EBS’s Great Minds returns in style after weathering a funding crisis

EBS’s Great Minds is returning for a sixth season with its biggest lineup yet, after surviving a government funding crisis through the broadcaster’s own production budget.

The educational program, which first aired in August 2021, built its reputation by bringing figures such as Michael Sandel, Yuval Noah Harari, Jane Goodall and Gregory Mankiw to Korean viewers. Seasons one through four received support from the National Institute for Lifelong Education, with the stated aim of making university-level knowledge available to the public.

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Great Minds received government support through season four, but it stopped during season five. We filmed season five with our own resources, and season six is again being made with government support.

That support disappeared before season five under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, forcing EBS to produce the season with its own money. At a production presentation in Seoul, Kim Min-tae of EBS’s global content division said viewers’ online support helped the program survive. Season six will be produced again with government funding.

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The defining feature of season six is that we have brought together 50 scholars, the largest number in the program’s history.

The new season will bring together 50 scholars and public figures, focusing on artificial intelligence and economics. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won are among the participants. Chey will speak about artificial intelligence, new capitalism and young people. Other lecturers include Seoul National University professor Hyun Taek-hwan, University of Chicago professor Kim Young-ki, French actor and director Sophie Marceau and OpenAI chief research officer Mark Chen.

The Nobel laureates include Reinhard Genzel, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, Ferenc Krausz, the 2023 physics laureate, Omar Yaghi, identified in the article as the 2025 chemistry laureate, and Tasuku Honjo, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Season six begins October 12 on EBS 1TV, airing 20 minutes each weekday at 11:45 p.m.

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What we can do is keep knocking. If you keep knocking, there comes a moment when you sense an inexplicable, subtle change in a scholar’s mind. We seize that moment.