PODCAST · science
Land and People
by Melissa Chimera
Hawai`i conservationist and artist Melissa Chimera and University of Hawai`i Mānoa fire and ecosystems scientist Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk with land protectors in Hawai`i and the Pacific about the places they cherish through their professional and ancestral ties. We paint an intimate portrait of today’s land stewards dealing with global crises while problem solving at the local level. Brought to you by the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Music ”Raindrops” courtesy Lobo Loco.
Episodes
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EP 76 Biologist Sierra McDaniel on conserving the inheritance of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Sierra McDaniel is the resources management program manager at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, having worked at the park for 25 years. She first came to Hawaiʻi as a biology undergraduate and then entered the University of Hawaiʻi at Hiloʻs Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science...
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EP 75 Waikōloa Dry Forest biologists Jen Lawson and Rob Yagi on the interface between people and the rarest of the rare forests
In this episode, Melissa and Clay talk to Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative executive director Jen Lawson and preserve manager Rob Yagi about their work to promote and restore one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Formed in 2011 to protect, promote, and restore a native Hawaiian dry...
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EP 74 Biologist Jim Jacobi on mapping and surveying Hawaii’s unique ecosystems across time and space
Dr. Jim Jacobi has spent the past 50 years in Hawaiʻi as a biologist specializing in mapping Hawai’i’s unique ecosystems and studying the plants and animals contained within them. Like so many of his cohort, he is a skilled naturalist, having worked on introduced rats, native insects first for…
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EP 73 Pilot David Okita on the evolution of helicopters as an essential tool for conservation land management
David Okita has flown helicopters on Hawaiʻi Island for many decades, first for emergency responders assisting with fire department search and rescues and then later for conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. David reflects on how...
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EP 72 Wildlife biologists Colleen and Ian Cole on making lasting alliances across diverse communities and geographies
In this interview, Clay and Melissa talk to husband and wife biologists Colleen and Ian Cole about their respective careers as land stewards and conservation program managers. Both have been working in Hawaiʻi for 25+ years; Ian as a forester and now Wildlife Biologist for the Hawaiʻi Island’s...
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EP 71 Hawaiian storyteller and conservationist Hannah Kihalani Springer on how land care begins with aloha for one another
In this re-release, Clay and Melissa interview Hannah Kihalani Springer of Hawai`i Island, a storyteller, environmental activist, and scholar of Hawaiian history for many decades. As a former trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and advocate for land and sea conservation, she has headed up...
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EP 70 Kekuhi Keali’ikanaka’ole on how we find family in `āina
In this re-released interview, we talk with renowned chanter, dancer, songwriter and educator Kekuhi Keali’ikanaka’ole about the intimate connection between humans and the Hawaiian landscape as practiced in Hawaiian lifeways. Her perspective is that of a descendent from the legendary Kanaka’ole...
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EP 69 Park Superintendent Rhonda Loh on how seeking knowledge of the land is a mind and heart endeavor
Dr. Rhonda Loh has over thirty years of experience at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, starting out as a volunteer and now in the top position as Superintendent. Rhonda explains how her graduate experiences in science (she holds both a Master’s biochemistry and a PhD in botany) were in tandem…
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EP 68 Restoring the land is a family affair: researchers Pat Hart, Susan Cordell and Colin Hart on the secret world of plants, birds and cacao
Husband-wife team Dr. .Susan Cordell and Dr. Pat Hart have made their conservation careers in Hawai`i since the early 1990s in their respective fields of native ecosystem restoration ecology and Hawaiian forest birds. In addition to Susan’s research with the U.S. Forest Service Institute of…
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EP 67 Land stewards Cheyenne Hiapo Perry and Lisa Hadway Spain on the leadership challenges of forest protection on Hawai’i Island
In Melissa and Clay’s live recorded interview at ʻImiloa Center in Hilo, they talk with Cheyenne Hiapo Perry of the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance and former state Forestry and Wildlife Administrator Lisa Hadway Spain about their respective leadership experiences in conservation. Each speaks to…
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EP 66 Land manager Bill Stormont on bringing aloha to the hardships and controversies in stewardship
Bill Stormont has worked in Hawaiian land stewardship for more than forty years. Born to a multi-generational Hāmākua family and raised on Hawaiʻi Island, Bill started in high school building trails and fences beginning in 1976 through the Youth Conservation Corps. His career within the…
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EP 65 DLNR forester Ed Pettys and Na Ala Hele program manager Debbie Chang on the value of connecting people to places through trails and land stewardship
In this interview, Melissa and Clay interview husband and wife team Ed Pettys and Debbie Chang from their home in Paʻauilo mauka on Hawaiʻi Island about their work helping to connect people to Hawaiian landscapes beginning in the late 1960s. They talk about growing up in Hawaiʻi–Ed from Lihue,...
