Two weeks ago, my therapist Bob and I amicably parted ways after seeing one another at least twice a month for nearly a dozen years. He’d told me at the end of 2025 that he planned on retiring in April and would no longer be seeing patients. Through our sessions together, Bob had counseled me through lay-offs, illness, break-ups with friends, pandemic, a concussion, and taught me emotional skills that will endure beyond my time with him. Losing him has felt like a significant life change. But preparing for the ending of our relationship gave me a model to fully grieve and to honor the work that was done together. Allowing myself to go through a drawn out process of saying goodbye over many months helped me to better let go when the time finally came.
These thoughts are in the back of my mind as I wrap up production of my podcast Ten Thousand Things after a five year run, during which the show collected awards from the Asian American Podcasters Association, The Signal Awards, and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Along the way, The Wing Luke Museum partnered with me to make a special exhibition of stories and objects from the podcast that’s on display through January 2027. And next year, a book related to the podcast will come out from the University of Washington Press.
I started working on Ten Thousand Things during the second year of the pandemic, when there was a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and I yearned to hear life-affirming stories in the popular media about the Asian American experience. I was fortunate in the early years of the podcast to partner with KUOW Public Radio to make the first three seasons of the show. Together, we made stories about Etsuko Ichikawa’s uranium-infused glass orbs, performance artist Anida Yoeu Ali’s Red Chador project, Leanna Keith’s extraordinary rise as a musical artist, and the brilliant disability activist Alice Wong, who challenged public radio to be more inclusive and daring. My producer secured me an interview with Congressman Andy Kim. And we produced a live show after the first season of the podcast where we gave out plant clippings in the spirit of an episode about a night-blooming cactus.
The lessons that I learned about storytelling from my colleagues at KUOW will stay with me. I was a poet thrust into a crash course on how to write and make audio stories—a new art form to me—while trying to find my voice and craft a series for and about community. Amidst this learning, I had to navigate and contend with a complex creative and business relationship with a public news organization, while being an independent creator outside of those structures. I parted ways with KUOW in 2024, when they opted not to renew Ten Thousand Things. But I wasn’t ready to sunset my show. I wanted the show to have a good end. So I took it out on the market and found new collaborators in Wonder Media Network, who have made the show with me up until this present moment.
I like to joke that Season 4 of Ten Thousand Things was my tour of sadness. Sometimes, it’s necessary to be vocal about our suffering. I did a deep dive into grief and despondency, exploring stories about trauma, loss, difficult break-ups, and the strength and determination that it takes to reimagine your story and your relationship to the past. I went out and talked to author and public radio darling Stephanie Foo about writing the trauma out of her personal narratives through an innovative approach to therapy that she co-created with her therapist which is documented in her book What My Bones Know. And I talked to poet Serena Chopra about the necessity of making room to fully grieve a loss so that we can grow beyond cycles of amnesia and harm.
Now, as I close the book on a fifth and final season of the Ten Thousand Things, I’ve chosen to end the show with a series of stories about self-love, resistance, and resilience that invite reflection on different ways of being. I chat with artist Rob Rhee about unseeing an object so that we can see the thing anew, and what we can learn from the ancient knowledge carried by plants. Psychedelic educator Amy Wong Hope shares her perspectives on going deep inside and walking away from recognition to better honor a truth, even when we are at the pinnacle of our experiences. Author Putsata Reang meditates on debt to our ancestors and claiming space for one’s own identity and experiences. Translator Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma talks to me about his life-long practice of translating poetry and prose and what it means to create and imagine without attachment to outcome. And the season will close with a conversation about unconditional love and real-life magic with Maritess Zurbano.
Over the years, how I’ve talked about the show has continually evolved. When I started Ten Thousand Things, I wanted to make a project about narrative change. Later, I wanted to explore what it could feel like to master telling audio stories as an artform and to tap into my own sense of vulnerability. I’ve thought of the series as an archive of stories that I’ve hoped my 12-year-old son and other young people might discover someday and turn towards for alternative narratives about different ways of being Asian, in both times of loneliness or uncertainty. And as I enter the final stretch, I see this last batch of stories that I wanted to put into the world as fully fleshed narratives about Asian American people finding new ways to be through anecdotes that push out against being made too small, in order to grow as wild and undisciplined as one can possibly dream.
When the new season of Ten Thousand Things drops on May 6, I hope that these last few months spent writing scripts and shaping stories with some of my favorite storytellers in Seattle and a couple of old friends will have prepared me to let go. To all of the storytellers who shared their stories with me on Ten Thousand Things, thank you for modeling vulnerability and self-reflection and for trusting me with your narratives. I’m grateful to all of the talented audio producers, editors, and engineers who touched this show with their talent. And to all of you who listened to Ten Thousand Things, thank you for accompanying me this far and for being on this journey of self-discovery with me.
You can find Ten Thousand Things wherever you listen to podcasts. The Wing Luke Museum will host a free live show for Ten Thousand Things on Saturday, May 9, from 2:30-4 p.m. All are welcome.
For more information, visit https://www.wingluke.org/eventscalendar/2026-ten-thousand-things-shin-yu-pai-live-event
