Blast from The Past: Vinton Cerf and Mai Vu

I first began volunteering at the radio station in the fall of my freshman year and quickly became intrigued by the public affairs program. Although I never considered myself a journalist, I enjoyed speaking with others about various events in the community and editing the recordings together to produce radio pieces.

For the better part of that year I produced 5-10 minute news pieces for the KZSC News which aired every Thursday night. The more I produced pieces, the more I realized how much I enjoyed strictly interview based pieces and moved towards longer, "features" pieces which centralized around one person.

Vinton Cerf: Father of the Internet

The first of these was my interview of Vinton Cerf, Vice President and Chief Evangelist of Google. This man created the first e-mail, and is known as "the father of the internet". In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work. The medal is the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. No big deal. 

In December, 1994, People magazine identified Cerf as one of that year's "25 Most Intriguing People."

It was truly a privilege to interview him and during our talk we focused on the current state of Google and what projects the company has for the future. 

The interview originally aired May 5th 2010 but was re-aired as a throwback on February 24, 2011

Click to listen to the Vinton Cerf interview

Interview with Vint Cerf

Below is a photograph of Vinton Cerf "Godfather of the Internet" 

Mai Vu: Vietnam Escapee

The other interview I chose to re-air highlighted one of the untold stories of an immigrant.

I spoke with Mai Vu who escaped Vietnam after the communist revolution during the war. At ten years old Mai and her family pushed off into the Pacific Ocean in a tug boat with 30 others in the middle of the night and was eventually rescued by a Japanese cargo ship.

Although it's been nearly 35 years since her escape, Mai speaks about the event in vivid detail. We also spoke about some of the challenges immigrants faced in the past and present day along with the differences of cultural change. 

The piece originally aired on May 27th 2010 and was re-aired with Vinton Cerf's piece on February 24th, 2011.

Click below to listen to the original interview of Mai Vu

Interview with Mai Vu

Below is a photograph of Mai Vu practicing yoga at "Downtown Yoga" in her hometown of Pleasanton, California