‘This American Life’ Visits Niihau
“The Forbidden Isle” will be featured in an upcoming episode of “This American Life.”
Titled “I Don’t Make the Rules,” episode #611 of the popular radio program will visit the island of Niihau, which is privately held and nearly impossible to visit.
“The owner of a Hawaiian island adapts rules originally set in the nineteenth century — and not everyone is happy with her interpretation,” reads the synopsis for the episode, which will also include a piece about a New Jersey judge and other stories.
The Niihau segment was featured at the close of the most recent re-broadcast of “This American Life.”
“There’s this island in Hawaii that most of us would never be allowed onto,” says host Ira Glass. “It’s for native Hawaiians to live in a more traditional way. It’s been that way since the 1860s. It’s the last place on Earth where they speak Hawaiian as the everyday language. No running water, no street lights, no drinking, no drugs, no talking to journalists. We go there next week.”
The episode will be broadcast nationally beginning on Friday, March 3. In Hawaii, Hawaii Public Radio will air it Saturday, March 4 at 1 p.m. on HPR-1 (88.1FM Honolulu).
