OFFSHORE

Offshore Postcard: The Queen’s Quarantine Nov 14, 2020

In 1881 — less than a week after King David Kalakaua left Hawaii for a yearlong tour around the world — a ship arrived in Honolulu carrying laborers sick with smallpox.

The decisions that Hawaii’s future queen made to keep people safe – and the pushback she received from angry citizens and frustrated business owners who didn’t want to quarantine or halt business activity – should sound familiar to people today. Which is why some teachers are using the story of Lili‘uokalani to help students face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

S4 Episode 6: Homecoming Jun 18, 2020

How do you practice Hawaiian culture when you’re thousands of miles from Hawaii? And what happens when Hawaiians abroad finally get a chance to go home?

S4 Episode 5: Leaving Home Jun 11, 2020

Nearly half of all Native Hawaiians now live outside of Hawaii. And while many have cited Hawaii’s high cost of living as the main reason for leaving, it’s really just a piece of a much larger story.

S4 Episode 4: On The Road Jun 04, 2020

After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, hundreds of disenfranchised Hawaiian musicians would journey to the continental U.S. in search of fame, fortune, or just a chance to make a decent living. Some would die in poverty and obscurity. Others would change American music forever.

S4 Episode 3: Hawaii’s Sons Of The Civil War May 28, 2020

Two decades after Hawaiians helped build a fort for John Sutter in California, another group of Hawaiians would find themselves stranded in Massachusetts. And take up arms in America’s bloodiest war.

S4 Episode 2: The Tribe May 21, 2020

This is the story of a group of Hawaiians who ended up in California more than 160 years ago — back when Hawaii was an independent nation. And how their descendents are still connected to the islands in unexpected ways.

S4 Episode 1: Should I Stay or Should I Go? May 14, 2020

Nearly half of all Native Hawaiians now live outside of Hawaii. It’s a staggering number that raises questions about what Hawaii will be like in coming years, and how Native Hawaiians will carry their islands with them to far flung places.

Offshore: “Far From Home” — coming soon May 10, 2020

This season, Offshore is taking a deep dive into the Hawaiian diaspora. Join journalist Kuʻu Kauanoe, as she digs into what is driving Hawaiians from the islands today. And tells some amazing stories about Hawaiians who left long ago.

Offshore Postcard: Our Journey to the Last Wild Place Jun 11, 2019

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument covers 583,000 square-miles of the Pacific — an area larger than all of America’s national parks combined.

But while millions of visitors flock to America’s national parks each year, access to Papahanaumokuakea is highly restricted. Many people — even in Hawaii — don’t know that this special place exists. Don’t know what it looks like. What it sounds like. What will be lost if rising seas continue to wash away its low-lying islands, or politicians chip away at the laws protecting its borders.

Experience this remote and wild place with Civil Beat’s environmental reporter, Nathan Eagle, and his wife, videographer Alana Eagle, on a trip that opened their eyes to the beauty — and fragility — of island life. And changed their outlook on the world in unexpected ways.

S3 Episode 8: Family May 31, 2018

When we started reporting this season, we expected it to be a story about troubling adoptions that happened in the 1990s. But it quickly became clear that issues with Marshallese adoptions were never fully resolved, they simply moved. To new counties. States. Adoption agencies. So we’ve continued chasing leads while producing this season. In this final episode, we’re going to get some answers for London Lewis about his birth mother, and and share some pretty big developments about adoptions happening today.

S3 Episode 7: Reunions May 25, 2018

There’s an entire generation of Marshallese adoptees like London Lewis asking questions about who they are and where they come from. And there are plenty of parents searching for the children they gave up, too.

These reunions aren’t always easy. Many families have been separated for years by not only distance, but also language and culture. Finding their way back to each other is a complicated journey that can lead to places no one expects.

But right now, our biggest challenge with London’s family is helping a reunion happen at all.

