Pearl Dive Podcast

The third episode of Pilgrimage: Manzanar, Memory, and Meaning explores the theme of inheritance—what is passed down through memory, culture, and faith. Host Elise Kaneshiro speaks with Dr. Johnny Ramírez-Johnson , Dr. Alex Jun , and Myles Haruki-Nelson , who each participated in the 2025 Manzanar Pilgrimage. Together, they discuss family legacy, intergenerational trauma, and the sacred responsibi...

We continue the Dive Bar, a series that is part of the Pearl Dive podcast. In the Dive Bar we talk to folks inside AACHI and the Fuller Asian American Center orbit about all kinds of things: what we’re working on, what we’re interested in. We hope you’ll like these conversations. So grab a drink of your choice and join us. Today, I’m talking to Dr. Joe Cheah, who along with Dr. David Moe, is headi...

The second episode of Pilgrimage: Manzanar, Memory, and Meaning invites listeners into a conversation on embodiment, hospitality, and faith. Host Elise Kaneshiro speaks with Krystin Bruan , Creative Producer at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Asian American Center, reflecting on the 2025 Manzanar Pilgrimage and the sacred practice of returning to sites of history and faith. Through stories of intent...

The opening episode of Pilgrimage: Manzanar, Memory, and Meaning centers on holding story and sorrow , reflecting on the power of public truth-telling across generations and faith traditions. Host Elise Kaneshiro speaks with Mr. Bill Watanabe , camp survivor and community leader ( Little Tokyo Historical Society ), and Dr. Pamela King , Professor of Applied Developmental Science and Co-Director of...

The Dive Bar is open! We talk to folks inside AACHI and Fuller’s Asian American Center about what we're working on, what we're interested in…all kinds of stuff! So we hope you'll like these conversations, which are part of the Pro Dive podcast. So get a drink of your choice and join us! In today's episode of the Dive Bar, I chat with our very own Pearl Diver Elgin Quan. If you've been following th...

Today we're starting the Dive Bar, a new series that is part of the Pearl Dive podcast. We'll talk to folks inside AACHI and the Fuller Asian American Center orbit about all kinds of things: what we're working on, what we're interested in. We hope you'll like these conversations. So get a drink of your choice and join us. Today, I'm talking to Dr. David Moe, who along with Dr. Joe Cheah, is headin...

In part two of our conversation with Robert Chao Romero , Fiel Sahir talks to Robert about his academic journey and reflections on non-innocent histories of Christianity that includes the Brown Church, Asian American Christianity and other marginalized Christian communities. He also discusses the story of the Chinese in Mexico and theological musings on the Brown Church. If you haven't listened to...

In this episode of the Pearl Dive podcast, Fiel Sahir talks to Robert Chao Romero about the Chinese side of his family heritage. His grandfather, Calvin Chao, was one of the four famous Chinese evangelists who led the revival of diasporic Chinese Christianity in the mid-twentieth century. Robert also explores his upbringing as an Asian-Latino Christian in Southern California and discusses his stud...

The center of Christianity has shifted from the West to the Global South. There is more interest in World Christianity today than ever before. But have minoritized Christians in the U.S. been leap frogged (as Bishop Roy Sano once confided to me) in the process? Dr. Soojin Chung , Director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary has some thoughts about that. In thi...

How does the way you think or talk about faith help you respond to racism? How does the way you read the Bible address social injustice? Where I grew up, “uncles” with powerful faith kept raising these questions in bible studies and Sunday School. I believe these “eccentric uncles” were always in our Asian American faith communities. But during the 1960s and 1970s, they spoke up in a more public m...

Could Taiwan become the Ukraine of Asia? How are Taiwanese Christians in North America responding to the geo-political uncertainties of Taiwan’s relationship to China? The May 15, 2022 mass shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California was, in part, a reflection of the fraught debates about the future of Taiwan. Also, how is the next generation of Taiwanese Chris...

We live in an era of platform building and social influencers. Having a fan base is not the same as creating unity. What does one of the most important trailblazers promoting Asian American evangelical unity in the 1990s and 2000s say about what it takes to build unity? In the second part of this podcast, we talk to Pastor Louis Lee further about his ministry journey. Then we’ll hear why he starte...

How many times have you heard that Asian American identity is not a thing. Some think that it's a label that's imposed on very different peoples. Others, especially immigrants, think that it refers only to the American-born or acculturated. And yet to embrace Asian American identity means admitting that there is something that unifies more than 26 million Americans with ancestral roots in Asia. On...

Can we restore the Golden Rule to the American public conscience? It will probably take a renewed grass root movement of people who are stubbornly faithful to Jesus’ command to love the neighbor. In today’s Deep Dive episode, Tim Tseng and Randi Walker continue last week’s conversation about Protestant advocacy for civil rights in Seattle, Washington in the 1940s and 1950s. Her 2012 book,   Religi...

Most American Christians voted for the current administration and Congress, despite their potentially negative impact on people of color, the poor, and other vulnerable communities (not to mention a constitutional crisis). In his book, The End of Empathy: Why White Protestants Stopped Loving Their Neighbors , John Compton says that American Protestants stopped loving their neighbors when they lost...

Here is part two of the Pearl Cast with H.E. Leon Siu, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom. In this part of our interview we discuss the ethics of visiting Hawai’i, how Mr. Siu got involved with the Hawaiian Independence movement, and his work with other Pacific Island Nations. Watch this video , “Holy Spirit Fiya,” from Urbana 2015 for a live example of what happens when indigeno...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Pearl Dive, a podcast from Fuller Seminary’s Asian American Church History Institute (AACHI). If you have ever wondered about how your ethnic heritage meets faith or about the history of Hawaii, this episode is for you. In the first two episodes of Pearl Dive, Fiel Sahir talks to Leon Siu, Foreign Minister for the Hawaiian Kingdom, about Christianity in Hawaii....

Hey friends! I’m Tim Tseng and I’m the director of the Asian American Christian History Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Asian American Center. It’s the day before Lunar New Year 2025 and I have an exciting announcement to make. We will launch the Pearl Dive Podcast next week. The Pearl Dive substack and podcast are the digital platforms of the Asian American Christian History Institute...