There’s no better place to experience K-Pop fandom in all of its passion and glory than KCON. In the span of a decade, the annual fan convention has grown to a nationwide event drawing hundreds of thousands of fans. And just like many things K-Pop-related in the US – the extravaganza started right here in Southern California. Vivian and her childhood friends visit KCON held in downtown Los Angeles to witness the impact of the music firsthand.
(Originally published March 30, 2023)

Support K-pop Dreaming and other LAist Studios podcasts by donating now at LAist.com/join

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

The LA Uprising exploded racial and economic injustices simmering under the surface of Los Angeles into the open. Vivian looks at the events leading up to the Uprising, and the efforts following the protests to promote racial harmony in Los Angeles, including the staging of an African music festival in South Los Angeles that featured a performance by an up-and-coming Korean American rapper named Tiger JK. Years after the festival, he would go on to make a name for himself in South Korea as the “Godfather of Korean Hip-Hop”.
(Originally published March 23, 2023)

Support K-pop Dreaming and other LAist Studios podcasts by donating now at LAist.com/join

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

The underground hip-hop scene in Los Angeles was thriving in the late 1980s. And there, soaking in the vibe, was a Korean American college student by the name of Jae Chong. He was also making music on the side, but didn’t think much was going to come of it. That is, until an out-of-the-blue invitation brought him and his friends to Korea when K-pop was taking off. Their group, Solid, would become the Kings of R&B and the first Korean American act to make a splash in the Korean music industry. Vivian reflects on the importance of Solid and sees the group's Korean-Americanness as the cornerstone of their success.
(Originally published March 16, 2023)

Support K-pop Dreaming by donating now at LAist.com/join

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

In this episode, we head to an American military neighborhood in Seoul in the late 1980s. Tucked in an alleyway was a little grimy club that blasted American hip-hop, the place was for African American GIs to cut loose, but it pulled in an unexpected crowd – young Koreans who would become the pioneers of modern K-pop. Itaewon was also the setting for the beginning of another story – it was the place where Vivian’s parents met and fell in love. Features Kang Won Rae, one of K-pop's legends that came out of the Moon Night scene.
(Originally published March 9, 2023)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Vivian begins her exploration of K-Pop's history with a genre of Korean music called trot that emerged during the Japanese colonization of Korea. Trot holds up a mirror to Korea’s history and gives rise to an enigmatic quality that, some say, informs K-pop. Vivian’s guide for this episode: her grandmother. Also features 2023 Korean Music Awards nominee and K-pop artist, 250.
(Originally published March 2, 2023)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Vivian puts together a mixed CD with some of her favorite K-Pop songs from the 90’s and 2000’s. Each song is connected to a different moment in her life and they all happen to be some of K-pop’s greatest hits. And together, these songs tell the early history of the genre’s evolution and growth, as well as their migration to the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles.
(Original published February 23, 2023)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Growing up in Koreatown during the 90s and 2000s, host Vivian Yoon was an emo-listening teenager who embraced American pop culture. At least that’s what it seemed from the outside. But at home, by herself, what she listened to was K-Pop. How Vivian's hidden love for the music is propelling her to explore the connections between K-Pop and her hometown. 

(Originally published February 23, 2023)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com
 to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

K-pop disrupted pop culture in South Korea in the early 1990s and quickly the new and electrifying sound found fans across the world.

One of those fans was a kid growing up thousands of miles away in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

In K-Pop Dreaming, the second season of the acclaimed California Love podcast, host and writer Vivian Yoon takes listeners on a journey to learn about the history behind the music that had defined her childhood.

From an occupied Korea in the 1930s and a small hip-hop club in 1980s Seoul to the 1992 LA Uprising and the music’s booming popularity today, the surprising story of K-pop is juxtaposed against Vivian’s own coming of age as a second-generation immigrant, struggling to fit in and come to terms with her own identity.

The series premieres on February 23, 2023.

We close the series with a meditation on how 28 years after the 1992 Riots, for many in L.A., things feel exactly the same.

Eleuteria “Ellie” Hernández moved to Los Angeles from a small town in Mexico when she was 14 and fell in love with the city. In this episode, Walter sits down with Ellie, his mother, to understand her relationship to L.A. and how it shaped his own.  

California Love sponsors include:

UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now at https://www.uclaextension.edu/

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

There’s a horse ranch in the heart of Compton that may hold the answers for salvation and redemption for the city’s black cowboys. 

Read the original NYTimes article, "For the Compton Cowboys, Horseback Riding Is a Legacy, and Protection." 

Read Walter Thompson-Hernández's book The Compton CowboysThe New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

California Love is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.

A first-parrot perspective into legends and myths of how L.A. became home to the world’s largest population of green parrots.

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

California Love is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.

Walter dives deep on what Kobe meant to him in his life and how the icon’s death spurred a collective mourning throughout the city.

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

California Love is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.

A story about a wild party line that many Los Angeles’ teenagers used to create a fantasy world.

California Love sponsors include:

Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on Hulu

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

Walter was just eleven years old when he was admitted to L.A.'s infamous Scared Straight program for graffiti related crimes. In this episode, Walter, through a chance encounter, checks-in with his friend who went through the program with him, their anti-tagging arch-nemesis, and how they have turned out after all these years.

California Love sponsors include:

Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on Hulu

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist

Host Walter Thompson-Hernández returns home to L.A. and reflects on how much the city has changed since he was a child.

California Love sponsors include:

Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on Hulu

This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist