Heartbeat Narratives

Meet Kai Uyehara, originally from the south shore of Oʻahu, who is helping revitalize the traditional art of making Hawaiian fishnets. Kai shares about his love of the ocean and how his reverence for Hawaiian culture continues to grow. From learning how to throw net to spending long hours observing the shoreline, he reflects on how slowing down and going analog has shaped the way he approaches fishing, community and life in Hawaiʻi.

In this conversation, Kai explains how so many parts of his story begin with - and circle back to - the YMCA. It’s where his parents met, where he first discovered a love for ʻāina as a teenager, and where he has now worked for more than a decade. Along the way, mentors welcomed him in and shared their knowledge and practices, from farming to making throw nets, that continue to guide his path today. Through these relationships, Kai has paid it forward by mentoring youth and helping keep cultural traditions alive in the present day.

Episode Highlights

00:49 Throwing net, making friends

03:28 Growing up on Oʻahu's south shore

05:23 The moment throw nets clicked

06:52 From looking cool to cultural perpetuation

09:21 Learning how to make Hawaiian fishnets

12:02 Belonging and hā (breath)

18:29 What fishing looks like today

21:05 ʻĀina and spirituality

21:59 When nature responds - the puhi (moray eel) story

23:47 Knowing when to stop

25:01 Chanting at the lele (altar) 

28:30 Kilo and reading ocean signs

29:17 Why I never sell nets

31:13 Trading, time, and value

34:13 Teaching takes commitment

35:47 YMCA roots

39:11 Coming full circle

Check out Kai’s work at the YMCA and their student spring break trip on Molokaʻi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCItXIhxl6g

Photo Credit: Kai Uyehara

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Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

ALOHA ʻĀINA & ART · In this episode, Lily Māhealani Mitchell invites us into the in-between - between Hawaiʻi and England, painting and design, emotions and healing. She traces her path from meticulously painting roses as a kid to creating protest-inspired archival work like a hidden-ink Kumulipo typography piece that questions who knowledge is really for. Living abroad sharpened her awareness of aloha ʻāina, water, urbanization, and what it means to carry culture in spaces that don’t always reflect it back. We talk murals in underground markets, research as resistance, and why sometimes the message chooses the medium, not the other way around. This conversations is about staying rooted while roaming and becoming the sun wherever you land. Mahalo for tuning in!

Learn more about Lily's art:

Website: https://mahealily.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madebymahealily/

Episode Highlights

00:00 meet lily māhealani mitchell 🌺

01:49 a multi-medium artist — why pick one when you can do it all? 🎨

03:22 home: oʻahu, hawaiʻi island, england & choosing leeds beckett university

06:25 storytelling, culture, and the heartbeat behind the art

06:51 roses, realism, and learning to really see 

08:58 letting the message choose the medium 

10:37 inspiration abroad: missing hawaiʻi, aloha ʻāina, and community contrast

14:58 reforest leeds: water, biophilic design, and reconnecting people to ʻāina 🌿

19:12 save our surf (sos): archival posters, shoreline protests & urbanization 🌊

21:36 research as healing: archives, primary sources, and cultural continuity

25:04 kumulipo typography project: hidden knowledge, reverence, and decolonizing text

30:21 making the work: emotion, therapy, and the leeds market tunnel mural

33:37 art is for everyone 

36:30 leo rising ♌

Listen & Subscribe

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• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

PRESENCE · In this season of heart-to-hearts, we sit down with Love Chance - a mother, entrepreneur, ʻāina lover, and dreamer. She is also the founder and creative force behind The Indigenous Soap Company. Guided by ancestral wisdom and reverence for the land, Love weaves Cherokee and Hawaiian teachings into her motherhood, her business, and the way she moves with intention. What began as a chance meeting at Pāʻaiau fishpond in Pearl Harbor unfolds into a reflective conversation on presence as the doorway to joy. Love shares how she gathers meaningful moments like flowers in a sacred lei, snapshots to be treasured and carried forward. Along the way, she offers insights on conscious entrepreneurship, happy soap stories and leading with aloha. Mahalo for joining us on this path to living in the moment. 

