the Well (Trang noi day gieng - 2008)* Three Seasons (Ba mùa - 1999)Related Links:Vietnam’s box office sets new record at $184mn (Tuoi Tre News)Subscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Huê-Tâm Jamme, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.Huê-Tâm explores the effects of new technologies on space and society, especially on how people move, work, shop, and socialize in cities - and she has extensive research experience in Vietnam.We discussed her theory of ‘productive frictions’ in urban areas; the impact of mass transit on daily life; misguided discussions of motorbike bans in urban centers; and how Ho Chi Minh City should harness its unique nature to present itself as a new model for urban development, rather than pursuing the same strategies used by other cities.Related Links:Productive Frictions: A Theory of Mobility and Street Commerce Grounded in Vietnam's Motorbike-Centric Urbanism (PDF)‘Historic achievement’: Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City’s first metro line opensSubscribe to the Vietnam Weekly here.Support the podcast by Buying Me a Coffee. Get full access to Vietnam Weekly at thevietnamweekly.substack.com/subscribe