A jar of Korean chili paste doesn’t sound like a turning point—until you’re nine years old, moving through airports and customs, unable to speak English, and realizing your whole world is about to change.

In Part Two of our conversation with Sam Lee, we follow the winding road from an immigrant kid in Mississippi to a marching band regular, a rock n' roll garage band member, an electrical engineer, a Silicon Valley chip designer, and a venture capitalist. Along the way, Sam wrestles with a question familiar to many immigrants and third-culture kids: Where do you belong when your language, identity, and sense of home keep shifting?

Sam speaks candidly about what it meant to slowly lose fluency in Korean as English took over, and how an unusual tenth-grade school structure opened the door to new friendships, reinvention, and a sense of belonging. Then comes a moment that still carries emotional weight decades later: becoming a U.S. citizen at sixteen. Sam reflects on standing before an immigration judge, taking the oath, and facing the painful reality of renouncing Korean citizenship, a deeply personal story that resonates in today’s conversations about immigration, identity, and cultural division.

We also trace the work journey: paper routes, McDonald’s shifts, engineering school, internships at HP and IBM, and eventually the world of venture capital, where Sam helped fund innovation and emerging technologies.

Near the end, the conversation takes an unexpected and deeply personal turn. Sam shares the medical crisis that nearly changed everything, the FDA-approved treatment that helped save his life, and the long road back to clarity. That recovery eventually led to journaling, and then to a manuscript he’s now writing, with a title that brings the story full circle:

The Chili Paste Incident.

If this episode moved you, subscribe to Stories from Cold Springs, share it with someone navigating identity or change, and leave a review to help more listeners discover these deeply human, place-based stories.

Subscribe, share with a friend who loves radio, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories. Your voice keeps this community strong.

Links to Stephen's incredible novels:

The Death Letter
The Bondage of Innocents

He’s ten years old, fresh from postwar Korea, and suddenly sitting in a Mississippi classroom with no English. That’s where Sam Lee’s American story begins and it’s nothing like the polished version we usually hear. We talk with Sam as he maps the world he came from: growing up in Mokpo, living with nightly curfews, shopping at traditional markets daily, and moving through a Korean education system built on exams, public rankings, and fierce competition.

Then the real jolt hits. Sam shares what it’s like to immigrate to the United States in 1970, get placed into fifth grade without the language, and navigate an all-Black elementary school during the era of integration. We dig into the loneliness of sounding different, the pressure to adapt fast, and the quiet grit it takes to keep showing up when you want to quit. If you care about immigrant experience, Korean American identity, language learning, or the realities of growing up between cultures, this conversation stays with you.

We also make room for the parts that don’t fit into a hardship narrative: the way books can reopen a dream, how music can hand you a friend group, and how a trumpet in school band can become a lifeline. Sam reflects on family expectations, on what his mother gives up when she loses language and mobility, and on the simple rituals like weekend fishing trips that help a family stay connected through big change.

If this story resonates, subscribe for more conversations about creativity, curiosity, and the real people behind the stories, then share the episode and leave a review so more listeners can find it.

Subscribe, share with a friend who loves radio, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories. Your voice keeps this community strong.

Links to Stephen's incredible novels:

The Death Letter
The Bondage of Innocents

A second-grade blessing. A kitchen table crowded with paint. A 21-foot Jesus mural

Kym Garraway-Braley joins us to share how a childhood shaped by artists, a brave grandmother, and a winding Mississippi creek became a life of color, calling, and community.

We trace Kym’s early start, brush in hand before age two, and the generations of creatives who came before her. She opens up about crooked teeth, tin-foil braces, and how art became a refuge when school felt hard. In college, a professor warned that faith wouldn’t fit inside the art department. Kym stayed, prayed, and proved that excellence can quiet the loudest doubts. Surprising wins, from hand-painted concert portraits to campus recognition, built the confidence that would shape her career.

After a season of teaching, Kym reimagined work to fit the family she wanted to raise. One magnolia print sold out, then another, and soon she was leading a thriving independent studio - without missing ball games or field trips. We explore the ripple effect of her murals in pediatric clinics, where nature scenes and playful worlds help children overcome fear and bring comfort to parents. Then we climb to St. Fabian, where Kym painted a 21-foot Jesus whose open arms welcome a congregation week after week.

Warm, funny, and grounded in faith, Kym reminds us that setbacks can become stories ... and work can become worship.

If you’re a creator, teacher, parent, or anyone chasing a calling, this conversation is a field guide: match your schedule to your values, treat small wins like fuel, and let service guide your next wall.

Press play to hear how a life in art can lift a town, a family, and a weary heart. If this episode encouraged you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Subscribe, share with a friend who loves radio, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories. Your voice keeps this community strong.

Links to Stephen's incredible novels:

The Death Letter
The Bondage of Innocents