Hmonglish
Hmonglish is a podcast that explores the intersection of Hmong and American culture. Chef Yia Vang lived his entire life processing his Hmong American identity. This program provides a space for him to explore this dual heritage while also educating the populace on Hmong culture with the help of guests and other members of his community.
Episodes
32 episodes
This Hmong Man Served 27 Years in the Army (feat. Yee Hang)
Welcome back to Hmonglish! This is a bit of a bittersweet episode because this is the last episode of season 4. We are currently working through the next steps for the podcast and we will keep you posted, seeing as though we don’t have addition...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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1:08:40
She's Creating the World's First Hmong Museum (feat. Mai Vang)
Today we have Mai Vang with us. She’s Founder and Executive Director of the Hmong Museum based in St. Paul, MN. She has over a decade of experience in the museum field as a registrar, curator, and collections manager. Her full-time job is as a ...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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1:18:33
He Abandoned His Career to Become a Farmer (feat. Pheng Her)
Hey everyone!On today’s episode, we have Pheng Her. Pheng is an interesting guy because he has lived a very long life and he’s only in his early 30s.He was pursuing bodybuilding at one point and then he spent most of his 20s cha...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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1:10:16
How Do We Keep Hmong Culture Alive? (feat. Grace & Molly Vang)
Today, we have a pair of sisters on the show, Molly and Grace Vang!Molly is the older of the two and a stay-at-home mom who runs...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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1:17:21
Storytelling Is the CORE of Hmong Culture (feat. Jeremy Thao)
Today, we have the pleasure of bringing the Atlanta-based filmmaker Jeremy Thao on the show. He is the director of an excellent short film called Wokman, which is about a single day in a Chinese restaurant. Now, Jeremy is Hmong. Why did he choo...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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1:21:12
The Value of Suffering and Surrender (feat. Ming-Jinn Tong)
Hey, folks! We are thrilled to be back for season 4 of Hmonglish, and we’ve got a lot of great conversations coming your way. You’ll hear from Hmong entrepreneurs, Hmong influencers, Hmong veterans, and Hmong scholars.But today, for thi...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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1:24:57
Growing Up Queer in a Hmong Household: The Story of Phillipe Thao
This episode is a recording of our September 19th live show, which was filmed at the Union Hmong Kitchen on Lake Street in partnership with SPAM.We are so grateful to everyone at SPAM and Hormel who supported this event. Everyone ...
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1:21:37
Hmonglish LIVE (Full Recording)
Hey, folks! We're back to bring you a very special episode.On May 23rd, we held our first live show at Yia Vang’s Hilltribe popup space in uptown Minneapolis. It was a resounding success and we are so excited to share it with you here.<...
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Season 4
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1:25:16
Xee Reiter: Abandoning Traditional Roles as a Hmong Woman (For Art)
Hey, folks!You’re about to listen to the last episode of season 3. Don’t worry, we are already working on the foundation of season 4 and we’re even planning a live show in late spring. We’re going to be taking a break from regular episo...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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1:25:21
Sophia Vuelo: The First Hmong American Judge in Minnesota
Hey, folks!Today we have Judge Sophia Vuelo as our guest. This incredible woman was the first Hmong American judge in Minnesota and the second to be appointed in the country.She arrived here over 40 years ago when her family fle...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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1:13:16
Tou Lo: Marine, Firefighter, Entrepreneur (What Can't He Do?)
Hi, folks. Welcome to episode 4 of season 3. Today we have Tou Lo with us, who is an incredible individual. Listen to this: the guy is both a former marine and a former firefighter. You don’t meet many of those!Today, he is the o...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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1:07:08
Sheng Elizabeth Lor: Am I Hmong Enough?
