Performing Arts · 2025 USG Audio

Mission K-Pop

by 2025 USG Audio

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.

Chart trend

Position in the Performing Arts chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#99#197JunJulAugSep

#14

all-time peak

days in the top 50 since Oct 2025

Chart positions

Where Mission K-Pop ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 10, 2026).

#139 NEW Performing Arts US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

As someone who already knows a fair amount about kpop, I still found this really compelling. Well produced, and it shed light on a part of the industry I haven’t seen much coverage of. My only real complaint is that the “point” often felt a little meandering — the host would bring up an interesting question, we’d get about 5 minutes of exploring it, and then we’d move on without much of a big-picture analysis or conclusion. It felt like she bounced pretty easily between “I was worried about Caty” to “I felt reassured about Caty’s prospects!” every episode, depending on whatever someone had most recently told her. I would love to see a similar show about a trainee. I can’t help but feel like Caty was never really likely to make it — she’s just a customer for these training centers.

Ginnabean · Dec 2025

Couldn’t stop listening. Honest about the industry but not sensationalizing. Fun and captivating story that people who know nothing about K-pop can get into.

KJackson0529 · Nov 2025

Really interesting show about a topic I know next to nothing. After 2 episodes I’m hooked. Great story telling.

mary ann with no e · Oct 2025

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.