Korea Deconstructed

Dr. Fouser leads a fascinating and eye-opening exploration into the ideology, values, and activism of Korean students in the 1980s. He discusses and demonstrates the agency of that generation when contrasted to the people of today. He talks about 사대문안 as the traditional center of Seoul and how it's changing over time, with things moving south of the river as well as emerging migrant communitie...

Dr. Sooyeon (Aly) Suh is a clinical health psychologist and professor of psychology at Sungshin University. She is also the author of the book 엄마의 잠 걱정을 잠재우는 책. Our conversation explored the science and psychology of sleep in the modern world and how this has interacted with particular aspects of Korean culture, including co-sleeping, children's mental health, gender, sex, and social m...

David Mason is not only a vessel of wisdom, he is also a masterful storyteller. In just over two hours, he explains how people came to the Korean Peninsula, how Buddhism arrived from China, how it interacted with the indigenous Shamanism, the ideological conflicts and discussions the various schools of thought generated, the creation of the Jogye Order and the Taego Order, Master Songchul, how dru...

Mr. Hank Morris first arrived in Korea in 1972. This conversation takes him back to that time, recounting the sights, the smells, the people, the food and the accommodation. From the cars to the beer houses, Hank has seen more than most. Here, just before he leaves the country and returns to the United States, he shares his memories. Despite being under strict instruction not the hit the table, Mr...

You might not think that perfume is your thing but this is a conversation about culture, history, authenticity, and finding out who we are as people. You'll learn about important historical figures such as King Sejong the Great, Shin Saimdang, Admiral Lee Sun-shin, and Heo Nanseolheon, explore Korean food and geography, and also hear how this will all work in the future as the country and its peop...

Dr. Michael W. Hurt is a photographer and professor living, shooting, and researching in Seoul. He received his doctorate from UC Berkeley's Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies. He also started Korea's first street fashion blog in 2006 and published the first English language book about Korean Fashion in 2009. He researches youth, street fashion, and digital subcultures in Seoul while lecturi...

Cho Hyunjee is a dancer, a debater, and a young Korean woman willing to speak up for herself in a society that has often shown a great deal of disrespect to her gender. In this conversation she talks about when she first became conscious of this discrimination and the people who inspired her to rise above it. She also talks passionately about dance as a form of expression, individuality, and cultu...

Episode 50 is......me!! Or rather it's a conversation I had with Alex Sigrist early on a Monday morning in a studio in downtown Seoul for Arirang Radio. I had so much fun doing it and thought that some of the ideas and content would make for a great introduction for some people to Korean philosophy. I briefly address the 일체유심조(一切唯心造) of Buddhism and then try to explain the debate between...

Some of my earliest Korean experiences were shaped by reading Mike's books and columns. That I now get to speak to him, ask him questions, and join the conversation about Korea's democratization and political developments is still all rather surreal. Michael Breen, Founder and CEO, lived in Korea for more than 30 years, working first as a journalist for The Guardian, The Times and The Washington T...

Jacco Zwetsloot has been the host of the NK News Podcast since 2018. He has interviewed a wide range of guests about their knowledge of and experience in North Korea, from celebrity defectors to high-ranking U.S. government officials. Jacco has a Master of Arts from Leiden University, for which he wrote a thesis on North Korean graphic novels. This is a conversation in two parts - both of which ar...

Dr. Olga Fedorenko is scholar of Korean Studies and anthropology of media at Seoul National University. Her research interests revolve around media and its connection to social and political life in contemporary South Korea. Her book The Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising At a Crossroads:  https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/flow... T his is a discussion about Korea, media, and the advert...

Philip Turner was appointed New Zealand Ambassador to the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in March 2018. He is concurrently Ambassador to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). He has spent decades in China, Japan, and Korea.   Discussion Outline 0:00 What is a diplomat? 24:30 Life in East Asia 45:00 Experiences with South Korea 1:09:13 Values at home and abroad 1:26:40 North Kor...

