The Forbidden City
You can't visit the Forbidden City in Beijing without posting pictures! It wasn't as crowded as the Great Wall, but plenty of people were there. Here are a few pictures.
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April 24, 2012
Back from North Korea!
Greetings from Beijing and another amazing North Korea trip! This time we visited places few (no?) Americans or non-North Koreans have visited in decades. We also saw the incredible beauty of the country outside Pyongyang and the DMZ. Pictures and stories to come! By the way, I tag this post with leadership because, as you'll see, we did a lot more than just tour around. We interacted directly with many North Koreans, especially kids. You'll be amazed at what we did. We heard other groups complaining to their guides that they couldn't do things we did. I don't know when the U.S. and North Korea will have peaceful relations, but I can tell you we brought it closer.
April 23, 2012
See Joshua Spodek on understanding North Korea from a business strategy perspective in Beijing
My friend Sebastian organizes Lectures on Strategy, strategy talks to entrepreneurs and other strategists in Beijing, and invited me to speak to his group. If you're in Beijing, see me speak April 22 at 4pm, near the Shuangjing subway stop. RSVP to me or Sebastian (sebastian at sebastianmarshall.com) for details. I'm basing it on my talk at Columbia Business School last month, using mostly the same slides. He plans to record it, so I expect to post video eventually. Edit: Sebastian posted the video of the talk on his site and I wrote a bit about the discussion that followed.
April 22, 2012
The Great Wall of China!
You can't visit the Great Wall of China without posting pictures from it! We went to the most crowded place and man, was it crowded. But it was amazing. Here are a few pictures to show the wall, the crowd, and my smiling face there.
April 15, 2012
I don’t like to travel
I don't like to travel. I didn't say I don't get value from traveling. I didn't say you shouldn't like traveling. I didn't say I don't travel. In fact, I travel a lot. I've visited 21 countries last I checked, a high number for Americans, I think. I rode a bike with a friend 1,500 miles from Philadelphia to Bar Harbor, Maine and back the summer between high school and college at sixteen years old. In conversation, I find people hold travel as almost a universal virtue. I get a lot out of traveling, but I don't see it that way. Maybe it's because I love living in New York so much, but I think anyone can love where they live just as much, or…
April 11, 2012
North Korean models
I just found this video one of my group-mates took that illustrates one of North Korea's benign oddities -- they make amazing scale models of things. Their museums are full of them. This video shows a model train. I'm not sure the value of showing these models. What do they convey besides model-making skills? I don't quite get it. You also hear at the beginning one of our funniest running jokes of the trip. "Leader Kim Jong Il" sounds like "little Kim Jong Il." We kept hearing "little Kim Jong Il did this ... little Kim Jong Il did that," which made it sound like they were describing his achievements as a baby. Then when our guide described what we heard as "Inside this train…
April 6, 2012
Podcast from my August North Korea trip
Here's the first of two podcasts of four of my travel-mates made on our August 2011 visit to North Korea. The original is here. Jordan, who produced the podcast, runs a dating school, which is why you'll hear ads for it in the podcast. Neil runs a dating school too, among other things. Gabriel is a writer, among other things. Joseph took the most amazing pictures of North Korea I've seen. They also blog on North Korea at An American in North Korea and The North Korea Blog. [audio:https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthKoreaBlogPodcast+part+1.mp3]
April 5, 2012
Finding home by traveling far
My interactions with North Korea have taught me more about myself and my values than anything else in recent memory. I was going to say it taught me more about being an American, but being an American means something different to me today than it used to, and means something different to everyone. I'm thinking about America in the context of North Korea today because I'm in the middle of reading what appears a great work of American writing, or at least a companion to one. Anyone who knows me well knows my ranking of the top such works include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, and King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I haven't yet read Moby Dick and have…
April 4, 2012
The slides from my North Korea talk at Columbia Business School
Saturday's talk on North Korea at Columbia Business School went great -- a full room, an attentive audience, and great questions at the end. I didn't leave as much time for questions as I wish I had, but the organizer told me people told her they liked the talk a lot. Several people asked for copies of the slides so I'm posting them here instead of sending multiple emails.
March 26, 2012
Another review of Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World’s Most Misunderstood Country
Joseph Ferris, who took the most breathtaking and evocative pictures of North Korea I've seen -- see them on Flickr (I recommend watching the whole slide show) -- reviewed my book, Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World's Most Misunderstood Country, in his blog, An American in North Korea. He wrote I admit that I was quite skeptical to learn that on his return he wrote a book on North Korea, it's a country that requires a career of study and dedication to research to understand — at least from a historian's viewpoint. Instead, Joshua took his considerable business and entrepreneur experiences, along with his ability as a physicist to break down complex systems into easily understandable parts, and applied these talents to write a book…
March 20, 2012
A North Korean vegan food blog
Who would have believed a North Korean vegan food blog could exist? And written by someone in New York City, home to no North Korean restaurants. Maybe this means I will get to try some reasonably authentic naengmyeon. Check it out: juchevegan.com: "The world's first English-language vegan food blog devoted to North Korean cuisine."