S3 Episode 6: Majuro May 21, 2018

London Lewis had to get back to work in Florida, so we’re continuing the search on his behalf — journeying to the Marshall Islands to where his story began, to try and find his birth father and his siblings. And get a sense of why women are still being recruited to leave the Marshall Islands and place their children with American families. It’s a search that will lead to dead ends, heartbreak, and completely unexpected moments of serendipity.

Chasing Leads May 19, 2018

We started reporting for this season of Offshore last June, but we’re still chasing down leads and new developments. It’s been a busy few weeks for us. Which means we’re going to be publishing Episode 6 on Monday, May 18. In the meantime, we wanted to share a poem with you by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. She’s from the Marshall Islands, and you’ll be hearing more from her in upcoming episodes.

S3 Episode 5: Not by Accident May 11, 2018

London Lewis’ biggest worry when he arrived in Springdale was how he would be received. Would other Marshallese people recognize him? Accept him?

It didn’t take long for him to form instant connections with people who want him to know that he not only belongs in the Marshallese community but he is needed in the Marshallese community.

But acceptance and belonging are not the same thing. London is just at the beginning of a long and complicated journey to figure out where he fits into the Marshallese diaspora.

And Springdale is about to get him a lot closer to solving one of the biggest questions about his past.

S3 Episode 4: An Unbreakable Bond May 04, 2018

In Springdale, London Lewis begins to experience Marshallese culture for the first time. He’s going to meet people he’s only read about in World War II textbooks. Hear a language he’s never heard except for on YouTube. Get a little closer to finding his birth family.

But we’re not just in Springdale for London. We’re also here to try and find out exactly what’s happening with Marshallese adoptions today. To speak with private adoption lawyers, adoptive families, and Marshallese birth mothers about the adoption process.

Adoptions are big business. As international adoptions have dropped off, there are still hundreds of thousands of adoptive parents vying for an increasingly small pool of healthy babies. Many of them are turning to this small community in Arkansas where private adoption lawyers and their Marshallese liaisons – or fixers – are household names for quickly matching them with Marshallese birth mothers.

S3 Episode 3: Springdale Apr 26, 2018

More migrants from the Marshall Islands now live in Springdale, Arkansas, than any other place in the world. It’s a surprising choice for them, moving en masse to a small Midwest town that is about as different from their island homeland as you can get. London Lewis was born in the Marshall Islands, but he doesn’t have the resources to make that trip any time soon. So if he’s going to have a chance of finding someone who knows his family, he has to start here.

In 1986, as part of a treaty between the U.S.and three Micronesian nations, Marshallese were given the right to travel to this country with little if any immigration restrictions. But nobody anticipated the wave of migration that would follow. Or that the treaty would contribute to an adoption explosion from the islands.

Now, the migration has taken root in this quiet corner of Arkansas — where local judges say as many as nine out of 10 adoptions are of Marshallese children.

S3 Episode 2: Missing History Apr 20, 2018

Susette Lewis was excited when she arrived in Honolulu in 1992. And like most new moms, nervous. Uncertain of what to expect. She didn’t know that picking up her adopted son would be an alarming experience.

Her son, London, says he had a happy childhood, growing up in a big house in a town just past the Everglades. But he’s spent a lot of time searching for a connection to a culture thousands of miles from where he was raised.

And while he did a lot of research in college on American military history in the Marshall Islands, he wants a sense of what’s missing from Western textbooks.

S3 Episode 1: The Adoptions Apr 13, 2018

International adoptions were a rarity in the Marshall Islands until the mid-’90s. Then came an adoption boom of such intensity that the remote island nation suddenly had one of the highest per-capita adoption rates in the world. In just a few years, hundreds of children were adopted from the far-flung atolls — so many that it seemed like an entire generation was disappearing.

Now, two decades later, some of these children are beginning to search for answers about who they are and where they come from. Some, like 25-year-old London Lewis, have never known a single person from their native country. Adopted as an infant from the Marshall Islands, London’s journey home would begin with a Facebook post.

