Crash Landing on Meaning: Life, Class, and Rediscovery through Korea
Korea Deconstructed
Lebanese scholar Rania Hafez joins Korea Deconstructed for a wide-ranging conversation on class, culture, and the search for meaning. Rania reflects on how media pushes culture wars over class solidarity, the importance of leadership in academia, and how she discovered Korean dramas during the Covid pandemic. Her love for Crash Landing on You and Hometown Cha Cha Cha helped her find beauty and purpose again, calling Korea her "Narnia." A deeply personal and philosophical episode about rediscovery, passion, and why Korea speaks to so many hearts around the world. She also reflects on her...
info_outline
Kim Il Sung: The Accidental Tyrant Who Changed Korea Forever
Korea Deconstructed
My guest is Fyodor Tertitskiy, a prolific scholar, polyglot, and one of the few who reads the footnotes of history in multiple languages. His new book, Accidental Tyrant, a biography of Kim Il Sung, challenges the official state mythology and unearths the improbable rise of a guerrilla fighter turned dynastic dictator. This is how Kim Il Sung outwitted imperialists, communists, comrades, and colonels alike, turning chance into legacy, failure into foundation. But the question remains: what does this all mean for those of us living in a world still shaped by the ghosts of his decisions? ...
info_outline
Koreans React to the 2025 Presidential Election: What Do Koreans Really Want?
Korea Deconstructed
In this episode of Korea Deconstructed, I’m joined by four university students: young people who voted, watched, and waited as South Korea held its most recent presidential election and elected Lee Jae-myung. We discuss what the election felt like to them. What it felt like to cast a vote. What they saw among their friends. And what was never said. We’ll explore the hopes and contradictions of a generation caught between economic uncertainty, cultural shifts, and a political system that doesn’t always seem built for them. Korea Deconstructed #105 Big thank you to these wonderful...
info_outline
Is Korea Falling Apart? 4 Young Koreans React to “Korea is Over”
Korea Deconstructed
A recent viral YouTube video claimed that Korea would soon be extinct. The country transformed negatively by one of the world's lowest birthrates. Change, it suggested, was too late. Four young adults come together to discuss the future of Korea, assessing its birthrate issues, education, culture of perfection, and the deep spiritual crisis that seems to have gripped the nation. Is Korea really over? Not necessarily... We hear from 4 young people all living here: a young Korean man interested in Jungian psychology, a woman balancing study and modeling, an ethnic Korean from Uzbekistan...
info_outline
Dividing Korea: Dr. Kornel Chang
Korea Deconstructed
Kornel Chang on U.S. Power, Korean Resistance, and the Birth of Division What if Korea’s true revolution was never allowed to happen? In this episode, I talk with historian Kornel Chang, author of A Fractured Liberation, to explore a moment in Korean history that most people never learn about. A moment when ordinary Koreans believed they were on the brink of something new. In 1945 Japanese colonial rule had ended and, across the peninsula, people were filled with hope. Workers seized factories, farmers reclaimed land, and women demanded rights. It was Korea’s “Asian Spring”...an...
info_outline
Building a Life Abroad: Kim Ninja’s Guide to Korea
Korea Deconstructed
From visas to values: a positive, practical conversation about living in Korea Kim Ninja joins Korea Deconstructed to talk about building an authentic life in Korea. Born in Germany to Vietnamese parents, Kim made the jump to Korea and now helps thousands of expats and digital nomads adapt culturally, practically, and legally. Through cartoons, articles, and community building, he offers a refreshing, optimistic take on life abroad — steering away from sensationalism. In this conversation, Kim shares practical advice on visas, adapting to Korean norms, and how to find real beauty in your...
info_outline
Korean Cinema & The Bodies Within
Korea Deconstructed
I sat down with scholar, Nilesh Kumar to explore how Korean cinema has reflected shifting notions of gender, identity, and social structure across decades. From the angry men of the Korean New Wave to the defiant heroines of modern streaming hits, this conversation examines how bodies on screen become battlegrounds for power, memory, and desire. We begin by talking about how technology defines Park Chan-wook’s groundbreaking movie Oldboy, as well as its absence of allegory, signaling the start of post-modern Korean cinema. Then, we explore three main themes in Korean cinema across time:...
info_outline
Voices of Change: Korean Students, Art, and Democracy
Korea Deconstructed
보도지침 (Media Guidelines) is a satirical work that critiques the media landscape and the influence of government or corporate power on Korean journalism in the 1980s. It explores themes such as censorship, the manipulation of public opinion, and the ethical dilemmas faced by journalists. The play is known for its sharp wit and critical perspective, often using humor and irony to highlight the challenges and compromises that media professionals may face. More and more young Koreans are bringing this play to the stage—not as a history lesson, but as a statement about their own...
info_outline
The Korean Diaspora and Korean History Told Through Photos
Korea Deconstructed
A few years ago, Blair's grandmother gave him a present. Approximately 300 photographs his grandfather had taken in Korea nearly 70 years ago. These beautifully preserved color photos not only revealed a country and its people emerging from war and beginning to rebuild, it also showed Blair members of his family. It showed him where he was from, and, therefore, where he was going. He has digitized these photos and made them into an archive. This has since grown to feature a wide range of photos and videos expertly organized to allow visitors to discover Korea as it once was and, perhaps, also...
info_outline
Shamanism, Post-Colonialism, and the Korean Left
Korea Deconstructed
David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at . Jack Greenberg works as an independent consultant, researcher, and freelance writer. His current focus is on heritage and conservation issues, historical memory debates, truth-seeking and reconciliation, and civilian massacres of the Korean War. Connect with Jack Substack: Twitter: BlueSky: Insta: ...
info_outlineAndrew Salmon, MBE, is the Seoul-based Asia editor of Washington Times, where he specializes in regional security, geopolitics and macro. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning Korean War combat histories, "To the Last Round" and "Scorched Earth, Black Snow." Those works have won awards from the ROK and UK governments, and have been translated into both Korean and Chinese.
Andrew's Books
To The Last Round: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Round-British-Stand-Imjin/dp/1845135334
Scorched Earth, Black Snow: https://www.amazon.com/Scorched-Earth-Black-Snow-Australia/dp/1845136195
The Washington Times: https://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/andrew-salmon/
Discussion Outline
0:00 Introduction
2:25 The Psychological Effects of War on Individuals
15:00 The Forgotten War
19:30 Soldiers' First Impressions of Korea
26:40 Difficult Questions
30:45 The North Korean Offensive
38:10 General Douglas MacArthur
47:20 The Chinese Dragon Awakes
1:00:00 An Ideological War?
1:10:00 Prisoners of War
1:14:55 Derek Kinne: Churchill's Bulldog
1:20:50 The End of the War
1:28:00 Current Military Capabilities
1:36:25 China in the 21st Century
1:44:20 Vladimir Putin
1:49:35 Lessons on War and Human Nature
1:57:35 Recommendations
Korea Deconstructed
▶ Get in touch: [email protected]
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@UCXcdboOUCnCFnrAOF5dV1sg
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
Music: Stranger Danger - Francis Preve Pictures:
A selection of photos and videos have been used in the YouTube version for educational purposes. If any of them are yours and you would like to be credited in the notes here, please let me know.