March 1, 2012
An essay on money
People don't talk about how much money they have in this country. I wrote the following essay on money for a class I'm taking. I hope it's not too much or too little information. I don't remember money concerning my family growing up. Sometimes we had more or less, but I don't think anyone called us spoiled when we did well. I don't think we felt hopeless when our block got free welfare food from the government for any child (bologna on white bread with bright yellow mustard). I don't remember us feeling particularly rich or poor or wondering where our next meal would come from. Nor did I feel we had anything we didn't earn. We had some feeling of sour grapes toward the…
February 26, 2012
A bad day skiing beats a good day of almost anything else
Kids learn to ski easily, before they learn to fear falling. After I learned to ski in my mid-twenties I asked my mom why they never took us skiing. She answered "We couldn't afford that" quick enough I could almost hear an unspoken "duh!" following it up. I love skiing so much I suggested my sister take her kids while they were young. President's Day weekend she told me she had decided to take them but her husband had been called to perform an emergency surgery. Could I join them, having booked rooms already? Three kids for a mom who didn't know how to ski would be a handful. So despite 40+ degree weather, I figured out how to cancel or postpone my other plans…
February 25, 2012
Grand Illusions and North Korea, part 1
People, left to themselves, don't seem to care about people on the other side of the planet. They seem to want to pursue happiness and enjoy themselves if they can. My observations in North Korea reinforced this sentiment. It raises the question why North Korea and the United States harbor so much animosity. History answers the question at a low level. My visit revealed to me deeper reasons. In all cases I got to speak to North Koreans, they distinguished between Americans and our government. In my limited experience there, I saw no individual animosity toward individuals, despite the anti-American propaganda. My greatest discovery in North Korea, so obvious in hindsight, was how similar people were there as any place else, and how unlike their…
January 31, 2012
This photograph is free!
I find this picture of the Eiffel Tower beautiful. A guy named Tristan Nitot took the picture and posted it for people to share and enjoy in a post called "This photograph is free." He posted it in response to some other guy whose name I don't know who posted a picture he took entitled "This photograph is not free." I won't link to him because I'm afraid he might attack me and if he doesn't like sharing I won't share. Because I like beautiful photographs and people sharing, I'm sharing his beautiful photograph. I commented on his site I find your picture beautiful and your act to share it adds to its beauty. You made the other guy's picture (the not free one) and motivations…
January 11, 2012
Favorite moments in North Korea of my travel group-mates, part 3
Continuing favorite moments from part 2, yesterday Joseph Joseph said he liked the shooting range most. Here he is at the range. Neil Neil said that the mausoleum holding Kim Il Sung's body was his favorite moment for the over-the-top rigmarole they put visitors through, making it unintentionally amazing -- in particular the giant, full-body blow driers. He described it as over-the-top propaganda and I found it hard to see it otherwise. I don't know if words or even pictures could convey the unbelievable unusualness of the place. In any case, they didn't let us bring cameras in. Taking pictures in the courtyard in front, we crossed paths with a group of middle-aged women also taking pictures, so we all took pictures together. Ingrid Ingrid…
January 5, 2012
Favorite moments in North Korea of my travel group-mates, part 2
Continuing favorite moments from part 1, yesterday Josh My favorite moment was learning that the sailor who led the tour of the USS Pueblo was a member of the original boarding party of the ship. I felt he had communicated a message to take what we had learned there and use it to help promote peace, a different message than most of the government-promoted messages. Learning his role made the message feel more genuine, which helped me see him and North Koreans in general as human beings first, all the more so for him being in a uniform. Here I am shaking his hand. For comparison, watch the video they showed us to start the tour of the Pueblo, which sounded more typical of the…
January 4, 2012
Favorite moments in North Korea of my travel group-mates, part 1
Toward the end of our week in North Korea I asked all my travel group-mates what they considered their favorite moment of our trip and why. Jordan Jordan liked playing Frisbee most for interacting with kids. Here he is with some kids he threw the frisbee with, in a picture by Joseph Ferris. Alex Alex said he liked the Mass Games for the spectacle, emotion, synchronicity. Here he is at the Mass Games. Alex also said he saw and liked a sparkle in the eyes of all the North Koreans he saw. I'm not sure if the best way to put a sparkle in someone's eyes is to dance with a girl... ... or to shoot guns with them ... ... but he seemed to…
January 3, 2012
The best book to understand North Korea
The best book for understanding North Korea
