The Bureau Podcast has had its entry accepted into a global podcasting competition.
The entry, a two-minute teaser for the podcast’s latest episode about anti-war student and Vietnamese National Hero, Nguyen Thai Binh, is in the running for two awards – the Major Prize and the People’s Choice Award.
The Major Prize for the best podcast will be voted on by an expert panel of judges, while the People’s Choice Award will be determined by which podcaster receives the most votes by the public.
The competition is being organised by Australian company, RODE, a leading manufacturer of audio equipment, in partnership with the Anchor podcasting platform.
The Bureau Podcast’s teaser sets the scene for the story after 1975 when Vietnam is finally at peace and reunified after centuries of fighting for independence, with the victors wasting no time in setting about renaming every street and neighbourhood in the former South after national heroes and significant others who helped create and defend the nation.
Most notably, the former capital of South Vietnam was renamed after the founding father of modern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh.
In the city centre, the small neighbourhood of Nguyen Thai Binh was named after a young South Vietnamese university student from the Mekong Delta who, at the height of the war, won a USAID scholarship to study and work in the United States in 1968.
Binh became more aware of different perspectives about the war and during a summer break back in South Vietnam in 1969, decided to embark on a motorcycle road trip to see the devastation for himself.
As a result, he vowed to do something about ending the war.
On his return to the US, Binh began to participate in demonstrations, organise sit-ins and rally others to help him get his anti-war message across.
Soon after, however, in the Spring of 1972, his scholarship was revoked and he was sent home on Pan Am Flight 841.
But in a sad twist, Binh would never set foot on Vietnamese soil again.
Voting for the competition ends on Wednesday June 23, 2021.
For more information on how to vote for The Bureau Podcast, watch the video below and visit the competition website HERE
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Feature image by Harry Cunningham via Unsplash
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