Postcards on Hawaiʻi Public Radio
I’m working on a new project for Hawaiʻi Public Radio called Postcards. It’s a series of essays that try to capture the complexities of life in these islands that we love: Snapshots of daily life; moments that are strange, beautiful, and sometimes heartbreaking; people and places that are often overlooked but deserve attention. See the most updated list of essays on the Hawai‘i Public Radio website.
Postcard from Kīlauea volcano: Back to the source
A meditation on endings and beginnings inspired by a recent visit to Kīlauea volcano during a fountain eruption. May your new year be full of breathtaking beauty and transformative moments like these.
Postcard from Pāʻia: Empty shells
An excavation of the history of Maui’s north shore. I learned about sand, I learned about shells. I learned what can happen when we take, take, take from our environment — and what we can do to give back.
Postcard from Kailua: Insiders and outsiders
A snapshot of my hometown, Kailua. A tense situation with a beach security guard inspired a deeper examination of history, identity, and belonging in this beachside community, where the number of tourists and wealthy newcomers has increased exponentially over the years, crowding out locals.
The story of this historic market holds important lessons from the past. The 1940s were a tumultuous time in Hawaiʻi, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by nearly three years of martial law, and the cruel incarceration of thousands of innocent people of Japanese ancestry.
When I drive down the highway from Maui’s rural upcountry into what we call town, the tallest building in Kahului often looms like a white shining castle in the distance. Maui’s main port city is dwarfed by its presence. But Kahului’s tallest building is not a building at all: It’s one of the massive cruise ships that docks in the harbor several days of the week.