Hey folks, welcome back to Hmonglish. This is episode 3, which means we are halfway through the season because we typically record the show in batches of 6 episodes.As you know, we release the show on Wednesdays, so that means t...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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1:02:30
Pahoua & Brian Yang Hoffman: The Expectations Placed on Hmong Dating and Marriage
Hey, everyone! We’re hoping that you enjoyed last week’s episode and we’re super excited to bring you another one.Today, we’re featuring Brian and Pahoua Yang Hoffman. Brian is an entrepreneur who currently owns Yeah Yeah Taco in Minnea...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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1:22:53
Tsai Thao: The First-Ever Hmong Model Featured in Times Square & NY Fashion Week
Thank you for stopping by to listen today! We are thrilled to be doing a third season of this show. We have been fortunate enough to step things up on the production side and we now film and record at an actual studio, called
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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1:11:58
Hmonglish Shorts: These Three Hmong Teenagers Answered Challenging Questions about Their Heritage
Hey, folks. We're excited to bring you another segment of Hmonglish Shorts as we continue to work on season 3.For those of you who don’t know, Hmonglish Shorts is a segment we created to give you some extra content in between full episo...
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Season 2
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11:41
Hmonglish Shorts: This Hmong Immigrant from Thailand is Trying to Preserve Her Heritage
Hey folks! Welcome back to Hmonglish.We are currently hard at work on season 3, so in the meantime, we wanted to release another segment of our Hmonglish shorts segment, which is an interview series conducted by our previous co-host, Gi...
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Season 2
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7:58
Season 2 Finale | Speaking with Chef Thony Yang about Family, Food, and Restaurants
Hey, folks!First of all, thank you for your patience in waiting for this one. You’re about to hear the sixth episode of season 2, which marks the end of this season. We’ll be taking a short break after this but, don’t worry, we plan on ...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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59:22
Hmonglish Shorts: "Passing Down Hmong Culture to My Children is a Challenge"
Hey folks! Welcome back to another Wednesday.Right off the bat, we have some great news. We finally scheduled a shoot date for season 2 episode 6 of the podcast, and we’re expecting to release it a week from today. This will be the fina...
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Season 2
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11:50
Hmonglish Shorts: Interviewing a 9-Year-Old Hmong Girl About Her Culture
Introducing our new series: Hmonglish Shorts!At this very moment, Yia is overseas working on a few projects, so we aren’t able to release any new episodes right now.But, lucky for you, we have some stuff in the vault that you ha...
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Season 2
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9:14
Reframing Hmong-ness in Our Professional Careers
Hi all! Welcome back to HmonglishThere are two quick things I want to mention before we start.The first thing is that we are VERY excited about this guest. Her name is Pahoua Yang Hoffman and she is the Senior Vice President of ...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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1:33:31
Yia Gets Unexpectedly Vulnerable With a Hmong Author (feat. Kao Kalia Yang)
Today we have one of the greatest, contemporary Hmong authors with us: Kao Kalia Yang.Kalia was born in December 1980 in Thailand’s Ban Vinai refugee camp, which is the same camp where Yia was bor...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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1:19:57
Challenging the Expectations Placed Upon Hmong People
Hey everyone, welcome back to Hmonglish.We brought on a phenomenal guest today, her name is Kashia Moua, and she is the Founder of Hmong Women’s Circle and the Chief Sustainability Officer at FM Global.Before that, she worked as...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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1:13:36
Diving Deeper into Hmong History with an Expert
If you like the show, remember to give us a 5-star review and tell us why! Also, make sure you subscribe and tell a friend!-Hey, folks. Welcome back to Hmonglish. Today’s episode is with a repeat guest: professor Lee Pao Xiong f...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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1:13:34
A Long & Intense Conversation About What It Means to Be Hmong
Welcome back to Hmonglish!This is our second season and things will be a bit different this time around, especially the structure of the show. You’ll notice that these episodes will be much more casual. We provide Yia and the guest a ve...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:21:44
Season Finale: How Can We Preserve Hmong Culture?
Welcome to the season 1 finale of Hmonglish! In this episode, we're talking all about the future of Hmong culture, language preservation efforts, and the education of our youth. To discuss these things, we brought in a Hmong language educ...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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56:01