I spent much of this past year floating on the Pacific Ocean and studying its stunning shades. My friend Alexandra and I started an Ocean Appreciation Club. An Olympic swimmer gave me swimming lessons in the Coral Triangle. I dove into 11,000 meters of water above the deepest known part of the Earth’s seabed. I listened to…
My research has attuned me to the power of invitations. They make us feel seen, included, valued, and welcome. They are free and low risk! So who could you invite to dinner, to the dinner table, to a weekend adventure, to a phone call or a cup of tea? Perhaps someone outside of your norm.
I’ve just spent five weeks in Tahiti and the Cook Islands with Master Navigator Tua Pittman, and I’ve been learning to write biography. I spent many hours listening to one person tell his story, and during this month – more than any other time in my career – listening opened me to new worlds.
I’m headed back to Polynesia for a crash course in Traditional Polynesian Voyaging and to document the life story of Master Navigator Teuatakiri (Tua) Pittman who has traveled over 60,000 nautical miles without charts, compass, or any of the instruments familiar to many of us.
At some level, stories are about influencing people, but the results of our stories are not always tangible. That changes when it comes to vaccination and our ability to get individuals to take the shot, or not. I learned a lot on this subject from This American Life‘s episode “The Herd,” especially Act Two “The…
I’m teaching a class in climate storytelling at Georgetown University this week. I remember the day someone suggested I was avoiding climate change in my work, perhaps because I have rarely made it the main focus of my stories. I reflected on that feedback for a long time before I could articulate how personal stories…
Our first story about the French Polynesian island of Makatea came out on May 4, 2021 with Hakai Magazine. There’s also an audio edition, which was a lot of fun for me to read! Now the story is running again, this time in French, with Courrier International. This will make the story more accessible for…
Stories are made to be shared, and today I am proud to share my first series of documentary films with you. “Meet the Marquesas” is here! These four short episodes focus on people we met in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia in 2018 and 2019. Our three-person team used a method I have come…
Wa’xaid was also known as Cecil Paul. He was Xenaksiala from Xesdu’wäxw, what they call the Kitlope on the British Columbia coast, and he lived to be 90 years old.
National Geographic Education uses its global network to help Explorers from all over the world interact with students. Through live, hosted web events, we present on our work and then take questions. On April 27th, 2020, I was part of the first ever Explorer Classroom to be translated into American Sign Language (ASL). I learned…
I wrote my friend Poemoana Teri’inohora’i in Tahiti the other day. Because of Covid-19, I will not see her this year, and I was feeling sad. She replied: “What a sad illness, and I hope it won’t be a repeat of the diseases suffered by our islands in centuries past.” (see below for her original…
Since we first visited French Polynesia and the Marquesas Islands in 2018, we’ve been working on a series of films to share some of the personal stories that people shared with us. The series is taking shape, so here’s a summary of the episodes we are working on … Overview: This series delves into Marquesan…
I love telling stories on stage, to camera, or live for web-based events. Stories are made to be shared, and presenting is one of my favourite ways to bring them to life. I always make time for new bookings. I’ve presented at several live and web-based events with the National Geographic Society and National Geographic…
We first visited the community of Hapatoni, on the island of Tahuata, aboard a ship called the National Geographic Orion. The village has a population of about 100 people, and many people of all ages took part in welcoming our vessel. This place made an immediate impression on me, and I resolved to return later…
I saw the Marquesas for the first time from the deck of a ship. The hillsides, captured above by photographer Eric Guth, foretold the natural beauty we would experience in this archipelago. One of our first stops, from that ship, was in Hatihe’u, where a group of local performers welcomed us at one of their…