Episode Highlights

00:52 A chance encounter

02:07 What’s in a name? The love story

03:41 Roots, rituals, and where we come from

06:43 Aloha everywhere: the Hawaiian diaspora

09:53 Finding joy in the now

12:45 Lāʻau lapaʻau, plant medicine

16:34 Sacred beginnings: Hawaiian birth wisdom

20:02 From vision to lather: the soap origin story

21:34 How Hawaiʻi happened (unexpectedly)

22:27 Expanding The Indigenous Soap Company  

23:07 Babies, business, and balance

24:56 Entrepreneurship 

26:53 Aloha forward: business with intention

30:53 Creative sparks and muses

33:09 Happy soap 

36:54 Gratitude 

Learn more about Indigenous Soap Company:

🌿 Website: https://www.indigenousoap.com/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indigenoussoap/?hl=en

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
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• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

What does it mean to believe you are enough? In this episode of Heartbeat Narratives, Teron Buford, author, storyteller, and founder of Grace Through Soul, joins the conversation for a reflective discussion on identity and self-worth. Teron and Molly reconnect as friends from their college days, reflecting on how shared history deepens the conversation. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Teron shares how his life experiences have shaped his approach to leadership, fatherhood, and service. He reflects on insights from his book, "What If I’m Enough?" and the roles that storytelling and love play in making meaning of our lives. The conversation explores vulnerability, masculinity, and a reminder that your story isn’t a shackle, it’s the key.

Teron’s Website:
https://www.gracethroughsoul.com/

Buy the Book “What If I’m Enough?”
https://www.gracethroughsoul.com/about-3

Episode Highlights

02:34 Reconnecting

03:31 Teron's journey and life lessons

09:57 Role Models: the candy fundraiser story

16:28 Reflections on identity and vulnerability

21:49 Meeting Dee: a love story

27:22 Living fully and embracing the present

38:01 Future plans

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Substack
• Youtube
• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

GOOD NEIGHBORS · In this solo episode, I reflect on what it means to be a good neighbor during a time of uncertainty and injustice. While I touch on ICE operations in Minnesota, my aim is to move beyond politics and into a place of shared humanity and respect for dignity. I’ve noticed that most of my neighbor interactions happen during crisis, and I wonder how much stronger our communities could be if we connected in everyday blue-sky moments too. I share stories from Minneapolis and Hawaiʻi, from neighbors stepping up to strangers showing unexpected kindness. Letʻs see the dignity in the people next door and choose again and again, to show up for one another.

Ways to show solidarity with Minnesota communities: https://minnesotanonprofits.org/ally-solidarity

Episode Highlights

00:52 — We see you, Minneapolis

01:37 — “Good neighbors”: Esther Perel’s insight on caring for others

03:11 — Minnesota Nice: reflecting on ICE operations in the Twin Cities and the kind ways neighbors are stepping up

04:59 — "Choose one's own way": Viktor Frankl's teachings on cultivating resilience during the Holocaust 

06:56 — Brave breakfast conversations: unexpected honesty, history repeating, and the urgent need to speak up 

09:26 — Aloha in action: how strangers have shown me kindness over the years 

13:49 — Lessons from the woods: a simulation of the Secret War, building empathy with immigrant communities and never being a bystander 

19:28 — Dignity next door: my heart sees your heart

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Substack
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• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

HANAHAU'OLI: JOYOUS WORK · Step back into the magic of elementary school as Kauʻi, an Oʻahu-based elementary school principal, shares how care and heart guide her work in education and leadership. From the power of a welcoming classroom to the small, meaningful moments that shape a child’s day, she reflects on why elementary school environments matter so deeply. Caring for our keiki extends beyond academics - it’s about helping children feel seen, safe, and supported every day. Through stories from campus life, Kauʻi highlights the humor, connection, and humanity that show up in everyday interactions with students. This episode is an honest, uplifting look at education rooted in presence and relationships. Mahalo for tuning in!

