Welcome to the third episode of Behind the Yellow Curtain!
In this episode, host Jess chats with Ai Futaki, the world’s only “Aquatic Expressionist” and a freediver who holds two Guinness World Records.
Growing up in a liberal elementary school in Kanazawa, Ai was unconcerned with nationality.
That changed when she entered a Japanese public junior high school, where she felt a deep sense of unease with its rigid, uniform rules. Unable to fit into the box of “normal,” she ventured abroad in search of a place where she truly belonged.
Dreaming of becoming a documentary filmmaker, she moved to Cuba, only to hit a major wall and face despair.
Exhausted by everything, she returned to her hometown, where a single intuition saved her: “I must return to the water.”

How did her painful experience of not fitting into society lead her to a one-of-a-kind form of expression?
Why did she—a diver who melts into the aquatic world with nothing but her own lungs—find her true self not on land, but “in the water”?
This is an episode that touches on a supple yet powerful way of life, living in harmony with nature.

Guest: Ai Futaki
Aquatic Expressionist (Suizoku Hyogenka). Ambassador for the Ministry of the Environment’s “Mori-Sato-Kawa-Umi Project.” mymizu Ambassador. Holder of two Guinness World Records in freediving. As the one-and-only Aquatic Expressionist, she works on the world stage to act as a bridge between the underwater and terrestrial worlds. Diving without an air tank, she immerses herself among marine mammals on a single breath to become one of them. As both a subject in front of the camera and a photographer behind it, she expresses her core message: “We are a part of nature, and we live with nature.”

・Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58ASvlg…
・Listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/H_KpRU97qeg?feature=shared
・Language: English — Japanese subtitles available by turning on CC