What does community really mean — and does it look the same across generations and cultures?

This episode pairs two guests meeting each other for the very first time on the mic: Ligiah Villalobos Rojas, a screenwriter and Cal State LA professor whose credits include Under the Same Moon (Sundance, acquired by Fox Searchlight), and Shino Tamaki, originally from Tottori, Japan, now living in LA and working with the international spiritual fellowship Shumei.

The conversation traces community across very different lives — Ligiah’s experience finding belonging in a Mormon community after immigrating to Utah at age 11, and later discovering what it meant to become “Latina” only after leaving Mexico; Shino’s contrast between her tight-knit hometown community in Japan and the intentional, values-driven community she found through Shumei. They dig into what builds real connection versus surface-level belonging, how technology has changed connection across generations, and what they’d tell someone who feels disconnected right now.

Guests

Ligiah Villalobos Rojas — Screenwriter and professor of screenwriting at Cal State LA (TVF department and MFA program). Former head writer on Go Diego Go; writer of La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon), a Sundance film acquired by Fox Searchlight, now celebrating its 18th anniversary. Currently performing in Cal State LA’s production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Shino Tamaki — 29, originally from Tottori Prefecture, Japan. Has lived in the U.S. for four years (two in Colorado, two in LA), working with Shumei, an international spiritual fellowship whose name translates to “supreme light.”