Dialogic Canon: How the Home Room podcast bridges heritage with pop culture
Hosted by Steffie Baik and Jonnie Park, Home Room's podcast episodes report on contemporary Asian American culture. With seasoned careers in media, their conversations are wide-ranging from book reviews to featured guest interviews. Baik and Park have a synergy where they invite their listeners in, and it feels like they are sitting down in a kitchen having an intimate conversation.
Home Room is the successor of a previous Park and Baik podcast called Fun with Dumb, where they showcased a range of media talent from musicians and comics to k-pop stars and chefs. Rebranded after a year-long hiatus, Home Room films in a money-green room and releases episodes every Wednesday. Home Room differentiates itself from its predecessor by adopting a more fluid format, where Park and Baik chat about everything from book reviews to their personal dating lives. Their focus remains close to home as they find a way to inject their perspective from growing up Asian American into the way they consume and interact with culture and media. Caroline K Choi, who is their producer, runs question-and-answer segments where Park and Baik engage with the comment section underneath their YouTube videos. Extra content is available on their Substack, where paid subscribers can access more from the world of Park and Baik.
Both Park and Baik, with their diverse backgrounds, bring a synergy to the podcast.
Steffie Baik is a multi-hyphenate creative hailing from Los Angeles, where she split her time growing up between there and São Paulo. Her diverse career in the arts and media spans modeling, appearing in music videos like Shawn Mendes' "Lost in Japan," and working with notable brands like Benefit Cosmetics, Google, Skims, Nordstrom, Nike, and Bloomingdale's.
Her acting credits include appearing as Annie in Season 2, episode 1 of Nora from Queens. She has appeared in small art projects as well, such as the trailer for Sophia Chan Andreassend's film And Then I Was, as well as other arthouse films like Patrick Park's It's All Relevant. Her own creative projects include writing her first comedy-drama pilot about vampires and writing a rom-com short.
Jonnie Park, more commonly known by his rap name Dumbfounded, also has a storied media background. His most recent creative projects involve his memoir SPIT: A Life in Battles and writing on Beef Season 2, and Park's rap career is well documented on the internet. Dropping out of high school at fourteen and immersing himself in the world of South Los Angeles battle rap culture, Park is known for being a prominent figure on King of the Dot Entertainment and recognized for his unique flow involving references to his Korean heritage. Originally hailing from Argentina, Park credits hip-hop culture as the place where he found his "second family." Park's acting career includes musically contributing to films like The Hate U Give (2018) and voicing the character of Chai in Raya and the Last Dragon. Park continues to be an influencer and media personality and as a recent United Talent Agency signatory.
Utilizing their well-connected network in media, Baik and Park pull in rising guests in the pop culture zeitgeist — a recent episode features the American actress Megan Lawless from the high-grossing horror picture Obsession, and another features influencer Dr. Felice Chan on tongue reading. One of Home Room's most notable episodes features a conversation with AndersonPaak, where Baik and Park talk about what it was like to collaborate on Paak's Netflix directorial project, K-Pops! Widely interesting and engaging, the hosts and Paak engage in a dialogue about Black and Korean cross-cultural discourse, including the cultural similarities between Black and Korean churches.
Though Baik and Park focus on more culturally relevant topics, they also have episodes that follow the typical structure of best friends hosting a podcast, where they chat about their personal dating lives while still engaging in the broader conversation about modern dating.
Given Park's background, it makes sense that he has more rap guests on the show. In a recent podcast installment, Home Room interviews the Korean rapper Dok2. Known for his mysterious and introverted media presence, Dok2 opens up in this in-depth interview, revealing insights about his mental health and why he chose to leave Korea at, in his words, "the height of his career." Even more so, Dok2 chats about his personal life, including producing beats with his partner LeeHi, and his own Mount Rushmore of favorite rappers of all time. It is a dynamic interview, where Dok2 gives two sneak peeks at two songs from his upcoming album.
What brings Baik and Park together is their shared interest in their Korean heritage and culture, and their passion to share this with their podcast audience. It's this combination of cultural specificity paired with genuine warmth that makes Baik and Park distinct in a crowded podcast landscape. Through their adaptive and conversational formal, the audience feel less like listeners and more like engaged guests at the table. Home Room is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
