Join the Seven Million Bikes Community.

This episode’s guest, Tracey Nguyen Mang, is the founder and creator of the award winning podcast: The Vietnamese Boat People. This podcast shares the stories of hope, survival and resilience from the Vietnamese diaspora during 1975-1992.

Tracey was so interesting and engaging an interview it went for nearly two hours. It's been edited into two parts with bonus content available to the Seven Million Bikes Community.

In Part 2 Tracey shares about the Conversation Starter Kit they've developed to help children of Vietnamese Boat People break down barriers and get their family to comfortable open up about their painful past.

Read The Accompanying Blog Post.

Follow and Listen to the Vietnamese Boat People Podcast here.

Season 7 is sponsored by Blue Dragon's Children's Foundation and Saigon Children's Foundation. Please donate if you are in a position to.

Follow us on Facebook.

Buy us a coffee.

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with permission.

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

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These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

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“If I really spent $4,000 a month, I’d have a villa and a problem.”

Having Markeiz back on Discover Vietnam felt like picking up a conversation we never really finished the first time. When he first joined me back in 2020, I was recording out of my bedroom, praying the iPhone wouldn’t ruin the audio. This time, we were sitting in a full podcast studio — lights, cameras, a technician, the whole lot. It made me think about how much this show has grown, and how much life in Vietnam has shaped both of us.

This episode wasn’t about headlines or clickbait. It was about getting past the noise — especially the noise created after his CNBC video “Living on $4,000 a Month in Vietnam” went viral. That title got people talking, but most of the reactions didn’t include the actual context. And nothing drives me madder than a story taken out of context.

I wanted to let him tell the full story himself — the chaos that brought him to Vietnam, the visa confusion everyone goes through, the reality behind that $4,000 figure, and why life here works for him. What I loved most is that the conversation wasn’t defensive. It was honest. It was grounded. It was two people who love living in Vietnam but also understand the complexities and privilege that come with that.

Key Talking Points

1. The Real Story Behind the “$4,000 in Vietnam” Headline

2. From Military Punishment to a Life Rebuilt Abroad

3. Visa Confusion, Missteps, and the Reality of Living Here

4. What Life in Vietnam Actually Costs — Not the Myths

5. Are Foreigners Really Driving Up Housing Prices?

Chapters & Timestamps

• 00:00 – Returning Guest, Studio Glow-Up & Podcast Confessions
• 05:00 – Military Punishment & the Spark That Led to Vietnam
• 12:00 – Visa Scams, Emergency Visa Fees & Life’s First Curveballs
• 18:00 – The $4,000 Headline: What CNBC Didn’t Show
• 26:00 – The Real Cost of Living Here (and Why “Cheap” Is Misleading)
• 36:00 – Are Foreigners Pushing Up Housing Prices? The Myths Unpacked

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

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👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

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This episode’s guest, Tracey Nguyen Mang, is the founder and creator of the Vietnamese Boat People podcast, an award winning podcast which shares the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora, and something that has often been discussed with previous guests on this show. Tracey was born the youngest of seven children, in Nha Trang Vietnam before her family risked their lives to flee Vietnam.

Tracey was just three when her family made it to the United States, where there were few Vietnamese people at the time. Growing up in New Orleans and North Virginia, speaking Vietnamese at home as her first language, she went to a public school where she was one of just a few minorities and in an effort to assimilate suppressing her “history and heritage to adapt and assimilate”. Partly due to the trauma of their journey and the will to fit into their new surroundings the family didn’t talk about their past.

Season 7 is sponsored by Blue Dragon's Children's Foundation and Saigon Children's Foundation. Please donate if you are in a position to.
https://www.bluedragon.org/donate/
https://www.saigonchildren.com/engage/covid-19-crisis-2/

Follow us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/SevenMillionBikes

Buy us a coffee
https://ko-fi.com/sevenmillionbikes

Support the show
https://www.patreon.com/AVietnamPodcast

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with permission.

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!

Donate to Ukraine!

I met Anastasia Sokyrka in Government Quarantine in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. You can listen to my episode with her and my wife, Adrie, about our experiences while we were living them.

Since then we have become close friends, a silver lining of a tough experience (17 days with no mattress, no air con and no booze!)

Finally, after two years of the pandemic Anastasia was able to return to her home of Ukraine and reunite with her family. Despite the fact that Russia was escalating it's forces on the Ukrainian border and the threat of was was real, Anastasia needed to see her family and take that risk.

Unfortunately, 5 days after she arrived she awoke at 5am to the sound of the first rocket attack and her life changed in an instant.

In this episode Anastasia shares in detail;
* why she made the decision to return home
* what it felt like to be under attack and sheltering in her basement
* how her family escaped from Kharkiv and eventually made it to the Polish border
* the reality of being a refugee and having to leave behind your home and family members
* how she was able to return to Vietnam with her mother

And how YOU can help support Ukraine.

Click here for a list of trusted websites to donate to.

Follow Seven Million Bikes on Facebook or Instagram.

Buy us a coffee.
-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with permission.
Audio Engineer Luke Digweed.

These are the programs we use to create A Vietnam Podcast.

These are affiliate links so they will give us a small commission, only if you sign up , and at no extra cost to you! You'll be directly supporting Seven Million Bikes too.

