Episodes

Bánh Mì Bites is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I’m super delighted to bring you a surprise guest on my show. He’s a Latin Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and one of Colombia’s beloved artists, Andrés Cepeda. He is set to kick off his US tour in Chicago on May 10th at the Riviera. As he is preparing for his tour, I caught up with him for a brief chat about his 30-year career legacy, his pride as a nat...

Thanks for reading Bánh Mì Bites! This post is public so feel free to share it. Do you remember Lilith Fair in the late 90s? Have you ever attended a festival fronted by women headlining acts? In this “Chill-Out Chronicles” episode of The Bánh Mì Chronicles, Jung and I are taking a deep dive into the 1997-1999 phenomenon that was Lilith Fair. While the world remembers it as a “girls-only” music festival, we’re looking closer at the structural shift it represented in the industry and how it mirr...

This week on The Banh Mi Chronicles, I sit down with Katrina Pham, a Vietnamese American journalist with Borderless Magazine, a Chicago-based, immigrant-centered news publication. Katrina shares her reflections on the recent ICE raids in Chicago and the weight of reporting on stories that directly impact the safety and livelihoods of our neighbors. We dive deep into how the digital media landscape has shifted and why “extractive” journalism no longer works. Instead, Katrina explains the rigorou...

Thanks for reading Bánh Mì Bites! This post is public so feel free to share it. The countdown reaches its finale! In this episode, I’m joined once again by my friend and fellow pop culture enthusiast, Anjali Misra, to wrap up our journey through the top 25 songs of the 21st century. While Part 1 set the stage, Part 2 dives into the “Chill-Out Chronicles”—the tracks that provided the vibe, the soul, and the soundtrack to our lives from #18 all the way to #25. In this episode, we discuss: * The ...

The world is a lot right now. Between the headlines and the collective burnout, we all need a second to just pause and breathe. In the first part of this 2 part episode special of the“Chill-Out Chronicles” edition of the pod, I’m joined by my good friend and resident pop culture nerd Anjali Misra to continue this conversation. We are temporarily stepping away from the doomscrolling to get into a rabbit hole on another topic: What is Randy’s favorite songs of the 2000s? (I decided not to rank th...

Trigger/Content Warning: Kala and Randy discussing examples of state-sanctioned v*olence from ICE, law enforcement, and government agents Episode recorded on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026; 3:30 pm US Central Time Thanks for reading Bánh Mì Bites! This post is public, so feel free to share it. In this emergency episode, I connect with Kala (He/They) aka “Your Protest Safety Kuya” to address the current wave of ICE raids happening at U.S. airports. He dives deep into the changing landscape for trave...

TW/CW: Mentions of child ab*se, ICE v*olence, and other state-sanctioned v*olence. There was a brief mention of the late union-leader, Cesar Chavez during the recording of the episode on (3/10) before the recent allegations of s*xual assa*lt against Chavez came to light. A great honor to bring in Joon “J.S.” Park to the podcast. J.S. is a Korean American based in Tampa, FL, and currently serves as a hospital chaplain. He’s a published author behind recent books such as 2024’s “As Long As You Nee...

What does discovering an author who shares your similar lived experiences mean to you? I sit down with my friend and Khmer American content creator, Sophia Lee based out in the Boston area. She is the founder of the IG account BeyondtheMekong, which highlights books and writings by Khmer diasporic authors and other Asian American/diasporic authors. Sophia shares with me about her love of reading and the joy of finding Cambodian and Asian authors, and what it means to highlight those voices and f...

Award-winning, critically acclaimed queer Korean author and literary translator Anton Hur makes a special appearance on this episode from Australia, where he’s currently doing his residency. I’ve known Anton for the past 10+ years, and have watched his rise in the Korean and Western literary world. I asked him questions about his debut fiction novel, Toward Eternity, and what he has learned as an author after years of translating successful Korean literature for an English-speaking audience. We ...

I’ve known Travis C. Lau since the beginning of the pandemic, as we follow each other on social media. My interview with him for this episode was the first real conversation I’ve had with him. From the moment I hit record, we hit it off like long-lost siblings discovering new things about each other. In this episode, Travis looks back on his complicated relationship with his parents and with the queer community during his college days, and how that affected his relationship to his own queer Chin...

TW/CW: Discussion of G*nocide, State-Sanctioned V*olence, Racism Jenny Chan, Executive Director of Pacific Atrocities Education (PAE), joins me as a guest for this week’s episode as we discuss the many parts of Asian American history during the 19th century to pre-World War 2 that have been forgotten in US History, and the racialized harm and v*olence that Asian Americans experienced during that time. Jenny dives into the Asian Pacific Wars that were happening during WW2, specifically imperial ...

TW/CW: ICE Raid violence, imprisonment, and deportation Recorded on 2/5/2026, 9:05 am Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of SEARAC (The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center)joins me as a guest for this emergency episode regarding the current ICE raids happening in Minnesota and across the US. In Minneapolis-St Paul, ICE and CBP have been doubling down efforts to detain residents, including those with legal status, and have been under major scrutiny for the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Th...

