Brian Nam gets candid about working with his brothers, Asian Representation and unifying the worlds of K-pop and podcasts

By Natasha Mulenga

Brian Nam is changing the way the world views Korean entertainment, one podcast at a time.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Nam was originally pursuing a degree in finance at an Ivy League university. However, he diverted from his intended path after a two-week trip to South Korea to visit his superstar brother, Eric Nam, which resulted in the birth of DIVE Studios. Recorded on his older brother’s kitchen counter, the podcast went to number one in 29 countries on Apple Podcasts, resulting in him dropping out of New York City's Columbia University in his final year to embark on a venture shining a light on K-pop in a way that has never been done before: through the medium of podcasts.

With Brian Nam at the helm as CEO, DIVE Studios has become the most popular podcast platform in Korea's mammoth entertainment industry. In a year-and-a-half, DIVE has launched 11 shows including K-pop Daebak W/ Eric Nam, The Tablo Podcast and How Did I Get Here? W/ Jae and AleXa. The success of the collective podcasts has resulted in celebrity-guest appearances like MAX, Lauv, Randall Park, Harry Shum Jr, Jackson Wang and many more.

Rolling Stone Korea spoke with Brian Nam about the future of DIVE Studios, Asian representation in the media and how they're changing the dialogue and perception of K-pop internationally.

Who were your inspirations growing up?

I played soccer my entire life and that's actually why I went to college so, up until I was probably 19, I had big dreams of going professional.  A lot of my role models were very prominent soccer athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. 

Who are your favorite soccer teams?

Manchester United. Honestly, the only reason is because they used to have Park Ji-sung. I think I was five or six at the time and there were no Korean soccer players in the Premier League but Manchester United had this one guy. He was winning the Champions League, starting on the best team in the world. I think the reason I became so passionate about Manchester United was this idea that someone that looked like me was on Manchester United. It was so cool because growing up we didn't have a lot of those kinds of role models in the media. 

What inspired you to start for DIVE Studios?

I was living in New York and I really got into podcasts in 2018/2019. I was listening [to them] everywhere—when I was commuting on the subway, doing homework, whatever it was. I listened to five hours of just podcast content. I felt doubly productive because I was able to learn and listen while doing something else. So that's where I really saw the value of podcasts and audio content.

I had gone out to Korea just to visit my brother [Eric] for two or three weeks; it was just supposed to be to catch up. But within those two-three weeks, I thought: “It'd be really interesting if there was a K-pop podcast. There's no one out there doing anything related to K-pop, no K-pop celebrity or artist." So I started pitching it to my brother. Within those two-three weeks, we recorded a couple of episodes on his kitchen countertop. I put together these crazy social media assets and we just launched it. It got such a strong response and it hit, now, number one in 29 countries. The response was crazy. 

I think there's no more intimate content medium than audio in a podcast because it's an unfiltered experience. So that's where we thought, “Oh, there's a real opportunity here." I started to wonder “Is there room to create a company that helps provide more content like this for fans around the world?” 

You mentioned that you dropped out of Columbia University to start DIVE Studios. How was that received by your parents?

My parents are fairly liberal when it comes to pursuing new opportunities. I think Eric paved the path with the family to pursue our passions and just try things out. Obviously, there was some pushback, but I think it came down to my dad just saying “We don't want to be the reason why five, 10, 20 years down the line, you think 'because my parents did not allow me to do this, I wasn’t able to pursue my dreams."

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What is the process of choosing which celebrities host a podcast? Do they come to you or do you pitch them?

It's gone both ways. We try to keep everything as organic as possible. What we really stress across DIVE is more of a family feeling.  Sometimes we will reach out to some artists, or sometimes they'll reach out to us. But there's a general sense that both want this to happen. A show is only as good as the host wants it to be. If they are passionate about it, the listeners can also hear it in their voices and their attitude.  So we're very fortunate to have such a great roster of hosts and artists. I like the enthusiasm that they bring to each recording.

What do you think that DIVE contributes to the Korean entertainment industry?

I think one is transparency and then providing a platform for creators, celebrities and artists to just speak their minds. We try to keep everything as unfiltered as possible. So we introduce really important topics  that we think are extremely important and relevant, like mental health, self-improvement, or talking about various cultural norms and standards and questioning why things are the way they are. You won't really see that on variety shows; I love them, I watch them too, but they're definitely a lot more for entertainment and more for shock factor. And I think that level of relatability and transparency is what we want to bring to the Korean-entertainment ecosystem.

Your platform has given a lot more visibility to people of East Asian descent, was that always your intention? 

Something that I've always thought about is the importance of Asian and Asian-American representation and media. That's been a very big thing for me. I always told myself, no matter what I do, whether it is finance or media or entertainment, whatever it is, my end goal is to really further that cause into providing more visibility and a platform for people that look like us, that are minorities who are underrepresented in the mainstream media. 

So that's kind of what propelled me to really pursue this. Although we are creating content for the K-pop fandom, it's also inspiring to see the platform of all these big podcasts that we've created, that all have Asian faces, you know? And it's cool because we've also never explicitly said 'We are working towards this cause but I get dozens of messages, lately every week whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter, where it's an Asian American, saying "I really appreciate what you've helped build on DIVE studios because it's something that I haven't seen before: having Asian-American representation through these K-pop artists.

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What is the vision for DIVE Studios in 2021? 

We're going to have some really big projects coming out that aren't actually podcasts. They're audio collections MINDSET, they're around health and wellness. We realized that topics of mental health and wellness are extremely important to our listeners. And so we want to take that to the next level. We are working with a lot of artists to share their most personal and intimate stories and challenges. 

Speaking of your brothers, Eric and Eddie, I know you have the show, Commit or Quit. What is it like working with your older siblings? 

We're brothers at the end of the day so maybe we're brutally honest with each other, but then again, you don't trust anyone more than your family members. It’s definitely a good experience. 

If you were to have a dinner party and you get to pick three guests, living or dead but they are specifically CEOs, who would you pick? 

Elon Musk—I like the way his brain works. Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs. Being able to speak with those three would be great. I'm a first-time entrepreneur and founder, so I would surround myself with the best resources and the best people that can help me avoid a lot of the mistakes that maybe they had made during their journeys. 


Photo Credit : DIVE Studios