Episode Highlights

01:04 🏫 Welcome to Our Classroom – Creating a Joyful School Environment
02:04 ✏️ Lessons That Stick – Why Elementary School Matters
03:38 🌺 Where I’m From – Growing Up in Hawaiʻi
04:20 🌈 Joyful Work – Loving Life in Education
11:49 ⚖️ Recess Balance – Managing Work and Real Life
14:21 😂  Students & Classroom Laughs
16:13 🧠 Third Grade Clicks – When Learning Starts to Connect
19:10 ☀️ Best Day Ever – What Fills the Cup
20:13 💛 End of the School Day – Gratitude and Reflection

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
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• Youtube
• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

Aloha · In this first mini episode of 2026, we explore pivots - pivots to slow down, to shift energy, and to find grounding amidst chaos. Together, let’s uncover ways to dance through it all. I’m grateful for your support, feedback, and stories over the past twelve months since we launched Heartbeat Narratives. Mahalo for listening and sharing this journey with me.

As we step into the new year, please consider rating and reviewing Heartbeat Narratives on Spotify or Apple Podcasts - your stars mean so much. We’d also love for you to fill out our Listener Survey. Mahalo nui loa ~

Episode Highlights

Episode Highlights

00:00 🌺 Aloha 2026, let’s go

01:01 📖 Looking back 

02:11 🎤 New year, new podcast rhythm

02:53 🕊️ Slowing down and filling my cup

03:43 🤝 Roses, Thorns and Buds

04:04 🤎 Giving forward

08:47 🔄  Storytelling through truth, Queen Lili'uokalani's wisdom

12:13 🔹 Dancing through the unknown

15:11 🔮 Looking ahead

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
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• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

DO YOUR BEST · This week, Heartbeat Narratives turns 1! To mark the milestone, we welcome the most requested guest, Amund Gismervik, a steady presence who has quietly shaped the podcast behind the scenes. Note: he is the guitarist behind the podcast's intro and outro music! A lifelong athlete with a deep passion for springboard and platform diving, Amund has transformed his love for the sport into coaching. Born and raised in Norway, he followed his zest for diving to Hawaiʻi on a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scholarship and later represented Norway in the 10-meter platform at the 2012 London Olympics. In this conversation, Amund shares what makes his heart beat - from adrenaline and meticulous training to travel, and life beyond competition. This episode is a reflection on courage and doing your best, offering an example of what can unfold when you fully show up for what you love.

Episode highlights

00:00 Heartbeat turns 1! 

02:07 Amund’s journey from Norway to Hawaiʻi

07:29 Discovering a lifelong love for diving

10:37 Lessons learned through international competition

17:41 Olympic dreams and a defining moment

23:22 Training, coaching, and growth

30:26 Life beyond diving

Instagram Reel — Amund at 2025 Singapore Masters

Vimeo — Amund Gismervik Interview / Olympic and UH Mānoa Feature 
 

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
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• Youtube
• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

EVERY WORD COUNTS · In this episode, playwright Sean Dunnington shares stories that travel as freely as he does from Hawaiʻi Island to New York, Singapore, and beyond. He reflects on growing up in the misty hills of Waimea, finding refuge in theater, and learning how art can belong anywhere including libraries, community circles, and far off stages. The conversation drifts through queerness, power, memory, and the  magic of theatricality when life is mirrored onstage. Sean explores how his writing has evolved from personal survival to creative world building, and how playwriting can be a communal, living practice. This fun, flowing conversation is a reflection of the radical intimacy of telling stories out loud.

Episode Highlights

02:12 Opening Scene
Growing up in Waimea and peering into the world of theater.

05:06 Finding the Stage
Discovering playwriting as refuge and an invitation to imagine new worlds.

09:37 Moments of Illusion
Formative theater experiences and the performances that transformed spectatorship into devotion.

12:40 Behind the Script
The writing process, deadlines, and the challenges of making meaning on the page.

