On Da Rock

9-6-8-1-6, Kaimuki in da house!! Summer Shiigi of Ten Tomorrow and Jordan Lee of The Public Pet joins us as we Keep It Kaimuki! We talk about how their entrepreneurial careers started, small biz in the time of COVID, and their community-building efforts around the Keep It Kaimuki campaign. 

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Ten Tomorrow - https://www.tentomorrow.com/

Aki is the Director of Electrification of Transportation at Hawaiian Electric Company and an old friend. She's passionate about clean transportation and well-designed public spaces. We talk about electric vehicles and trying to build out infrastructure, Da Bus, and bicycles. We also chat about being a "hafu", which is Japanese for a half-Caucasian and half-Japanese.

Jimmy is an old friend and owner of the Hawaiian Chip Company, maker of ono taro and sweet potato chips. We'll talk about business during COVID and many other things, including Taco Bell and Rhet Syndrome. Mahalo for joining us and subscribe!

Eric Takahata is the Managing Director of Hawaii Tourism Japan, who markets Hawaii as a destination for Japanese travelers. He's a friend and a mentor, and extremely knowledgable about tourism. We talk about reopening Hawaii and post-COVID tourism here.

Miki Tomita and I met a few years ago when she was the Director of Education for the Pacific Voyaging Society, and spoke about the Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage by the Hokuleʻa. She has since founded the Education Incubator, reshaping what education in Hawaiʻi can look like. She is one of my favorite conversation partners since I always feel I learned something profound, and this episode was no different.

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Dr. Roger Kiyomura is the Director of the School of Education at Hawaii Pacific University. We chat about COVID-19's impacts on the education system in Hawaii, and some of the opportunities and challenges ahead. We also talk about sports (a lot since we both miss it) but we keep it tied to the subject of child development (kinda). Mahalo piha for joining us!

Howzit! My apologies, no guest this week because of some technical issues. Believe me, it's a bummer because our recording with Aki Marceau, Director of Electrification of Transportation at Hawaiian Electric, was a pretty good talk about clean transportation. We'll reschedule.

However, I took this opportunity to tease a larger conversation we'll have on this podcast - the Hawaii Japanese-American role in our society, largely around the continued system of oppression. It's a doozy and a huge topic, but fitting given the current times. I have a ton of experience in the Japanese-American community here and I never gave it a thought about our role in current day Hawaii. As I worked more with the Native Hawaiian community, I started to hear another side of the conversation and, maybe, we aren't doing harm but we're not making life better for the entire community either. We'll talk more about this some of my future guests! 

Isabella Hughes is the President and Co-Founder of Shaka Tea. Shaka Tea is a global herbal ready-to-drink tea company based out of Hilo, Hawaii. We chat about Shaka Tea's start, regenerative agriculture, uplifting community through entrepreneurship, her art background, and life in Hilo.

Forest Frizzell is the CEO of Shifted Energy. Shifted Energy is a  Hawaii-based tech company in the clean energy industry. Forest and I  cover a variety of topics including the post-COVID Hawaii economy, our current state of leadership, and what it means to be "local". 

Aloha mai kakou, my name is Nate. The On Da Rock Podcast is meant to bring a new, raw voice to the Hawaii community. I hope my laid-back talk story sessions with my friends will help bring about new ideas and views of what Hawaii is, and what it could be.