Despite many try-outs, Caty isn’t passing auditions to become a trainee at a K-Pop entertainment agency. Haeryun doesn’t know exactly why. She’s never been allowed to go into an audition room to actually see how Caty performs. Finally, Haeryun receives permission to watch and record one of Caty’s auditions. She also scores an interview with someone who holds Caty’s fate in their hands: a casting director.Consultant: Suk-Young Kim

Alternate Realities

Caty Szeto is a woman with a dream: to become a K-Pop superstar. The 23-year-old Asian American is traveling from her home in LA to South Korea’s capital Seoul to attend a K-Pop academy. There she’ll do hardcore training in singing, dancing and styling. All this is to prepare for make-or-break auditions for K-Pop agencies like SM Entertainment, Big Hit Music and YG Entertainment. If she makes it, Caty could become a chart-topping idol like the megastars who perform to legions of fans and make millions. But this quest has its challenges. Caty finds out about ageism in the industry, where many new idols are in their teens. Then she comes face-to-face with incredibly specific K-beauty standards while navigating being a foreigner in K-Pop. Over just three months, our host journalist Haeryun Kang follows Caty to see if she can overcome these obstacles and reach K-Pop stardom.From USG Audio, Novel and PRX, Mission K-Pop is an 8-part podcast series about one woman's quest to become an idol and how her journey illuminates the beautiful and chaotic world of K pop.