How A Travel Writer Turned Neighborhood Walks in South Korea Into Stories with Charlie Usher

Seoul can look like one giant skyline from a distance, but up close it’s a patchwork of neighborhoods with their own rhythms, histories, and quiet surprises. I’m joined by writer, editor, and author Charlie Usher, whose work spans South Korea travel, cultural storytelling, and the kind of reporting that starts by simply choosing a subway stop and wandering until a place reveals itself.

Charlie shares how he moved to South Korea on a whim, what shocked him early on, and why Seoul remains one of the most compelling cities for travel writing because it never sits still. We talk about his essay collection Soul Suburban and what he hopes readers take from it: a more textured view of Seoul that goes beyond the “monolithic city” stereotype. He also names specific areas that reward curious travelers, including Songbukdong and its literary feel, plus creative pockets like Yanam and Mangwon.

We also go behind the scenes of travel media. Charlie reflects on his time editing Korean Air’s in-flight magazine Morning Calm, where rigorous fact-checking and serious editorial standards shaped how he reports today. From there, we dig into what he’s writing now for outlets like Milwaukee Magazine and Midwest Living, his work on DK travel guides and a Lonely Planet Seoul project, and his simple advice for PR professionals who want their pitches to land: show you know who you’re writing to.

If you care about travel journalism, guidebooks, South Korea travel, or ethical storytelling built on empathy, you’ll get a lot out of this conversation. 

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🔗 Connect with Charlie Usher

Website: https://www.charles-usher.com/
Instagram: @charlesreclausher

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Charlie Usher

Angela 0:05

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Toole. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens, and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. Today we're talking with Charlie Usher, a writer, editor, and author whose work bridges travel, culture, and storytelling across continents. Charlie is the author of Soul Suburban, a collection of essays exploring neighborhoods across South Korea's capital, as well as a DK travel guide to South Korea and many other DK books. He's a contributor to outlets including Lonely Planet and Midwest Living, and previously served as senior English editor of Morning Calm, Korean Air's in-flight magazine. With a career shaped by both long-form storytelling and editorial leadership, Charlie brings a unique perspective on how place-based stories are developed, redefined, and ultimately brought to life for readers. Charlie, welcome. So great to have you on. Thanks.

Charlie 1:17

I'm happy to

From Creative Writing To Korea

Charlie 1:18

be here.

Angela 1:18

Yes, you've had such an interesting path from editing an in-flight magazine to writing books and travel pieces. How did your career in writing and editing first take shape?

Charlie 1:30

I had a piecemeal, I guess. Um, I mean, like I'd always, you know, I grew up a big reader, writer. Um, I was interested in doing and loved. Something that I thought that I wanted to pursue in some way. Um, and when I was younger, like in college, I was like, okay, I'm thought, all right, I'm gonna uh study creative writing, I'm gonna write novels, um, you know, write my way into the canon. Um, anyway, it didn't work out that way, or um, hasn't yet, at least.

Angela 2:04

Um you never say never, right?

Charlie 2:07

Yeah, never say never. Um just gotta find the time. Um and then um I I it kind of kicked into gear a bit after university. Um, I ended up moving to South Korea um and kind of dabbled in some freelance stuff, but more so just like projects um to kind of entertain myself.

Angela 2:29

Uh-huh.

Charlie 2:30

Um, like I did a blog about uh Seoul's neighborhoods, and then um, so I did like a little bit of freelance writing on the side, um, was mostly teaching English. And then I was brought on board to work as an editor at Korean Air's in-flight travel magazine, um, Morning Calm. And I did that for about four years. So that was like my first you know, it was weird because I wasn't um really a full-fledged journalist um at that point. Still don't really consider myself one. Um, and then you know I was thrown into this like you know full-time job, um, kind of overseeing all the English content for this magazine. Um, so it was uh into the deep ends. Um, but I took to it, I liked it a lot. Um and then when I moved back to the US, yeah. Like I was initially looking for like another um staff position and that just didn't shake out. Um, so I just kind of started freelancing to keep my head above water, and then kind of that sort of built up um bit by bit, and um, I got stuck with it.

Angela 3:43

So, how did you get to South Korea?