North Korea fascinates us. Its leaders, their posturing and militarism, their economics, and more all fascinate us. Their belligerence puts them in the news often. Yet we know little about them. More than fascinating, they are globally important. They are a nuclear power with the world's fourth largest military and most militarized border. Yet the media, mainstream and otherwise, mystifies them more. No one explains how or why anyone could act like its leaders and population do. Until now. I wrote Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World's Most Misunderstood Country to explain the situation there. Many books and articles cover border skirmishes, human interest stories, the apparent oddness of their leaders, breaking news, and the like. None before gave the big picture. Understanding North Korea…
December 31, 2011
The Vice Guide to North Korea teaches little and perpetuates pre-conceived notions
I used to love Vice Magazine. I still like it a lot. Ten years ago or so I would scour the East Village for copies when it came out, back when no one knew to associate its back-cover American Apparel ads with harassment lawsuits. I saved copies for years to reread articles I enjoyed. I think I went to some of their parties, but I forget. I appreciate that it's gone more mainstream, though it doesn't seem to have the edge it once did. I just read a bunch of dos and don'ts, so, as I said, I still like it. People often comment about having seen its video guide to North Korea. 391,000 people watched the first part of the Vice Guide to North…
December 27, 2011
Rules: what we could and couldn’t do in North Korea
People often ask what the government let us do or not. Koryo prepares you for what to expect so we knew all these things before leaving Beijing. Here is a small selection of the rules. No pictures without permission North Koreans seem to resent having their pictures taken when they aren't performing. I once forgot this rule and took a picture of some people on the street. They got annoyed. One of our guides noticed and chastised me. We weren't supposed to take pictures of military anytime, but we ended up taking a bunch. The Demilitarized Zone had several picture-taking opportunities designed for tourists. Come to think of it, I don't remember having trouble taking pictures of military people. You can only visit sites they…
December 11, 2011
Our North Korea itinerary
Today I'll finally cover where we went on each day. Most people who have visited North Korea will recognize at least some of the places since the list of places the government lets you see is so short. For people who have never been there, I'll cover some later and hope to get to more. Day 0 Orientation in Beijing Search for duck restaurant, exploring Beijing on foot D Lounge at night Day 1 Meet at Koryo, Beijing Flight to Pyongyang I missed bus buying fruit Plane didn't have as many seats as they gave us tickets for Bought lots of duty-free alcohol, tobacco, and chocolate Check in to hotel, same hotel everyone checks into. Forgot to look for bugs. Only night the air conditioner…
December 10, 2011
North Korea strategy: a toy proposal to promote thought
North Korea's uniquely extreme isolation and disparity of power and wealth means you have to think of it differently than most other countries. Today I'll present a toy idea not for serious consideration as is, but to provoke thought and promote new, potentially effective ideas or improve other plans. I call it a toy idea so no one accidentally takes it seriously on its own, but plays with it to help generate other ideas. Here are the main ideas leading to it North Korean power is concentrated to probably a few dozen people. However much others may dislike their decisions, from their perspective, decision-makers choose rationally. The toy idea My toy idea, again not for serious consideration as is, but for promoting thought and other…
December 9, 2011
Pictures of North Korea, part 9: the Grand People’s Study House
Today's pictures were from the Grand People's Study House, a giant library overlooking the Taedong River, with the Juche Tower on the other side. Sorry for how long some captions are. I formatted them to be more readable but Wordpress seems to ignore the formatting. I hope you can read them okay anyway. Nearly all big public buildings we visited had big statues of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il, or both. The statues nearly always represent them as paternal, optimistic, smiling, or displaying some emotion conducive to leadership. Some looked magnificent. After a few you got bored with them but wondered what the deal was with so many of them. Who decided to put so many up? How many would they consider too many?…
December 8, 2011
Reasons to visit North Korea
Most people can think of reasons not to visit North Korea. Most people consider the place dangerous. They have imprisoned foreigners for life for things that we wouldn't consider illegal here, and you have no right to due process. For starters. What do you get from visiting? If you travel to explore new places, North Korea is one of the few frontiers left that tourists haven't overrun. Tourists are even overrunning Mount Everest. It has a lot to offer that other frontier places don't. By the way, if you want relaxing white sandy beaches, snow-capped mountains, spas, and that sort of vacation, I don't think you'll like North Korea. Everest is a physical challenge. You'll get something out of climbing it, but if your goal…
December 7, 2011