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It’s Friday, December 21 – From HPR2, it’s The Conversation…

Smoke gets in your eyes, your lungs, your house...

Karen Chun is a former engineer. She says her grandparents came to Hawaii to harvest cane and didn’t grumble about the smoke. She believes her own lung disease was brought on by the 2011 cane burn season and the impact of thick ground-level smoke in her home.

Bamboo, pine and mochi with a tangerine on top...and other ways to say Happy New Year.

Kay Fukumoto of the Japanese Cultural Society of Maui will give a presentation on Japanese cultural traditions during the New Year next Thursday, the 27th, at 5:30 at the Wailuku Hongwanji Social Hall in Wailuku, Maui.

 In praise of independent thinking with ideas all named TED.

Katie McMillan is the Founder of TEDxMaui and a Lecturer at The University of Hawaii Maui College, where she teaches in the Business Department. She is also the Founder of Katie McMillan Public Relations. Every Sunday at noon, you can hear the NPR TED Radio Hour on HPR2.

Radical change in three parts: the Lehua trilogy.

Gene Parola is the author of "Lehua" the first novel in a projected trilogy about a Hawaiian woman in 19th-century Hawaii.  

Plus doing the traffic dance in the backyard, today’s reality check and the world view from Al Jazeera … next the NPR news.