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EP 64 Contemporary art professor Jaimey Faris and fire scientist Clay Trauernicht on how story telling and land care can help us envision a world beyond capitalism
In this interview, co-hosts Melissa Chimera, Clay Trauernicht and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa art professor Dr. Jaimey Faris explore how their respective fields in art and science critically examine the social and political paradigms that separate humans from each other and the world around…
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EP 63 Museum studies director Noelle Kahanu on repairing the human connection between land and people through the arts
Noelle MKY Kahanu is a bridge builder across art, policy and social justice through her work as a museum curator, legal scholar, Hawaiian rights activist, and teacher. She is a University of Hawaiʻi Specialist and Interim Director for Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program, having worked for...
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EP 62 Ethnic studies professor Ty Tengan on re-membering Hawaiian identity in place and cultural practice
Dr. Ty Tengan is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa whose work emphasizes ethnic studies in relation to Hawaiian identity and masculinity, sovereignty, land, and militarism. His activism and work extends to running oral history field schools, cultural...
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EP 61 Part II: Archaeologist and ethnohistorian Ross Cordy on the rise of Hawaiian kingdoms in ancient Hawai‘i
We continue our two-part conversation with Dr. Ross Cordy, Pacific Island Hawaiian-Pacific studies at University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu. Trained as both an archaeologist and ethnohistorian, Dr. Cordy’s specialty is reconstructing the history of Hawai‘i as told from multiple data sources. In the...
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EP 60 Part I: Archaeologist and ethnohistorian Ross Cordy on Polynesian voyaging and ancient Hawaiian settlements
Trained as both an archaeologist and ethnohistorian, Dr. Ross Cordy is a renowned scholar of Pacific Island Hawaiian-Pacific studies at University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu, specializing in reconstructing the history of Hawai‘i as told from multiple data sources. Beginning with his study of the...
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EP 59 Pacific Islands anthropologist Patrick Kirch on the millennia of human adaptation and environmental change across island archipelagos
Dr. Patrick Kirch is a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa anthropology professor specializing in historical anthropology, archaeology and the deep-time history of the peoples of the Pacific. In this interview, Melissa and Clay talk with him about how his growing up in Mānoa valley among kānaka maoli...
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EP 58 Co-hosts Melissa and Clay reflect on Season 3 and lessons learned after the 2023 wildfires
Co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht reflect on the past two seasons of Land and People, the most poignant and most difficult moments in the podcast, as well as their shared work at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in helping to reduce wildfire risk across the Hawaiian landscape.
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EP 57 Kauaʻi land steward and advocate Billy Kinney on how the land is our first teacher
Billy Kinney is a storyteller, cultural practitioner, connector and land back advocate whose family traces its lineage, care and kuleana to Kauaʻi’s north shore. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s during Hanalei river’s “boating wars,” Billy unpacks the challenges and opportunities for local…
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EP 56 Bird biologist Justin Hite on the joys and sorrows of working with Kaua‘i’s rarest forest birds
Justin Hite has worked with some of Kaua‘i’s rarest forest birds like the ʻAkekeʻe and the ‘Akikiki, down to the last individuals in the remote ʻAlakaʻi rain forests. As the former field supervisor of the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project over a decade, he helped track and collect eggs of these...
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EP 55 Special Edition: Professor of Art Jaimey Faris interviews co-host Melissa Chimera on the intersection of art and activism
Melissa Chimera, co-host of the Land and People podcast is a Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 visual artist whose work consists of research-based investigations into species extinction, globalization and human migration. In this interview, Melissa talks with Dr. Jaimey Faris, Associate Professor of...
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EP 54 Expert hunter and Nature Conservancy field coordinator Nic Barca on fencing and hunting in Kauai`i’s most rugged and remote terrain
Nic Barca grew up on Kaua`i and learned to hunt while in his teens. His hunting experience ranges from bow and arrow, to dog and knife hunting pigs, goats and most recently shooting black tail deer. For the past 17 years, he has worked as The Nature Conservancy’s Field Coordinator trapping and...
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EP 53 Former Nature Conservancy Kaua`i program director Trae Menard on protecting the heart of the watershed through landscape-level fence building
Conservationist Trae Menard has spent decades protecting Hawaiian native ecosystems, with special attention to his home island of Kaua`i for the past twenty years. As the former program director of The Nature Conservancy’s Kaua`i program, his experience is that of an ecologist who moved to…
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EP 52 Former Hawai`i Division of Forestry and Wildlife administrator Lisa Hadway Spain on paving new paths as a woman in conservation leadership
Lisa Hadway Spain has worked in Hawaiian native species and ecosystem conservation and education for more than three decades. She first entered the field as a zoology graduate student studying endangered land snails at University of Hawaii at Mānoa, eventually transitioning to the Department of...
