Minju Park Productions 




Hello!


Minju Park is a Korean-American journalist based in Chicago. She’s currently a producer for LAist Studios.

Previously, she worked on “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes,” “California Love: K-Pop Dreaming” and “The Big Disaster: The Big Burn” for LAist Studios. She’s also worked on projects for Marketplace, PRX, WBEZ Chicago, NBC Los Angeles and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

She’s interested in thinking critically about how forms of pop culture entertainment, including movies, TV shows, music and literature, represent and influence the values of a larger community. Minju’s approach to content production is driven by the goal to translate that curiosity into her work.

Minju was born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in the Chicago area. She’s also lived in Nashville, Tennessee and Long Island, New York. She’s an alum of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


AUDIO PRODUCTION

“LA Made: The Barbie Tapes”

Produced by Minju Park























“California Love: K-Pop Dreaming”

Produced by Minju Park and James Chow
Senior produced by Fiona Ng

























“The Big Disaster: The Big Burn”

Produced by Minju Park
Senior produced by Natalie Chudnovsky and Anjuli Sastry-Krbechek
This show features never-before-heard archival tapes of interviews with Barbie’s creators and tracks the making of a doll into a cultural icon. Hosted by M.G. Lord, author of “Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll.”



---

This show follows the history and rise of K-Pop music in the U.S. through the perspective of the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Part pop culture analysis and musical history, blended with host Vivian Yoon’s coming-of-age memoir as a second generation immigrant coming to terms with her identity.


Winner — Topical Reporting: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Identity for The Online Journalism Awards

---

This show is a wildfire survival guide in a new age of extreme megafires. It’s a deep dive into a blend of personal stories, scientific research and historical analysis on how we got into a wildfire problem, why fires keep getting worse and what we can do to survive as the world around us burns.



Winner — Best Radio Podcast Feature Reporting for Golden Mike Awards: RTNA of Southern California

Finalist — Best Production and Sound Design for The Ambies: Awards for Excellence in Audio

Finalist — Top Sustainability & Environment Podcasts for The Webby Awards

FREELANCE WORK





“1,800 Days: The Story of Early Childhood in the U.S.”
Produced by Minju Park
Senior produced by Andrew Gill
























“Library for the People”

Produced by Minju Park and Shane McKeon
Senior produced by Andrew Gill



This show is a collaboration with Erikson Institute, a premier graduate school in childhood development in Chicago. It chronicles the last 60 years in the field of early childhood in America, which created a patchwork system of programs and policies. These shortcomings have been highlighted by the pandemic. Hosted by WBEZ’s Natalie Moore.



---

This show is a collaboration with Chicago Public Library in celebration of the the library system’s 150-year anniversary. The series chronicles the history of the library through the words of librarians, patrons and authors, exploring the story of an institution heralded as a leader in free speech and public access to information. Hosted by WBEZ’s Alison Cuddy.




Let’s connect!       ︎   ︎