The Horizon Story with Norma Wong

In this episode, Norma sits down with Season 2 guest Ariel Jacobson to unpack what makes crisis useful and what crisis teaches us about the possibility for change. Norma and Ariel share stories from Maine, Detroit, Hawaii, and beyond, real examples of communities that met their moment when the interval opened. IN THIS EPISODE 危机, the Chinese word for crisis, and what it teaches us about the poss...

What do we do about this state of collapse? The more we accept and understand the state we're in, the more agency we have. The signs are everywhere and the evidence keeps mounting, but naming collapse is only the first move. The harder question is what we do once we've said it out loud. And what becomes possible when we stop bracing against the breakdown and start trying to make sense of...

Everybody's got a manaʻo—a thought, a belief, a way of seeing the world. In the Season 1 finale, the questions come from many listeners, and the manaʻo from one: Norma Wong.  The tables turn as Executive Producer Naʻalehu Anthony and guest Nan Stoops pose a series of challenging questions to host Norma. Together they explore the anxiety and isolation of this moment, the pull of othering and i...

What if the most important element is missing from the periodic table? What if understanding that element could improve your strategy and help you take bigger, bolder leaps? In this episode, Norma sits down with guest Nan Stoops to get gloriously wonky, digging into chemistry, math, and the core question of this episode: what is the Human Quotient, and why might it determine whether we, as a speci...

We're living through a moment that demands more than business as usual. So what does it actually look like to interrupt old habits, make consequential choices, and pivot? If evolution begins with us, how do we rise to meet these conditions instead of retreating into what's familiar? Norma and Nan dig into the nature of courage, habit, and what it really takes to grow. In this episode: Id...

What does it cost when we subtract each other from the equation? In a world that makes division easy, host Norma Wong and guest Nan Stoops take time to do the math.  This episode adds up the real cost of othering, and makes the case for wholeness as the only equation that works. In this conversation, Norma and Nan discuss: Why Sun Tzu’s teachings on fire speak to this moment of social division The...

What happens when the systems and institutions we depend on start to fail us? In this episode, Norma Wong and guests Nan Stoops and Executive Producer Naʻalehu Anthony explore an important question: can struggling systems continue to deliver? And, if institutions stop working, do we fix the system, or look elsewhere? From potholes and policy works to the power of simple things, this conversation c...

Where do you come from? Not just the place, but what are the stories that make you? In this episode, Norma Wong and guest Nan Stoops talk about origins: our personal, collective, and generational stories, and what it means to know where you come from in this moment of overlapping crises.  Visit us at thehorizonstory.com and subscribe on Substack , watch on  YouTube , and listen wherever you get yo...

When everything feels like it's falling apart, how do we make sense of this moment? In this first-ever episode, host Norma Wong introduces the purpose of The Horizon Story podcast and how she makes sense of the world around her in a time of collapse. She is joined by Executive Producer Na'alehu Anthony, and they discuss accelerating change, how to handle anxiety, and what it means to mee...

Exciting news...We are launching a podcast! The Horizon Story with Norma Wong is a new podcast grounded in a Native Hawaiian, Zen, and indigenous worldview. Each episode shares thought-provoking teachings, conversations, poetry, and humor in the context of complex local and global challenges. Building on the themes in Norma's first two books, "When No Thing Works" and "Who We A...