Connect, Learn, Heal, and Grow
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Long before Washington, D.C., Ed Case was a kid from Hilo who describes his childhood as "Norman Rockwell, but Hawaii" — the only haole in his class, surfing after school and never once thinking about race or ethnicity. In this wide-ranging conversation, Ed traces the unlikely path from a small-town upbringing on Hawaii Island to the U.S. Congress: the family that left a Kansas law firm…
From the deadliest mass shooting in American history to the most devastating wildfire tragedy in modern U.S. history, Chief John Pelletier has spent his career leading through the unthinkable. As incident commander during the 2017 Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas and now Chief of the Maui Police Department during the catastrophic 2023 wildfires, Pelletier opens up about what it actually takes to…
Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami sits down with Evan Leong for a rare, unfiltered conversation about leadership, loss, and legacy. From surviving Hurricane Iniki as a teenager to losing his mother, father, and brother within eighteen months, Derek opens up about grief, mental health, and why he refuses to stay silent about his brother's suicide. He shares how his wife Monica's wisdom shaped his run for…
Steve Sawyer grew up in a home where silence was the deadliest weapon — and rage could erupt without warning. As founder of the Developmental Trauma Training Institute, Steve draws on his own childhood wounds to reveal how unhealed trauma shapes every relationship, addiction, and behavior we carry into adulthood. From the neuroscience of the nervous system and the four core survival wounds…
What if the key to healing trauma, anxiety, and depression has been misunderstood for decades — and the answer lies in a medicine most of us were taught to fear? Mike DeMattos, Chair of the Bachelor of Social Work Program at the University of Hawaii, joins Evan Leong for a deeply honest and wide-ranging conversation about psychedelic-assisted therapy, the roots of self-rejection, and what it truly…
Brad Yates spent six decades coaching elite athletes, leaders, and even legendary college football head coach Bill Curry — and his hardest lesson came from looking inward at his own unprocessed anger. At 84, the former Punahou School educator and high-performance coach sits down with Evan Leong to unpack "Accept Love," his framework for elite performance, why most of what we call passion is…
Scott Simon walked away from a high-paying executive career to become a leadership coach — and the journey that led him there is anything but ordinary. From playing D3 volleyball at Santa Clara after turning down Princeton, to navigating corporate law and a company bankruptcy, to ultimately trading a corporate paycheck for the freedom to build something on his own terms, Scott brings a rare depth…
Pal Eldredge has lived one of Hawaii’s most extraordinary sporting lives — from a three-sport athlete at Punahou and a College World Series competitor at BYU, to decades coaching baseball, scouting for Major League Baseball, and teaching fifth grade to a boy the world would come to know as Barack Obama. Evan Leong sits down with Coach Pal for an unflinching conversation about aging, legacy,…
What if a tech CEO isn’t self-made—but community-made? In this powerful conversation, Forest Frizzell shares his raw, deeply personal journey from a troubled childhood marked by learning struggles, self-doubt, and survival, to becoming the co-founder of a globally recognized clean energy company. This episode goes beyond entrepreneurship—it’s about being “Hānai’d” (nourished and lifted) by people…
Sherry Menor, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, sits down with Evan Leong for one of the most candid conversations about leadership, identity, and personal growth you'll hear from a Hawaii executive. Born in Tokyo and raised in Hilo in a strict Japanese-Filipino household, Sherry's path to becoming the first female CEO in the Chamber's 175-year history was anything but linear…