20:26 Ensemble Building
The creation of Tree Moss Collective and reimagining what playwriting in Hawaiʻi can be.

24:49 The Circle Widens
Playwriting as communal process, storytelling as listening, and theater as a place of healing.

33:19 Final Curtain
Where to find Sean’s work and what comes next beyond the stage.

To explore more of Sean work and writing, visit https://www.seandunnington.com/

and learn about Tree Moss Collective at https://www.treemosshawaii.com/

.

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
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• Youtube
• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.

Health Content Advisory: This conversation centers on pregnancy and birth, including personal experiences. Please listen with care – mahalo.

In this life-affirming episode, we sit down with PuaOEleili Pinto - mother of two, cultural health provider, and keeper of lomilomi, lāʻau lapaʻau, and Hawaiian childbirth traditions. Raised in Kailua, Oʻahu, with ancestral roots across Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, Pua honors her lineage through both research and lived practice via Ēwe ʻOiaʻiʻo, the company she founded to teach Hawaiian healing and birth. She shares how Hawaiian history, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, sound, and land restoration shaped her journey and guided the reclamation of ʻŌiwi birthing practices. Reflecting on her own birth experiences, Pua explores rebuilding trust in body wisdom, blending Hawaiian and Western healing methods, and restoring birth as a family-centered journey. The conversation also touches on food sovereignty, highlighting traditional Hawaiian food and the distinction between food and medicine, and the critical role of restoring Hawaiian forests as the foundation of well-being for all life. This episode is a reminder that indigenous practices are living, vital, and essential for healing families and communities today.

Episode Highlights

00:52 – Exploring Hawaiian birth practices

01:30 – Connecting to home: Kailua

05:32 – Navigating joy and challenges in Hawaiian healing

07:21 – In her ancestors' footsteps - re-membering birth practices

10:09 – Traditional Hawaiian medicine

14:27 – Connecting past and present in birthing practices

24:16 – Creating safe birthing spaces

26:57 – Discovering pregnancy and early challenges

29:05 – Helping others overcome birth trauma

30:29 – Empowering couples in birth

32:29 – The role of ancestral practices in birth

37:22 – The importance of Hawaiian diet in pregnancy

38:38 – Advocating for Hawaiian food and food sovereignty

42:35 – Restoring the Native Hawaiian forest

46:00 – Future hopes

Pregnancy and Birthing Resources:

• PuaOEleili's Cultural Birth Education Website: Ēwe ʻOiaʻiʻo
• PuaOEleili’s Online Birth Course
• Cookbooks & Resource Library
• Must We Wait in Despair
• ʻO ʻOe nō Paha Ia e ka Lau o ke Aloha – An Essay by Kīhei de Silva
• Nohopapa – Hawaiian Cultural Heritage Stewardship Services
• Motherwit – Postpartum Food Delivery
• Kauluakalana
• Kaulunani Urban & Community Forestry Project
• “Grow Hawaiʻi” Book – Native Books Hawaiʻi
• Hawaiʻi Forest Institute – Go Native: Growing a Native Hawaiian Urban Forest
• Awaiaulu Kīpapa – Hawaiʻi History Educator Resources

PuOEleili's Academic Research

• Pua kanikawī kanikawā: The Intimacy of Hawaiian Childbirth
• Native Hawaiian Complementary Feeding Practices as Told by Grandparents

Episode Photo: PuaOEleili Pinto and Kicking Bird Photography

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts
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• Substack
• Youtube
• Heartbeat Narratives Website

Guest Inquiries
Interested in sharing what brings you joy? Complete our Guest Interest Form

Heartbeat Narratives Book Recommendations
Our curated reading list that inspires and connects: Heartbeat Narratives on Bookshop.org

Credits
🎙️ Host & Producer: Molly Mamaril
🎸 Guitar: Amund Gismervik

A Diversity of Experiences: Guests on Heartbeat Narratives share their own perspectives and experiences. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. We invite you to listen with an open mind and enjoy the joy and insight offered from many different vantage points.