Why It’s So Tough to Grow Old in Hawai‘i

The Aloha State’s Isolation and High Costs of Living Make the Challenges of Serving Seniors All the Harder

As our nation’s population rapidly ages, each state’s future depends on the ability of its senior citizens to adapt to the accelerating pace of change. Hawai‘i is no different, and has its own special challenges.

Seniors might start by learning a word: “prosumer.” This means we are not just producers or not just consumers, but rather both. Seniors increasingly serve as both caregivers and care receivers at the same time. This new reality is taking shape right in front of our eyes—and faster in Hawai‘i than elsewhere.

We—yes, I am a senior …

How an Oahu Doctor Struggles to Care for His Micronesian Patients

Fleeing Rising Sea Levels and Burdened With Health Problems, Hawai‘i’s Newest Migrants Now Face ‘Bigotry and Backlash’

With its multitude of ethnicities, cultures, and languages, Hawaiʻi might appear at first glance to be a post-racial society. The predicament of Micronesians in Hawai‘i, however, gives the lie to …

Why Samoans Are So Overrepresented in the NFL

It All Started in Hawaiʻi on Oahu’s North Shore, Where Plantation Managers and Mormon Elders Nurtured Generations of Football Stars

Long before Oahu’s North Shore became a global hot spot for football, it was a pu`uhonua, a refuge under the protection of priests. Fugitives and villagers escaping the carnage of …

Why Hawai‘i Has America’s Lowest Rates of Gun Violence

It’s a Combination of Relative Prosperity, Isolation, Unique Culture—and Tough Laws

Every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 33,000 Americans die from violence linked to guns. Massacres like the February shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become …

How Hawai‘i Taught the World to Love Raw Seafood

Whether Served with a Beer in Honolulu, or Goji Berries in Dusseldorf, Poke is One of the Islands’ Global Exports

Where did all this poke come from?

You may have asked yourself that as poke—the chopped raw fish salad—begins to appear everywhere, from Paris to Pennsylvania. The short answer is, …

How Hawai‘i Forces Us to Redefine the Meaning of ‘Native’

An Environmental Historian Argues That Being Indigenous Is More Alchemy Than Fact

I was born in the Territory of Hawai‘i, three weeks before statehood. As a kid I played in its dirt, ran around in the rain (my hometown of Hilo is …