Charlie 3:46

Um, I kind of on a whim, basically. Um, I was considering, I kind of wanted to move abroad for a bit after I graduated. Um, I went to uh University of Wisconsin, and they had at the time they had this sort of teacher exchange program with one of the provinces there, where um they would send over some recent grads to to teach English in the public schools and bring uh Korean teachers to the university to take English and education classes. And um I I did really knew nothing about South Korea at the time. I had no connection to the country, but it was just sort of there. Like the application process was two pages long. So I was like, all right, what the hell? Um and I so yeah, and signed up, and then a few months later I was on a plane.

Angela 4:37

Wow. And had you traveled much at that point either?

Charlie 4:41

Uh yeah, uh, I mean, somewhat. Um, I did a semester abroad in Rome when I was a junior, and then you know, did the backpacking around Europe thing. Um and then a bit of other traveling, but um, that was the first time I'd ever been to Asia.

Angela 5:00

Okay.

First Surprises And Seoul’s Pull

Angela 5:01

So, what's something about living and working there or you know, or working there that surprised you early on?

Charlie 5:08

Um, well, I mean, like I said, it was totally unfamiliar. So at first, you know, everything was a little bit of a surprise. Um I was I was surprised by the language. I I thought I was walking into a situation where I was gonna have to like learn characters like they have in in China and Japan. Um, but it wasn't that bad. They, you know, uh Korean has this amazing alphabet. Um I thought I thought the food was gonna be much different. I thought it was gonna be a bit more um similar to like to Japanese food, but uh it turned out to be really spicy and funky with at least fermented tastes, which was great. Um that was very much um right up my alley. Um and then just like you know, the the change from like I grew up um I like I grew up in the countryside, um like we had the intersection of these two county roads. My dad had a little general store, so I was very much a country boy growing up.

Angela 6:11

In Wisconsin, right?

Charlie 6:12

In Wisconsin, yes. Okay. Um and then went to school in Madison. Um so it was it was a you know huge change like going to the city of like 10 million people. Um and but uh I liked it. Um and so I ended up sticking around.

Angela 6:31

Wow, and how long were you there?

Charlie 6:34

Uh all together, I think about 11, 12 years.

Angela 6:38

Wow, okay. What makes it such a compelling place to write about? What did you love about it?

Charlie 6:43

I like I I mean I'm a bit I'm a bit biased based on like all the time that I spent there, but I do find it to be one of the most interesting cities and one of the most interesting countries in the world. Um, you know, if you just if if you look back at I guess what the country has been through, you know, there's the like a royal dynasty, um, and then there was um colonial subjugation, and then independence movements and liberation, and then a civil war, and then dictatorship, and um, you know, student uprisings and pro-democracy movements, and then the birth of democracy, and then you know, financial crash, and then like this rise to uh from one of like the poorest countries in the world to one of the top 1520 economies, uh, you know, it's explosion of of pop culture. And that's that you know, that was just the 20th century. Yeah, um, so it's just there's so much there. It's like it's such a fast changing society. Um, it doesn't sit still. Um, so every time I go back there, it's a different place, um, you know, which I which I love, um, which is great as a writer because there's always something uh to write about. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's just I love it. It's just it's a fun place.

Angela 8:06

How often do you visit?

Charlie 8:08

I guess since moving back to the States, um, I've been back there between like once or twice a year.

Angela 8:15

Okay.

Charlie 8:16

Either to um my wife is Korean, so we're back there to visit family sometimes.

Angela 8:21

Okay.

Charlie 8:21

Um, and also for work.

Angela 8:23

Okay, that's great. So

Turning Neighborhood Wanders Into A Book

Angela 8:25

you've you're also an author, as we mentioned, in one of the books, looked at the neighborhoods of Seoul.

Charlie 8:30

Yeah.

