National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek talks about his experience with South Korea’s so-called “love motels,” short-term rental hotels primarily used by couples for intimate encounters. In a country with a severe housing shortage, these motels provide privacy for young people who live by necessity with their parents. As Salopek discovered on his walk across the country, these budget rooms are also convenient for travelers.
National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek tells Host Carolyn Beeler about Suyanggae, South Korea, an archaeological zone with rare and precious relics of the peoples who first arrived there up to 46,000 years ago. He observes that the Stone Age represents about 99% of human history, and most of that unrecorded human experience remains unknown.
An affluent neighborhood of Seoul is the latest stretch of National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek’s worldwide walking journey. He tells Host Carolyn Beeler about the Gangnam entertainment district, its important links to K-pop, and the hyper-competitive career paths young people have pursued to stardom.
Kim Jong Un’s destruction of roads and rail links to South Korea this week illustrated the ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. But as National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek discovered while walking there, the demilitarized zone that has divided North from South for 71 years can be a quiet, peaceful stretch of land — and water. He shares his observations with Host Carolyn Beeler.
In host Marco Werman’s latest conversation with National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek, Salopek arrives at the shores of Incheon in South Korea. He explores an old fort there connected to the US invasion of South Korea in 1871 — a history largely unknown by many in the US and one that impacted the Korean Peninsula’s history for decades to follow.