NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge has a new award for stories
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Earlier this year, NPR’s student podcast challenge asked students to share their stories about mental health. Hundreds of middle and high schoolers responded. Our judge listened to them all, and we’re now awarding our first ever prize in this important category. NPR’s Janet Woojeong Lee spoke to the winner about her podcast called “Discomfort Food.”
JANET WOOJEONG LEE, BYLINE: I’m so excited to let you know, Grace, that your podcast, “Discomfort Food,” is the winner of the special prize in mental health.
GRACE GO: Oh, my gosh. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. OK. Oh, my gosh. Are you serious?
LEE: Seventeen-year-old Grace Go is no stranger to cold phone calls or interviews like this because she’s a journalist herself. The rising senior reports for her radio station at the Mercer Island High School outside of Seattle and even runs her own magazine online.
GRACE: I’ve done, like, stuff about the war in Ukraine, but I’ve also done stuff about, like, a local tennis athlete. But this was the first piece that I’ve made where I put myself in the spotlight.
LEE: And that vulnerability really caught our judges’ attention.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: I’m home.
LEE: Grace’s podcast starts with her favorite Korean comfort food, budae-jjigae.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: Ham, sausage, Spam, a packet of instant noodles, all cooked in a spicy broth topped with American cheese and chopped scallions.
LEE: Budae-jjigae means army stew in English. It became popular in the ’50s during the Korean War.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: It contains traditional Korean staples such as gochujang and kimchi but with a twist of American foods.
LEE: With the sound of budae-jjigae sizzling in a metal pot…
(SOUNDBITE OF BUDAE-JJIGAE SIZZLING)
LEE: …All recorded on her phone, Grace invites us into her Korean American family’s kitchen, where her winning podcast was put together.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: Many of us who grew up in an immigrant household know that our parents especially value food. Food is their love language, but paradoxically, another aspect of our culture contradicts this idea and prevents many Asian Americans from having a healthy relationship with food.
LEE: In her podcast, Grace plays recordings of her family members commenting in both English and Korean about her body.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Grace, I think you gain weight.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Korean).
LEE: One family member tells her to stop eating. Another says she’s getting bigger. Grace says these comments took a serious toll on her well-being.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: For years, I didn’t eat properly, and it got to a point where I completely cut out foods I thought were bad for me, such as my favorite, budae-jjigae. Then finally, in November of 2021, I was diagnosed with an eating disorder.
LEE: Grace approached this deeply personal experience like a reporter. She interviews experts in her podcast like Joann Kim, who’s the family youth program manager at the Korean Community Center outside of Seattle. Joann says there’s often a group mentality in Korean immigrant communities that’s also reflected in the language. So instead of saying me, there is a Korean word, uri, meaning us. She says that can create a lot of pressure to fit in.
JOANN KIM: It’s not just me, but it’s uri, and that makes us really, like, tied to what other people think about us and that image that we present to others.
LEE: Joanne helped Grace through her own healing. Even with counseling, it took over two years for Grace to finally ask her mom to make her favorite dinner, budae-jjigae.
GRACE: I just ate the entire pot, basically, by myself. And, you know, for the first time in a really long time, it didn’t really feel like I was doing something bad. I was doing something good for myself.
LEE: Grappling with body image and also understanding how your culture, family and language shape your understanding of mental health – that’s a lot. So Grace says she’s sharing her story for anyone else who’s going through it.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “DISCOMFORT FOOD”)
GRACE: My hope is that more resources will be provided to my community, and mental health will become less stigmatized so that one day, others who have experienced a similar journey to mine will be able to enjoy their discomfort food and find comfort within it.
LEE: Janet Woojeong Lee, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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