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EP 51 Keith Robinson on the complexities of the Robinson family and going at it alone
Keith Robinson of Kaua`i comes from a multi-generational, large land-owning family who has been in Hawai`i for more than 200 years. The Robinsons (descendants of the Sinclairs) owned and operated sugar plantations and cattle ranches across many thousands of acres in Kaua`i, including the entire...
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EP 50 Kaua`i kupuna Sabra Kauka on beauty and importance of Nu`alolo Kai
Aunty Sabra Kauka is founding member and past-president of grassroots nonprofit, Nā Pali Coast `Ōhana, dedicated to preserving natural and cultural resources of the Nā Pali Coast State Park. Her work and that of the volunteers centers around the ancient Hawaiian village, Nu`alolo Kai, once a...
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EP 49 Kaua`i firefighter and land steward Jeremie Makepa on restoring and nurturing once abandoned places
Jeremie Makepa is a captain for the Kaua`i Fire Department for more than 2 decades in fire prevention side and as a fire fighter. His is a multi-generational Hawaiian homesteading family and most recently he serves as a land steward with the non-profit `Āina Alliance, formed in 2021. His work and...
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EP 48 Pacific island botanist Steve Perlman talks about putting your life on the line for the love of nature
Melissa and Clay pivot this season to the oldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago--Kaua`i. They revisit one of their earliest LAND & PEOPLE interviews with retired botanist Steve Perlman, of the Kaua`i Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP). Steve talks about his love of Pacific island...
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EP 47 Willy Kostka on preserving and protecting the land and sea of Pohnpei and across Micronesia
William (Willy) Kostka is a long-time conservationist and islander who was born and raised on the island of Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1998, he helped found and became the first Board Chairman and Executive Director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, and then...
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EP 46 Palauan stewardship educator Ann Singeo on connecting generations of islanders across space and time
Ann Singeo is a founding member and Executive Director of Ebiil Society, a non-profit organization that promotes environmental education and conservation in Palau. She holds a Masters Degree in Communications for Social Change from University of Texas in El Paso which enabled her to learn from…
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EP 45 Poet Craig Santos Perez on reclaiming and suturing Micronesian language, place and storytelling
Craig Santos Perez is a poet, essayist, university professor, and American publisher born in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guam (Guåhan) Island, formally considered a U.S. territory. His literary distinctions are many. In 2023 he won the National Book Award for poetry, 2015 American Book Award and the…
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EP 44 Part II Jermy Uowolo of Fais, Micronesia on how preserving the past is they key to thriving into the future
Part II of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Jermy's background is as a Micronesian cultural practitioner, anthropologist, historian and Hawaiian ecosystem restoration…
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EP 43 Part I Jermy Uowolo of Fais, Micronesia on the history, struggle and heritage of the Western Pacific atols and islands
Part I of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). He received his bachelors degree from University of Hawai`i at Hilo and served as a conservationist for the Watershed Alliance in...
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EP 42 Legendary waterman and Lahaina leader Archie Kalepa on steering the canoe towards the right path
Archie Kalepa Is a retired ocean safety officer who served the County of Maui for 32 years. Archie is not only a world renowned ocean safety expert and dedicated advocate for Hawaiian culture with decades of experience in rescue operations, cultural preservation and team leadership. He is a…
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EP 41 Artist Abigail Romanchak on uncovering the unseen Hawaiian environment through the visual language of printmaking
Abigail Romanchak was born and raised on Maui and is a native Hawaiian printmaker who conveys the Hawaiian environment–the sounds, bird songs, human footprints across Haleakalā–through the medium of printmaking. She has both a Bachelors and Masters in Fine Art with a specialty in printmaking from...
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EP 40 Special Edition HI Conservation Conference: Water and land advocates Kapua`ala Sproat and Kekai Keahi on water as life
In this live recording for the 2024 Hawai‘i Conservation Conference, co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht interview keynote speakers Kapuaʻala Sproat, professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law and Kekai Keahi, Maui Komohana community leader in the opening session “What...
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EP 39 'Ōlelo Hawai`i translator, artist and conservationist Hina Kneubuhl on unlocking the past as the key to the future
Born and raised on Maui, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl is an artist, co-founder of Kealapiko clothing, rare plant botanist, Hawaiian translator and scholar. Her knowledge base spans both conservation and the humanities, as her lineage of healers and musicians includes her great-grandmother Nana Veary…
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Here comes Season 3!
Co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht give you a *sneak peak* of Season 3 coming up very soon!
