Matt Fairfax

The University of Hawaiʻi football team is about one month away from playing games on campus for the first time in school history.

Duke Kahanamoku and Carissa Moore are part of a new art exhibit focusing on the past and present of surfing — now on display in the heart of Waikiki.

A new $2.5 million grant boosts research on diabetes among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders; The University of Hawaiʻi football program has a new home field on campus; And we’ll take a turn in the rodeo ring with a national women’s bronc-riding champion from Waimānalo.

Hawaiʻi County has the highest coronavirus positivity rate in the state — how are Big Island health officials handling this latest surge? Hawaiʻi's golden girl Carissa Moore gets the spotlight in a new surfing exhibit. And amidst the clamor to tear down the Haʻikū Stairs, we learn more about the local architect behind the controversial construction.

The Conversation sat down with Fred Hemmings to discuss the evolution of surfing and his expectations for the Olympics.

Hawaiʻi State Department of Health School Advisory Council member Philip Bossert on new COVID-19 guidance as cases among the unvaccinated increase; Hui Manu-o-Kū volunteer Matt Saunter and founder Rich Downs on how to survey the nests of manu-o-Kū (White Terns); former state senator and surfing world champion Fred Hemmings on surfing's journey to the Olympics; and Lāʻie Elementary School sixth grader Keilani Tinkham on her Bon Dance project that won the top prize in a history competition.

A Hawaiian monk seal pup is resting in Ke Kai Ola, the Marine Mammal Center’s dedicated hospital for monk seals in Kailua-Kona. The good news is the malnourished pup has a very good chance of recovering and being released back into the wild.

We talk with State Health Director Libby Char about efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccine availability, University of Hawai'i Entomologist Dan Rubinoff and University of Hawai'i graduate student Brad Reil about examining wildlife on Mauna Kea, and Michelle Barbieri of the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at NOAA about steps we can take to protect our seals.

The Conversation’s very own intern Matt Fairfax checked in on how summer internship programs, and the interns themselves, are getting back on their feet amid the pandemic.

The Conversation hears from the Chair of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations Robin Danner about finding solutions to move the homeless into houses, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Hawaiian Airlines Heather Ryland and UH Mānoa student and NASA intern Kelly Hwang about what internships are looking like this summer, and the director of the documentary "Music, Money, Madness … Jimi Hendrix In Maui" about a nearly forgotten Jimi Hendrix concert on the Valley Isle.