International Vinh Podcast

Bardia is a College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University 2020 graduate.

After studying data science, he pursued a master's at the London School of Economics where he founded FuzeQube, an innovative social tech start-up.

We discuss how I first met Bardia when he was an E-Scholars on their Vietnam field study when I was livin in Ho Chi Minh City, how he came across CSB/SJU as a Swedish international student, and about his st...

BREAKING: In a decisive 6-3 Supreme Court decision, Trump's IEEPA tarrifs have been declared invalid.

  What does this mean?   Importers, like myself, can consult their customs brokers---the people who helped bring their products into the US by filing duty payments to the government---to file a Post Summary Correction (PSC) to recoup some if not most of their payments.   In October, I paid a 20% duty on Vietnam goods...

In 2017, I took the leap living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, sold all of my belongings and bought a one-way ticket to Chiang Mai, Thailand, the digital nomad capital of the world.

Eventually, I would be based in Danang and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where I would continue my exciting life abroad.

There were a lot of ups and downs along the way but, overall, experiencing life overseas has a lot of merits, including an amazing nig...

Chen Cui is the co-founder of Ginger Control, an AI-based solution transforming trade compliance. The tool helps importers, customs brokers, and companies save on tariff payments to the US government as well as disseminates helpful trade policy news and information to stay ahead of the fast changing world of global trade.

I sit down with Chen to learn more about his journey and the vision for Ginger Control as the import-export wor...

Back on October 30, 2025, President Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jingping on the sidelines of the the APEC meeting in South Korea for a US-China trade war truce.

During that time, Trump announced that China had agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of American soybeans by the end of 2025.

However, now that we are in December, the numbers are more revealing: China has only purchased 2.7 million metric tons, well short of their ag...

After my parents excaped the fall of Saigon in 1975, they were sponsored by the Shipleys, a simple rural farming family that didn't have much in common with our family.

Dan and Sallie Shipley helped our family get on our feet in America---we started to learn English, dad got a job washing dishes, and we slowly started to adapt to our new surroundings.

Despite establishing our lives in Mankato, Minnesota for the next 25 years, our A...

Cathy Fields is a childhood friend from our days growing up in Mankato, Minnesota where we both attended Fitzgerald Middle School and Loyola High School.

I didn't keep too many tabs on Cathy after graduation---all I knew is that she moved to Iowa where she started a small business---until I recently saw her Facebook posts about her epic Asia trip.

Intrigued, I reached out to her to learn more about her Asia travels.

What I learned ...