In this episode, I got to have a conversation with my longtime friend, Dr. Deborah Pembleton, who shares the story of her upbringing in small-town Mississippi and the evolution of her deep sense of connection with Thailand and the Asian region. Deborah is Professor of Global Business Leadership at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Minnesota, and has led study abroad programs to the Bahamas, China, and Thailand.
In our conversation, we refer to a few culturally-specific terms and places:
A ‘tuk tuk’ is a three-wheel motorized version of a rickshaw that one finds in abundance on the streets of Thailand.
Khon Kaen is a city in the northeastern part of Thailand.
The Hmong people are indigenous to East and Southeast Asia — many Hmong live in disaporic communities in places including the U.S. state of Minnesota. For more information, check out the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul, MN.