Showrunner Lee Sung Jin is Back with More ‘Beef’

Showrunner Lee Sung Jin is Back with More ‘Beef’

From Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Higher Ground

April 26, 2026 · 1h 29m

About this episode

Lee Sung Jin discusses the return of his show 'Beef', his experiences in the industry, and personal challenges.

Since the arrival of Beef in 2023, showrunner and creator Lee Sung Jin has been hailed as “the preeminent social satirist” working in television. The Emmy-winning writer/director joins us around the anthology’s return (3:10) to discuss the source material behind this latest season (4:30), the rise of scammers (12:00), and the distinctions between Korean and American elites (18:00). Then, we move through Lee’s nomadic childhood (28:45), his years as an NBC page (38:28), and a decade of working inside writers’ rooms for shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Silicon Valley (43:45). On the back-half, he speaks candidly about his battles with depression (53:00), the PowerPoint that lead to Beef landing at Netflix (1:01:00), the pains of perfectionism (1:03:30), what the next generation of writers can do to break into television (1:07:30), the day director Bong Joon Ho visited his set (1:22:20), and why Lee feels he’s just getting started (1:24:38). Clips from Beef courtesy of Netflix. Subscribe to our  new YouTube channel . As always, our email: talkeasypod@gmail.com. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Fragoso

Guest: Lee Sung Jin

Topics covered

  • television
  • satire
  • writing
  • mental health
  • Korean culture
  • American culture

Keywords

  • Beef
  • Lee Sung Jin
  • television
  • writing
  • mental health
  • Bong Joon Ho
  • Korean culture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Netflix

Books & works: Beef

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