The Vietnam Weekly Podcast
by Mike Tatarski
Every week, Ho Chi Minh City-based journalist Mike Tatarski sits down with a guest doing unique, important work in - or about - Vietnam to get a panoramic view of this dynamic, increasingly important country. thevietnamweekly.substack.com
Episodes
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30 Years of Observing Vietnam
Today’s guest is former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius, whose personal history with Vietnam dates back to his first arrival in 1996. We talked about his ongoing engagement with the country spanning the public and private sectors, the current rapid pace of economic and regulatory change,...
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Electrifying Vietnam’s Apparel Industry
Today’s guest is Pete Ford, Clean Heat Technical Lead at the Apparel Impact Institute (AII). We discussed the most carbon-intensive aspects of apparel production, the global goal of eliminating on-site coal from factories by 2030, Vietnam’s advantages in embracing more sustainable manufacturing,...
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From the Boardroom to the Rice Paddy
Today’s guest is Cat-Thao Nguyen, the founder of Earth Water, a pesticide-free rice brand from Tây Ninh Province. We talked about Cat-Thao’s unconventional journey from corporate boardrooms and executive coaching to a rice paddy in rural Vietnam, the spiritual connection she feels to the land of...
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2025 & Vietnam's 'Era of National Rise'
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,...
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Responding to Vietnam's Historic Floods
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…
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Crafting 'Vietnam: The Cookbook'
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...
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Documenting Vietnamese New Wave
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...
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Ensuring Education for Disadvantaged Girls
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...
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The Art of Vietnam Guidebook Writing
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…
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The Ties That Bind Vietnam & The Netherlands
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...
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Improving Women's Health in Manufacturing
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...
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Vietnam's Big Bet On Its Future
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...
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Crafting Vietnam's First Independent Whisky Distillery
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…
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A Revised Look at Energy
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...
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Reflection, Reconciliation, and Reunification
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…
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Socialist Realism & Dogma Collection
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...
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Partnering for Climate Solutions
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...
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Emergency Pod: The Trump Tariffs
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...
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Vietnam's Foreign Policy Amid Global Uncertainty
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...
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Supporting Disadvantaged Youths Through Social Enterprise
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 poverty We discussed STREET’s focus on the hospitality sector, its...
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Vietnam and Trump's Tariffs
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.…
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Exploring Vietnamese Cinema
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...
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Vietnam's 'Productive Frictions'
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…
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The Year in Vietnamese Politics
Today’s returning guest is Nguyen Khac Giang, a Visiting Fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme under the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He was on the show in March for a conversation about the anti-corruption campaign, and he’s one of my go-to voices for insight into Vietnamese...
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Community Development, Forest Preservation, and Vietnamese Gin
Today’s guest is Daniel Nguyen, the founder of Sông Cái Distillery. We discussed his background in community development in the United States and rural Vietnam; Sông Cái’s mission as a case study for adding value to agriculture unique to Vietnam; the relationship between ethnobotany, land value,...
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Rice's Role in Vietnam's Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Today’s guest is Katie Nelson, a climate change researcher at the International Rice Research Institute - or IRRI - in Hanoi. We discussed the role of agriculture - and particularly rice farming - in Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions, the importance of reducing methane emissions to reach...
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China's Influence on Fashion-Making in Southeast Asia
Today’s guest is Wessie Ling, a Professor of Transcultural Arts and Design at London Metropolitan University and Director of The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement, or CREATURE. We discussed China’s influence on fashion-making in Southeast Asia, from the fabric supply chain through...
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Vietnam's Climate Tech Ecosystem
Today’s guest is Jason Lusk, Managing Partner at Clickable Impact and co-author of the recently released Vietnam Climate Tech Funding Ecosystem Report 2024. We discussed why Clickable Impact and New Energy Nexus created this first-of-its-kind report, what ‘climate tech’ means in the Vietnam…
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What's Going on in the East Sea?
Today’s guest is Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. He’s also the author of the 2022 book ‘On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea.’ We...
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Making Vietnamese History Accessible
Today’s guests are Yen Vu, Assistant Professor and Major Coordinator in Literature at Fulbright University Vietnam, and Kevin Pham, Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Amsterdam. Yen and Kevin also host the excellent Nam Phong Dialogues, “a podcast with the purpose of...
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Building Vietnam's Sustainability Community
Today’s guest is Kelly Vo, Founder & CEO of Dear Our Community and co-founder of Map Me - both of which you’ll hear about in this episode. I’ve known Kelly for a while and she’s a vital part of the sustainability community here in Vietnam - it took a while to schedule this discussion, a testament...
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Special Episode: Responding to Typhoon Yagi
Today’s guest is Skye Maconachie, co-CEO of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. I sat down with Skye at Blue Dragon’s busy office in Hanoi to discuss the organization’s ongoing response to Typhoon Yagi, which killed at least 262 people; the needs of flood-hit communities in the capital; the...
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Working to Save Vietnam's Wildlife
Today’s guest is Trường Trần, Captive Manager of the Cúc Phương Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program for Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, or SVW. He’s been with SVW since 2017 and is deeply involved in their conservation work, particularly their pangolin and Owston’s civet captive breeding…
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Washington State Senator Joe Nguyễn
Today’s guest is Washington State Senator Joe Nguyễn, whose district covers West Seattle and neighboring areas. Senator Nguyễn is Chair of the state senate’s Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, and one of the few Vietnamese-Americans in a state-level elected office. We discussed the state...
