An update on Ten Thousand Things
Dear Friends,
After three years of making Ten Thousand Things with KUOW Public Radio, the station has decided to not renew my show.
Ten Thousand Things was a love letter to the Asian American community, created at a time when there was a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes when all the stories about Asian Americans in the media somehow felt like they were about harm and loss. Just this Fall, the Asian American Foundation released a survey on public safety conducted in Seattle, where 2 in every 5 Asian Americans reported being the victim of an ant-Asian experience, with 3 in 5 reporting feeling unsafe in public settings. In the face of these kinds of statistics, the incoming political regime, and the lived experiences of the Asian American community, Ten Thousand Things and its stories feels more necessary than ever.
Over its 3-year run, the show won awards from the Asian American Podcasters Association, The Signal Awards, and The Edward R. Murrow Awards. We were funded by The Common Counsel Foundation and received an inaugural Hope Corps Grants from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. I also designed a talk about Ten Thousand Things for Humanities Washington which is regularly requested by libraries, schools, and cultural organizations around the State of Washington.
I own the IP for Ten Thousand Things and will be taking it with me and raising funds to produce it independently. In 2025, there will be a revival of interest in the show as The Wing Luke Museum mounts an exhibition on objects from Ten Thousand Things, and University of Washington Press brings out a book about the show. I’m hoping to have a new season ready to launch in time for these milestones and to potentially spend the next year producing some live shows for Ten Thousand Things and to continue gathering stories from the community. For me, Ten Thousand Things has always been an anti-racist project about narrative change with a deep commitment to the art and poetry of storytelling. In this next iteration of the show, I hope to go back to making it as weird and delightful as possible, with elements of high and low culture, and deep emotional complexity.
If the show has been meaningful to you, I’d appreciate it if you’d take the time to write to [email protected] with your feedback on the show’s cancellation. KUOW reads every piece of audience feedback that it receives and shares it at their staff meetings.
If you’d like to invest in the future of the show, the project is fiscally sponsored through Shunpike and accepts donations, which are fully tax deductible. If you are considering making any year-end charitable donations, I hope you’ll consider making a gift this year to support Ten Thousand Things and sharing this ask with others.
Thank you for your support.
Shin Yu