Ten Thousand Things with Shin Yu Pai
New episodes start April 30, 2024.
An award-winning podcast about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life, hosted by poet and museologist Shin Yu Pai.
In many Chinese sayings, “ten thousand” is used in a poetic sense to convey something infinite, vast, and unfathomable. For Shin Yu, the story of Asians in America is just that. In Ten Thousand Things, Shin Yu explores a collection of objects and artifacts that tell us something about Asian American life – from a second-hand novel to a blue suit worn by a congressman on January 6. Ten Thousand Things is a vibrant, diverse, and bittersweet celebration of Asian America ... and a challenge for all of us to reimagine stories of the past and future.
Ten Thousand Things is created and hosted by Shin Yu Pai and produced by KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle. Logo art by Eason Yang, with photography from Reva Keller. Original music by Tomo Nakayama.
Ten Thousand Things is the winner of two 2023 Golden Crane awards from the Asian American Podcasters Association and a silver Signal Award.
Episodes
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A record player is a time machine
The vintage Califone record player allows sound artist Paul Kikuchi to access and share songs that he inherited from his great-grandfather and other 78rpm records that were left behind by Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.
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A dictionary transforms a son's grief
After his father's death, Byron Au Yong turned to paper folding.
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A childhood stuffie goes missing
The Blue Suit's host, Shin Yu Pai, revisits an object from her own life.
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A glassy gift shines a new path
In a small clear box, Etsuko Ichikawa keeps a small piece of vitrified glass that was given to her on a tour of the Hanford nuclear site.
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A flavor creates harmony
Tomo Nakayama usually puts his creative energy into his harmonious music. But when the pandemic hit, he found a new outlet: cooking.
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A rare cactus takes root
Jessica Rubenacker collects plants. Lots of plants.
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A garment unveils an identity
A chador garment worn by some Muslim women is usually black. Not Anida Yoeu Ali's. Her chador is red and sparkly.
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Trailer: The Blue Suit
In a world full of stuff, what is worth keeping? What do we treasure? Explore modern-day heirlooms with The Blue Suit, a new KUOW podcast hosted and created by PNW poet Shin Yu Pai.
