A podcast made by a group of Kalāheo High School students has been named one of the best student podcasts in the country this year.
NPR holds an annual student podcast challenge, and out of a pool of nearly 2,000 submissions, the show “Waves & Wisdom” placed in the Top 10. The show explores the cost of living in Hawaiʻi and how residents make ends meet.
The “Waves & Wisdom” team is made up of six students: Wyatt Brantaus, Jett Jarrett, Jenna Nguyen, Emi Nishimura, Maximos Spheeris and Emma Wittig, with support from Kalāheo High teacher Kathy Shigemura.
Wittig said that the podcast's name is a play on words.
“Waves represent us, we live in Kailua, so our closeness to the ocean and closeness and connection to the land, as well as waves, as in sound waves, like a podcast, and then our wisdom part would be, we're trying to share our wisdom, what we think about the topic that we spoke about,” Wittig told HPR.
Part of the podcast's title is "Worth the Cost," referring to the trade-offs of living in Hawaiʻi, Nishimura said.
“We wanted to sort of tackle why people would sacrifice like, it's extremely financially stressful or straining to live in Hawaiʻi because of the high cost of living, and we wanted to sort of delve deeper into the more cultural aspects that make Hawaiʻi so special to the people who do live here, especially to the locals, and also to the people who come from the mainland but find a home here,” she said.
Shigemura has been involved in Kalāheo’s media program since 2002. The teacher said that there are currently 150 kids involved.
“I think our kids at Kalāheo are always interested in media and storytelling,” Shigemura said. “I think just the technology has changed. I remember working with tape, and now it's an SD card, and I think they recorded this podcast just on their phones.”
The students said that participating in the podcast challenge has encouraged them to hone in on their hosting skills and gain an interest in receiving more news from other outlets.
“I think it's really important to share stuff with the world, because that's what brings people together. It's what connects us,” Wittig said.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 5, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
