Ojai: Talk of the Town

Astrology has fascinated humanity for thousands of years, yet it's often misunderstood. Is it a tool for predicting the future, a framework for understanding ourselves, or something else entirely? In this episode of  Ojai: Talk of the Town , Bret Bradigan sits down with astrologer, author, and Ojai City Council member Rachel Lang for an engaging conversation about the origins of astrology, why...

Few experiences shape us more profoundly than love and loss. In this encore episode of Ojai: Talk of the Town , acclaimed author Laurel Braitman reflects on the deeply personal journey behind her memoir, What Looks Like Bravery: A Journey Through Love & Loss . A graduate of Thacher School who grew up just over the hill in Santa Paula, Braitman returns to the landscapes that shaped her life as...

How does the daughter of Chinese immigrants become one of the most influential figures in Hollywood? In this wide-ranging conversation, Bret Bradigan sits down with Academy Award-winning producer and former Academy President Janet Yang to explore an extraordinary life spent building bridges between cultures. Before producing acclaimed films and working alongside Steven Spielberg on Empire of the S...

This week we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from the Ojai Talk of the Town archives: an interview with the late George S. Stuart, one of Ojai's most remarkable artists and storytellers. For more than seventy years, Stuart devoted his life to bringing history's most influential personalities to life through his astonishingly detailed quarter-scale sculptures. From kings...

What happens when world-class art takes root far from New York, Los Angeles, and other cultural capitals? In this episode of Ojai: Talk of the Town, Bret Bradigan sits down with Mark Weiler, Executive Director of the Nemeth Art Center in Park Rapids, Minnesota, a town of just 4,000 people near the headwaters of the Mississippi River that has become an unlikely hub for contemporary art and artist r...

For nearly four decades, the Ojai Film Society has been bringing people together through the shared experience of watching great films outdoors, in community, and for free. In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town, Bret sits down with Ojai Film Society board members David Lawrence Bell and Natalia Iyudin to discuss the organization's upcoming Summer Series at Libbey Bowl, which begins July 2 w...

This special episode lives up to that designation. Yesterday, Ojai lost one of its most accomplished and respected citizens, Al West, who passed away at the age of 94. Today we're revisiting a conversation from our archives so that listeners can hear directly from a man who dedicated his life to caring for forests, watersheds, and communities. This is my conversation with Al West. When Al West...

At 88 years old, Joan Virginia Allen has little interest in slowing down. In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town, Bret Bradigan sits down with the author of Navigating Dynamic Aging to explore what it means to remain engaged, curious, and purposeful throughout every stage of life. She will be signing copies of her book at an event at the Ojai Library on Saturday, June 13th at 2 p.m. Joan shares...

On this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town, Bret Bradigan welcomes returning guest Mark Frost — bestselling author, co-creator of Twin Peaks, and author of the new historical work Yankee Sphinx . The conversation begins with Frost’s remarkable great-uncle William D. Hassett, a close adviser to both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman who kept meticulous diaries from inside the White House dur...

What if grief isn’t something to “get over,” but something that reshapes how we see, feel, and move through the world? In this episode, returning guest Lila Glasoe Francese discusses her new book  Life Amplified: The Search for Resilience After Loss  and the deeper terrain that follows profound loss. We move beyond the familiar language of resilience and into something more nuanced: grief as a mot...

In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , Bret Bradigan sits down with Richa Badami — actor, director, and founder of the Living Theatre Academy of Dramatic Arts in Ojai — whose journey runs from the intensity of the Indian film and television industry to the intimate, exacting work of training young actors in a small but culturally ambitious town. Badami’s career began in India, where she worked...

What does it take to finish a record that’s been living in your head for two decades? In Episode 284, Jim Exon traces the long arc of Nashville Sessions — a country-leaning album shaped by time, persistence, and a deep bench of collaborators, including Jeff Silbar, Ron Wallace, and lyrics by Gay Hendricks. Alongside Martin Young, Exon brings a distinctly Ojai-rooted project into authentic Nashvill...

