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Lessons from a modern wayfinder who navigates the ocean without GPS

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Escaping the modern world and your noisy mind

Lehua Kamalu captains a Hawaiian voyaging canoe across the Pacific. She says traditional navigation requires forgetting the modern world and immersing herself in her surroundings.

About Lehua Kamalu

Lehua Kamalu is a captain and navigator of traditional Hawaiian ocean-voyaging canoes. She has captained several journeys, including from Hawaii to Tahiti and California. She now serves as Program Director for the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHourand email us at [email protected].

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Lehua Kamalu

Related TED Talk: Making laws for the high seas

Related TED Video: How big is the ocean?

Related NPR Links

Cole Brauer is the first American woman to sail nonstop, alone around the world

How Hawaii Is Keeping History And Culture In Mind As It Rebuilds

A second ancient canoe is found in Wisconsin — this time tracing back to 1000 B.C.

Copyright 2025 NPR

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Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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