Journalist Soreath Hok, a 1.5 generation immigrant, covers Cambodian-American mental health, spurred by her college radio involvement and USC Annenberg fellowship. Her award-winning work focuses on the mental health challenges among Cambodian refugees and their descendants, drawing attention to the lack of resources and cultural care. With articles that include personal and industry stories, she seeks to foster awareness and healing in the Cambodian American community.

Dr. Sophal Ear, a Cambodian refugee, transitioned from escaping the Khmer Rouge to a successful academic and writer, advocating for Cambodian history education. Influenced by his upbringing and mother's determination, he shifted from medicine to political science and economics. His work includes critiquing Western supporters of the Khmer Rouge, a TED Talk, and a documentary about his family's escape, inspiring Cambodian Americans.

Season 3 of "Death in Cambodia, Life in America" features Dr. Patrick Heuveline, an expert on the Khmer Rouge regime's aftermath. We explore the regime's long-term effects, including mental health impact, family structure changes, and generational trauma. The discussion highlights the importance of dialogue, historical documentation, and diaspora contributions to Cambodia's development.

Nicholas Coffill's huge passion for live theatre, performances, and sharing a cultures history through photography and music - lead him to create one of the first ever fully developed photography books about Cambodia today. His book "Photography in Cambodia: 1866 to the Present" is one of the most beautiful coffee table books enriched with photography from ancient times, up until modern day Cambodia. His experience in museum curation allows this book to feel like you are walking through a "museum of photos" that tell the story of Cambodia's past. In this epsiode we discuss how Nick ended up in Cambodia, where did the origins of the book idea come from, and how this book has impacted the lives of Cambodians.

For the past three decades, award-winning artist, playwright, and librettist Catherine Filloux has been traveling to conflict areas creating art that addresses human rights and U.S. complicity. Her plays and operas about Cambodia include: “Eyes of the Heart” and “Photographs from S-21” and she is the co-founder of Theatre Without Borders. “Where Elephants Weep”, the only Cambodian-U.S. rock opera, aired on Broadway on Demand from April 14 to 23, 2023, in time for the Cambodian New Year, with an accompanying conversation by Filloux and composer Sophy Him.

Myra Torcheux has her masters from The London School of Economics and aspires to change policies for children's rights. Much of her passion for this career is driven by her experience growing up in France as an adoptee. I mentioned via social media that I am passionate about highlighting stories that deserve more attention, one storyline being the great amount of orphans that came out of the Khmer Rouge. We brought Myra onto the podcast for her to share her experiences, her struggles with her identity, and more. Here is a summary of her dissertation to learn more!

I am popping out of retirement to introduce you to someone that I absolutely HAD to interview. Sochanvimean or as I call him Vimean , is a Cambodian Ph.D Psychologist at UCSB who is passionate about how the mental health and generational trauma is cultivated through traumatic expereinces such as the Khmer Rouge. We dig into Vimean's past growing up in Cambodia, and how his passion for offering more mental health services lead him to getting the education he has today.

Today we bring on Angela Wu LMFT aka the Sassy Asian Therapist to bring on a professional light on what generational trauma is, and how we can cope with it as second generation asian Americans. We discuss this idea of trying to "fix" our parents as children of refugees, tactics to handle generational trauma, how we can start the conversation of healing with our parents and many more!

David and Robert met when they were both young and starting their their careers. While Robert was building his long train of shops up along highway 99, he met a nice lawyer from Camarillo, CA who was willing to help Robert on reading documents and any legal situations he was in. To this day, David is just a phone call away for any of Robert's legal issues. David has helped him navigate everything from signing on a new store, to maneuvering through the painful lawsuits that Robert has encountered. It was a blessing to have David on to talk about not only his experiences through the lawsuits, but also bring in a 3rd party perspective on what was happening, and what exactly went down with the fall of Golden Bake.

Today we are joined by 3 very important guests - Stuart Isett, Silong Chhun, and Pete Pin who are the collaborators on this very special book. We talk about why Stuart put together this book and what this kind of representation means for the Cambodian community. We even discuss topics such as generational trauma and how we can move forward.

Bob Burton was the real estate commercial agent who helped Robert find his first donut shop ever. Today we with with Bob and recall when he first met Robert and why he felt compelled to help this refugee from Cambodia.

Ken Swann was a Field Representative for the IRC, was on the field working directly with the refugees in the main refugee camps. His job consisted of helping transport doctors and nurses to the correct camps, run errands for medical staff, and towards the end helped compiled the "Unaccompanied Minor Handbook" which helped reconnect kids with their parents in the camps. His work was incredibly valuable in saving the lives of refugees, and in this episode he shares what he witnessed during those 2 years.

John was a stringer for the Time Magazine and Washington post from 1979-1980’s, covering on the ground exactly what was happening in these Cambodian refugee camps. He has had first hand experience and was on the grounds of the camps, witnessing everything going on from starving people marching out the forests, to being there the day of First Lady Carter Visit in November 1979. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick his brain and give all the listeners an inside scoop on what his experience was like.

This episode we will travel back in time and see how Amanda and the rest of the family escaped after Robert had made it alive in Thailand. After the family learns about the axe coming back - proving there is an escape route out of Cambodia, Amanda runs back to grab Mama to get the whole family together and out.

My aunt Amanda had a very different experience during the Khmer Rouge. She was hidden by my grandmother in fear of being taken away, therefore most of her time was spent in hiding. She talks about how life was like in the camps back where grandma was, and how grandma did what she had to do to keep her alive. This special episode is a fascinating look into what had to be done during the Khmer Rouge in order to stay alive.