Will Hawai’i Succeed in Killing Me?

A Weather Forecaster on the Big Island Predicts More Disasters If the State Doesn’t Heed Scientific Warnings

Hawai‘i is a spectacular place—not just visually exciting, but also located above incredible geological forces and beneath amazing atmospheric conditions. As a meteorologist who reports on earth science news, I call the Aloha State home because of the multiple scientific processes that come together here every day to create a true paradise.

The casual joke shared among locals is that we live on an island that is actively trying to kill us. Hawai‘i has a long history of epic natural disasters and will be a home for earthquakes, tsunamis, flash floods, …

by Michael Phillips | September 5, 2023

How Trader Joe’s Exploits a Fading California Fantasy

In the Golden State It’s Getting Harder to Live the Good Life on the Cheap

by Joe Mathews | November 12, 2019

For years, I’ve told children, newspaper editors, and other credulous people that I’m the Joe of Trader Joe’s. That’s, of course, a lie. But it is true that the store …

Profoundly Shaped by Immigration, Today’s Hawai‘i Chafes Under Federal Restrictions

A State With a Mixed Record on Immigrants Finds Itself Fighting to Do More for Newcomers

by Joe Mathews | October 18, 2019

Hawai‘i has a mixed record of welcoming migrants, but even its best efforts are now being stymied by a federal government that is working against those who wish to come …

Why Molokai Is the Least Developed of Hawai‘i’s Islands

Even Centuries Before Captain Cook’s Arrival, Its Resources Were Exploited by Outsiders

by Wade Graham | August 28, 2019

The first thing that strikes a visitor to the Hawaiian island of Molokai is how empty it is. From the approach of the propeller-driven airplane that brings you from bustling …

The Spiritual Visitation That Brought the Remains of Hawai‘i’s First Christian Convert Back Home

Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia Died in Connecticut in 1818, but His Memory Led His Family to Repatriate His Body 175 Years Later

by Nicholas F. Bellantoni | March 13, 2019

Deborah Li‘ikapeka Lee, a young Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) woman, woke in the wee hours of an October night in 1992 to an inner sensation, impossible to define and equally …

What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Local’ in Hawai‘i?

A Honolulu-Born Writer Reflects on How Demographic and Economic Change Are Making an Idealized Aloha State Identity Obsolete

by Peter Hong | October 9, 2018

The story of the modern Hawai‘i diaspora is a paradox: Many of us who grew up in Hawai‘i in the second half of the 20th century developed a powerful sense …

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