Episode notes
As Saigon collapses and the last helicopters lift off, Joseph risks everything to save his grand-daughter, Trinh. In a city on the edge, chaos erupts — and a family’s story reaches its final reckoning. * SAIGON is a production of Thoroughbred Studios , Goldhawk Productions and iHeart Podcasts starring Kelly Marie Tran & Rob Benedict Based on the best-selling novel Saigon by Anthony Grey Created for audio by: Greg Haddrick & Jeremy Fox Written by: Greg Haddrick Series Producer: Emma Hearn Original music by: Sacha Puttnam Directed by: John Scott Dryden Cast: Trinh (Narrator) -…
Transcript
Read the transcript · about 3,070 words, follows along as you listen
Speaker 1:My name is Trim, and this is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us.
Speaker 2:The United States will not stand by and allow any.
Speaker 1:Power, however great ape over another time.
Speaker 3:Or.
Speaker 4:That's brought all the news.
Speaker 5:And land a bat eighty batle eighty battle.
Speaker 6:That could be no peace without justice, and facn be.
Speaker 7:No justice without peace.
Speaker 1:Chapter eight. By the time Joseph and Naomi reached Saigon, the North Vietnamese Communist army all he had the city surrounded.
Speaker 8:Is this.
Speaker 9:Is this the house?
Speaker 10:Yes?
Speaker 9:I thought you said it was opulent, Well it was once looks deserted.
Speaker 4:Well, let's hope someone's still here. Will you wait?
Speaker 9:Yes, just wait, thanks, he won't be long.
Speaker 4:You Sin Chao.
Speaker 11:I'm looking for the Tran family.
Speaker 4:This is their home Earth, this used to be their home American.
Speaker 6:Yes, I'm Joseph Sherman. I'm looking for my granddaughter. Her name is Trin. I wondered if anyone here had any news of her. Is there anyone here from the Tran family who I.
Speaker 4:Could talk to? No here now? No?
Speaker 3:No?
Speaker 4:Wait, wait wait wait, I have a photo? Yes, photo here, there you go. See do you know this girl? No here? Yeah, yes, but I thought someone might know something. No, but wait, I'm the America. No good tire, no luck. No, I don't think it's their house anymore. I can't believe what's happened to it.
Speaker 9:Well, that isn't how you described it.
Speaker 6:Monsieur Hue turn in his grave and he saw it like this, plaster crumbling and the garden overgrown. This used to be one of the grandest villas in the district.
Speaker 9:Oh, they're getting closer. You go, yes, go hotel first, then the palace.
Speaker 4:You mean the presidential palace.
Speaker 9:Yes, the Press of Auburn invited big men swearing in ceremony. By six pm, he'll be the next president of South Vietnam.
Speaker 4:What's the point that gunfire? That's how close the North Vietnamese forces are.
Speaker 9:I agree, it's deck chairs on the Titanic, but they still want to keep up appearances. I just have to swing by the caravel and pick up Philip Who manu, cameraman?
Speaker 4:What happened to Dar?
Speaker 9:He took a bullet in his arm while he was embedded with the South viet Army. They flew him out. It's like crop block British, I'm British, you spy no, no, no with press. Look look my card foreign press. Naomi Howell, British movie tone, Joseph Sherman, producer, Okay, thank you. Wow, it's getting happier. Com Moon is so blow.
Speaker 4:That still sounds a fair way off.
Speaker 10:Not blow everyone fight them no good one second?
Speaker 9:Better you leave, go home after the palace, hotel, caravel, then palace, then airport. Ten minutes then we'll be back. Okay, okay, pack what you can, Joseph, I'll be I'll be down in a set.
Speaker 11:Naomi, listen, I can't go tonight. Jer I came back to find Trin.
Speaker 9:You've tried. No one could tell us which unit she's with. None of her family is still here. Just just pack up.
Speaker 11:I have to go talk to the concierge.
Speaker 9:I'll be down in a minute. Ah, mister Trunk, good evening, Sherman.
Speaker 11:Good evening.
Speaker 4:Are there any messages.
Speaker 9:But your granddaughter?
Speaker 11:Yes, I'm afraid not, Monsieur, nothing at all.
Speaker 9:Sadly, my usual sources cannot help.
Speaker 8:Whoever.
Speaker 10:Guyan Tuk the obaman on the terrace, he was looking for you a little earlier.
Speaker 6:Why okay, thank you, Mercy.
Speaker 10:Duke Monsieur Joseph my best customer.
Speaker 4:My Tini later and no time.
