Ten Thousand Things with Shin Yu Pai

Latest Episodes:

Dakin Drooper Dog Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, our host, Shin Yu Pai, revisits an object from her own life.

Shin Yu gave her toddler son a stuffed toy from her own childhood. He played too roughly with Poo-Poo, and Shin Yu had to take the toy away to be repaired and rescued. It sent Shin Yu down a rabbit hole that took her into the world of online Ebay and Etsy vintage toy vendors and a Facebook group for reuniting people with lost stuffed animals.

Related Links:

Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service

Do you have a special object that you hold close? Share it with us on Instagram. Tag @KUOW and use the hashtag: #bluesuitpod.

Your feedback matters to us. Submit your comments and questions to www.kuow.org/feedback

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Vitrified Glass Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

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.

This vitrified glass encases radioactive material before it is disposed of through burial. As an artist trained in making glass, this object becomes something of a totem for Ichikawa, who turns her eye towards nuclear legacies,environmental degradation, and human impacts on the environment.

Related Links:

Etsuko Ichikawa’s website

Broken Poems of Fireflies exhibit

Etsuko introduces the exhibit

Do you have a special object that you hold close? Share it with us on Instagram. Tag @KUOW and use the hashtag: #bluesuitpod.

Your feedback matters to us. Submit your comments and questions to www.kuow.org/feedback

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miso Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

Tomo Nakayama usually puts his creative energy into his harmonious music. But when the pandemic hit, he found a new outlet: cooking.

Cooking his way through various Japanese comfort dishes was a way to be creative in an upended routine. And it helped him address the homesickness and longing for family that he was feeling. Miso, a foundational element of Japanese flavor, taught him a lesson about harmony he now applies outside the kitchen.

Listen to the episode to discover the connection between a tub of miso and songwriting.

Do you have a special object that you hold close? Share it with us on Instagram. Tag @KUOW and use the hashtag: #bluesuitpod.

Your feedback matters to us. Submit your comments and questions to www.kuow.org/feedback

Related links:

Tomo Nakayama

A place to start with Japanese recipes

Midnight Diner

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Night-Blooming Cereus Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, we learn about how Jessica’s passion for plant collecting developed. Currently, there are more than 365 specimens in her collection; her plant babies even have their own Instagram account.

The night-blooming cereus, aka tan hua, which is also known by its more poetic moniker - the queen of the night - entered Jessica’s life as a gift. The nocturnal cactus smells like gardenia and only blooms for a single night before fading.

A tale of rooting and uprooting, Jessica also speaks about her Filipina immigrant grandmother and visiting the motherland to seek out the family's ancestral roots.

Do you have a special object that you hold close? Share it with us on Instagram. Tag @KUOW and use the hashtag: #bluesuitpod.

Your feedback matters to us. Submit your comments and questions to www.kuow.org/feedback

Related links:

Jessica’s plants on Instagram

Video of the Night-blooming Cereus

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Red Chador Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

A chador garment worn by some Muslim women is usually black. Not Anida Yoeu Ali's. Her chador is red and sparkly. As a performance artist, Anida created the glittery chador to embody her Muslim identity and confront Islamophobia. The red chador invited reactions of curiosity, spectacle, fear, respect, anger and gratitude from strangers on the streets of Paris, Seattle, DC, and Palestine. In this episode we explore Anida’s identity inside and outside the red chador, the public’s response, and what she did after this garment mysteriously disappeared during her travels in Tel Aviv.

Do you have a special object that you hold close? Share it with us on Instagram. Tag @KUOW and use the hashtag: #bluesuitpod.

Your feedback matters to us. Submit your comments and questions to www.kuow.org/feedback

Related links:

Anida’s website

Video of the red chador in Seattle after the 2016 presidential election

A eulogy for the red chador

A p e rf o r m a n c e of t h e rainbo w of chadors

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Trailer: The Blue Suit Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

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.

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