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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Time Capsule
On the eve of selling her family’s house, Donna Miscolta’s daughter had a special request: Go to the stairwell and pull back the loose board on the bottom step.
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Resume
Eason Yang was on an ambitious career trajectory, helping tech companies like Uber change the world. Until he got cancer.
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Name
A name is an object that defines who we are. But what if our name is wrong?
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The Blue Suit is back... now as Ten Thousand Things
In many Chinese sayings, “ten thousand” is used in a poetic sense to convey something infinite, vast, and unfathomable. For Shin Yu Pai – award-winning poet and museologist – the story of Asians in America is just that. Introducing Ten Thousand Things, a special podcast series about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life, created and hosted by Shin Yu Pai and produced by KUOW.
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A blue suit becomes history
The story behind the viral and historic blue suit that inspired this podcast.
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Califone
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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Chinese-English Dictionary
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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Vitrified Glass
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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Miso
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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Night-Blooming Cereus
Jessica Rubenacker collects plants. Lots of plants.
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Red Chador
A chador garment worn by some Muslim women is usually black. Not Anida Yoeu Ali's. Her chador is red and sparkly.