Editing - Descript

Host - Buzzsprout

Design - Canva

Support

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!

Join The Community with Zion!

Zion Johnson is a former Transactivist, a writer and Seven Million Bikes superfan. He is the only person in the world to have a Seven Million Bikes tattoo!

In this episode we talk about;
- Zion's gender journey
- his trans-activism in the US
- transitioning from a black female to a black man
- woke culture
- why he decided to leave the U.S and settle in Vietnam
- life as a trans person in Vietnam

On The Road To Zion
Zion's Blog.

As mentioned by Zion.

Follow Seven Million Bikes on Facebook or Instagram.

Buy us a coffee.
-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with permission.
Audio Engineer Luke Digweed.

These are the programs we use to create A Vietnam Podcast.

These are affiliate links so they will give us a small commission, only if you sign up , and at no extra cost to you! You'll be directly supporting Seven Million Bikes too.

Editing - Descript

Host - Buzzsprout

Design - Canva

Support - Fiverr

Website - 10 Web

Support the show

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!

The opening guest of Season 7 is Brian Letwin, a New Yorker in Saigon since 2010. Brian is the co-founder and CEO of the Urbanist Network which includes Saigoneer, Urbanist Vietnam and Urbanist Hanoi.

Using his 15 years experience working in digital media both on the agency and publisher side Saigoneer has now been running since 2013.

Recorded in late August when Saigon was still under strict lockdown we try to keep covid and lockdown chat to a minimum. Fortunately being a digital product Saigoneer and the Urbanist Network is still operating without any loss of staff and is still keeping Bryan busy. Like many people, he is enjoying spending time at home with his young daughter, and feels fortunate to have a full fridge.

Season 7 is sponsored by Blue Dragon's Children's Foundation.
and Saigon Children's Foundation.

Please donate if you are in a position to.

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with
permission.

Read the Blog Post

Season 6 is sponsored by Eddie's New York Deli & Diner.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Buy us a coffee or beer!

Support the show

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!

“The reason I’m putting on a podcast is because I want to listen. I don’t want to read about the hosts - I want you to tell me about you.” — Adrie Mackay

 Today I'm doing something a little bit different. You're about to hear an episode from my other show, Smarter Podcasting, where my wife Adrie joins me to talk about what she looks for in a podcast

So if you ever thought. I could do that, but I don't know how, then this episode's for you.

If you do wanna start your own podcast, then go and subscribe to Smarter Podcasting as well. In this show I share all my tips and tricks and failures along the way to help you make the best podcast possible.

This episode is easily one of my favorites - not because of the guest (though she is my wife), but because I finally got to hear the raw, honest perspective of a real podcast listener. Adrie isn’t in the industry; she doesn’t care about gear or metrics. She just loves great stories, good sound, and shows that respect her time.

Listening to her describe how she chooses podcasts, where she listens, and what makes her switch off reminded me that every podcaster needs to think more like a listener. This conversation changed the way I look at intros, ads, and even how people interact with Spotify. If you want to know how your audience really experiences your show — this is the episode to listen to.

5 Key Talking Points

1. Listeners crave connection. They tune in to people, not just topics.
2. Bad audio kills interest instantly — even more than weak content.
3. The first two minutes decide everything. Get to the point fast.
4. Titles and artwork matter more than show notes. Most people never read them.
5. Podcast habits are personal. Where, when, and how people listen shapes what they love — and what they skip.

Chapters and Timestamps

• 00:00 — Why People Listen
• 03:00 — From Talk Radio to True Crime
• 09:00 — What Makes Listeners Switch Off
• 17:00 — Should You Repeat Your Intro Every Episode?
• 25:00 — How Listeners Discover New Podcasts
• 35:00 — Lessons for Podcasters

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!

Phuong Nguyen is a Vietnamese expat currently located in Paphos, Cyprus.

She has hosted a Vietnamese podcast since 2016. Occasionally she interviewed Expats living in Vietnam and has some episodes covering expat lives such as being a vegan in Hanoi, Vietnam under the eyes of an artist and expat's life during Tet - Vietnam's traditional New year holiday.

At the age of 30, she decided to shift her career into Fitness and now she is a Pilates instructor.

You can find her interview with Niall and more on her website:

https://theblueexpat.com/

or on wherever you listen to podcasts.

Connect with Phuong on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblueexpat/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblueexpat/

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright
Logo designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen with support from Devin Gray
Episode Art designed by Niall Mackay

Buy Seven Million Bikes a beer if you enjoy this content.

"Send me a message!"

Vote now for Discover Vietnam!

The full list of winners is here.

Support the show

🎙️ Start Your Podcast Today!

👉 Book a FREE Discovery Call with me and let’s bring your idea to life!

🎥 Edit Videos Like a Pro with Descript!

👉 I use Descript to create my content—try it for FREE here:

🔒 Protect Your Privacy with NordVPN!

👉 Get 70% OFF their 2-year plan and enjoy a secure, ad-free internet!

These are affiliate links, and I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

✅ Subscribe for More!

If you enjoy content about life in Vietnam, food adventures, and great conversations, hit that subscribe button.

📸 Follow Me on Instagram 🌐 Visit My Website 🎉 Join Our Community!