Hello, Yoon WoongDae here.
I’m a writer and interviewer, and I’ve decided to start a Substack.
This newsletter service has been gaining popularity in the U.S., but it isn’t very well-known in Japan yet. So first I’ll explain a bit about the service.
If you register your email, you’ll receive a newsletter.
You can also view it on the web.
As for how to register, see below:
Simply click “Subscribe now.” It’s pretty easy, right?
A brief self-introduction
My main activities currently are writing books and conducting interview sessions.
First I’ll talk about my writing.
You can see a list of my publications here (Japanese). I’ve written about a variety of things, including gender, welfare, martial arts, social issues, and much more.
Next, let me tell you about the interview sessions I conduct.
Over the past 25 years or so, I’ve listened to the stories of politicians, cultural figures, entertainers, outlaws—over 1,000 people active in all different spheres. I was mainly targeting household names, intellectuals, and so on.
In more recent years, however, I’ve been making space to listen to ordinary people. Good or bad, correct or incorrect—I don’t judge them using that sort of common sense. I merely listen. I do it all over Japan. You can find out more here (Japanese).
If you’d like to see what a session looks like, please check out this video (Japanese; he conducts seated interviews as well, but the video features the strolling type).
Would you like to take a break?
My Substack is titled “Have a Seat” in the sense of, “How about a cup of tea?” You can’t drink tea without sitting down and relaxing first.
We’re all so busy every day, we have a tendency to not be present. So I also mean “Have a Seat” in the Zen sense of just sitting—shikantaza.
What I’ll be writing on Substack
This form of media is one that allows a strong bond with your readers, so I’d like to post as if chatting about this and that over a cup of tea. I feel like I’ll be able to maintain a sense of tension as well as enjoyment while I write.
I’ve covered a lot of different topics in my work so far, so to some people, the content of this newsletter may seem all over the place. Not that I don’t feel the same.
But I think the common thread through everything I will write about here is an interest in what you find when you write about extremely personal experiences. What you find—I’ll say it without shame—is the truth. So I want to be honest to a fault.
To start, I’ll be writing about things like the body and philosophy. At some point I’d like to do some research on shamanism. My grandmother on my father’s side was a shaman, and lately I’ve taken an interest in my roots.
At any rate, I’ll be writing once per week split into paid and free subscriptions.
Hope to see you again in my next post.
2/1/2021 Yoon WoongDae
translated by Emily Balistrieri
Social preview image by Yoon WoongDae