Hear It Again: Summer reads from the Soundside team

Soundside is looking back at some of our favorite author interviews of the year.

In her new book, "Flawless," author, podcast host, and journalist Elise Hu writes about the complicated impacts of one Korean cultural export: beauty standards.

And Seattle Youth Poet Laureate and RadioActive alumni, Sah Pham, reflects on how writing is a journey of self discovery.

Back in June, Soundside host Libby Denkmann spoke with Elise Hu about her book "Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital."

K-beauty is not a niche market these days. Built around dewy skins with no visible pores, big eyes, and thin bodies, it's become an ideal for pop stars, celebrities, and regular people across the world.

The industry is the result of “hallyu," the exporting of Korean pop culture that the government has helped sponsor since the 1990s.

In "Flawless," Hu describes how digital filters and a booming beauty economy have transformed the industry, societal expectations, and what’s actually achievable when it comes to that flawless finish.

You can read and listen to the original story here.

In 2020, Sah Pham was on a road trip with her mother through Vancouver Island. Along that journey, she recorded an audio piece about her mother’s passage across the ocean from Vietnam, titled "A poem for my mother, a Vietnam boat refugee."

That story originally aired about three years ago for KUOW's RadioActive, a program that gives young people the skills and resources to do public radio journalism.

For nearly 20 years, the program has seen countless young people come through its doors and tell rich narratives about their friends, parents, and daily lives. Listeners sometimes want to know where those RadioActive alumni are now.

So, we're catching up with some of these young creators in a segment we call "RadioActive Rewind."

Since that segment first aired, Sah Pham has become Seattle's Youth Poet Laureate and is looking at what's next after graduation.

You can read and listen to the original story here.