Life and Culture | Colorado Public Radio

Three women dressed in extravagant white disco outfits sing on stage

Colorado Arts Spotlight: Local filmmakers debut pilot episodes at SeriesFest, DCPA and Pikes Peak Center announce upcoming shows, Governor’s Creative Leadership awards and more

By Lauren Antonoff Hart

Stills from Busted, High Science, How I Met My Partner and Bad Indian

These Colorado filmmakers are hoping to make it big. SeriesFest in Denver is their first stop

By Lauren Antonoff Hart

Listen: Business in Little Saigon is a family matter. What happens when the next generation moves on?

By Paolo Zialcita

Chester Reed remembers the images vividly: the fall of Saigon broadcast on television, families desperate to flee. "The people, they were scared to death. They didn't know what tomorrow was gonna bring," he recalled. "Only thing the people in South Vietnam wanted to do is live in peace, raise their families and get on with their lives." Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, Reed — a veteran who served two tours in Southeast Asia — has found an unexpected bond with someone whose life the war upended: Dr. Vinh Chung, a Colorado Springs dermatologist who now treats him. “When Saigon fell in April of 1975, my mother was pregnant with me,” Chung said. “I didn't choose to go there. I wasn't drafted. I was just born there." Chung's family, ethnic Chinese business owners, lost everything when Saigon fell, he said. Born in the Mekong Delta, he spent his early childhood in the jungle before his family fled Vietnam by boat. "There's a one-way trip because when you leave as a refugee, there's no going back," he added. After drifting at sea with no food or water, they were rescued by a humanitarian ship. Eventually, a small Lutheran church in Fort Smith, Arkansas, sponsored them. Decades later, another life-changing event brought Reed and Chung together — not on a battlefield, but in a Colorado clinic. "I had a cancer on the back of my neck," Reed remembered, touching the spot below his head. Reed said a friend recommended Dr. Chung. "Two days later, he operated on me and I'm here today because he's took good care of me for the last 14 or 15 years." "Mr. Reed here took a chance on me," Chung chimed in. "I came here, opened a practice. I knew nobody. And so we started from scratch." The two men bonded over more than medical procedures. Their conversations revealed parallels between their journeys and a shared belief in the power of kindness. "You can't control the paths of your lives," Chung said. "But you can always control how you treat other people." Reed agreed: "I like to treat everybody just like I treat myself. If I treat you that way, you'll treat me right too." Fifty years after Saigon fell, both men say they carry the lessons of war and survival. "It made me grow up a little quicker," Reed said. "You go through field hospitals, you see people laying there with no legs, no arms. You just learn to live with things. You can't change nothing." Chung reflected on the duality of human nature. "Humans are capable of the most cruel and savage behavior," he said. "On the other hand, I'm just amazed at the incredible courage and generosity of people I've encountered." As the world marks the anniversary of the war's end, Chung sees it as a reminder. "Today, as we talk about immigrants and refugees, we must see humanity in them," he said. "We should never, ever lose that." Reed echoed the sentiment. "Just treat everybody like you want to be treated and life will go on and everybody will get along good."

Life and Culture

Two Colorado men shaped by the fall of Saigon share their story 50 years after the Vietnam War

By Hayley Sanchez

pic of a room full of people standing up posing in a room with windows

Life and Culture

Interfaith Alliance of Colorado holds high tea for 2025 Women’s Forum on Monday

By Elaine Tassy

Lyons resident Glen Delman, left, and Adrean Kirk, who leads the Lyons Community Farm Project

Life and Culture

In Lyons, a flood led to ruin. Then something sweet fruited

A woman in a gray down winter coat stands with her arms spread in front of a UFO Watchtower tourist attraction.

Life and Culture

UFO Watchtower in the San Luis Valley famous for a horse skeleton and vortexes celebrates 25 years of aliens

A young girl riding a carousel on a Cheeta

Colorado Arts Spotlight: SeriesFest is back, plus new Redline grantees, Día del Niño celebrations, a cult film series and Unsent Show

By Lauren Antonoff Hart

A student is pictured from the side with his hands raised in the air as he recites a poem on a dark stage.

Back-to-back Poetry Out Loud state champion gets ready for nationals

By Kiara DeMare

Listen: Denver Pride Parade fundraising plummets as companies retreat from DEI

By Elaine Tassy

Be Well Microdosing

Believers say microdosing psychedelics helps them. Scientists are trying to measure the claims

By The Associated Press

Students in Spirituals In Motion, led by La’Shelle Allen

Colorado Arts Spotlight: A new director for Opera Colorado, local band ‘Tennis’ calling it quits, Spirituals in schools and more

By Lauren Antonoff Hart

Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore

Denver music duo Tennis to hang up their rackets

By Kiara DeMare

A gorilla sits in tall grass

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs remembers two long time residents, a giraffe and a gorilla

By Shanna Lewis

two people drink from wine glasses while standing near wine barrels outside a building

Wine made in Southern Colorado is on the menu at Yellowstone National Park this year, a first for the state’s wine industry

By Shanna Lewis

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