hmTv at HMTC Podcasts Ep 470: The Fog of War and Humanity with Rich Acritelli and guest Mai Pham P1 on hmTv
hmTv | The Fog of War and Humanity Ep. 470
Rich Acritelli with guest Mai Pham (Part 1)
In Episode 470 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Rich Acritelli welcomes author Kwan Mai Pham for a powerful and deeply human conversation about her memoir, A Bridge from Saigon. Mai begins by sharing one of her most vivid childhood memories: escaping South Vietnam at age seven aboard a cargo flight on April 20, 1975, just ten days before the fall of Saigon. She describes the chilling moment inside the aircraft as the hatch closed at dawn, marking her final image of her homeland.
Mai reflects on what it was like to grow up during wartime without fully understanding that a war was happening, protected by parents who worked in professional roles connected to the U.S. presence in Vietnam. She recounts later returning to Vietnam as an adult, including living in Saigon for a year in the late 1990s, and witnessing how the city transformed from a familiar, freewheeling place into a modern skyline of rapid development.
The episode also traces Mai’s first steps in America: arriving as the first Vietnamese refugee family in West Mount Airy, Philadelphia, and navigating school, language, and identity in a new world. She shares how her father, a former professor, quickly became a public school teacher and a community anchor for newly arriving refugee families, offering support that went far beyond the classroom.
Part 1 sets the foundation for a story about displacement and resilience, family and education, and what it means to live “between worlds.” It is an intimate start to a remarkable journey, and a preview of the deeper exploration to come in Part 2 as Rich and Mai dig further into the themes and experiences behind A Bridge from Saigon.