Stanford Launches a Well-Being Course Built on RM’s Namjooning
Stanford University now has a course named after a word BTS fans use for RM’s slow days. It is called “Namjooning, and Other Well-Being Inspiration from BTS,” and its catalogue number is PSYC 65N.
Where the word came from
Accounts of the word’s origin differ. One goes back to 2019, when a fan asked RM on Weverse about his vacation plans and he replied that he was namjooning. Fans ran with it. The word now means a slow, mindful way of living, with park walks, museum visits, cycling and journaling.
A three-unit seminar for first-years
PSYC 65N is a three-unit introductory seminar for first-year students. It runs in Stanford’s autumn quarter, which the university’s calendar sets from September 22 to December 11, 2026. James R. Jacobs teaches it. He is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and executive director of Vaden Health Center.
The syllabus covers sleep, anxiety, creative blocks, self-love, self-awareness, nutrition, exercise, supplements, medication, psychotherapy and coaching. RM’s own interests anchor it: time in nature, cycling, art and literature.
Data before advice
The course description says repeating obvious advice, like get plenty of sleep, is not enough. Students work out what plenty means. How much sleep do people need? Do naps help? Which findings hold up, and which are still argued over?
Coursework mixes fiction, scientific papers, art and YouTube videos. The final project takes its cue from Indigo, RM’s 2022 solo album. Among the listed prerequisites, next to an appetite for data, is “a healthy respect for BTS.”
A stadium, a museum, then a syllabus
Jacobs says the course came together after two announcements: RM’s exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and BTS’s shows on Stanford’s campus. BTS played Stanford Stadium on May 16, 17 and 19, and all three nights sold out. Jacobs saw a way to tie that moment to wellness.
He wanted data behind the habits. Does a museum visit do anything for you? Jacobs says the evidence exists: “the fact is that there is.” He points to a King’s College London study of 50 volunteers. People who viewed original paintings at a London gallery saw their cortisol fall by 22 percent on average. People who viewed reproductions saw an 8 percent drop. The study has not been peer reviewed yet.
The class also draws on books RM likes, including Han Kang’s Human Acts. Jacobs says he is encouraged that BTS fans have taken up parts of Namjooning, given how much has been written about people being tied to their phones.
Art for people who never went
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me opened on October 3 and runs through February 7, 2027. It is the first museum exhibition of works from RM’s personal collection. Nearly 180 works are on view, close to 150 of them from his collection, shown alongside pieces from SFMOMA’s own. RM curated it with two SFMOMA curators. He said he hoped it could be “a small but sturdy bridge for many.”
Yvette Wohn curated an RM-inspired show in San Francisco. She says art can feel like a privileged domain that many people would never consider entering, and that RM has helped lower that barrier. During the pandemic she built a digital museum of fan art for RM. One visitor was a teenage girl from rural Vietnam, who said it was her first time in a museum space.
