In today’s interview, my business partner, Christina Black, asked me why I chose to go to North Korea. Why I chose to go was different than what made such a positive impression on me, a pattern that happens often in my life and I bet yours. Small interface: [audio:https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/why_choose_north_korea.mp3] Large interface:[videofile]https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/why_choose_north_korea.mp3[/videofile]

I don’t know what the world would look from the eyes of a North Korean, so I’m just speculating. I just wanted to go point for point on a bunch of yesterday’s points on what I considered weird about them. Just because we think they do some things weird doesn’t mean we don’t. On the contrary, you thinking someone else weird virtually guarantees they will think you weird, but not[…] Keep reading →

Weirdness is subjective, of course. I’m only describing what I consider weird. And I want to stress that I don’t consider nor mean to imply that weirdness is bad. I consider it interesting. As a friend said, “Nobody is normal.” I celebrate individual differences. I put “weird” in the title to get people thinking and asking themselves questions. In particular, I hope people will consider questions like these, which I[…] Keep reading →

EDIT: the updated details are here — but, in short, Sunday, December 4, 7pm, 5 Crosby Street #5H in Soho. I will speak on North Korea at the next Fred Talk, December 4. Fred Talks are riveting and awesome, plus you meet amazing people there. And they get good pizza. The specific time and place haven’t been set, but they are usually at 136 Lawrence Street in Brooklyn, right across[…] Keep reading →

Continuing rules and regulations we faced from yesterday… You may only exchange currency at the official exchange rate, which was about twenty or thirty times worse than the market rate. That is, if we exchanged dollars for North Korean currency at one of the approved sites, we got a certain amount of their currency. If we could walk around the corner and exchange with a private individual, we’d get twenty[…] Keep reading →

The North Korean government heavily restricts what you can do there. Here is a short list of the main restrictions I remember facing. You may not take pictures without permission. On the other hand, if you treat your guides well and tip people, you get a lot more leeway. You may only visit sites from the list of places the government allows you to see. You can only get there[…] Keep reading →

For my last post on Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea for a while, I’ll post some far-reaching ideas, link to articles about it, and give thanks and credit. Einstein said “you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” And George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, if you want peace, I suggest you begin with fun and games, or at least make[…] Keep reading →

Okay, you’re asking, I get the value of sport in opening communications anywhere and thawing relations with people across adversarial borders. What about the games themselves? Did you have fun? Did they? You’ll have to wait for when my posts on pictures from North Korea reach the Ultimate games, but don’t worry, I’ll post interesting stuff in between. For now I’ll say this. You can read books, search online, watch[…] Keep reading →

A friend and reader, es, commented Your posts about North Korea remind me of some parts from Amartya Sen’s “Identity and Violence” and “the Idea of Justice”. Over-generalization, exclusion, multiple identities, basic norms existing in each society and universal norms that should transcend them. Narrow views on North Korea can be attributed to people only focusing on one aspect of North Koreans’ identities through the lens of basic norms in[…] Keep reading →