Angela 8:31

How what inspired that book? I know you mentioned a blog, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

Charlie 8:36

Um, yeah, so I mean that came directly out of the blog. Um, I was it was just a you know uh a project that I started doing um for my own entertainment, basically, um, where I just kind of pick uh a subway stop on the Seoul Metro. Um, and there's hundreds of them to choose from. And you know, go there and just kind of wander, spend a half day or a day wandering around and kind of getting a feel for the neighborhood and talking about what was there and maybe a bit of history, um, the character. And so I was doing that um I think for maybe uh about three years or so. Um, and then a publishing company in Seoul, um who also published a magazine that I contributed to once in a while, said, Hey, we should turn this into a book. And I was like, All right, yeah, let's do it. Um and so yeah, so we just it was just the book was just kind of a uh, you know, we curated what I'd done on the blog and kind of you know, dressed it up, put some makeup on it, um, cleaned it up. Um and so it was just it was mostly it was, you know, it was a way for me to get to know the city a bit better. Um, and I, you know, hope that's what it would be for the readers too. Um Seoul is sometimes seen as a bit of a monolithic entity, um, because it's you know creates a very um homogenous culture, uh homogenous society. Um the image a lot of people have is just you know these you know uh giant apartment towers that are kind of copied and pasted all over.

Angela 10:22

Yeah.

Charlie 10:22

Um but I found you know there's a lot more diversity there. There's like, you know, there are industrial neighborhoods um and great parks, and you know, there's some amazing nightlife areas. And so I wanted to kind of you know show the breadth of the city to readers.

Angela 10:41

That's great. What is I have to ask, since you're so close to the city, what's a place there that most travel writers or tourists overlook?

Charlie 10:51

Seoul has gotten you know, it's funny because it's from the time that I first moved there to to now, um Seoul has gotten so much more exposure. Um, you know, when I was first there, the list of places where I could say, like, oh yeah, nobody goes there. You know, could you know could fill a few pages, and now it's like, you know, most of the places have been have been kind of put on someone's radar somewhere. Um I I really love there's a neighborhood called Songbukdong, which is real close to where um I used to live. Um, and it's a bit removed from the subway stops, it's kind of up in the mountain foothills. Okay. Um, it's it has a much slower pace than most of the city. Um it has like historically, it was kind of a neighborhood where a number of prominent Korean writers lived. So it has a bit of a literary air to it. There's this gorgeous, gorgeous tea house that um used to be the home of a famous novelist uh called Itejoon. Um and his family, his family now runs it as a tea house, and it's just this beautiful traditional uh Korean building, like you know, um tile roofs, um, you know, um wooden rafters. Um and it's just this gorgeous place to you know to sit down and and have a cup of tea. Um and then a couple others are um the neighborhoods of Yanam and Manguon, which uh there's there's a very, very, very popular neighborhood um in Seoul called Hong Day, which is kind of centered around this university. It's one of the um cities like main nightlife, um kind of in arts and like indie areas. Um but like there's these two neighborhoods just off to the side where as Hong Day has really kind of gentrified a bit and gotten much more popular and expensive, a lot of like the much more interesting uh cafes and shops and boutiques um have moved to these neighboring, neighboring areas. Um, and so there's just they've they're full of these little alleys and um little businesses that young Koreans have started up, um, full of creative stuff, a lot of really good um places to eat. They're not super on the tourist radar yet. Um young soulites go there in droves, but you don't see quite as many foreign travelers.

Angela 13:31

Okay, that's a great tip. We travel there. I do have

Inside An In-Flight Magazine Editor’s Desk

Angela 13:35

to ask about you mentioning, you know, editor with the magazine for Korean Air. What was that experience like?

Charlie 13:42

Uh it was educational. Um it was it was really good. Um, I really enjoyed it. Um, worked with some great people. Um it was a fun magazine to work at because the airline like really took it seriously. It wasn't just a promotional tool for them. A lot of in-flight magazines, you know, they're only covering destinations that the airline flies to. Um we did not, we went everywhere. We um covered Armenia, we covered Antarctica, um, you know, we covered remote islands in the South Pacific. Um so it was just it was a lot of fun um to get to learn about all those places. Um, it was really uh beneficial, I think, to my career because it kind of showed me, you know, I got to see the gears turning a bit. Yeah. Um you know, learned how print publishing works, um, you know, the kind of schedule it runs on. Uh it was great for my development as like a fact checker because the morning calm had a really rigorous fact-checking um system. Like I we had writers were like, you know, like you guys asked me about things that like BBC, National Geographic, don't ask me about. Like, are you sure you just know this? And like, and I mean, like, when I first started, I mean, I think they were a bit annoyed. And when I first started, I was a bit annoyed. I was like, really? We have to check this. Yeah. Um, but it was, you know, you you want to get things right. They really cared about getting things right. Um, and that is something that has really stuck with me in my own work. Um, you know, and I think uh I take that um much more seriously um than I maybe would have, you know, not that I would have dismissed it, of course, but um, you know, now if it's you know if something says like, oh, it's you know it's a cobbled street, like I want to check to make sure like I'm going on Google Maps, like is it actually cobbled? Um so that was that I think was one of the biggest benefits for me personally, yeah. In terms of my time there.