Speaker 11:I don't know.
Speaker 4:Mister Trunk said you were looking for me?
Speaker 10:Yes, well he told me. You've been trying to find your granddaughter te Trin.
Speaker 11:Yes, what do you know?
Speaker 10:Please, Well, some of my contacts are a little closer to our comrades from the north than mister Trunk's contacts.
Speaker 11:So and what did they say?
Speaker 10:They said, first of all, asking questions about now is a costly business?
Speaker 11:Yes, okay, how about you? Yes?
Speaker 10:Unfortunately things have become very expensive in Saigon.
Speaker 11:All right, all right, Ah, what did they say?
Speaker 10:They said, she is with the infiltration ninth Brigade, who are advancing from the northwest. But she is in trouble.
Speaker 11:What sort of trouble?
Speaker 10:Well, the North Vietnamese Army were under orders to kill any villagers who didn't join the Communist Party as they moved south, but she refused to do that. Normally, refusing a direct order would mean a death sentence for her too. But then she's related to trans Van Kim and Comrade trans Van Kim is one of the heroes of the communist movement, so she's under arrest until they get to Saigon, and Kim can decide what to do with her.
Speaker 11:Kim We Kim is still alive.
Speaker 10:That's what they say.
Speaker 11:Where is he?
Speaker 4:Is he still in prison at it? Did he escape?
Speaker 11:Did they get him out?
Speaker 10:It'll take a lot more than four hundred dollars to find trans Van Kim, mister Sherman, of course.
Speaker 11:Well you've been very helpful. Thank you, Tuck. I hope you'll be okay when Saigon.
Speaker 10:Falls luckily comunist. Enjoy a drink too, mister Sherman.
Speaker 11:Yeah, I'm coming.
Speaker 10:Someone will have to keep running the bar.
Speaker 6:Well, make sure it's you, my friend. You make the best martinis in town.
Speaker 3:Hi.
Speaker 9:Are you ready? This is Philip Hi Hi?
Speaker 11:Yeah, Naomi, Nomi.
Speaker 6:I just heard about trind She's been arrested what she wouldn't follow orders, So they're going to hand her over to Transvent Kim Ho Chi Minh's former deputy.
Speaker 11:Her fate is in his hands.
Speaker 9:Okay, okay, So where's Tranvan Kim?
Speaker 11:I don't know.
Speaker 4:I actually saw him. Yeah, back in sixty eight.
Speaker 6:He'd been captured by the American army, but they left two years ago.
Speaker 9:Well, they probably gave him to the South Vietnamese Army and all their top brass are going to be at the palace. Oh, come on, come on, are you getting this, Philip.
Speaker 1:Even with the South Vietnamese government on the brink of collapse, a new president was being sworn in as though it was still a proud democracy.
Speaker 8:In an acceptance speech of delusional Grandeur, General Min is promising that as president he will be able to force a negotiated ceasefire with an enemy who has in fact already overtaken the entire country and is advancing through the outskirts of Saigon block by block. Even as we speak, the French and American diplomatic missions are about to pull out, and the fate of the South Vietnamese people is in the balance. Naomi Howell movie turn news.
Speaker 11:Cut, Well, perfect, let's pack up.
Speaker 4:How long should we give him?
Speaker 9:Do you think, big men? Six at most.
Speaker 10:Six months?
Speaker 9:No days, six days, Joseph, how'd you go?
Speaker 11:Well?
Speaker 6:I spoke to the chief of staff, but they've got no idea, none at all.
Speaker 11:Where's Tran Van Kim?
Speaker 6:I asked, and he just shrugged and said they've completely lost track of him. So he might have escaped, he might have been freed, or he could to be locked up somewhere. No one knows, so all we can do is try the main garrison. Now what, No, we don't have to the command barracks. Maybe someone down the line knows more than the generals.
Speaker 9:If we knew where to go, that would be one thing. But we can't just wander around and look. And I've got to get Philip out. I don't want to get another cameraman shot.
Speaker 10:Look.
Speaker 9:I gotta tell you what. Let's go to the airport first, get Flip onto a plane with all the footage, and then we'll we'll figure out what to do.
Speaker 1:Minutes later, they were on their way to the airport, but they'd barely driven a few miles when things started to go wrong.
Speaker 9:The brows block.
Speaker 4:It's like they're checking every car.
Speaker 9:Is there any other way there? No press, foreign journalists. We're going to the airport. An everyone go back. We have to get to the airport. No more black shots. Close, Finny, no plane.
Speaker 4:White hose?
