Fermented Feelings ft. Rad Café Reflections, by The SEAD Project

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded Dec 8th 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, Phian Tran (they/any pronouns). Phian is an aspiring farmer, with a strong fondness and aptitude for plant ecosystems knowledge, residing in North Carolina. You can find Phian on Instagram at @phiannn. Topics during this podcast conversation include: thinking and laboring from Love while being ambushed by fear from all sides, rest and "loud-brain", the NPIC i.e. non-profit industrial complex, food deserts/apartheid and food production/agricultural justice, municipal governance and housing policies in Raleigh, NC, the health politics of "bio breaks" (hint: please do-do listen and act on your bodily needs), and much more. More episode details to be added. Enjoy the conversation between Phian and Tri in the meantime :) Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/ask pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org. Throw Rad Café lots of love by going into your iTunes or Apple Podcast app and rating Fermented Feelings 5 stars!!

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. View Delfine's research doc on the comparison and ideological links between Buddhism and Communism. Mentioned: TBA More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded Nov 10th 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, Delfine DeFrank (pronounced DEL-fin da-FRANK; she/they pronouns). She identifies as a mixed race Laotian-White American and is a Student Representation & Governance Advisor at Western Washington University. They are an avid opponent of brosocialists. Episode overview to be added soon. Enjoy the conversation between Delfine and Tri in the meantime :) Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/ask pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org. Throw Rad Café lots of love by going into your iTunes or Apple Podcast app and rating Fermented Feelings 5 stars!!

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. View Phan's research doc on the value of thought puzzles in analyzing the challenges and opportunities of various social and municipal dilemmas. Mentioned: TBA More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded Nov 10th 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, Phan Le (she/her pronouns). Phan is a second generation Vietnamese American woman born and raised in the Midwest. She currently lives and organizes in Chicago's Chinatown. She and her partner love to listen to Communist anthems and anime soundtrack scores. One of her favorite poems is by Nayyirah Waheed: "I love myself. The quietest. Simplest. Most powerful. Revolution. Ever." Connect with Phan on Instagram @h.phan.le Episode overview to be added soon. Enjoy the conversation between Phan and Tri in the meantime :) Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/ask pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org. Throw Rad Café lots of love by going into your iTunes or Apple Podcast app and rating Fermented Feelings 5 stars!!

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. View May's research doc on the politics of Cambodia's current and 30 plus year strongman administration under Hun Sen. Mentioned: Britannica's Hun Sen overview, article on the timeline and implications of LANGO (laws), Khmer Krom (Minority Rights Group page), "A Brief History of the Kampuchea-Krom" (khmerkrom.org) More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded Nov 3rd 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, May Thach (she/they pronouns). May's is a 1.5 generation immigrant who grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with a small Khmer-Krom community. Her labor has been grounded in international and domestic literacy, program management, and policy change. She's has served in Zambia through Peace Corp under various roles and as a program coordinator at UC San Diego. May works to build power among AAPI gender marginalized communities. Episode overview to be added soon. Enjoy the conversation between May and Tri in the meantime :) Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/all pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org. Throw Rad Café lots of love by going into your iTunes or Apple Podcast app and rating Fermented Feelings 5 stars!!

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. View Chris's research doc on the politics of U.S deportation, assimilation, and nation-state imagination Mentioned: Sidewalk Labs website, Logic Magazine, Alphabet Workers Union, Project Maven More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded Nov 1st 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, Chris Phan (she/her pronouns). Chris is trained in computer sciences and urban planning with a recent serial emphasis of professional involvement in Asian American non-profit work. Her big-picture interests include the ongoing impact of tech industries and policy on the social, political, and economic lives of BIPoC peoples living in the states. She is a recent mom to a large reptile. Episode overview to be added soon. Enjoy the conversation between Chris and Tri in the meantime :) Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/all pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org. Throw Rad Café lots of love by going into your iTunes or Apple Podcast app and rating Fermented Feelings 5 stars!!

