Shin Yu Pai is not just a storyteller for King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP). Among her other accomplishments — and accolades — she’s the author of eleven books of poetry, the current Civic Poet for the City of Seattle, and host of the KUOW award-winning podcast Ten Thousand Things.

Recently, Shin Yu had a conversation for her podcast with disability activist Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility Project and author of the best-selling memoir Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life. Growing up in a suburb of Indianapolis the child of Chinese immigrants, Wong was already out of place in the predominantly white, affluent community, despite her very supportive family. Her disability, which affected her from a very young age and gradually, but steadily overtook her body, only encouraged her to use her voice for others in the disabled community.

Shin Yu’s episode A voice breaks barriers is a discussion with Alice Wong about what happens “when a public personality actually loses their voice,” replacing it with an app, and “what happens to that sense of self?” Listen to the episode here.