Seoul's Underground: The 1974 Subway That Reshaped a City

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the story of Seoul's first subway line — the 9.5-kilometer stretch that opened in 1974, just 21 years after the Korean War left the city in rubble. They trace how Park Chung-hee's push for modernization, the oil crisis, and Japanese financing built Line 1, and how it sparked the Han River Miracle's urban transformation. Along the way, they meet the workers who tunneled through granite, the engineers who studied Tokyo's system, and the commuters who traded buses for a ride underground. They explore how the subway became a symbol of South Korea's industrial leap, its role in the authoritarian era, and its legacy in today's sprawling network — still carrying over 7 million passengers a day. It's a story of concrete, steel, and national identity, told through maps, ridership numbers, and the echoes of a nation rebuilding itself from scratch.

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