logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
48m 9s

Suk-Young Kim, "Surviving Squid Game: A ...

Marshall Poe
About this episode

In Surviving Squid Game: A Guide to K-Drama, Netflix, and Global Streaming Wars (Applause Books, 2023), scholar Suk-Young Kim reflects on Netflix's most-viewed series and one of the most influential Korean dramas, Squid Game. The series premiered in September 2021, when the pandemic cloud still hung heavy over viewers and seemed to mirror the societal ills COVID-19 brought to the surface. Kim explores the drama's intricate imagery, discussion of free will, and other components that made Squid Game strike a chord with so many viewers. This book is essential for anyone wanting to delve deeper into this global phenomenon.

Dr. Suk-Young Kim is a professor at UCLA. You can find details about Dr. Kim’s work here.

Leslie Hickman is a translator and writer who earned her MA in Korean Studies from Yonsei University. On Twitter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Up next
Aug 21
Mario Livio and Jack Szostak, "Is Earth Exceptional?: The Quest for Cosmic Life" (Basic Books, 2024)
For a long time, scientists have wondered how life has emerged from inanimate chemistry, and whether Earth is the only place where it exists. Charles Darwin speculated about life on Earth beginning in a warm little pond. Some of his contemporaries believed that life existed on Ma ... Show More
55m 44s
Aug 21
Stacia Kalinoski, Racing Uphill: Confronting a Life with Epilepsy (U of Minnesota Press, 2025)
The book, Racing Uphill: Confronting a Life with Epilepsy (U of Minnesota Press, 2025), is a memoir and an educational resource, which tells the story of an Emmy Award-winning TV news Journalist, Stacia Kalinoski. The author's aim is beyond giving an account of her experience of ... Show More
31m 1s
Aug 20
Gary Rivlin, "AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence" (Harper Collins, 2025)
A veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shadows the top thinkers in the field of Artificial Intelligence, introducing the breakthroughs and developments that will change the way we live and work. Artificial Intelligence has been “just around the corner” for decades, continual ... Show More
1h 5m
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
Suk-Young Kim, "Surviving Squid Game: A Guide to K-Drama, Netflix, and Global Streaming Wars" (Applause Books, 2023)
In Surviving Squid Game: A Guide to K-Drama, Netflix, and Global Streaming Wars (Applause Books, 2023), scholar Suk-Young Kim reflects on Netflix's most-viewed series and one of the most influential Korean dramas, Squid Game. The series premiered in September 2021, when the pande ... Show More
48m 9s
Aug 2024
Season 3, Episode 10: Jean Dong, Chinese Statecraft in a Changing World
Please join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and China expert, Jean Dong as they discuss Dong’s fascinating book, Chinese Statecraft in a Changing World: Demystifying Enduring Traditions and Dynamic Constraints. Dr. Dong offers a rich and subtle historical perspective on China’s statecraf ... Show More
40m 34s
Sep 2024
E92: South Korea 1987, part 2
Second of a double podcast episode about the South Korean movements of 1987 which overthrew the US-backed military dictatorship and won big improvements for workers. In these episodes we speak with Kim Jin-sook and Hong Seung Ha about their experiences of the June Democratic Stru ... Show More
44m 20s
Jun 7
Another Take: What is fueling South Korea’s political drama?
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on January 14th, 2025. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed. Impeachment proceedings against suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol are in full swing. Au ... Show More
23m 15s
May 29
The Korean Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Korea's brief but significant period as an empire as it moved from the 500-year-old dynastic Joseon monarchy towards modernity. It was in October 1897 that King Gojong declared himself Emperor, seizing his chance when the once-dominant China lost t ... Show More
47m 40s
May 29
The Korean Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Korea's brief but significant period as an empire as it moved from the 500-year-old dynastic Joseon monarchy towards modernity. It was in October 1897 that King Gojong declared himself Emperor, seizing his chance when the once-dominant China lost t ... Show More
47m 40s
Mar 2022
'Squid Game' Squad — Hwang Dong-hyuk, Lee Jung-jae, Jung Ho-yeon, Park Hae-soo & Anupam Tripathi
In front of an audience at Chapman University, the principal team behind the Korean dystopian dramedy which has become Netflix's most popular TV show ever — creator/writer/director/EP Hwang Dong-hyuk and stars Lee Jung-jae (“Gi-hun”), Jung Ho-yeon (“Sae-byeok”), Park Hae-soo (“Sa ... Show More
1h 17m
Apr 2023
The Rise of K-Pop, and the role L.A.'s Korean community has played, Plus an immersive production of The Tempest drops the audience right in the middle of the Shakespearean Shipwreck, And today's headl
In today's local news: The LA County COVID Health Emergency order expires, hate flyers in Glendale, a mental health crisis in LA County jails, and Long Beach reopens the Queen Mary.  Then, a new immersive production of The Tempest at the Shakespeare Center LA invites the audience ... Show More
50 m
Feb 2025
Korea War Games, Trump's Rhetoric on the DPRK, & More w/ Ju-Hyun Park of Nodutdol
In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring back our comrade Ju-Hyun Park (whom you will remember from our recent episodes  A History of American Imperialism in Korea and  Korea Dispatch - Martial Law, Impeachment, and More) to discuss the upcoming US led war games taking plac ... Show More
1h 21m
Dec 2024
Netflix’s Big Bet On ‘Squid Game’
The gory, dystopian South Korean thriller Squid Game is the most popular series Netflix has ever released. This week, it drops season two — in the midst of the company’s efforts to grow the show beyond the screen. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talk ... Show More
15m 2s