Speaker 9:Alight, I don't draw.
Speaker 8:Where go?
Speaker 9:I don't know where? Where can we go to the hotel?
Speaker 12:No?
Speaker 5:Wait?
Speaker 6:Turn on the radio, Yes, find radio Vietnam.
Speaker 4:That was it? Did you hear that they're playing White Christmas.
Speaker 9:White's Christmas boy, it's the US Embassy's.
Speaker 4:It means an evacuation center. Way.
Speaker 6:Hey, we've got to get to the American embassy.
Speaker 4:How much further?
Speaker 9:God?
Speaker 6:What?
Speaker 9:Who are?
Speaker 4:Who is?
Speaker 9:People?
Speaker 13:I stopped you?
Speaker 9:No, no, don't. We'll give you ten thousand doll if you get us to the embassy.
Speaker 4:Look everything block I have, you'll walk legle home.
Speaker 6:No, wait, Naomi, it's hopeless.
Speaker 4:Leave our stuff in the car. Get to the embassy.
Speaker 9:Okay, Philip, Yes, got the footage, of course. Okay, come on and bring the camera.
Speaker 4:Come on, gotta hurry, come on.
Speaker 1:It took them another hour to get to the gates of the embassy on foot. It seems like all of Saigon was on the streets, desperate to get out before the city fell to the advancing Communist forces.
Speaker 14:Said stay, sergeant, sergeant, tell you the press. Joseph Sherman and Naomi Howe rinsed media. A cameraman the lad Yes, yes, from.
Speaker 11:The Okay, inside, you're presuering shuttle flights to an offshore carrier lines over there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, got it, thank you. I'm going to get these on the field.
Speaker 9:I'll joge camera, Josie, where you going?
Speaker 4:Go ahead? With your peace. I'll be back.
Speaker 6:I need to find someone who Mike Cia guy, he'll definitely be here.
Speaker 4:Everything's gotta go, like everything everything said to k Files you got it?
Speaker 6:Got it?
Speaker 4:Mike? Is this what sure?
Speaker 15:Joseph Sherman, Good lord?
Speaker 4:When did you get back a few days ago? What the hell for my granddaughter? She asked me to come get her and I don't know where she is.
Speaker 15:Well you won't find her. Now, get back out there and get on one of the choppers.
Speaker 4:She may be with Kim wherever he is. Do you know where Kim is? Kim tran fan Ki, Yes.
Speaker 11:Yes, the man in the White Room.
Speaker 4:You asked me to talk to him, remember, yeah, I remember? Where is he?
Speaker 15:I don't know. We handed him over to the administration when the army pulled out two years ago. They let him go, is what I heard?
Speaker 4:Let him go? Yeah?
Speaker 15:His guards were either bought off or they've been double agents all along, who knows. Anyway, they just unlocked the door and he walked.
Speaker 11:Out and went where.
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 15:Bullshit, I don't. Actually, there's been a bit going on. In case you haven't realized.
Speaker 4:Your CIA, Mike. You get reports from all over the place.
Speaker 15:I can't read them all.
Speaker 4:Well, do you file them?
Speaker 15:The files are being shredded.
Speaker 7:That's what we're doing.
Speaker 4:Now, what's trans ven Kim filed under t for tren.
Speaker 15:Okay, hang on, given ten years of my life to this shithole.
Speaker 4:It's all up in smoke.
Speaker 10:I'm a mess.
Speaker 11:I know, Mike, all.
Speaker 15:Right, if you really want to risk your life. It's unsubstantiated. But there's talk of a safe house just across the Newport Bridge. He might be using that as a base. Thanks, Mike, Yeah, good luck, buddy.
Speaker 6:Joseph Naomi, he's at Newport Bridge, I have to that's where they'll be taking Trend.
Speaker 4:You stay here, Joseph.
Speaker 9:This is insane. You don't know that.
Speaker 4:Hey, I'll see you.
Speaker 6:I'll see you back at the Foreign Correspondence Bar in London.
Speaker 4:Have that Martini waiting?
Speaker 6:Then?
Speaker 4:Can you open the gate? Corporal? Are you sure he opened the gate? The last chopper flight goes in three hours. Yes, there'll be no one here after that, I know.
Speaker 10:Okay, everyone excuse me?
Speaker 6:Oh stop, no, no, no weapons. I'm a journalist, you american, American? Yes, I'm a friend, not uh not army. Yes, yes, yes, there's someone I need to see a comrade.
Speaker 4:I want to get to Newport Bridge.
