Listen Now

In this final episode on Voice America, Dr. Nguyen opens up the question about what her profession offers toward the struggle to be human.

Dr. Nguyen continues to make her case for human connection by questioning the forces behind curiosity, Friendship, and psychotherapy.

In continuing to make her case for kindness and tenderness, Dr. Nguyen examines the forces that prevent our recognition of each other's humanity and corrupt our sense of connection to each other.

Dr. Nguyen gives a retrospective of the series. In her review of what has been gleaned from her conversations with guests, the host highlights the basic fact of the human condition and speaks of the current breakdown in mutual recognition and connection in human intercourse. This episode circles back to her debut hour and makes an impassioned argument for kindness and tenderness.

In this last interview of a guest for the show, the host features a Vietnam-based foundation that is devoted to the empowerment of women and youth via the fight against human trafficking. Dr. Nguyen’s conversation with the Director of Pacific Links Foundation exposes the historical, socio-economic and human conditions in Pacific Asia that makes trafficking a lucrative business. They also discuss the strategies to restore dignity and power to victims of trafficking.

In this special, intimate episode Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with a celebrated concert pianist about her work. The host interviews her fellow Vietnamese about her life experiences and insights as a musical prodigy, an immigrant, and a teacher. Her guest will also share her own insights into her favorite composers. The conversation seeks to tease out the parallels in her musical training and her training for life.

In this episode, Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, about his view on Art and Life. Through this interview about his mission at Carnegie Hall, Sir Clive Gillinson speaks with Dr. Nguyen about his view on the value of the arts, the meaning of happiness, and the parallels between the making of an artist and successful living.

The host is in conversation with two senior staff about the value of Art in our lives Specifically, she interviews the Chief Marketing Officer on the creative aspect of her job in making music accessible to the general public, and the Assistant Director of the Early Childhood program on the rewards and challenges of facilitating the creative impulse in young children and their families.

Dr. Nguyen interviews a psychoanalyst-cum-painter who devoted many years to painting portraits of homeless people. As her guest reports on the life stories of these marginalized, forgotten individuals, the host probes into his own process of being with them. In particular, she asks about the act of looking at another human being --what it requires of him and what it brings to him in terms of understanding theirs and his own humanity.

Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist about his work with troubled youth. The conversation explores the role of the creative arts in helping repair the emotional damage wreaked on adolescents that come from a history of childhood deprivation, racism, poverty, and abuse. The host and her guest also reflect on how the arts function as a resource in the project of staying connected as humans.

This episode explores what breaks down in the sense of self and of connection when people go through a divorce, and what resources we can call on to remain in kindness and trust. Dr. Nguyen interviews a divorce mediator who has worked with couples in the belief that conflict can be a tremendous opportunity for growth and transformation. Their conversation touches on the nature of fear and hate, as well as the hope that moves at the center of divorce. The host and guest discuss the element in their work that aims to support human connection.

Dr. Nguyen interviews her guest, a financial planner and former hedge-fund research analyst, about the role of money in living. The conversation explores how our value systems, purpose, and emotional conflicts play out in our use of money.

Dr. Nguyen continues the conversation with Pardiss Kebriaei about her work with the detainees of Guantanamo Bay. Specifically, in part 2, Pardiss Kebriaei describes how these men survive comments on what she sees as the psychic deformities that are incurred by US policies regarding national security and counter-terrorism. She also reflects on how the connection that she formed with these men over the years of her advocacy on their behalf.

Continuing with the effort to explore how the wounded lets the light enter, the episode features a conversation with an attorney whose work is devoted to defending the constitutional rights of people against governmental abuse in the context of national security. In particular, the host and her guest speak about the men who were/are held Guantanamo Bay, as a result of America's campaign against terrorism following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The discussion centers on what has been stripped of their humanity, how these men manage to hold on to their humanity in the face of ongoing dehumanization, and how their attorneys connect with these men.

Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist who specializes in treating children and families on issues of traumatic loss. The conversation explores the process of becoming a person and the resources and priorities as well obstacles that are currently at play in helping our children toward being fully human.

The host interviews a fellow Vietnamese immigrant about her work as a doctor, a human rights activist, and a politician. The guest is Dr. Mai-Khan Tran who ran for Congress in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. She will speak with Leanh Nguyen about the motivation and purpose in her work as a physician and an activist. The conversation revolves around the link between caring for children and caring for the world, the coherence between protecting human lives as a doctor and a politician.

A doula speaks with the host about what we need to protect and cultivate during the birthing process. Dr. Nguyen and her guest talk about how the de-humanizing forces of medical technology and racism affect infant mortality, but also how lives are saved by the process of connecting with another human being and with oneself.

The guest is a psychotherapist who identifies her work with being a psychoanalyst and a feminist. Dr. Nguyen speaks with Jane Hassinger about her work with abortion providers in Africa and Asia. The conversation will explore notions of personhood across cultures and the values and conceptions of a good human life.

In this special episode, the host interviews Imam Khalid Latif on his work as a university chaplain and a leader in multi-faith initiatives. The conversation explores the meaning of faith and its role in the project of living. The host and her guest also discuss the challenges and resources that our contemporary society has in the effort to stay human.

A conversation with a psychoanalyst in her 80s whose most recent project is to export psychoanalysis to China is an opportunity for the host to explore and compare notions of happiness, good living, an personhood in the East versus the West. Dr. Nguyen also asks her guest to speak of her own personal process of finding her purpose and engaging with Life.