groundings - the choa podcast

Featured on choa magazine Volume 4: Sex . Jayci Lee writes poignant, sexy, and laugh-out-loud romance featuring Korean American main characters. She shares her journey from a career as a litigator to becoming a romance author, the role of faith in shaping perceptions of sex and romance within Korean diasporic communities, and the importance of embracing pleasure. Originally published on January 20...

Welcome to the final episode of groundings. In this episode, Ki-Sang looks back on the past season of groundings and offers her reflections on the process and importance of telling our own stories as Korean women in the diaspora.  ---- groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora. Support us at choamagazine.com/suppor...

In a winding conversation that takes us through the past, present, and future, groundings introduces you to choa magazine’s newest member, Ashley An.  This intimate conversation explores how our identity is shaped by our hyphenated and immigrant experiences, our conversations with our mothers, and our relationships with God. ---- groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep...

Through a conversation that flows through personal trauma, the amplification of Asian American perspectives, and intergenerational affirmation of identity, this episode explores Julia Chon, we get to know the person behind @kimchi.juice and @koreanarchives . In this wide-spanning conversation with Ki-Sang and Harriet, Julia shares how her relationships with her family, strangers, and artist commun...

We are re-introducing Harriet, the co-founder of choa magazine, in this week’s grounding. You may have heard her talk about choa magazine before, but this is the first time Harriet shares a deeper, more personal story about who she is, who her family is, and how she moves through the world. In this episode, Ki-Sang and Mirae share an intimate conversation with Harriet about her family’s multi-deca...

An exploration into mixed-race Korean experiences, Harriet and Ki-Sang speak with Hilary Hwu, a Chinese-Korean neonatal intensive care nurse, for the sixth episode of groundings. With an upbringing that thoroughly blurred the cultural lines of Korean, Chinese, Myanmarese, and Japanese influences, Hilary gives us a window into her transition into adulthood, as she moved across the continent to buil...

Mirae, choa's co-founder, is this week’s guest on groundings. You may have seen and enjoyed her writings, graphic designs, and as of late, her monthly recommendations, but this week's groundings episode explores the lesser known sides of this choa team member.  In a conversation with Ki-Sang and Harriet, Mirae shares her experience as an immigrant and diaspora member in both Toronto and in...

June Hur is a Korean historical YA novelist whose novels that have been described as K-dramas in book form. She is the author of best-selling and award-winning books The Silence of Bones, The Forest of Stolen Girls, The Red Palace, and the upcoming A Crane Among Wolves.  In this episode of groundings, June and Ki-Sang discuss the pains of being an introvert in an extroverted world, the role of his...

Welcome to our first deep dive into a choa member’s inner world. Ki-Sang’s been with choa magazine since 2021, but this is the first time she shares the story behind her name, her current pursuits, and her love-hate relationship with K-entertainment and K-beauty standards with our diasporic community.  Subscribe to groundings to catch Mirae and Harriet’s stories in upcoming episodes. To catch up o...

Jacquie Lee is a city planner in Toronto and the founder of Sonyo Kimchi. Jacquie started Sonyo Kimchi during the Covid-19 pandemic when she moved in with her grandparents to take care of them. In a conversation after a kimchi-making workshop in 2023, Harriet and Ki-Sang sit down with Jacquie to talk about her relationship with food prior to Sonyo Kimchi, the question of authenticity and intuition...

Welcome to groundings, a podcast project from choa magazine. In our first episode, we (re)introduce you to the team. Harriet, Mirae, and Ki-Sang reveal the origin story of choa magazine and discuss what being Korean means to them. groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora. Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi Music by Haedeun Kim...

Harriet chats with Emily about her visit to Arirang Age-friendly Community Centre, approaching the theme of aging in place as a form of capturing time, and ways people gravitate to communal spaces at all ages. Check out Emily’s piece “Korean seniors don’t care for Bingo” in choa magazine’s ⁠Volume 3: Aging in Place⁠ . Resources:  If you are able, please consider supporting Arirang Age-Friendly Com...

Harriet chats with Jennifer about her Great Aunts creating a shared space to grow old in the intense energy of New York City and putting in the labour to document the everyday moments. Check out Jennifer’s piece “New York Grandmas” in choa magazine’s Volume 3: Aging in Place . Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정, 공유마당, 자유이용

Mirae chats with Lily about aging alongside house plants, viewing the world through the perspective of “tree supremacy,” and the intricate hands-on process of her paper diorama. Check out Lily’s piece “Living in House Plant Time” in choa magazine’s Volume 3: Aging in Place . Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정, 공유마당, 자유이용

Harriet chats with Juliana about end-of-life rituals, death, and family history, her approach to photographing legacy portraits, and the cultural practice of jesa. Check out Juliana’s piece “We are all going to die” in choa magazine’s Volume 3: Aging in Place . Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정, 공유마당, 자유이용

Harriet chats with Ji-Youn about what jip-bab means to her, contextualizing her rage and grief, and discomfort with bringing ancestral practices to stolen land. This chat was recorded before publishing Grace Gittelman’s piece “Don’t Get Your Hand Stuck in the Kimchi Jar” and its theme of grief. Check out Grace’s piece in choa magazine’s Volume 2: 집밥 — JIP-BAB . Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정,...

Mirae chats with Subin on jip-bab as an intimate yet communal sharing, food as an artistic exploration, and cooking as the best gift of care. Check out Subin’s illustration for the cover of choa magazine’s Volume 2: 집밥 — JIP-BAB . Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정, 공유마당, 자유이용

Harriet chats with Michelle and Sena on their first impressions of each other’s piece, Korean food cravings and sentiments behind them, and what kind of halmoni they wish to be in the future. Check out Michelle and Sena’s “Welcome Home” on choa magazine’s Volume 2: 집밥 — JIP-BAB . Originally published on IGTV on December 2021. Song Credit: Another girl, 김현정, 공유마당, 자유이용

Featured on choa magazine Volume 2: 집밥 — JIP-BAB . The connection to farming is obvious when thinking about jip-bab and the systems that allow us to enjoy it, but we often forget the labour and care. Kristyn Leach, a seed saver and farmer of Namu Farm, shares about her practice of infusing community care, global and Korean socio-politics history, and peasant-led movements in her practice. Origin...

Harriet and Mirae chats with paper artist Cat Lamora on their inspiration behind recreating a symbolic communal space, first steamy mokyoktang experiences, and why a space like this could feel uncomfortable coming from the west. Check out Cat’s “We Bathe Here” installation and text on choa magazine’s Volume 1: 물 — WATER . Originally published as IGTV on November 2020. Song Credit: Another girl,...

Featured on choa magazine Volume 1: 물 — WATER . The conversation around the pandemic is so intertwined with the climate crisis, which has magnified our realities. One of the challenges Esther Kim, a financial professional and public school teacher, highlights is the accommodations (or the lack thereof) for peoples with disabilities and how often it gets pushed out as an afterthought. She shares w...