SSoP Podcast Episode 80 — South Korea: Kimchi, K-Pop, and All-Night Karaoke

South Korea sits at the easternmost edge of Asia and shares the Korean Peninsula with its stern northern neighbor. South Korea’s current geography was created by outsiders: The US and Soviet Union drew its borders after WWII. Although its 20th-century history is pretty grim, the modern country — dynamic, resilient, traditional, and fashionable — is not.

In the capital city of Seoul, soaring skyscrapers and colorful neon glitter are juxtaposed with traditional swooping tile roofs. Cone-shaped mountains surround the city, framed by pink cherry blossoms in the spring and maple leaves turned gold, red, and orange in the fall.

A short list of things for which we can thank Korea: Kimchi and bibimbap. The MP3 player and those sweet instant coffee sticks with built-in sugar and creamer. K-Dramas (Hello, Attorney Woo!) and K-Pop. (Who doesn’t love a little ‘Dynamite’?!)

In this episode, we learn about the discovery of a long-lost royal tomb and the new apps known as ‘dopamine sites.’ Because it’s nearly impossible to talk about South Korea without contrasting it with its northern neighbor, we take a virtual trip to the DMZ and share tips for living like a monk (for a day).

Then we recommend five books we love that took us to South Korea on the page, including a quiet novella set in a popular beach town, a colorful comic book with recipes, a modern story of four friends obsessed with beauty in Seoul, a nonfiction book that illuminates life in a place most of us will never visit, and a charming retelling of Pride and Prejudice set during the 18th-century Joseon dynasty.

Here are the books set in South Korea that we recommend on the show:

• Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins

• Cook Korean! by Robin Ha

• If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

• Behind Five Willows by June Hur

Books, Transcript, and More

For a complete roundup of all the books we recommend, plus a full transcript and the other cool stuff we talked about, visit the Episode 80 show notes.

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Top image courtesy of BERKOZDEMIR/Shutterstock.