Stanford now offers a ‘Namjooning’ course on mental health, inspired by BTS’s RM
The IntroSem draws on RM’s love of nature, biking, art and books, with a data-driven twist
Stanford freshmen now have a new way to study how to stay sane in college: follow the lead of a Korean star. A new Introductory Seminar, “Namjooning, and other well-being inspiration from BTS,” takes its name from the fan term for RM’s habit of recharging through museums, bike rides, parks and books.
But this is no fan club with course credit. The seminar promises to put every piece of wellness advice under a quantitative microscope, asking not just whether something helps, but how much, for whom, and what the research actually shows.
Why RM, and why now
Kim Namjoon, known to fans as RM, leads BTS, the South Korean group that grew into a global cultural force. The band has a fresh tie to campus. In May 2026 it played sold-out shows at the 54,000-seat Stanford Stadium, and those concerts prompted a separate summer K-pop course through Stanford Continuing Studies.
RM’s reach goes well beyond the stage. He is a serious art collector, and this fall he is co-curating an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which opened in October 2026, just up the road from Palo Alto.
He is also widely quoted on mental health, from struggling with self-doubt to the value of slowing down. That openness, the course listing suggests, makes him a natural guide for students learning to look after themselves.
From bike rides to the data
The syllabus reads like a tour of everything that shapes a student’s state of mind. Topics include:
Nature, biking, art and literature, the four pillars of Namjooning
Sleep, anxiety and creative block
Self-love and self-awareness
Medications and substances, diet and exercise, and nutritional supplements
Psychotherapy and coaching
The twist is the rigor. The course description concedes that “get plenty of sleep” is sensible advice, but says it will not be enough here. Students will instead ask:
what “plenty” means in hours
whether all sleep is created equal
how much a lack of sleep costs
how to actually get good rest
which questions scientists are still arguing about
That approach runs through the reading list, which pairs fiction with peer-reviewed scientific papers. Class time will also include viewing art and watching YouTube videos, a nod to how many students first meet RM’s ideas.
An Indigo-inspired finale
The coursework is designed to be light on volume and heavy on thinking: short in-class presentations, brief writing assignments and some quantitative reasoning. The capstone is a final project inspired by Indigo, RM’s 2022 solo album, which he framed as a record of his twenties before military service.
The prerequisites may be the most memorable line in Stanford’s course catalog. Students need a desire to flourish at Stanford and in life, an appetite for data, and “a healthy respect for BTS.”
For a generation that grew up with BTS in their earbuds, that last requirement may be the easiest one to meet. The harder part, the seminar suggests, is turning inspiration into habits that hold up against the evidence.