There are lives that flicker. And there are lives that catch—passing their light from one person to the next until you can no longer trace where it began. Nathan “Nate” Rhoades was the latter. In Episode 283 of Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with his mother, Heidi Allison, to talk about a life that burned bright, faltered, recovered, and — far too soon — ended in a tragic car accident in 2022...

5 Years Later: Cassandra C. Jones and the Evolution of Taft Gardens Five years ago, we sat down with artist and curator Cassandra C. Jones as she was beginning to shape a bold idea at Taft Gardens — an artist residency that would blur the line between studio, sanctuary, and experiment. Listening back now, what’s striking is how fully that vision has taken root. Those roots have spread, too, to dow...

What do a Napa Valley farm, Stanford University frat life, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and the Ojai stage have in common? Clay Creasey. In this wide-ranging and unexpectedly fun conversation, Clay traces his journey from early mornings on the farm to high-stakes corporate finance, navigating takeovers, turnarounds, and the slow, relentless shift of retail in the age of Amazon. Along the way, we dig in...

What if art wasn’t an elective — but the foundation? On this special episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with Lis Austin of Besant Hill School to explore a model of education where creativity isn’t an add-on, but the organizing principle. From studio art and ceramics to film, theater, and music, Besant Hill’s program is rooted in a holistic philosophy that traces back to the school’s fou...

Lawrence Yee has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of agriculture, water, and the complex systems that sustain both. His résumé runs deep —U niversity of California Cooperative Extension, founder of the Hansen Agricultural Research and Education Center, advisor on national food initiatives, and a decade shaping water policy at the regional level in California. But if you wa...

After helping shape one of the most adventurous music festivals in the world, Ara Guzelimian is taking his final bow in Ojai. In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with the artistic and executive director of the Ojai Music Festival to talk about his final season at the helm — what goes into building a festival like this, why risk and curiosity matter in music, and what makes Ojai...

When Jack Piatt and partner David Breschel first joined Ojai Talk of the Town last year , Singers was a promising short film — ambitious, disciplined, and quietly powerful. Now, it’s an Academy Award winner, in a stunning historical anomaly, tying with Two People Exchanging Saliva, the French entry, for the first time ever in this category, only the seventh overall. Piatt, Breschel and director Sa...

In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with photographer Joe Sohm and acclaimed composer Peter Boyer to explore their sweeping new collaboration, American Mosaic — a multimedia concert work created in the lead-up to America’s 250th anniversary. Boyer is widely regarded as one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers of his generation, with more than 900 perfor...

DeWayne Boccali says he picked the three worst areas in which to make a living; music, farming and restaurants. But somehow he and wife Marilyn are still here, plugging along with all three for 40 years. On May 16, Boccali's Pizza & Pasta celebrates 40 years in business — a milestone few independent restaurants ever reach. In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , DeWayne and Marilyn Bocc...

After nearly three decades after founding, and leading, the Rubicon Theatre Company, James O’Neil is stepping into his next act. As Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus, Jim helped transform a regional dream into a nationally respected theater — earning Drama Desk recognition, Ovation and NAACP awards, and, more importantly, the enduring loyalty of a community that learned to gather in the da...

What does it mean to build a life in images? In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with Ojai-based artist Dennis Mukai , whose career spans commercial illustration, celebrity portrait photography, and a strikingly original fine art practice. Born in Hiroshima and raised in Southern California, Mukai trained at the Art Center College of Design before building a nationally recognized...

Running a town is an act of stewardship — of land, money, people, and possibility. Ojai City Manager Ben Harvey joins host Bret Bradigan for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about what that stewardship looks like in practice. We unpack the real constraints of municipal governance — housing mandates, fiscal realities, and the delicate balance between preservation and change. And then we talk mus...

In this special tribute episode of Ojai Talk of the Town - a repost of an episode from 2025 - we honor the remarkable life of Helen Allen , a vibrant and pioneering spirit in the Ojai Valley whose impact will be felt for generations. Helen — together with her partner Lynne Doherty — co-founded Ojai’s first Pride Walk more than 33 years ago , beginning in 1991/92 with just six marchers down Ojai Av...