The Horizon Story with Norma Wong

Questions? Leave us a message. “We have to meet the moment by first figuring out not what it is we’re going to do, but who we are called to be. And in that one expression, the entire assignment.” -Norma Wong In this episode, recorded live at Tamaya in New Mexico, Norma explores what it means to be undaunted as we seek to be good ancestors. Being undaunted doesn’t mean we aren’t afraid. It means we...

Questions? Leave us a message. What if our habits are the reason we aren’t meeting the moment? Recorded live at Tamaya in New Mexico, this episode explores habits and practices. Norma Wong makes the case that there's no such thing as a "good" habit, and that identifying habits and cultivating practices is how we shift our lives, our communities, and the world. Jeremie Greer returns...

Questions? Leave us a message. In this episode of The Horizon Story , Norma Wong is joined by Jeremie Greer of Liberation in a Generation for a conversation about becoming, renewal, and the courage it takes to move forward. They explore what happens when we shed the identities, expectations, and pathways that no longer serve us — and how grief can be part of that process. From letting go of creden...

Questions? Leave us a message. In this episode, recorded live in New Mexico, host Norma Wong explores how othering takes hold across the ideological spectrum, fueled by scarcity, survival, and the need to define who is “us” and who is not. Vivian Chang joins Norma to discuss what it would mean to let go of othering – not only in our organizations and movements, but in how we think about power, res...

Questions? Leave us a message. **NOTE: We've updated this episode's audio file to fix a technical issue with the previous upload. We updated the file on 9/10 at 9 pm ET.** We're living through a polycrisis: multiple overlapping crises accelerating each other, which has only intensified this year with  the energy of the Year of the Fire Horse. In episode 2, recorded live in Albuquerq...

Questions? Leave us a message. Season 3 of The Horizon Story Podcast is different for us — we recorded it live in front of an audience in Albuquerque, New Mexico! Host Norma Wong opens with the season's central question: Are we ready to wage peace? What does it mean to be ready? Who are we called to be? How can people who long for peace respond in this moment of conflict and war?  Drawing on...

Questions? Leave us a message. In the season 2 finale, Host Norma Wong and Executive Producer Na’alehu Anthony open The Horizon Story Mailbag to answer listener questions covering burnout, the value of practice, and the paradox of technology. Plus, a heartfelt moment you won’t want to miss: our resident archivist surprises Norma with a relic from the mid-1970s. In this episode: Why did Norma, a st...

Questions? Leave us a message. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s moving beyond it and taking a leap- even though you might mess up. In this episode, Norma Wong and Ariel Jacobson discuss courage and what it truly takes to make a courageous leap. Drawing on history and personal stories, including ancestors fleeing melting ice, Queen Liliʻuokalani's choice not to fight an unwinnable battl...

Questions? Leave us a message. When everything needs attention, how do we decide where to begin and where needs are greatest? Pay attention to the fundamentals. In this episode, Norma Wong lays out a roadmap for focusing on basics and talks fundamentals with Executive Producer Na'alehu Anthony and guest Ariel Jacobson - what they are, how to execute them, and  how an interdependent world shap...

Questions? Leave us a message. We rely on systems every day without really thinking about them: the banks that hold our money, the rules that keep our food safe, the agencies meant to help when things go wrong. These systems are so familiar that we hardly notice we're choosing to trust them. In this episode, Norma Wong and Ariel Jacobson talk about all things systems: why they're designe...

Questions? Leave us a message. Is our future pre-determined?  Is there only one story possible–just the extension of what happened in the past, and what is happening right now? What are the stories in our head and heart that tell us what we should do today? How we should act, who we should be? In this episode, Norma and guest Ariel Jacobson trace those questions from the family dinner table to a l...

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...