TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese American poet Shin Yu Pai spoke to Taiwan News to introduce the fourth season of Ten Thousand Things, a podcast about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life. 

Ten Thousand Things was created in 2022, following a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research surveys found that one-third of Asian adults feared for their safety, while one-third said they knew an Asian person in the US who had been threatened or attacked because of their race or ethnicity.

Faced with these statistics, Shin Yu felt the stories and experiences of Asian Americans needed to be told. However, this year, after three years of recording Ten Thousand Things with KUOW Public Radio, the station decided not to renew the show. 

This comes as the US political climate is upending the arts, education, and philanthropy sectors. US President Donald Trump's executive orders have slashed arts and education funding, rooted out DEI initiatives, and censored universities and public institutions.

Amid these challenges, Shin Yu transitioned to raise funds and produce the show independently. She plans to dig even deeper into the narratives this year, keeping the voices of the Asian American community alive through storytelling. 

The trailer for Season 4 of Ten Thousand Things can be found here. New episodes launch on May 20.

What was your motivation for starting the Ten Thousand Things podcast? 

I came up with the idea of Ten Thousand Things during the pandemic when there was a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and I wanted to see other kinds of stories in the mainstream media about Asian Americans. Stories about artists and activists, different forms of resistance, and ways of imagining different futures for ourselves.

How does your Taiwanese identity fit into your work?

As the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, story and oral history were an important part of how I understood my distance from and relationship to Taiwaneseness. 

Taiwanese identity has different cultural, religious or spiritual, and political layers embedded within it. There's a complexity that has to be unpacked in understanding Taiwanese identity — in the way that Asian American identity has to be fully pulled apart to be understood.

What issues about the Asian American community will you be paying attention to this year? 

I am no longer producing the show as a collaboration with public radio and am making it independently now with Wonder Media Network. That means that I can be a little more adventurous and wide-ranging in the kinds of stories and storytellers that I engage with and be more forthcoming in my perspectives. 

This season, I will be featuring stories related to mental health, racial grief, creative legacy, impossible beauty standards, and professional identities.

What new challenges did you have to overcome to produce this season?

When I left public radio, it was necessary to find a new production partner and distributor and to raise capital to fund the series. I parted ways with KUOW in October and spent the fall and winter getting to know other podcast production companies and reimagining how the show might change as it moved from a public radio space to a popular culture space. 

Getting to know a new team and establish new collaborative processes can be challenging, but my new team at Wonder Media Network is a dream.

How is the political and social climate in the US affecting your work?

If I were still making my show with public radio, it would be under significant pressure, as the public radio station in Seattle is affiliated with a public university. NPR and PBS are facing funding cuts. And higher education in the US is under extreme pressure to eliminate its DEI programs. 

Because I am making the show independently now, this does not affect me. However, the landscape of philanthropy and arts funding is deeply impacted by the current political and social climate, which makes it necessary to be very thoughtful about one's work and how I talk about it.

Are there any guests you're particularly excited to speak with this season?

We have booked author Amy Tan, Yowei Shaw (formerly of NPR's Invisibilia), public radio personality Stephanie Foo, performer and memoirist Susan Lieu, and poet Serena Chopra.