Korea Deconstructed

Jasmyn Kim is doing a PhD at Yonsei University in the Department of Sport Industry Studies, she is a pole dance instructor at Tara Pole Dance in Jong-ro, and she also teaches a Yoga course at Yonsei University. Her academic research focuses on body image and the gendered nature of pole dance as a modern Korean fitness phenomenon, and the physical and psychological effects it can have on women. In...

Although this started as a conversation about Gwangju and Professor Don Baker's experiences there starting in 1971, including witnessing the aftermath of the massacre in 1980, we quickly understood there was much more for us to explore. This includes Don's impressions of Kim Dae-jung, gender and women in the Joseon Dynasty, Korea's historical relationship with China, Confucianism and ancestor wors...

Steve first came to Korea in 1975 and continues his life-long love of the land of the morning calm. He has been a missionary, pastor, and leadership development officer. He has years of experience in translations and editing, has several published books and dozens of scholarly papers to his credit, mostly in theology and the religious history of the United States. He is a life member of Royal Asia...

This episode contains a lot of explicit language. If you are interested, the YouTube video features hundreds of photos of the bands, venues, and people we talk about.  Trash is a musician, designer, and tattoo artist who has been part of the Korean punk scene for two decades. Here, she talks about how she discovered underground subculture in her late teens and then watched it develop over the year...

"People sleep peacefully in their beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." George Orwell Park Kyung Hoon (박경훈), Park Inu (박인우), and Lee Seung-il (이승일) are three South Korean men who have all recently completed their mandatory military service. One served in the Navy on the south coast, one in an administrative office, and one as a sniper in the DMZ. In this conv...

Choi Isu is a young South Korean woman who has a vision of a better world. She believes in communication, community, and education. Measures that will stop the fragmentation of society and isolation experienced by some people today. Much of this worldview has been informed by her own educational experiences. Attending Ewoo High School, she received an alternative education focused on discussion an...

Dr. Kim Kyung-jin was born in 1936. He grew up in Manchuria speaking Japanese at school, Korean at home, and then Chinese in the street. Before class, all students had to face Tokyo, bow, and pledge their allegiance to the Japanese empire. He said he would see people dead on the streets on his way to school, overdosed on opium. He was also there when the last Chinese emperor, the boy Puyi, passed...

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....