Discover Vietnam: A Vietnam Podcast

GiangSinh is named due to her birth date of December 24th, being Vietnamese for Christmas, which she still went by until recently. Her Vietnamese mother and father met in Indonesia where GiangSinh was born and lived there for the first 5 years of her life. After moving back to Saigon she has lived in Nha Trang, Singapore, LA and now back to Saigon again where she feels her heart belongs. She has worked in Hospitality and FMCG most of her adult life, starting out at the prestigious Six...

Originally from Manchester, Damian Kilroy has lived in Vietnam for 10 years, 5 of those in Saigon, where most notably, he brought a raft of international artists to Saigon for the first time (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Mac DeMarco, The Cribs, The Vaccines). Now in Vung Tau, Damian is the owner of Cask Bar and is working on the 2nd year of Coracle Music Festival which takes place in Ho Tram at the end of November. The Lemonheads, Ca Hoi Hoang, Fleetmac Wood and The King Khan & BBQ Show ...

The first episode of Season 2 is with Saigon Funny People co-founder and resident cat lady, Vu Minh Tu! Hanoi-born, Saigon-based Tu is a comedy force to be reckoned with. An established performer on the Vietnam circuit, her style can be described as like any stereotypical Asian female: passive aggressive. Tu's hilarious jokes at shows across the region have seen her collect numerous awards including first place in the Roosters Beer Comedy Competition in Saigon, as well as the usual free beers...

Tâm is the first listener-suggested guest, thanks to regular listener, Brandon Coleman. Tâm is an entertaining and interesting guest that has an in-depth story and many insights to share about life in Saigon, which can be seen by the length of this episode. Born in Texas to Vietnamese refugees, Tâm moved to Saigon after a stint in Singapore. Here in Saigon she worked at an international branding agency but soon started creating Vietnamese-Mexican dishes and hosting dinners out of ...

WARNING: If you are small minded and homophobic you can probably skip this episode. Daniel was born and raised in Saigon by conservative Northern parents, with his dad having fought for the North before moving South. Daniel faced the familiar familial pressures that many young people in Saigon face, to study hard and get good grades. Daniel's passions are and always have been music, food and fashion but under those family expectations went on to study Biochemistry in California. He spent si...

Greg has what would be for many a dream job - a freelance football journalist. After moving to Saigon in January Greg planned to stay for only three months, but now going to be staying for the foreseeable future. He was recently featured in The Guardian writing about digital nomads which Greg is currently debating whether that label applies to him. As both avid football fans Greg and I had so much to talk about I’ve split this episode into two; the main episode on his life as a digital nomad ...

"All tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises—just like not all who wander are lost." Niall Mackay sits down with James Hunt, an American expat in Vietnam known for his restaurant ventures like Brick and Barrel and Big Boss Bistro. However, James's story extends far beyond the world of fried chicken and culinary pursuits. He delves into his passion for wildlife photography, which initially drew him to Vietnam, and how it eventually led him to explore and document some of the c...

“I never thought I was going to have kids here… that wouldn’t have even crossed my mind.” — Claire Simpson This episode with Claire really opened my eyes to a side of Vietnam I’ve never personally experienced but have always been curious about — what it’s actually like to be an expat parent here. I've interviewed entrepreneurs, creatives, teachers, founders… but motherhood is a whole different universe. There were parts of this episode that surprised me, like how many expats assume you can’t ...

“The first thing I saw that I just loved so much is that the women here are so fearless.” — Amy Wenham This conversation with Amy was one of those episodes where I found myself nodding almost the entire time. I’ve been talking about how badass Vietnamese women are for years, but Amy put language to things I’ve seen but could never fully articulate. What I loved most is that she didn’t just compare Vietnam to the UK — she compared it to Dubai, a place where she saw firsthand how a country can ...

“If I really spent $4,000 a month, I’d have a villa and a problem.” Having Markeiz back on Discover Vietnam felt like picking up a conversation we never really finished the first time. When he first joined me back in 2020, I was recording out of my bedroom, praying the iPhone wouldn’t ruin the audio. This time, we were sitting in a full podcast studio — lights, cameras, a technician, the whole lot. It made me think about how much this show has grown, and how much life in Vietnam has shaped bo...

Donate to Ukraine! I met Anastasia Sokyrka in Government Quarantine in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. You can listen to my episode with her and my wife, Adrie, about our experiences while we were living them. Since then we have become close friends, a silver lining of a tough experience (17 days with no mattress, no air con and no booze!) Finally, after two years of the pandemic Anastasia was able to return to her home of Ukraine and reunite with her family. Despite the fact that Russi...

The opening guest of Season 7 is Brian Letwin, a New Yorker in Saigon since 2010. Brian is the co-founder and CEO of the Urbanist Network which includes Saigoneer, Urbanist Vietnam and Urbanist Hanoi. Using his 15 years experience working in digital media both on the agency and publisher side Saigoneer has now been running since 2013. Recorded in late August when Saigon was still under strict lockdown we try to keep covid and lockdown chat to a minimum. Fortunately being a digital product S...