Find Christian's project notes Notion page for various research sources that went into their project. More about what happened in Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Read an overview, here, about the political economic history of rubber tree plantations in Vietnam published on the Saigoneer. Recorded October 28th 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, Christian Phomsouvanh (they/them pronouns). Christian is currently enrolled as a student studying Botany and Plant Ecology at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Christian shared that they are residing on Shoshone and Goshute lands in their land acknowledgement. You can reach Christian online via IG: @csphomsouvanh and Email: csphomsouvanh@gmail.com In this conversation, Christian painted for us their upbringing in Laos and Utah, where their relationship with the natural world bloomed and branched out to include ways of cross-pollinating intellectual disciplines of natural and political sciences rooted in Christian's personal political journey. During the time of their project research, Christian found themselves focusing on hevea brasiliensis, known more commonly as the rubber tree and for its both natural and commodified production of latex, or "white blood". Christian drafted these questions for the group to think about in relation to the profit-driven, anthropocentric world where the wealthiest class of humankind, and living species overall, redirect the flow of natural resources towards themselves. Christian and I invite you to consider these questions and thought exercises as examples for how you can start thinking about your own personal and big-picture level relationship to the natural world as human politics and economic markets have transformed into a pervasive and dominant force on our planet: Do you know of any countries, whether it be Southeast Asian or otherwise, that are able to protect their own national or ethnic resources against the seizure and exploitation of external, often colonial forces, from co-opting into their own colonial economies? Name examples of when colonialism is driven by specific crops. If a crop like the rubber tree ended up not being viable in Vietnam, would French colonialism play as big of a role in shaping contemporary Vietnamese and adjacent nation state geography? (Governance of both the people and colonial crop(s).) Describe or think for yourself of how you have seen (colonial) crops used to reinforce ideas of social and economic hierarchy? i.e. Cotton in the U.S., Rubber trees in French colonial Vietnam, Bananas in Guatemala, Potatoes in Ireland, Taro in Hawaii, etc. ຂອບໃຈ, Christian, for your principled and rigorous curiosity and zeal for the natural sciences, fueled by a genuine desire to use your cross-disciplinary expertise and interests to fold more people into challenging and taking action on their and our relationship as people to our world within and beyond humankind. Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/all pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org.

ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. Read HC's Project Questions and Glossary for a brief overview of topics and themes covered in HC's project. More about what happened at Rad Café can be found on this Rad Café Notion summary page. Share this SEAD's Rad Café webpage with your network, for those who are more comfortable with websites than podcast apps. Recorded October 27th 2021. Explicit language was permitted for each Rad Café conversation. We recommend playing the podcast around 1.3x speed and higher if your podcast streaming app permits, as you may be more comfortable listening to information at a higher speed when considering the often slower pace of recorded conversation like this one. You are listening to Tri's conversation with Rad Café participant, HC Huỳnh (they/them pronouns). HC is an artist and arts administrator with a demonstrated history of working in the arts nonprofit sector in New York City. You can find more about HC at their website, hcthuynh.com. In this conversation, HC and Tri start off talking about their astrology placements and the hard feelings and frustrations that guided Tri's design of Rad Café. Then, HC and Tri move into expanding on their project research topic regarding Vietnam state relations to building nationhood and viability as a player in the global economy via art markets, the role of arts education in relation to socio-economic classes in urban Vietnamese settings, and asking and discussing many of the questions below you can hear our thoughts on by playing this podcast conversation: In the government's attempt to globalize the art market in Vietnam, it resulted in the split of “authentic art” and “rice paddy art”. In this context, what is the real art in Vietnam? Is it meant to serve and represent the people or is it something that is a privilege? Should it be hegemonic privilege or class privilege? Due to the lack of education and apathetic nature towards the arts, who is the arts really serving? Many of the developments in the arts are influences brought in beyond Vietnam such as artists studying abroad and arts professionals from other countries coming in to open galleries, curate exhibitions, etc. Is the sense of Vietnamese identity lost in the translation and cross-exchanges or is it an enhancement to arts? Is this a form of self-colonization? Are there other similar events/experiences like what is happening in Vietnam in other countries in Southeast Asia? How is globalization affecting the arts and is this a hindrance to cultural development? Cảm ơn, HC, for your initiative-taking vigor and program design contributions to Rad Café. I hope you take full advantage of your expanded travel plans through your new job and keep that Capricorn drive as you extend arts education to more people who would gain the most value from it. Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri (he/all pronouns) at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org.

