Season 1 kicks off with Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award Winner Chardonnay who shares about working with her grandpa on her family pig farm, plus we’ll hang out with Devin at City Mill and Mat at Spill The Tea Cafe. 🌺 Connect with our guests ✨ @chardonnay.music ✨ @citymill ✨ @spill_theteacafe 🌺 Please join us in…
Read moreEducator Miki Tomita
Miki is the founder and CEO of Education Incubator. She began her career in biosystems engineering, then moved into education where she spent 20 years in teaching, administration and curriculum development. She reflects on the positive changes she’s seen in the classroom, and shares lessons from growing up in a tight-knit community on Maui, the…
Read moreProducer Melanie Kosaka
Melanie is a media producer, a James Beard award-winner for Best National Cooking Series, and winner of an Emmy Award for best historical, cultural, religious documentary. She shares stories from her career in media production, starting on the mainland working on music videos, coming home and working at PBS, and what she’s up to now….
Read moreFamily Promise’s Ryan Catalani
Since high school, Ryan has been drawn to helping address the homelessness crisis in our state. Today he serves as Executive Director at Family Promise of Hawaiʻi, an organization dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness for families with children. Ryan shares about his family history of his grandparents fleeing their home country and starting from…
Read moreStoryteller Andrew Tran
Andrew is the co-founder and creative director of Redefined Media, and one of the hosts of UNCUT Hawaiʻi. His parents and grandparents immigrated to the US from Vietnam, and instilled in him a sense of gratitude for the opportunities and blessings he has today. We talk about the decision to stay in Hawaiʻi, the challenges…
Read moreAloha Harvest’s Brandon Tomita
Brandon has always been self-motivated, so his parents weren’t worried when he switched from medicine to business. He served as COO of Wahiawa General Hospital before becoming Executive Director of Aloha Harvest. He shares some career and leadership lessons, and through his stories (including self-inflicted fitness challenges like doing 45,000 push-ups in one year) we…
Read moreEducator Allan Lau
Allan is a public school teacher, a founding member of 24-VII Danceforce, and Program Coordinator for The I’m A Bright Kid Foundation (IABKF). He shares lessons learned working with Castle High School theater teacher Ronald E. Bright and his incredible wife Aunty Mo, his experience helping people find their spiritual gifts while serving as an…
Read moreHale Kipa’s Venus Kauʻiokawēkiu Rosete-Medeiros
Venus went to college to become a film director, but working at a summer program for kids changed her path. Today she serves as President and CEO of Hale Kipa, which specializes in working with youth and their families who often have nowhere else to turn. Venus shares how she has been shaped by challenges…
Read moreFilmmaker Kolby Moser
Kolby is a Native Hawaiian filmmaker, founder of Aria Studios and one of the hosts of UNCUT Hawaiʻi. She shares how her dad inspires her to put in the work to get better, her main goal when it comes to parenting, her journey to self-love and being proud of herself, and how she came up…
Read moreActor Kimee Balmilero
Kimee left Hawaiʻi at 17 to join the national touring company of Miss Saigon, then spent many years performing on the continent before returning home where she started improvhi (Improv Hawaii) and got a recurring role on Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. She shares about her passion for improv comedy, the experience of providing a…
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