Miss Happy Mess

Angie Laprete, TV and Film producer and Co-Founder of the International Cultural Arts Network (ICAN), does a deep dive into the Hawai'i film industry. She explores how staying home in Hawai'i changed her career and why access and opportunity are so important for developing creatives.     

Days after our episode with Dr. Kalei Nu'uhiwa, we are still processing all her wisdom. Jill and Kim discuss the importance of cycles, why Pokémon exist more in cities, and how language can disappear within two generations. Yes, we are all over the place...a happy mess, one might say!

Nature is everywhere. Everything has a cycle, and everything has a season, but somehow we've started to think we exist outside of nature. Kim chats with Papahulilani Specialist Kalei Nu'uhiwa, PhD, about how we can bring nature back into our daily consciousness. Kalei shares how Kaho'olawe, the Hawaiian Language, and Kaulana Mahina have shaped her life path. 

This is Producer Jill's favorite Happy Hour because it's K-Drama week! She can show off all her knowledge and passion for a form that is changing how we think about men, love, fantasy, and what great TV is. Kim is along for the ride and feeling the K-Drama fever. Has Jill successfully got Kim hooked?

Are you like Producer Jill and love, love, love K-Dramas? Or like Kim and wonder why everyone is obsessed with them? Joined by the co-hosts of the hit podcast Chasing K-Dramas, Chrissy Choi and Dulcé Sloan, we explore all things K-Drama: their history, popular tropes, genres, and why they're crossing demographics so successfully.  And, of course, a solid list of recommended shows from the Chasing...

Kim is convinced Pam's birth mother was a spy and creates a new show based on that theory. Jill tracks a shark in Busan. If you have an idea for an episode, let us know, cause that's how we met Pam and Linnea.

After a lifetime of looking for her birth mother, Pam Hasegawa doesn't find all the answers, but she finds a family she had only dreamed of.  

After this week's chat with Luka Lyman, Jill and Kim discuss the beauty in collective care and being in the sandwich generation: caring for our children while also caring for our parents. Preparing for death is overwhelming, so after a brief grapple with it, in true Happy Mess style, we talk about Korea and Jill's latest Pokémon adventure. We are true to the brand, LOL!

Luka Lyman has lived experience on a topic most people don't want to discuss: caregiving and end-of-life care. Luka and Kim chat about the realities of caring for our elderly and how to slow down and meet them where they're at while balancing our own lives. 

Samantha Quan, producer of Anora, was on the show this week! Jill and Kim discuss the struggle of staying true to oneself in the creative process, whether Kim will be comfortable if things really do go well, and Jill catching Pokémon in Korea. Tune in for a whole lotta happy mess!

People often talk about needing family and support when things go wrong, but what about when things go right? Samantha Quan, producer of the 2024 Oscar-winning film Anora, joins the show to discuss the power of family support, the joy of creating projects you believe in, and how to allow things to happen. 

It's Aloha Friday! On this Happy Hour, Jill and Kim discuss this week's episode with Kim's mom, Lani. How lived experiences can be the same, but the point of view can alter the memory and what it's like to look at our moms as fully formed people and not just mom.

As a new single mother, Kim chats with the woman who taught her how to single-parent: her mother, Lani Johnson. They discuss dating, working, and how being an introvert with a very social child can be really hard and sometimes embarrassing. 

On this Happy Hour, Jill and Kim discuss adult kids - no young adults - and the struggle of insurance, utility bills, interest rates, and just being a new adult. 

This week, Kim talks with her eldest daughter, Numia, about transitioning to college and then coming home for the first summer after freshman year. They discuss redefining parent/child relationship and how to parent an "Adult Kid." 

Jill records from her car, Kim from her closet, and this week they discuss the strength and vulnerability of journalist and author Carol Lin and announce the podcast's first fundraising campaign. Look for the QR code on IG! 

Kim chats with former CNN Anchor Carol Lin on Love, War, and the importance of allowing our daughters to see who we are completely  - mistakes and all. 

We're back, ready for Season Two! Jill and Kim chat about this season's first guest, the only female on the 1978 Hokule'a voyage, Marion Lyman-Mersereau; this season's theme- legacy; and whether individualism is the end of society. 

On our season 2 premiere, I talk with Marion Lyman-Mersereau, the only woman on the Hokule'a's 1978 fated voyage that ended when the canoe flipped 6 hours after its launch. Leaving the 16-person crew stranded in the middle of the Pacific for nearly 2 days. We discuss how the voyage affected her, her memory of the famous waterman, Eddie Aikau, and the effect Hokule'a has had on generations since it...

All things The Odyssey. From Homer to Nolan to Akbar. All the different takes on this Epic and how they reflect our own lives. Our season one finale questions our values: does Jill want many boyfriends, who we are, and how we deal with our ever-changing lives?

Christopher Nolanʻs The Odyssey has just opened in theatres and this week Kim talks with Oxford-trained clinical psychologist and classicist Dr. Sam Akbar about her new book, The Odyssey Mindset: 7 Timeless Lessons on Strength, Resilience, and the Power of Purpose. A psychological toolkit that uses Homer's The Odyssey as a practical reference for navigating our own messy lives.  

Producer Jill and Kim chat about trauma bangs vs. Charlieʻs Angelʻs bangs, to hairscape or not to hairscape, and the killer of creativity...perfection. 

I chat with Hollywood stylist Brittany Madrigal about what hair means to her, how her on-set career has changed over the past decade, and how we bonded over lice. 

After an insightful conversation with Janel Parrish about her endometriosis diagnosis, Kim and Producer Jill chat about the need for self-advocacy when it comes to our health, the true art of listening, and whether there are "good" swear words.

Actor Janel Parrish gets very real about her stage 4 endometriosis diagnosis. The pain and frustration that led to her empowerment and getting the correct surgery and treatment. If you have or have had a uterus or know someone who does, you need to hear this episode.