Ep. 309 Chasing Artificial Standards with Elise Hu
The Stacks
Traci Thomas
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2024
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Author and TED Talks Daily host Elise Hu joins The Stacks to discuss her book Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. Elise explains how Korea became a pop culture superpower, and how she approached writing about a culture outside of her own. We also discuss "cultural technology" and anti-Blackness in Korean beauty standards, and Elise slips into journalist mode to interview Traci.
The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. We will discuss the book on March 27th with Elise Hu.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:
https://thestackspodcast.com/2024/03/06/ep-309-elise-hu
Connect with Elise: Instagram | Twitter | Website | Substack | TED Talks Daily
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe
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Transcript
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| 0:15.8 | Hi everybody I have some exciting news. I am launching a substack. I know I keep telling you how I'm not a writer and I'm still not a writer but I am going to be writing about reading over on Substack. The Substack is called unstacked and you can find it at Tracy Thomas.substack.com. There will be free options every Friday. There will be a bunch of |
| 0:21.8 | weekly roundups, announcements, all the shit I'm into, |
| 0:24.8 | and then if you want to upgrade yourself to the paid subscription, I'm going to have author |
| 0:29.0 | interviews, bonus episodes, anticipated reads, book pairings, community chats, all sorts of stuff. |
| 0:35.0 | So that sounds like something you'd be into. |
| 0:37.4 | Go to Tracy Thomas.substac.com and join unstacked. And of course I got a special offer for you if you go to |
| 0:45.4 | Tracy Thomas dot sub-stack.com slash the Stax 10 you get 10% off your first year |
| 0:51.8 | membership of unstacked. |
| 0:54.4 | You have from now until April 4th to redeem. |
| 0:57.8 | Again, that's Tracy Thomas. |
| 1:00.0 | Substac.com slash the Stacks 10% off unstacked. Okay that's enough. Let's listen to this episode. Welcome to the stats, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I'm your |
| 1:21.3 | host Tracy Thomas and today I am very excited to welcome |
| 1:24.7 | journalist and author Elise Hugh. Elise's book is called Flawless, Lessons in Looks and Culture from |
| 1:31.5 | the K Beauty Capital. |
| 1:33.2 | And the book dissects, the beauty industry, |
| 1:36.4 | the influence, and the technological gaze. |
| 1:39.6 | It is a book that is chock full of the kind of deep reporting about history, culture, and of course, |
| 1:45.7 | beauty products that I love. |
| 1:48.6 | Elise is also the host of the TED Talks Daily Podcast and was a reporter at NPR for almost a decade. Today Elise and I talk about |
| 1:56.7 | Korean exports and soft power, the uptick of tweens in beauty culture, and the one book that Elise cannot stop talking about. |
| 2:05.9 | Make sure to come back and listen to this show on Wednesday, March 27th because Elise will |
| 2:10.4 | be back to discuss our book club pick, Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. |
... |
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