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

S4 Episode 6: Homecoming

Jun 18th, 2020 24m 4s

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 11th, 2020 28m 4s

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 4th, 2020 26m 20s

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 obscur

S4 Episode 3: Hawaii’s Sons Of The Civil War

May 28th, 2020 24m 52s

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 21st, 2020 23m 34s

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 14th, 2020 18m 20s

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 10th, 2020 1m 34s

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 11th, 2019 24m 9s

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is one of the most remote places on Earth. Now, it’s threatened by climate change, pollution and politics.

S3 Episode 8: Family

May 31st, 2018 34m 52s

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 co

S3 Episode 7: Reunions

May 25th, 2018 31m 19s

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

S3 Episode 6: Majuro

1 May 21st, 2018 27m 20s

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 sti

Chasing Leads

May 19th, 2018 3m 46s

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 wa

S3 Episode 5: Not by Accident

May 11th, 2018 28m 12s

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 n

S3 Episode 4: An Unbreakable Bond

May 4th, 2018 32m 15s

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 fi

S3 Episode 3: Springdale

Apr 26th, 2018 31m 31s

The biggest population of Marshallese in the U.S. isn’t in Hawaii. Or even a coastal state. It’s in Springdale, Arkansas - a small, unassuming midwest town that 12,000 Marshallese now call home. London Lewis doesn’t have the time or the means t

S3 Episode 2: Missing History

Apr 20th, 2018 36m 7s

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.

S3 Episode 1: The Adoptions

Apr 13th, 2018 29m 36s

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 y

Offshore: “The Blood Calls” — coming soon

Mar 30th, 2018 2m 15s

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

Offshore Postcard: A Nuclear Party

Feb 5th, 2018 19m 29s

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 explo

Offshore Postcard: Confronting Faith

Dec 28th, 2017 34m 39s

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 di

Offshore Postcard: The Tiki Bar

Nov 5th, 2017 36m 21s

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 peo

S2 Episode 6: Creation

May 19th, 2017 33m 34s

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 4th, 2017 31m 25s

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 an

S2 Episode 4: Who’s to say?

Apr 24th, 2017 27m 2s

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?