Speaker 2:What comrade?
Speaker 6:His name is tran Van Kim, Comrade Kim.
Speaker 4:I need to meet him. It's important that I see him. I just, I just, I just want to get to Newport Bridge.
Speaker 2:Why that bridge?
Speaker 4:Because that's where, because that's where he'll be. Can I just keep walking? Why don't follow me? If you want to, I don't care. Just let me go right listen American.
Speaker 1:Joseph didn't know how long he was unconscious for, but when he awoke, he was blindfolded and his hands were tied behind his back.
Speaker 7:Way name you American? Come now?
Speaker 4:Now, come.
Speaker 9:Night?
Speaker 2:So American?
Speaker 11:Where am I.
Speaker 5:Now?
Speaker 2:We shoot you?
Speaker 11:No?
Speaker 4:No, no, no, no, don't.
Speaker 11:No.
Speaker 2:How does it feel thinking you could die in the next few seconds? Him and tie him? Good Joseph, Hello Joseph, it's been a while.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad to see you, and the feeling is mutual one of me. In fact, your timing is excellent. I think you should come with me, please.
Speaker 7:Hob in.
Speaker 2:Where are we going through the Presidential Palace?
Speaker 3:Most of our brigades are matching there and now they're facing almost no resistance. I'd be watching there, but I'm not as fit as I used to be. Eight years of captivity will do that to you.
Speaker 4:Where is she king? You must know I am here. Can you at least tell me she's safe?
Speaker 3:Do you know what I miss most about those youthful days of being fit, Joseph.
Speaker 2:Not my balls, no, or the girls. I missed tennis.
Speaker 3:I loved that game, but I never played again after be that Frenchman in the Sagon Championship.
Speaker 2:It was a great match, Yes, it was something.
Speaker 6:The one time I met Trim years ago now, I told her about that game and how wonderfully you play well.
Speaker 2:Some days stay with us forever. That was one such day, and this will be another. You're a reporter, Joseph and a famous prize winning author. I'm told you should witness this. It will be in his zoric moment. Trust me.
Speaker 1:Inside, Comrade Kim was greeted by a large gathering of North Vietnamese Army.
Speaker 9:Commanders dun da but no.
Speaker 1:Together they all headed to the main hall where President big Men was holding his first cabinet meeting, which he now knew would also be his last.
Speaker 7:Ah Sagan, the revolution has arrived. Welcome, gentlemen, We have been waiting for you to transfer power into your hands.
Speaker 2:I'm afraid there's no question of you transferring power. General mean, you.
Speaker 3:Cannot give up what you do not have. Your power is completely dissolved. You can only hand over your unconditional surrender. The Communist Party of North Vietnam is now the government of all Vietnam. General Ming, we have prepared a speech for you to read on national radio.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course, arrest them all. What don't lie, heck Ming to the radio station. Some things really are worth a lifetime of struggle. I do not, Joseph.
Speaker 3:And as for you, this is for forty years, this is for our friendship, This is for my sister Lane.
Speaker 4:What do you mean lorgji.
Speaker 7:Han Lo Chifang dong da America?
Speaker 4:What wait?
Speaker 5:What?
Speaker 11:What's what's going on?
Speaker 7:Joe?
Speaker 2:With the comrades.
Speaker 3:They will take you to your granddaughter and get you to the American embassy in time for the last helicopter.
Speaker 11:Thank you, Kim. I don't know how to think, Joe.
Speaker 8:Now go.
Speaker 2:Joseph and don't come back.
Speaker 5:Boy Kin Wing sa I you know. General Yuanan, President of the Slagon Administration, appeal to the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam, lay down their arms, you know, surrender unconditionally, beautifulces.
Speaker 4:Of the Liberation.
Speaker 1:On the thirtieth of April nineteen seventy five, after decades of pain and misery, Vietnam was finally free and Joseph and me were on that last flight out. I finally reached American territory and my grandfather had returned home. He died fifteen years later holding my hand.
Speaker 8:Now, wake up, San Francisco.
Speaker 1:It took years for Vietnam to change, but it is now a peaceful and prosperous country. I returned for the first time at the age of sixty seven. My children took me back in their own kids, my grandchildren.
Speaker 13:And this is the Gucci comes like turnal system. Lady and gentlemen used by the underground become fighters. If they need to escape, they could jump down here and see sy.
Speaker 4:Look the whole right there.
Speaker 13:It's a way down there, that's over here. Let's move on, Lady and gentlemen.
Speaker 9:Right here.
