Khmer Voices

Sopheaktra Heang (aka Peter) is a Khmer Canadian who was born in a Thai refugee camp. He moved around a lot in his childhood and didn’t establish roots until he was an adult. 

Like many of us koun Khmer, his parents are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide; this along with other emotionally and psychologically traumatic events in his childhood greatly affected him. He was in with the wrong crowd, dropped out of high school, and enc...

Author of A Dozen Delicious Donuts: A Sweet Cambodian American Story, Chanda Ouk Wolf has loved reading for as long as she can remember, but growing up in the United States, she never came across stories that gave her a sense of who she is as a Cambodian American. 

Chanda grew up in Long Beach, California and later Lowell, Massachusetts, both home to the two largest Khmer communities in the US.  

In this episode, we discuss the cultu...

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Cheata Nao is a second generation Khmer Canadian who is pursuing a new career showcasing Cambodian cuisine. 

She has always been a good cook and loved hosting dinner parties since she was a teenager, but back then she was focused on learning how to master western dishes. It wasn’t until she moved away for university that she really missed her mom’s Cambodian cooking. That’s when she started expe...

Heng Vay is a second generation Khmer American who was born in Los Angeles, Calfornia, spent his early teenage years in Minnesota, and then moved to Texas where he currently resides with his wife and two children. 

At the age of 14, Heng’s parents arranged a marriage for him. And guess what? Over 20 years later, they’re still together! Heng and his wife owned and operated a donut shop for 10 years. For a while, he was content making...

Rothany Sar is a first generation Khmer American who arrived in the United States via an arranged marriage. The Cambodian community here often said to her she was “so lucky” and her life was like that of a princess. But she didn’t identify with either of those labels. Was she lucky? Why didn’t she accept being a “princess?”

Rothany was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1992, when she was 6 years old, the camps closed and she an...

Mitchell Keo is a second generation Khmer American born and raised in Houston, Texas. He grew up in a Mexican neighbourhood, and never felt a connection to a community growing up.

He started exploring his Asian American identity while studying biology at University of Texas at Austin. Today, Mitchell works as a software engineer and credits his love for books and Sokha, owner of Mam's Bookstore, for helping him explo...

Keo Sar is one of 6 children in his family. At a young age, his father who was the breadwinner got injured at work which resulted in him going on disability. To bridge the gap between disability cheques, he, his older brother, and their father would wake up early to dig in people's trash bins for cans before school started. Back then, recycling and garbage weren't separated! Kids at school called Keo, "the Cambodian ...

Channy Salazar is a strong, resilient, and tenacious lady from Texas, USA. She was born in Cambodia in 1973 and remembers bits and pieces of her time before arriving and settling in the US. Her recollections (at the 4 minute mark and lasting about 1 minute) are traumatic. 

Life wasn't easy growing up, but she had the love and support of her parents and grandparents. They instilled in her the importance of getting an e...

Sokha Mov shares her journey from being born in a refugee camp in Thailand to growing up in France where she was the only Asian in her class, navigating cultural identity, and pursuing a career in law and public service. She discusses her transition to Cambodia, the challenges of adapting to life there even though she’s koun Khmer and she speaks the language with good fluency.

She’s currently working at an NGO that provid...

Dimary (aka Mary) Leak didn't know how to speak English when she started kindergarten. A non-satisfactory test score in grade 1 ignited her desire to perform well academically, which she did all through primary and secondary school. When it came time to decide on a career however, she didn't have a clear direction or vision, and life went on.

In this episode, we talk about Mary's pivot from stay-at-home mom ...

Growing up, even though Soeun knew what she wanted to do, she let the words of others cloud her judgment at times. We discuss this and her journey in rediscovering herself and her heritage in her 40s. She’s gotten to a point in her career where she’s content and doesn’t know what her next move is, and we talk about navigating this. 

Soeun has over two decades of experience in administrative college and university positions...

Khmer Voices shines a spotlight on the achievements of the Khmer diaspora around the world. We chat with inspiring guests who are achieving success in their fields. From entrepreneurs and artists to community leaders and techies, we’ll explore their paths to success and the unique challenges they’ve overcome. 

Representation matters! And through these conversations, I aim to amplify the voices of the Cambodian community, i...

In this episode, Marpheen Chann shares his personal story of growing up in rural Maine, US which includes foster care and being adopted by a religious white working class family, the trauma his family experienced as a result of the Khmer Rouge, and his journey of self-discovery and cultural reconnection.

Marpheen Chann works in the nonprofit and advocacy sector as Executive Director and Founder of Khmer Maine and does cons...