Society & Culture Episodes

What happens when you walk away from a successful corporate career with no real plan, follow your curiosity across continents, and accidentally build an entirely new life? In this episode, Holly sits down with Soraya Ho, multilingual tour guide, podcaster, former software developer, and one of Jeju Island's most passionate cultural ambassadors. After years of intense corporate work in South Korea, Soraya made a life-changing decision to leave it all behind and travel through Latin America....

What if art wasn’t just expression… but responsibility? In this episode of the Holly Hughes Podcast, Holly sits down with artist Akira Tsuboi and interpreter Woo-Hee Choi to explore the intersection of art, history, and truth, and what it means to create work that confronts what others avoid. Akira’s work doesn’t look away. It dives into the realities of war, cultural trauma, and systemic silence, using stark black, white, and red imagery to challenge narratives that have been softened, re...

What if writing about your past didn’t mean reliving it? In this episode of the Holly Hughes Podcast, Holly sits down with author Monica Macansantos, writer of Returning to My Father’s Kitchen and Love and Other Rituals, to explore how we tell the truth about family, identity, and the stories that shape us, without getting stuck inside them. Monica shares how her father’s openness transformed pain into connection, and how writing became a way to process generational trauma without passing ...

What happens when someone who feels completely lost decides to leave everything behind and travel the world? In this episode of the Holly Hughes Podcast, Holly sits down with Jae Choi, founder of Good Mate Travel, to explore the unexpected journey that led him from uncertainty in South Korea to building a travel company that connects strangers from across the world through shared experiences. What started as a small food tour in a traditional Korean market eventually grew into Good Mate Tr...

Few things in this world embody grace, finesse, and beauty as ballet. Dancers train almost obsessively to refine their performances to the most minute detail. Dance can therefore become an all encompassing venture, but it doesn’t have to be. Today’s guest on The Holly Hughes Podcast is professional ballet dancer Remi Okamoto. Remi is originally from Kyoto, Japan, but has trained and studied all around the world. Remi is currently residing in Charlotte, NC as part of Charlotte Ballet’s First Com...