One of the things that inhibits European understanding of the sort of

amazingness of this diaspora is that for a very very very long time they

think there's a continent there somewhere. So for hundreds of years Europeans

traveling in the Pacific are looking for this unknown continent in the southern

hemisphere in the southern Pacific Basin basically

and that sort of explains to them where these people are going to come from I mean for some

of them anyway another thing they think there are other theories about where the

people might have come from, but basically

they're just starting to recognize what the geography of the ocean is, and then the fact that

it's these little tiny islands are all inhabited is a big, you know, eye-opener.

Hello and welcome to Why is this happening with me your host Chris Hayes.

You know, one of the great perks of my job and of my life a thing that I'm forever

eternally grateful for is that I get to learn a lot of stuff and when I get interested in

something I can just like find an expert in it and talk to them on this very program

and pursue my interest.

So today is one of those episodes and the story of this begins just a few weeks ago

when my family and I went over holiday break to the Big Island of Hawaii and we were there I had been once to

Oahu to Honolulu Waikiki Beach in the spring was my first time in Hawaii

but I was there for under sort of strange. I ended up getting sick and I was actually

working on a book. So I was kind of a writing retreat. I was there because Kate had a gig

at the University of Hawaii Law School for her podcast strict scrutiny. I went out early to get some writing done and

then Trump got indicted that week by Halvin Bragg so I ended up having to do the

...