Very Special Episodes: North by North Korea

Noble Blood

iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 13.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When two of the most influential figures in film become the personal hostages of Kim Jong Il, they have two objectives: to elevate North Korean cinema on the world stage, and to plot their daring escape.

On the Very Special Episodes podcast, Dana Schwartz tells one incredible story each week. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a favor and go subscribe to VSE wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Adrien Behn and edited by Carmen Borca-Carrillo at Wonder Media Network
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Mixing and Mastering by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

SOURCES + FURTHER READING/LISTENING/VIEWING

A Kim Jong-Il Production, by Paul Fisher
The Observant, by Ravi Mangla
Michelle Cho, assistant professor, University of Toronto
"Are You There Godzilla? It's Me, Kim Jong Il" [Ridiculous Crime podcast]
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. State Department
Big Brother: North Korea's Forgotten Prince [An iHeart Original Podcast]
"Kim Jong Il, the Director he Kidnapped, and the Awful Godzilla Film They Made Together" [Mental Floss Magazine]
The Korean War [PBS]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.
0:05.0	I'm Soledad O'Brien, and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Toe Path, I'm taking you back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinch O'Meyer.
0:16.7	She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
0:20.1	It turns out, Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
0:25.3	I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
0:29.7	John F. Kennedy.
0:31.6	Listen to Murder on the Toothatch with Soledad O'Brien on the Iheartio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
0:43.7	What happens when we come face to face with death?
0:47.0	My truck was blown up by a 20-pound anti-taint mine.
0:49.7	My parachute did not deploy.
0:51.4	I was kidnapped by a drug cartel.
0:54.4	When we step beyond the edge of what we know, clinically died. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. When we stepped beyond the edge of what we know,
0:56.7	clinically died the heart stopped beating.
0:59.2	Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes.
1:01.6	In return.
1:02.4	It's a miracle I was brought back.
1:04.0	Alive Again.
1:04.9	A podcast about the strength of the human spirit.
1:07.4	Listen to Alive Again on the Iheart Radio app,
1:09.8	Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
1:12.1	favorite shows. This week on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Hamler. Ed Helms is here. I, of course,
1:18.2	was drawn to the LSD story. This was all under official government activity. They built a
	...

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