Ep. 48: TFR Gets Right With God
Hey TFRers,
John Fugelsang stopped by last week to enlighten us with his takes on the GOP, Jesus, and Trump's cankles. Thank you @thedonnaparty-c8x for the +1.
But even better than the takes was the positivity. Who knew John was so good at bright-siding! If you haven't listened yet, please do. For the first time in awhile, we were able to contemplate the future without feeling abject terror.
Guys, there may actually be things to look forward to– aside from finding out who Melania's date for the funeral is....
Watch on YouTube, stream on Spotify, or listen anywhere you get your podcasts!
Or, if positivity just isn't your vibe, the Good Liars can help with that. 🙃
Seena's Corner: K-Pop Soft Power (That Also K*lls Demons)
How do you go from economic catastrophe to cultural power house in 20 years? Here’s how South Korea did it. In the late 90s there was an economic crisis in Asia, and South Korea was hit especially hard. The large conglomerates “chaebols” that stretched across multiple industries, were unable to cover their debts and were forced to reduce in size. Pulling South Korea out of poverty was critical for President Kim Dae-Jung, but that didn’t mean austerity-only measures. As the chaebols broke apart, it lead to more opportunity for smaller companies to grow, but they needed new foreign direct investment. How did they do that? They focused on two areas: information technology and popular culture.
That’s right! They realized the exports that would grow their economy and improve their image in the world were tech and culture. It’s what the fancy investment people call a flywheel - an economic engine that helps increase momentum and create stability and power. As your country gets “cooler” more people want to go there, do business there, *live* there. Combine that with laws that allowed Koreans to travel abroad more, and reduced censorship laws you now have a population that is worldly, thoughtful, innovative, and creative.
So of course when I saw that K-Pop Demon Hunters made over $19m in its opening weekend I wasn’t surprised. Did I see it? No. Will I see it? Maybe. I know little to nothing about this film and the closest thing I’ve come to K-Pop is doing poppers in the early aughts and missing the K scene of the later 2010s. The one thing I’ve always known is that South Korea knew that culture would help them win around the world. From Gangnam Style to Parasite to Squid Games to this - we should know that we are losing our soft power. And it was our game to lose. We were number one, South Korea took our playbook and is doing it better. While South Korea fosters genre bending art - we are literally muting broadcasts so tv audiences dont see arenas boo our President at a tennis match. “Oh but it’s just one movie.” THEY HAD SING ALONG THEATERS FOR THIS MOVIE. Wicked, Swift… that’s who gets those… did K-Pop Demon Hunters get on that list for ya?
Watch the trailer though, admittedly it looks fun, maybe I’ll watch. I’m already mad tho, they culturally appropriated the name Rumi, that’s my guy, he’s an ancient poet, and the name of my terrier.
Meanwhile, in Ohio....What Travis is Reading
As we often say on TFR, foreign policy is domestic policy and it's all related in many ways... This is especially true with the Trump Administration's massive deportation efforts, which without the help of local jails and sheriffs across the country would be somehow even MORE chaotic than it already is! In Ohio and nationwide it's mostly about money –– the federal government is offering cold hard cash to local sheriff departments that desperately need it, making the current U.S. immigration policy even more of an "unholy alliance" than ever before.
What's Coming...
You had one week of positivity, folks. This week, we're back at it, FP Zaddy & T-Ceps coming at you from the studio to talk boat bombings, Trump losing India, and so many more super fun things.
As always...
If you have a question or a suggestion for a show, send us an email at Theforeignreportlpn@gmail.com.