Local Stories, Big Travel Mindset

Angela 16:14

I would say that's very much so a true journalist. Yeah, definitely. So what are you focused on right now? And you know, what outlets write are you writing for? And are you traveling often?

Charlie 16:26

Um, so I'm I'm I don't know, I kind of have like a so I guess it's a bit of a concentric circle in what I write about. So I I do a lot of writing for my local magazine, Milwaukee magazine, about things going on um in the city um and travel around Wisconsin. Uh and then I do some writing for Midwest Living, um, which is uh a bit you know, a bit broader. Um, and then some other stuff like for for Lonely Planets. Um I worked on their upcoming soul guide book. Okay. Um I travel both more and less than I would like to. Um you know, because like when I'm away, I'm like, oh, I miss, you know, I miss my wife, I miss my dog. And then when I'm at home, I'm like, ah, yeah, I want to go somewhere. Um, so I think I'd I not a ton. I'd say maybe one. I'm on the road like once a month, once every six weeks. Okay. Yeah.

Angela 17:23

Okay. When you're developing a story, what are you looking for? What makes something feel worth telling?

Charlie 17:29

Newness, timeliness, of course. Um you know, I like to stories that have that look at things from a bit of a different angle. Um, or you know, maybe expose a place in a way that kind of defies um common perceptions about it. You know, it's it's hard to like say definitively, but it's basically comes down to like, is it something that uh piques my interest and B piques an editor's interest somewhere?

Angela 18:08

Right. They have to go hand in hand, right? Is there a story or assignment that's really stayed with you?

Charlie 18:15

I I did um I was working on a a piece um like this this past summer and spring, um, that it hasn't been published yet. It's fourth, it's forthcoming um in uh an issue of Midwest Living next year. Um late time. Um but it's about this town in Wisconsin called Spring Green, um, which is just it's it captures like so much of what I love about the state um and what I want people to be exposed to. Um because it's just little towns, like less, I don't know, 3,000 people tops maybe. Um, but it's in this beautiful part of the state, um, kind of the southwest called the Driftless, um, where um the glaciers of the last ice age didn't reach. So wow. A lot of Wisconsin is very, it's very flat. Um the Driftless is has this it's a beautiful topography. It's these rolling hills, there are bluffs, um valleys with rivers running through them. Um and Spring Green has kind of it combines that natural beauty with just a bizarrely uh robust art scene. Um like this is where it kind of started with with Frank Lloyd Wright, because that's where he grew all that stuff. Okay. So he built his home there and kind of laid the foundations for uh you know artistically minded people to go there. Um and it's home to the American Players Theater, um, which is one of the it's one of the top classical theaters in the country. They they um they're really famous for their Shakespeare plays. Um and it's just they they do really amazing work and they have this gorgeous outdoor theater um where they put you know their work, their their plays on rain or shine in the summer. Um, and these are like really incredibly accomplished directors and actors who come out to this little, you know, kind of town in the middle of nowhere to work in the summer. And you know, there's uh musicians and and and potters and like visual artists, and it's just there's just such a robust community in the place where you would least expect it. Um and I think it just kind of really sort of sums up kind of the best of the state. Um and you know, it's it's it was it was a lot of fun to delve into that, um, you know, and to explore it and kind of find out what was just in my own backyard.

Angela 21:03

Yes. Oftentimes we don't explore that as much. We want to go to these faraway lands and don't know as much in our backyard.

PR Pitches, Empathy, And DK Books

Angela 21:11

Can't wait to read that one. So much of our audience are PR professionals, so I must ask, what makes a pitch from one of them feel like someone gets it?

