Author and TED Talks Daily host Elise Hu joins The Stacks to discuss her book Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. Elise explains how Korea became a pop culture superpower, and how she approached writing about a culture outside of her own. We also discuss “cultural technology” and anti-Blackness in Korean beauty standards, and Elise slips into journalist mode to interview Traci.
The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. We will discuss the book on March 27th with Elise Hu.
LISTEN NOW
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript
Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon
- Flawless by Elise Hu
- TED Talks Daily
- “The Irony of the Sephora Tweens” (Elise Hu, The Altantic)
- Evan Osnos
- Anna Fifield
- Dutton Books
- Miracle on the Han River
- Samsung
- LG
- Hyundai
- Kia
- BTS
- Blackpink
- Parasite (Joon Ho Bong, 2019)
- Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2021)
- Squid Game (Netflix)
- Zendaya
- Dune (Denis Villeneuve, 2021)
- “Ep. 283 The Curiosity Never Ends with Brittany Luse” (The Stacks)
- Sephora
- Bath & Body Works
- The People’s Hospital by Ricardo Nuila
- “Ep. 275 We’re on the Extreme Side with Ricardo Nuila” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 248 For the Love of Celebrity Memoirs with Chelsea Devantez” (The Stacks)
- The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
- What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller
- What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller (audiobook)
- Fight of the Century edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
- Fight of the Century edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman (audiobook)
- ACLU
- Jesmyn Ward
- Brit Bennett
- Yaa Gyasi
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Miranda Rights history
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Plucked by Rebecca M. Herzig
- Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar
- Finding Me by Viola Davis
- Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor
- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
- Patagonia
- Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
- The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
- The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (audiobook)
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- Carl Jung
- Girlhood by Melissa Febos
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Anna K by Jenny Lee
- Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar
- Celeste Ng
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
- “Ep. 278 We’re Giving Him Drugs with Sam Sanders” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 282 You Made A Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi — The Stacks Book Club (Sam Sanders)” (The Stacks)
- Mary H. K. Choi
- True Biz by Sara Nović
- “Ep. 247 True Biz by Sara Nović — The Stacks Book Club (Greta Johnsen)” (The Stacks)
- Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
- Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
- Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult (audiobook)
- Life Kit (NPR)
- “How to find a book you won’t want to put down” with Traci Thomas (Life Kit)
- The Middle Passage by James Hollis
- Matthew Weiner
- Mad Men (AMC)
- Sigmund Freud
- Natalie Portman
- Cup of Jo
- Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
- Gold Peak Tea
- Village Well Books (Culver City, Los Angeles)
- Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)
- North Figueroa Bookshop (Los Angeles, CA)
- Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff
- Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
- The Nutshell Technique by Jill Chamberlain
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
- Political Fictions by Joan Didion
- The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House by Audre Lorde
- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
- Burn Book by Kara Swisher
To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.
Connect with Elise: Instagram | Twitter | Website | Substack | TED Talks Daily
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Subscribe
To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.
The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.
