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This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we leave the royal palaces behind and step into the village '마당', where ordinary people sang, danced, played games, and sometimes put on masks to laugh at the people above them. We'll look at why masks could be sacred, funny, and surprisingly critical of society; experience some of the most memorable characters from Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori; and connect that living tradition to this year's Andong International Maskdance Festival. We'll also make a quick pop-culture stop with Bridal Mask, because Korean storytellers are still fascinated by what becomes possible once someone hides their face.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we celebrate Hangeul Day by going back to the surprising story behind Korea's alphabet. In 15th-century Joseon, King Sejong decided that ordinary people needed a writing system that actually matched the Korean language; then faced opposition from scholars who thought creating easy new letters was dangerous. We'll look at how the original 28 letters worked, the political fight behind them, the drama Deep Rooted Tree, and why 2026 is a particularly special Hangeul Day: 580 years since the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum and 100 years since Koreans first began officially commemorating the day.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we finish our four-part King Jeongjo series in the place where his personal history became a physical landscape: Suwon Hwaseong. It began with the memory of his father Crown Prince Sado, grew into a new city built with scholars, soldiers, craftsmen and new technology, and became the stage for Jeongjo’s extraordinary 1795 journey with his mother Lady Hyegyeong. And the timing is perfect — because this weekend, that journey comes back to life at the 2026 Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we leave King Jeongjo’s private life and look at how he actually governed. Jeongjo had ambitious ideas, but being king did not automatically give him loyal officials, trusted soldiers, or the power to change old economic privileges, so he built institutions to do it. From 규장각 and 초계문신 to 장용영 and 신해통공, today we look at the machinery behind the reform king.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we leave King Jeongjo’s private life and look at how he actually governed. Jeongjo had ambitious ideas, but being king did not automatically give him loyal officials, trusted soldiers, or the power to change old economic privileges, so he built institutions to do it. From 규장각 and 초계문신 to 장용영 and 신해통공, today we look at the machinery behind the reform king.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we begin our new history and folklore chapter with King Jeongjo — not as a distant textbook figure, but as a prince shaped by family trauma, palace pressure, and survival. Through Lee Joon-ik’s film The Throne / 사도, we’ll look at Yeongjo as the ultimate “tiger parent king,” Sado as the son who broke under impossible expectations, and Jeongjo as the child who survived by becoming almost painfully disciplined. Before Jeongjo became the reforming king of Joseon, he first had to survive being Yi San.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we close one chapter and prepare for the next with our final classic travel segment before next week’s renewal into Korean history, folk history, and lore. Our listener survey answers traveled a little farther than expected – from Canada to Uganda to Japan, and even back to our Sky Castle episode – reminding us that travel is really about memory, mood, and story. So today, we bring that idea home to Korea with three destinations: Jongno for Memory, Yangpyeong’s Dumulmeori for Mood, and Seochon for Story.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we’re going back to school: new semester, new notebooks, same old anxiety. We’ll look at Korea’s latest school debates, from phone bans and AI textbooks to hagwon pressure and “friendflation,” then visit two very different school stories: the teacher drama Black Dog and the wonderfully strange indie film 막걸리가 알려줄 거야. Finally, we’ll head to Sinchon, Seoul’s classic student neighborhood, for campus nostalgia, cheap eats, and the legendary Doksuri Dabang.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we return to the KOSPI chart — because apparently the market heard our July episode and chose violence. On July 16, we talked about KOSPI fever: AI, semiconductors, retail investors, leverage, FOMO, and the emotional life of Korean “ants.” But just two weeks later, the market gave us a historic roller coaster: a brutal late-July selloff, a shocking rebound on July 31, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surging nearly 30%, and investors asking whether this was 시황–market analysis or 신앙–market faith.

On this week’s Arirang Travel Diaries, we honor Liberation Day in Korea—Gwangbokjeol—the day light was restored after the period of Japanese colonial rule. But today, our core theme is resistance. We remember not only the moment of liberation in 1945, but the decades-long resistance of Koreans who refused to fade away: those who organized, fought, wrote, taught, and marched. Afterwards, we’ll dive into two films that capture the essence of resistance, and finish with a guide to key sites and events you can visit yourself this week.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we step into Korea&s record-breaking heat wave – the kind of weather where corn visits Busan and comes back as popcorn, but visits Yangsan and comes back burnt. We&ll look at this week&s extreme 폭염, from Yangsan&s 42.5°C record to severe heat alerts in Seoul. Then we slow down with Yoon Dan-bi&s Moving On, or 남매의 여름밤, before cooling off with 냉면, 콩국수, 빙수

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we continue our 납량 특집 with two Korean horror films that turn modern media itself into a source of fear. We look at 더 웹툰: 예고살인, or Killer Toon, where murders happen exactly as drawn in a webtoon, and 씬, or The Sin, where a film shoot in an abandoned school turns into a ritualistic nightmare. Then we explore ghost-repelling traditions and the very modern late-night snacks Koreans eat while scaring themselves on purpose.

On this week’s Arirang Travel Diaries, we’re beating the muggy summer heat with a classic Korean tradition: a chilling Nablyang (납량) special! We’ll explore the true meaning of Nablyang—literally 'inviting in the cool breeze'—and look into Korea’s long-standing tradition of summer horror stories. Then, we’ll step inside the haunted palace and dark curses of Netflix’s new series Donggung, starring Nam Joo-hyuk, Roh Yoon-seo, and Cho Seung-woo. To top it all off, we’ll introduce traditional red bean dishes believed to ward off evil spirits, along with the best modern late-night snacks to munch on during a horror drama binge!

In this week's Arirang Travel Diaries, we are unfolding stock charts instead of travel maps. We’ll dive into the KOSPI—Korea's benchmark stock index—and the unique trading culture of Korea's retail investors (locally dubbed "ants"). We'll also examine the recent market shocks triggered by leveraged ETFs and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in the wake of the AI and semiconductor rally. Next, we'll connect today's investment anxieties with memories of the 1997 IMF financial crisis through the lens of the film Default. Finally, we’ll wrap things up with a highly relatable look at the everyday comfort foods of retail investors—from convenience store lunchboxes and "panic coffee" to cup noodles, fried chicken, and comforting stews.

This week on Arirang Travel Diaries, we discuss the onset of the intense summer heat, 'Sambok,' which arrives following a brief rainy season. We explore the meanings of 'Chobok,' 'Jungbok,' and 'Malbok,' and delve into Korea's summer culinary culture for restoring vitality in the sweltering heat. We then focus on the summer scenery, seasonal vegetables, and refreshing summer dishes featured in the movie 'Little Forest,' starring Kim Tae-ri. Finally, we compare two starkly different methods of surviving the summer: the piping hot Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) and the chilled Kongguksu (soybean noodle soup).