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 immigrants in the 80s and 90s in Boston.

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 up the majority of American Buddhists.

In this episode, you'll hear soundscapes—recorded over a span of three years (2021–2024)—from American Wisdom Association, Chua Tuong Van Lowell, Glory Buddhist Temple, Harvard Divinity School, Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Wat Boston Buddha Vararam, Wat Lao Mixayaram, and Wat Samaki Santikaram; as well as excerpts from L2BB high school students' final presentations and insights from an interview with Dr. Tham Tran. How did L2BB challenge and change our methods of learning, our approaches to teaching, and our understandings of Buddhism? Listen below to find out!

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 film Get Jumped In, and a lifelong search for home.

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.S., the importance of integrating academia and the arts, and celebrating Muslim joy.

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 part of a Muslim future.

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 American."

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.

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 pedagogical approaches in higher education.

Meet us here.