Colin Marshall's essays on on cities, language, and culture have appeared in publications like the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, whose Korea Blog he wrote for six years. He's now at work on a book of essays in Korean, and a book about Los Angeles in English.   Find Colin Online Twitter: https://twitter.com/colinmarshall Website: http://blog.colinmarshall.org/ Podca...

Haley Yang is a reporter at the Korea JoongAng Daily where she writes about culture, society, K-pop, and hallyu. This is a long conversation about Korean culture, society, and the people who live and engage with it. It's critical, humorous, and lots else in between. Come for the content, stay for the shade, leave with a smile.   Discussion Outline 0:00 Introduction 2:48 Writing about Hallyu 10:35...

This is a conversation about behavioral patterns passed down over generations which then produce real-life manifestations of cultural concepts. We explore the symbiotic relationship between values, behavior, and material conditions as well as how acculturation takes place at different speeds in each domain. Dr. Kim explores culturally-bound syndromes such as hwabyeong (화병) and then explains the...

Peter Bint is a television and radio personality. With a Korean mother and a British father, he successfully navigates two cultures, building bridges and making friends along the way. He currently hosts a daily two-hour morning radio show and appears on MBC's United Fathers among many other things. This is a conversation about identity, language, multiculturalism, lookism, K-pop, fame, and childre...

When did Koreans become Korean? That is the question Dr. Henry Em, Associate Professor of History at Yonsei University, and I started exploring. It wasn't planned. And it was difficult. But by then end of this, I think we got somewhere. And I got to know Henry more as a person. We're talking about the creation of nation states, official narratives, the minjok, and actors as the subjects of history...

Jeon Seoyeon is a South Korean woman working towards becoming a landscape architect and focused on helping social minorities. We talk about the importance of kindness and how it can affect our lives. What modern feminism feels like in South Korea. And the reality of Korean education. During this, Seoyeon is able to draw on the ideas of Mark Fisher, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and even swear on occasion....

Mark Peterson first arrived in Korea in 1965. He then completed a PhD at Harvard University. He is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah. He has written countless books and now runs a popular YouTube channel on Korean history. Dr. Peterson has developed a strong understanding of the language and culture and used these to develop his own...

Lieutenant General Chun In-Bum (ret.) has played an important role in the history and development of South Korea. Now retired, his popular YouTube channel helps address contemporary issues facing the current generation as they prepare for or look back on their own mandatory military service. At the age of 65, the General has seen and experienced more than many of us could imagine. This is an oppor...

Youngwoo Park majors in Italian Area Studies and International Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. His fields of interest include human rights, development cooperation, and the sociology of gender and race. Youngwoo is currently working as a translator in the Department of Operations and Support for the Seoul Queer Culture Festival. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/youngwoo-park-...

Jumin Lee is a Korean trial attorney and former Air Force officer. He writes regularly for NK News and Korea Pro on Korean politics, with a recent focus on gender, discrimination, and protections of minorities in South Korea. We spoke at length about key issues in Korean politics, the problems facing both major parties, the struggles of the Justice Party, and revisited influential characters such...

This is a conversation about K-Dramas and mental health, covering Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, Our Blues, Tomorrow, and much more. We talk about the romance, the beauty standards, the soundtracks, the coping mechanisms, and the international success.    Jeanie Chang is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a bestselling author on Amazon, an international corporate speaker,...

Chun Su-jin is a South Korean writer who is proud of her North Korean heritage. Born and raised in Seoul, Chun dreams of living in Pyongyang in a unifed Korea. She writes in both Korean and English and has covered the Presidential Office, the Foreign Ministry, and the Unification Ministry.    Su-jin has recently written and published a book called  North Korean Women in Power: Daughters of the Sun...

Kim Yung Hee was found by the Yeongdeungpo-gu police on October 26, 1973. She has since found her biological father. Now she is looking for her biological mother whose name is Lee Geum Soon or Lee Geum Sook. Her father's nickname for her mother was "망고". She is about 75 years old. Her mother's hometown is Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do. In the early 1970s, her mother lived with her sister across fro...