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Inside Vietnam's Largest Public Opinion Survey
Today’s guests are Eddy Malesky, Professor of Political Economy at Duke University, and Paul Schuler, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona. They are two of the five co-authors of the 2023 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, or PAPI....
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Vietnam's Foreign Investment Pitfalls and Potential
Today’s guest is Jack Nguyen, CEO of InCorp Vietnam, a corporate services firm that helps foreign businesses set up and operate in compliance with local regulations. We discussed Vietnam potentially losing out on major investments due to uncompetitive tax incentives; the main concerns of…
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The State of Tech Funding in Vietnam
Today’s guest is Eddie Thai, co-founder & general partner of Ascend Ventures Vietnam, or AVV. Few people in Vietnam have more tech funding experience than Eddie, and he’s been a great source of insight over the years. We discussed tech here in the context of the global ‘funding winter,’ the...
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30 Years of Eliminating Poverty in Vietnam & Cambodia
Today’s guest is Bernard Kervyn, founder of the NGO Mekong Plus. We discussed how the organization’s work has evolved given Vietnam’s rapid economic growth over the last 30 years, shifting their focus to people who live on less than US$1 per day, offering microfinance while avoiding its...
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Social Insurance & Renewable Energy Updates
Due to scheduling issues, there isn’t a new guest today, so I’m taking this opportunity to revisit two previous episodes in the context of a pair of recently passed regulations. The first is the amended Law on Social Insurance, which goes into effect on July 1, 2025. I discussed Vietnam’s social...
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Building Vietnam's Circular Economy
Today’s guest is Kim Le, founder and CEO of CL2B - short for Closed Loop to Balance - a consulting boutique that facilitates decision-making across sectors and stakeholders to accelerate the circular economy transition in Southeast Asia. We discussed what ‘circular economy’ means in the Vietnam...
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Ranking the Competitiveness of Vietnam's Provinces
Today’s guest is Eddy Malesky, a Professor of Political Economy at Duke University who focuses on Vietnam. Eddy is also the primary author and lead researcher of the annual Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). He played an instrumental role in the creation of the PCI in 2005 and remains…
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The Sad State of Phú Quốc
Today’s guest is Stuart McDonald, co-founder of Travelfish and author of the excellent Couchfish newsletter. Stuart has been traveling around and writing about Southeast Asia for about three decades and is also working on a Master’s in Responsible Tourism Management. He’s written previously about...
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Vietnam's Sustainable Tourism Challenge
Today’s guest is Nuno Ribeiro, Senior Lecturer of Tourism and Hospitality Management at RMIT University Vietnam. We discussed the importance of sustainable tourism development, the need for a qualified tourism workforce and Vietnam’s shortage in this area, frequent comparisons to Thailand from...
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Vietnam's Energy Plans & Reality
Today’s guest is Giles Cooper, a Partner at the international law firm Allens based in Hanoi who specializes in issues around energy policies and regulations. We discussed the pending decree on direct power purchase agreements and how this will impact major manufacturers, the dramatic change this...
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Tracing Vietnam's Coffee Supply
Today’s guest is Timen Swijtink, founder of both CoffeeTrace and Lacàph Coffees of Việt Nam. The first half of our conversation covers CoffeeTrace, a new project aimed at providing a coffee farmer-centric EUDR data collection and traceability solution to both farmers and traders. We discuss the...
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25 Years of Clearing UXO in Central Vietnam
Today’s guest is Sarah Goring, Country Director for the Mines Advisory Group, or MAG. The organization is marking 25 years of operations in Vietnam, entirely in Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị. They have disposed of over 390,000 explosive items since 1999, ranging from small cluster bomblets to huge...
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Can Vietnamese Crickets Help Sustainably Feed the World?
Today’s guest is Bicky Nguyen, co-founder and business development director of Cricket One, a startup aiming to create sustainable, healthy food products sourced from crickets. We discussed the company’s background and why Vietnam is the perfect base for farming insects on a large scale, the...
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Vietnam's 'Bamboo Diplomacy' Amid Great Power Rivalry
Today’s guest is Dr. Prashanth Parameswaran, author of the excellent ASEAN Wonk newsletter, a fellow at the Wilson Center, a senior columnist at The Diplomat, and an instructor at institutions including the State Department and the Department of Defense. He has a deeply nuanced view of defense,...
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Vietnam's Global Connections
According to The World Bank, trade was worth 186% of Vietnam’s GDP in 2022, one of the highest rates in the world - this means the value of the country’s traded goods is worth far more than the national GDP, currently just over $400 billion. Global logistics and shipping, therefore, are vital to...
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The Growing Role of ESG in Vietnam
Today’s guests are Mimi Vu and Van Ly, partners at Raise Partners, a collaborative partnership sharing expertise with organizations that contribute to the betterment of humanity. We discussed their diverse professional backgrounds, especially in fundraising, and how this brought them into the ESG...
About this show
Every week, Ho Chi Minh City-based journalist Mike Tatarski sits down with a guest doing unique, important work in - or about - Vietnam to get a panoramic view of this dynamic, increasingly important country.
thevietnamweekly.substack.com
Hosted by
Mike Tatarski