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EP 38 Ethnic studies professor Davianna McGregor on how caring for land is all of our kuleana
Scholar and historian Dr. Davianna Pōmaika`i McGregor is a founding member of the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa's Ethnic Studies Department and a pivotal force in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement beginning in the 1970s. Now retired, she taught oral history, environmental and cultural review and...
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EP 37 Botanist Gerry Carr on the evolution and wonder of the Hawaiian silversword alliance
Dr. Gerry Carr, Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa has studied and taught the evolution of plants in the silversword alliance, a unique group of Hawaiian plants encompassing an extraordinary diversity of forms and habitats. In this episode, we talk about the...
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EP 36 Entomologist Ken Kaneshiro on the courtship, beauty and fragility of Hawaiian picture-wing flies
Entomologist Dr. Ken Kaneshiro at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa has studied and taught Hawaiian evolution and biology to countless generations of students through the story of the 1,000+ species of Hawaiian drosophila, picture-wing fruit flies descended from a single ancestor. His passion…
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EP 35 Geologist Scott Rowland on understanding Hawaiian volcanoes, archipelagos and geologic time
Dr. Scott Rowland has studied and taught geology at the University of Hawai‘i volcanologist for 41 years, having earned teaching distinctions including the Board of Regents and President’s awards. He shares with us his research into remote-sensing volcanology to help determine the ages of…
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EP 34 Land steward Scott Fisher on restoring and understanding the deep history of Hawaiian coastlines
As the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust's Director of ‘Āina Stewardship, Dr. Scott Fisher has worked for two decades to restore the coastal sand dunes and wetlands of Waihe‘e on Maui. His unusual background is that of an infantryman in Kuwait during the Gulf War where he witnessed unparalleled...
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EP 33 Native Nursery’s Ethan Romanchak on making Maui productive in agriculture once again
Native Nursery on Maui is one of the largest Hawaiian native plant growers in Hawai`i founded by lifelong friends and partners Ethan Romanchak and Jonathan Keyser. With twenty years of experience in native species horticulture, rare plant propagation and ecosystem restoration, their business now...
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EP 32 Hawaiian scholar and educator Kalehua Krug on language and thought as worldview
Dr. Kalehua Krug is a mea kākau (traditional tattooist), musician, activist and school principal at the Hawaiian immersion school Ka Waihona o ka Na`auao in Nānākuli, West O`ahu. His advocacy for land and indigenous philosophy not only stems from his personal journey into Hawaiian identity, but…
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EP 31 Landscape designer and naturalist Leland Miyano on loving a place through science and art
For over five decades landscape designer, sculptor and naturalist Leland Miyano has connected people to Hawaiian native ecosystems through his gardens in Kahulu`u, at the Bishop Museum and at The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. In 2019, he created an award winning double hulled canoe…
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EP 30 Hawaiian storyteller and conservationist Hannah Kihalani Springer on how land care begins with aloha for one another
Hannah Kihalani Springer of Hawai`i Island is a storyteller, environmental activist, and scholar of Hawaiian history for many decades. As a former trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and advocate for land and sea conservation, she has headed up the nonprofit `Ahahui o Pu`u Wa`awa`a which...
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EP 29 Marine experts Emily and Ann Fielding on how the beauty, spirit and nourishment of the sea sustains us
Emily and Ann Fielding, the mother-daughter marine duo of Maui have both lived and worked in Hawai`i to help educate and conserve the ocean, its creatures, coral reefs across the Pacific. Ann's experience is as an underwater naturalist where she introduced visitors, kama`aina and students to the...
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EP 28 Aquatic biologist Skippy Hau on the secret lives of creatures in Hawaiian streams
For nearly four decades, Department of Land and Natural Resources aquatic biologist Skippy Hau has been in and out of Maui's oceans, estuaries and streams surveying for Hawaiian fish, shrimp, snails, corals, limu (seeweed) and nearly every living thing he could observe underwater. Growing up as a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hawai`i conservationist and artist Melissa Chimera and University of Hawai`i Mānoa fire and ecosystems scientist Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk with land protectors in Hawai`i and the Pacific about the places they cherish through their professional and ancestral ties. We paint an intimate portrait of today’s land stewards dealing with global crises while problem solving at the local level. Brought to you by the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Music ”Raindrops” courtesy Lobo Loco.
HOSTED BY
Melissa Chimera
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Land and People have?
Land and People currently has 77 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Land and People about?
Hawai`i conservationist and artist Melissa Chimera and University of Hawai`i Mānoa fire and ecosystems scientist Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk with land protectors in Hawai`i and the Pacific about the places they cherish through their professional and ancestral ties. We paint an intimate portrait of...
How often does Land and People release new episodes?
Land and People has 77 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Land and People?
You can listen to Land and People on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Land and People?
Land and People is created and hosted by Melissa Chimera.
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