Tung Nguyen, Thi Bui, & Tram T. Nguyen

Tung Nguyen, Thi Bui, and Tram T. Nguyen converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.ABOUT THE GUESTSThi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics. It made over thirty best of 2017 book lists, including Bill Gates’ top five picks. She illustrated the picture book, A Different Pond, written by the poet Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017), for which she won a Caldecott Honor. With her son, she co-illustrated the children’s book, Chicken of the Sea (McSweeney’s, 2019), written by Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and his son, Ellison. Her short comics can be found online at The Nib, PEN America, and BOOM California. She is currently researching and drawing a work of graphic nonfiction about immigrant detention and deportation, to be published by One World, Random House.Tung Nguyen, MD is the Stephen J. McPhee, MD Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine (http://profiles.ucsf.edu/tung.nguyen) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is a practicing general internist and an educator. Dr. Nguyen has conducted community-based participatory research (CBPR) with Asian American populations including Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans on cancer control, tobacco control, hepatitis B and C screening, nutrition and physical activity, and end-of-life care. Dr. Nguyen is Director of the Asian American Research Center on Health (www.asianarch.org), Program Leader of the Cancer Control Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer (http://cancer.ucsf.edu/research/programs/cancer-control/), and UCSF School of Medicine Dean’s Diversity Leader (http://medschool.ucsf.edu/deans-diversity-leaders). Dr. Nguyen came to the U.S. in 1975 at the age of 10 as a refugee. He graduated from Harvard College and Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Nguyen served as Commissioner on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) from 2011 to 2014 and as the Chair of the Commission from 2014 to 2017. Tram T. Nguyen is the Massachusetts State Representative of the 18th Essex District. She is a first generation Vietnamese-American immigrant and was the first person in her family to attend college and law school. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law. From the start of her legal career until she took office, Nguyen worked at Greater Boston Legal Services as a legal aid attorney and advocated for domestic violence survivors, workers, seniors, veterans, and children. She also engaged in legislative advocacy and worked with statewide coalitions, lawmakers, and lawmaking bodies to push for laws that address issues of racial and economic justice and protect the rights of the most vulnerable populations. 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.