Welcome to "Fermented Feelings", SEAD's digital audio storytelling jar! ຂອບໃຈ. cảm ơn. ua tsaug. អរគុណ. thank you for listening. You are listening to the first episode of an audio reflection series for the Rad Café pilot program that asks what role critical thinking plays in how Southeast Asian Americans relate to and engage with the big political problems that impact all the communities we care about in the present, past, and future. Unedited transcription for this podcast conversation can be viewed here. Ua tsaug and major thanks to SEAD's Autumn 2021 Cultural Organizer, Quincy Yangh, for conducting the interview. We're excited for your next chapter teaching English and engaging in environmental geography studies during your Fulbright Scholarship awarded stay in Taiwan! More about what happened at Rad Café below Rad Café was a political co-learning pilot program that was designed, administered, and facilitated by Tri Vo, a cultural organizer at SEAD in 2021. This audio reflection series features conversations whose guests were active participants in this pilot program. Between 8-10 longform audio episodes will be released in the month of January 2022. Don't miss this series! Rad Café was an attempt for SE Asians in the U.S to co-design an intentional dialogue circle space for expanding and challenging our political imaginations and practical frameworks. In this series, we did this by politicizing the mundane of our everyday lives; things as common as a popular cultural dish, a well-known song or artist, the topics we're taught in class, the visions of success that the adults and peers in our lives reinforce on us, and so forth. We incrementally zoom out from these subjects of the everyday to explore the political economies, or the social, political, and economic processes, shaping the ways that these things impact us in ways both minor and widely-pervading. The goals of the Rad Café program included: Equipping cohort members with skills to engage, analyze, and share high level political topics and themes in a variety of communities and audiences Applying SEAD's storytelling approach to change, equipping 1st person narratives with big picture frameworks Building healthy community and relationships around dialogues surrounding these topics and themes You can view the various drafts of research notes self-compiled by Rad Café cohort members at this Rad Café Notion interactive webpage. Please send any inquiries regarding Rad Café to Tri at tri.m.vo4@gmail.com or connect via Instagram @tritactoe. Send inquiries regarding The SEAD Project to hi@theseadproject.org.

The debut of Fermented Feelings, featuring The SEAD Project founder Chanida Phaengdara Potter and FF podcast editor and friend, Tri M. Vo. Record and share your thoughts and fermented feelings with us by clicking here, or this link: https://anchor.fm/fermented-feelings/message. We'd love to hear from Southeast Asian listeners, and possibly feature your voice and views on our podcast! Learn more at theseadproject.com/fermented-feelings Hear the journey Chanida has taken, since watching her mom at a young age prepare padaek, the traditional and versatile Lao fermented fish sauce, and the overbearing stench that leaks from oversized and reused Kemp ice cream buckets; a stench that is literal in memory, and a powerfully pungent metaphor for the dreams, hopes, anxieties, fears, and ideas processing in reused buckets and jars of SEAD souls. Hear how the essence of padaek is imbued throughout Chanida's work under The SEAD Project banner, and currently having her collection of fermented fish jars on display at the Minnesota Museum of American Art as part of their "1.5: A Southeast Asian Diaspora Remix" exhibition among several prolific and illuminating art makers of Southeast Asian descent. We are especially proud to share six SEAD youth voices speaking to and expanding on the phrase, "Fermented Feelings is...". Their audio segments are bold wafts of vivid, fermenting poetry - you won't want to miss it! FF Youth Voices featured, in order of appearance: Katelyn, Lisa, Mai, Yoko, Mel, and Shania. Fermented Feelings is a labor of love by The SEAD Project, a Southeast Asian creative hub that grows social empowerment ecosystems through cultural organizing, critical language and just storytelling. To learn more about The SEAD Project, visit our website at www.theseadproject.org or follow us on social media @theseadproject on Facebook and Instagram or @PlanttheSEAD on Twitter. Help more SEAD neighbors find us by leaving a positive and generous review on our FF Apple Podcast page, at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fermented-feelings/id1536645983 Visit our website and social media pages, linked below, and consider supporting us at https://www.theseadproject.org/donate/ Music used in this episode courtesy of Envato Elements.