Speaker 13:The American had a special cop of men. They got that.
Speaker 1:Okay, Mom, I'm okay. I still feel young, but I guess I'm not anymore.
Speaker 9:Mom, Okay, just remembering just Remember.
Speaker 12:Your Clothes Captain fiber One Alpa post.
Speaker 10:Copy by by One Alpha All Claire.
Speaker 11:Are you happy, Trin?
Speaker 6:Yes?
Speaker 4:Mecho.
Speaker 12:Saigon is a production of Thoroughbred Studios, gold Hog Productions and iHeart Podcasts starring Kelly Marie Trann and Rob Benedict. Based on the best selling novel Cigon by Anthony Gray. It is created for audio by Greg Hadrick and Jeremy Fox, written by Greg Hadrick and directed by John Scott Dryden. Original music is by Sasha Putnam, with additional performances by Normgnir and Lettipic Cheer. Editing and sound design is by Elouise Whitmore. The series producer is Emma Herdon. In Saigon, the narrator Trin is played by Cali Marie Trann, Joseph Sherman by Rob Benedict, Lan Lenne, La Pray, gim Lam Visay, Paul Devereux, Philip Arditti, Jacques Devaux, Anton Lesser, missr, Hugh Arranteo, Madame Hugh Tiundu, Touit, Karon Barreto, Child to Wit v Yuen, Naomi, Kirsty Bushel, Gary Sherman, Christopher Raglund, Michael tensch Ian Porter Ho Chi Minh Kuang, Lock Todd, Richard Southgate, Henderson, Kerrie Schale, Philippe Philip de Mill, and the French pilot by Wallace Hammond.
Speaker 12:All other parts performed by Hou Kuonmann, Ci Rawlingson, Sotti, Pong Dang, Wallace Hammond, Antoine Urbez, Tony Yen, Nuin Mi Guo, Dan Baudienfuk, Fat Mang Mien, Ein lan Ang Fan A Dung, and Anthony Huang. The script consultants are Lucy Gray and Clarissa Gray. The script editor is Mike Walker, with script supervision by Flynn Holman. The producer in Vietnam is Fat Mang Mien. The studio engineers are Paul Clark, Vi Chan Jua Vu Kaka, Juan Martin del Campo, and Greg Rubin.
Speaker 12:The trailer's producer is Jack Soper. The executive producers are Jeremy Fox, Greg Hadrick, John Scott Dryden, Howard Stringer and Jason English
Transcript supplied by the publisher with the episode.
Podcast
Saigon
iHeartPodcasts · Stories · English
One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart… Saigon is an epic saga of love, blood and revolution starring Kelly Marie Tran and Rob Benedict . An eight-part audio drama for iHeart adapted from the best-selling novel by Anthony Grey, it is a story of political intrigue and rom
More from Saigon All episodes →
-
25 Aug 2026 · 3 min
Introducing: UnderGround Zero: 9/11 & The Mob | Starring Michael Imperioli & Steve Schirripa
Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa star in the untold true story of how the New York Mafia exploited the aftermath of 9/11. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
-
S1 · E7 · 20 May 2026 · 22 min
Chapter 7 – The Cost of War
As American forces push deeper into Vietnam, Joseph’s son, Gary, is sent on a mission that will test everything he believes. Far from the front line, the cost of the war closes in with devastating consequences. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
-
S1 · E6 · 13 May 2026 · 31 min
Chapter 6 – The Red Line
As America’s involvement in Vietnam deepens, Joseph travels into the heart of the country in search of his daughter, Tuyet — now a Viet Cong fighter. What he finds brings him closer than ever to the family he lost — and the danger consuming Vietnam. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
-
S1 · E5 · 6 May 2026 · 28 min
Chapter 5 – The Fire Comes
In a newly divided Vietnam, Joseph returns to Saigon with hopes he cannot quite let go. But as tragedy strikes and old wounds reopen, a fire begins to sweep across Vietnam — and a new generation chooses its own path. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
-
S1 · E4 · 29 Apr 2026 · 25 min
Chapter 4 – End of Empire
Joseph reports on the final days of French rule in Vietnam. Amid the siege of Dien Bien Phu, long-buried truths and divided loyalties can no longer be avoided. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
-
S1 · E3 · 29 Apr 2026 · 36 min
Chapter 3 – Lost Daughter
As World War II reshapes Asia, Joseph returns to Vietnam to find everything changed. In a land caught between empires, revolution and famine, the past comes rushing back as he and Lan are drawn into a journey neither of them expected. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Take it with you
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
