Cha-Tea Circle: A Podcast Series on Asian American Spiritualities

Jun 23 2024 8 ep. 1

Cha-Tea Circle: A Podcast Series on Asian American Spiritualities artwork

Cha-Tea Circle is a podcast series on Asian American spiritualities.

We feature in-depth conversations with inspiring artists, educators, healers, and superheroes (anti-heroes too!), and also soundscapes from places of spiritual refuge.

Join us with your favorite cup of tea. We've got ours ready. :)

Generously funded by the Asian Pacific American Religious Research Initiative (APARRI). Hosted by Chanhee Heo, Chenxing Han, Elaine Lai, and Xianfeng Shi. Sound edited by Cahron Cross and Destiny Cunningham.

Religion & Spirituality Education

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Karen Tan on 千佛寺 Thousand Buddha Temple and First-Generation Asian Immigrant Experience

Jun 23 2024 30 mins

Xianfeng interviews Karen Tan, a refugee from Vietnam, shares the story of building a Chinese Buddhist temple in Quincy, Massachusetts in the 90s. The Thousand Buddha Temple 千佛寺 of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism has been a haven for Cantonese- and Chinese-speaking immigrants from several Asian countries. She also talks about the experience of first-generation immigran

Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard: Kinship and Refuge in the Merrimack Valley

Jun 23 2024 53 mins

In this audio essay, Chenxing tells the story of how a Twitter DM from a high school teacher named Andy Housiaux led to a life-changing, refuge-making project in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard (L2BB) emerged from an inquiry into how U.S.-based educators can teach about Buddhism without erasing the people of Asian heritage who make

David Woo on Burning Pride, Addiction Recovery and Buddhism

Jun 22 2024 50 mins

Elaine interviews L.A. native Rev. David Woo who is the founder of Burning Pride, a Buddhist recovery fellowship for Asian Americans. David shares about his own journey to addiction recovery and how Buddhism and mindfulness helped him in this process. Other topics covered include the need for much more nuanced representations of Asian Americans in film, David’s moving documentary

Dreaming with Muslim Creatives, Part 2: “Khawab” (“to dream” in Urdu), A Conversation with Scholar-Artist Reyhab Mohmed Patel

Jun 22 2024 64 mins

Elaine interviews scholar-artist Reyhab Mohmed Patel on her project Khawab (kha-wa-b) meaning “to dream '' in Urdu, featured on the MIPSTERZ platform. Khawab is a multi-faceted storytelling portrait series that fictionalizes the alter-egos of Muslim women in Toronto. Topics covered include the process of creating Khawab, how Islamophobia manifests differently in Canada and the U.

Dreaming with Muslim Creatives, Part 1: A Conversation with MIPSTERZ Founder Abbas Rattani

Jun 21 2024 63 mins

Elaine interviews Abbas Rattani, the founder of MIPSTERZ—an arts and culture collective that curates, incubates, and amplifies Muslim and marginalized ally creative voices. Hear about Abbas’ own spiritual journey to finding like-minded Muslim artists/creatives and how MIPSTERZ came into being, as well as recent projects on Muslim Futurism, and why it is that we all need to be a

Julian Saporiti (No-No Boy) on Singing Asian American History and Buddhism

Jun 23 2024 59 mins

Chanhee interviews Julian Saporiti, a musician-historian whose celebrated No-No Boy project creates folk songs as a way of telling Asian American history. Julian takes us on a wide-ranging journey, covering his relationship to Buddhism and activism, his subversive style and storytelling approach through music, and the challenges and connections he feels with the term “Asian Ameri

Helena Soholm on Contemporary Shamanism and Healing Work

Jun 23 2024 68 mins

Chanhee interviews Helena Choi Soholm, a Korean American shaman and healer who channels Korean Indigenous traditions into therapy practice for intergenerational and cultural trauma. Helena shares her insights on the roles of the contemporary shaman healer, Indigenous technology and knowledge, her immigration experience, and the relationship of immigrants to this Indigenous land.

Introducing Cha-Tea Circle!

Jun 21 2024 43 mins

In this episode, Cha-Tea Circle hosts Chenxing Han, Chanhee Heo, Elaine Lai, and Xianfeng Shi introduce the podcast series we developed, and the seven different episodes we feature. We draw out larger themes from our podcast series including: finding a sense of home through community building, reckoning with Asian American identity, artistic practice as spirituality, and empathetic