Charlie 21:23

Um, I, you know, like I'm relatively young in my career and I'm not uh on a ton of PR's radars.

Angela 21:32

Okay. So you don't get a million emails a day.

Charlie 21:35

So I might not, you know, I might not have too much to add to cut this conversation. Um yeah, but I think probably some, you know, what other people have said is like if if it's clear that they know who you are, if they've read a bit of your work, that they know the kind of stuff that you cover, um, that really makes a huge difference.

Angela 21:55

Yeah, yeah, that's good advice. Are there types of stories or angles you think? Are becoming more important right now?

Charlie 22:02

In just like a I don't know from like a just a personal perspective, I think that I don't know if this is a a type of story, but I think one thing that is it's always been important, but I think is increasingly important in terms of like what stories do is creating empathy for different cultures, different places, different people. Um I think that's always kind of the job of particularly travel writing, um, you know, because you're getting to know um a place uh or a type of person that maybe you're not familiar with. Um but I think in our current um geopolitical climate, I think that's taken on even more importance.

Angela 22:53

Yes.

Charlie 22:54

Um and so it can sound a bit kind of highfalutin if you're you know writing about like you know a restaurant opening um or you know, or something like that, but like there's still an opportunity there to you know uh to you know to try to delve into you know who these people are, you know, why this type of cuisine matters, like what its history is, like what are the stories of the people behind it.

Angela 23:24

Yes, we had a journalist on our last episode, Rosie Bell, that said she's remembers she's always writing about someone's home or where someone lives. I thought that was a great perspective.

Charlie 23:35

Yeah, it's it's I mean, in a weird way, travel writing is all it's a bit invasive. And so if you're sticking your nose into someone else's business and someone else's culture, you like you want to make sure that you're doing it with empathy, with understanding, in a way that is going to you know portray your subject um fairly, accurately, um, in um in a way that the subject will be able to look at it and recognize themselves.

Angela 24:06

Yes, exactly. I must ask about your DK book as well. I've always loved DK books since I was a child.

Charlie 24:14

Yeah, you're you're gonna which one? Because I've done a bunch of them.

Angela 24:18

Oh, you've done a bunch. I don't know if I knew that. Okay, tell us a little bit.

Speaker 1 24:22

Yeah, so I I've worked with DK for probably about uh three years now, four years. Um so I started um uh I think I saw one of their editors, um, I think it was Zoe Rotland, put out uh he tweeted something um back when Twitter was Twitter, looking for um writers for like a for a Korea book that they were doing, kind of uh introduction to Korea 101. Um and so I you know shot our master, Jimmy, like, hey, you know, I know about that stuff. Um and yeah, um and so I've just I've worked with them on a bunch of different things on a few different uh Korea titles. Um I wrote their uh first edition South Korea guidebook, um, which came out last fall. Um I just um contributed to um a big uh Root 66 centennial book um that just came out last month, I believe. Um and yeah, so I've done a number of different projects with them, mostly focused on US travel and Korea travel.

Angela 25:34

That is so great. So what's next for you? Any projects or places you're excited about?

Charlie 25:40

Uh yeah, I'm actually this is um on the topic of Route 66. Um, something you know, sometimes like as a journalist, you just you come up with an idea that's so dumb, it's great. Um and so like so I'm doing a story for for Milwaukee magazine um this summer. Route 66 doesn't come to Wisconsin. Big mistake on the road designers um part. Um, but so um there's but there's like a state highway 66 that runs for like 40, 50 miles through the center part of the state. So we're doing um our own, you know, Wisconsin Route 66 gonna travel down that. That's great. Um yeah, it actually happens to go through my hometown. Um so it's just you know, it's it's it's it's silly, but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Angela 26:32

Yeah, what a fantastic idea. Well, how can our listeners follow your work or connect with you online?

Charlie 26:38

Yeah, um, I'm not online too terribly much. Um my uh I'm on Instagram um at Charles ReclaUsher. Um and then um my website where I post uh some of my pieces is Charles Usher.com.

Angela 26:58

Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. That's all for this episode of Media and Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at Communications Redefined dot com Slash Podcast. I'm your host, Angela Toole. Talk to you next time.