Offshore: “The Blood Calls” — coming soon Mar 30, 2018

A young man on a quest to find his birth family. An adoption market that rocked an island nation. A culture in danger of disappearing — and the desperate fight to save it. Join Offshore for an unforgettable eight-episode season this spring. www.offshorepodcast.org

Offshore Postcard: A Nuclear Party Feb 05, 2018

Hawaii’s false nuclear alarm scare sends Offshore reporters on a trip back in time to 1962, when Hawaii had a very different kind of brush with nuclear weapons. Just a few months before the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hawaii witnessed a nuclear explosion so massive that darkness briefly turned to daylight. Instead of inspiring fear, the detonation sparked celebrations.

Offshore Postcard: Confronting Faith Dec 28, 2017

Sex abuse within the Catholic church is a well-known issue on the mainland, but this is the first time Guam has had to come to grips with it. And it’s a huge deal. Not just because of the abuse, but because the outpouring of accusations that directly confront the church is a sign of huge societal changes in Guam. An island where, after centuries of colonization, many people view Catholicism as an inextricable part of Chamorro culture.

This is a story about the abuse cases, but it’s also a story about the evolving role of the Catholic Church on Guam. And a reporter who’s struggled for years to explain where she comes from and what it means to be Chamorro, finding answers in some very unexpected places.

Offshore Postcard: The Tiki Bar Nov 05, 2017

Tiki bars became wildly popular in the United States after World War II, and were at the height of their popularity when Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Even though Tiki bars bars draw inspiration from many Pacific cultures, when most people think of Tiki bars they think of Hawaii. But the tiki bar is actually a product of Hollywood, and part of a fascinating chapter in pop culture and American history.

Offshore looks at the history of tiki bars, why they’re popping up all over the country and even the world today, and finds out more about the immigrants who served up the first tiki cocktails.

S2 Episode 6: Creation May 19, 2017

In the final episode of Season Two, Offshore goes back to the beginning to search for answers to the conflict on Mauna Kea. Not the beginning of astronomy in Hawaii, but beginning of the Kumulipo. The Hawaiian chant of creation.

S2 Episode 5: The Other Mountains May 04, 2017

The story of Mauna Kea starts on an island in the Pacific — but it doesn’t end there. There are other sacred mountains. Sacred plains. Sacred forests. Today, the fights over all these places are becoming linked in ways that no one could have anticipated.

S2 Episode 4: Who’s to say? Apr 24, 2017

Is there an inherent conflict between Western science and indigenous culture? A difference in world views that makes communication between the two sides in this conflict impossible? Or is there something else at play here?

S2 Episode 3: The Astronomers Apr 06, 2017

Why do astronomers feel a giant new telescope on top of Mauna Kea is so important? What will Hawaii — and the scientific community — stand to lose if the telescope isn’t built?

S2 Episode 2: The Protectors Mar 23, 2017

What is it about Mauna Kea that makes it so sacred to Hawaiians? So precious that people have pledged their lives, their liberty, to blocking further development on its summit?

S2 Episode 1: Mauna Kea Mar 09, 2017

Atop one of the world’s most sacred mountains, a battle over science, culture — and the future of Hawaii.

Offshore: “The Sacred Mountain” — coming soon Mar 04, 2017

The story of Mauna Kea is a story about science and culture, yes. But it’s also about land and power. About who gets to say what’s sacred and what’s not. About the way Hawaiians, scientists, and humans in general, search for meaning.

It’s also about our changing understanding of the universe. And competing visions for the future of our country — and our planet.

The story of Mauna Kea is also a story that is playing out in many other areas of the country. At Standing Rock where the Sioux tribe is fighting development. In Arizona, where the Apache Indians already fought a telescope battle of their own and now are trying to stop a mining company that wants to operate on their land.

Their mountains — their Mauna Keas — have changed people too.