To honor and celebrate Black History Month, I invited Chicago journalist and author Arionne Nettles to discuss her research and experience with Black Chicago’s long-lasting impact on Black culture through music, journalism, literature, politics, social justice, and so on. We talk about Chicago-based media magazine Jet’s impact on covering Emmett Till’s murder, which propelled the start of the Civil Rights Movement. From Buddy Guy to Gwendolyn Brooks, Kanye, to the Obamas, Arionne explains how Ch...

TW/CW: Mentions of child exploitation, sexual violence towards women, fraud, and other potential community trauma. For this special episode, I invited my good friend, past guest, and longtime Khmer American community leader, Sina Sam, to the show to discuss the allegations made against Khmerican founder, Phatry Derek Pan, involving financial grifting, child exploitation & predatory behavior towards the Cambodian community both in America and in Cambodia. It is important to note that Phatry has n...

This week on The Banh Mi Chronicles, I did a total kiki with the multi-talented writer, dancer, and creative benedict nguyễn (she/her). Benedict joined me as we dived deep into the genesis of her debut novel, Hot Girls With Balls (Catapult 2025). We explore the nuances of writing trans stories that center joy and athleticism, the reality of navigating social media as a public-facing creative, and why finding the right publisher and community spaces are essential for queer and trans writers of c...

(Trigger Warning: Mentions of S*xual Violence during this recording) This episode is the last of 2025! It brings me great joy to invite former pin-up model and lead singer of Nylon Pink, who recently released her memoir, “Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty,” to wrap up the final podcast episode of 2025. Kaila recounts her experience as a former pin-up model in the early 2000s, within the import car world that was closely associated with the Asian American “AZN” cul...

In this deep-dive episode, I chat with 2x Emmy-award winning producer and director, Jon Hill, Director of Creative Video at Fox Sports Digital. We kick off with some spirited discussion on Chicago and Philly sports, before switching gears for a profound conversation about Jon’s award-winning feature film, Above the Clouds. Jon shares the introspective journey of making his debut film, explaining how the filmmaking process became a source of healing after the loss of his father. He discusses ho...

This week, I caught up with longtime Chicago Uptown community leaders and co-owners of the new Haibayô Cafe, Hac Tran and Jennifer “Nuky” Pham. Join us as Hac and Nuky take us into an intimate look at the history of the Asia on Argyle neighborhood—a historic cultural center for Chicago’s Chinese and Southeast Asian communities for the past 50 years. In this episode, we discuss: * The Mission of Haibayô: Their work in co-founding the nonprofit dedicated to cultural preservation and community-bu...

This week, I’m joined by my friend and fellow podcaster, Kenneth Nguyen, the host and creator of the acclaimed The Vietnamese Podcast. He was my guest host on my then-farewell episode in 2023 when I was sunsetting the podcast, and he’s back on my show, to remind me that he was right that I would come back to the podcasting sphere, and here I am now! With hundreds of episodes recorded, Kenneth has built a platform highlighting Vietnamese creatives, educators, historians, entrepreneurs, and many o...

This week, I brought the multi-talented French-Canadian comedian and personality Tranna Wintour to the podcast. We dived into the current political noise in her own backyard (Canada), but also what she has observed in the States. A major focus of the conversation was Madonna’s legacy. We dissected how difficult the last 20 years of her career and persona have been for some to stand by, and how this is another example of figuring out how to deal with our problematic favs. Finally, we ask a big qu...

In continuation of the current Chicago ICE Raids, and recent SNAP benefits crisis affecting Chicago’s Chinatown community, I invited two dedicated community leaders in the Chinatown community: Grace Chan McKibben and Andrew Frangos, to discuss the rapid response efforts in Chinatown and surrounding neighborhoods. In a time when federal actions are creating widespread fear and instability, we dived into how local leaders, residents, and businesses are working in solidarity to protect one another...

In a profoundly engaging conversation, host Randy Kim welcomes Dorothy Chow, the Chinese-Cambodian American host of the incredible podcast, “Death In Cambodia.” Dorothy shares the deeply personal and powerful genesis of her show: creating a space for her father to share his survivor experience from the Cambodian genocide that killed over 2 million people. This podcast wasn’t just a historical documentation; it became a transformative healing journey for Dorothy. 🎙️ In This Episode: * The Genes...

I decided to record a solo episode to gather my thoughts since returning to the podcast a few months ago, and how wild it’s been recording emergency episodes amid the chaos Chicago has been experiencing with ICE and CBP raids. I also talk about my reaction to content creator Nathan Ramos-Park’s reel about how Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora are making the decision to live in Asia, and how that impacts them. I have a lot to say on that as a former expat. I have also been thinking about the...

This week on The Bánh Mì Chronicles, host Randy Kim sits down with the incredible Nisha Mody (she/her)—a certified Liberatory Life Coach, Facilitator, and Writer—for a profound conversation about self-compassion, unlearning harmful beliefs, and showing up authentically in relationships. Nisha, who is currently writing a memoir about her divorce, shares the raw, deeply personal story of her toxic marriage to an Indian man that ended a decade ago. She transparently discusses the immense work requ...