S1 Episode 11: The Gift Shop Dec 29, 2016

The Offshore team heads to the Big Island to gather material for Season Two, and author Lois-Ann Yamanaka gives us a humorous glimpse at working class life in Hawaii.

S1 Episode 10: Embracing Differences Dec 15, 2016

Is there something that Hawaii can teach the mainland? Something people of all races have learned from living together in such an isolated place? In the last episode of Season One, people from Hawaii tell personal stories about race relations and how to treat each other with aloha.

S1 Episode 9: Answers Dec 08, 2016

Five years, two trials, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees have failed to resolve Special Agent Christopher Deedy’s case. That hasn’t stopped supporters of the man he killed from pushing on. Will there ever be a resolution?

S1 Episode 8: Never the Same Dec 01, 2016

In even the most high profile criminal cases, there comes a point where the world moves on. But for the families of both the victims and the shooters, nothing is ever really normal again. Not even decades later.

S1 Episode 7: Defense of Life Nov 24, 2016

After jurors deadlock in Special Agent Christopher Deedy’s first trial, the family of Kollin Elderts calls for a new prosecutor to be put on the case. And Deedy gets a new team of lawyers to start working on a different strategy.

But there are larger issues at play. Why is it so hard to convict cops in America? And, after losing in two trials, why won’t prosecutors just let Deedy’s case go?

S1 Episode 6: Agent on Trial Nov 17, 2016

Special Agent Christopher Deedy’s first murder trial begins in 2013. The stakes in the case were high. For Deedy but also for local prosecutors, who take an all-or-nothing approach to the case — placing all their chips on the table in a bid to lock Deedy up for life.

S1 Episode 5: The White Menace Nov 10, 2016

After a hung jury in the rape trial of five local Hawaiians, the family of the alleged victim looked for vengeance. They got it — by committing one of the most explosive crimes in Hawaiian history.

S1 Episode 4: A Sinister Past Nov 03, 2016

A privileged socialite. A Native Hawaiian wrongfully accused of rape. A ruling elite that favors whites. So begins the Massie Case. A story from 1932 that still impacts how some Hawaiians view the federal government. And Christopher Deedy.

S1 Episode 3: The White Minority Oct 27, 2016

Hawaii is the only state where whites have always been in the minority. There is this idea that people in Hawaii are racist against white people, that they hate the federal government. So, with a huge diplomatic summit taking place in Honolulu, tensions were high the week that Christopher Deedy shot and killed Kollin Elderts. Blocks away from the McDonald’s where their fatal confrontation took place, tanks had taken over a local park and protesters were out on the streets. There was a reason Deedy and dozens of federal agents were in town. And there were a lot of people who wanted them out.

S1 Episode 2: Two Lives Collide Oct 20, 2016

Christopher Deedy and Kollin Elderts had never met before Nov. 5, 2011, when a 3-minute brawl ended with Elderts dead and Deedy in handcuffs. How did a Native Hawaiian born in the islands and a white federal agent who’d just arrived end up on opposite sides of a gun?

S1 Episode 1: The Death of Kollin Elderts Oct 13, 2016

Reporter Jessica Terrell introduces the deadly events of Nov. 5, 2011 when federal security agent Christopher Deedy shot Hawaiian Kollin Elderts to death one night in a McDonalds. This story is tinged with historic suspicions around race, nationality and the presence of the US government in Hawaii. It sounds like current racial tensions around law enforcement and non-white victims on the US mainland. But the Deedy/Elderts case also carries echoes of a similar story going back to the eve of WWII.

Offshore: “A Killing in Waikiki” — coming soon Oct 03, 2016

Offshore, from Honolulu Civil Beat & PRX, tells true stories from Hawaii. Season 1, “A Killing in Waikiki,” tells the complex racial and identity connections between two prominent killings that happened decades apart. The episodes go beyond the popular images of the islands to tell nuanced tales of nationhood.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected