Ojai: Talk of the Town

This is not a typical episode of Ojai Talk of the Town. There’s no guest. No interview. No back-and-forth. Instead, this is a solo piece — a reflection on what the word hillbilly actually means, and what it doesn’t. In recent years, that word has been flattened into stereotype, weaponized as political shorthand, or worn as a kind of costume. But being a hillbilly is not an aesthetic. It’s not grie...

In this special re-release, we’re thrilled to bring back our 2021 conversation with Meredy Benson Rice , a life-long educator, school leader, and celebrated author whose work invites us to rethink what it means to grow, learn, and find wisdom along the way. Meredy is the author of The Wisdom Palace: A Young Girl’s Journey , a tender, funny, and deeply reflective coming-of-age novel about Isabelle...

In this deep and wide-ranging conversation, we sit down with John-Clark Levin — researcher, author, and thought leader at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence — to explore the hopes and hazards of the technological era we now inhabit. As research lead for Kurzweil Technologies under futurist Ray Kurzweil, Levin conducts long-term AI foresight and has spoken widely about artificial superinte...

In this episode, I’m joined by Richard Handley , author of The Hawks Are Not Dying , a novel rooted in real events that helped shape modern Ojai, which could have easily looked very different. Set in the early 1980s, The Hawks Are Not Dying follows a man who finds purpose — and unexpected romance — while joining a scrappy coalition of activists determined to stop a shopping-center development from...

When Daniel Roselle stepped into the role of Executive Director at the Humane Society of Ventura County , he inherited more than a job title. He took on stewardship of a 93-year-old institution at a moment when animal welfare is rapidly evolving — shifting away from a shelter-only mindset toward community-based solutions that prioritize prevention, education, and long-term care. In this wide-rangi...

Music shapes how we experience film and television — but the way it’s licensed, selected, and paid for is often misunderstood. In this episode, I’m joined by Adam Taylor , President and CEO of APM Music , one of the world’s most influential production-music companies. APM supplies professionally licensed music for film, television, streaming, advertising, sports, and digital media, with a catalog...

Let's start 2026 with a banger! Actor Malcolm McDowell returns to Ojai Talk of the Town for a wide-ranging, unhurried conversation about craft, longevity, and creative freedom. Rather than a press interview, this episode is a reflective dialogue — about working with great directors, living with iconic roles, playing outsiders and villains, and how one’s relationship to the work changes once th...

This week on Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with Tom Maloney , Executive Director of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, to unpack one of the most significant conservation moments in local history: OVLC’s pending acquisition of 6,500-acre Rancho Cañada Larga . When completed, this project will triple the size of OVLC’s conserved lands. The scale is staggering. The implications — ecologically, c...

In this deeply moving episode, host Bret Bradigan sits down with Debbie Lennon, author of Where’s Tommy?: A Mother’s Journey Through Her Son’s Traumatic Brain Injury , a heart-wrenching, candid, and often surprising memoir about a family’s decades-long struggle to find answers and justice for their son. Debbie is joined by her husband Tom and daughter-in-law Amber Lennon to share the story of thei...

Leslie “Lulu” Sherman opened Still Gallery with a reception on November 15th - which happened to be a rain-drenched evening, and yet she packed the place for the inaugural exhibit, "How the Light Gets In" with four female artists: Sherman, Emily Thomas MaHarry, Stephanie Hubbard and JoJo Alderson, based on their exploration of light - referencing Leonard Cohen's son. Sherman's po...

Peter Bellwood (1939–2025) was many things — screenwriter, satirist, collaborator, mischief-maker, and one of the great characters in Ojai’s creative community. After rising through the English Satire Boom of the 1960s, performing alongside Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and writing the cult classic Highlander, Peter moved to Ojai in 1993 to escape the L.A. riots. He quickly became part of the valle...

In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , host Bret Bradigan sits down with Stacey Jones, founder and owner of the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this Boxing Day, December 26, 2025. Stacey and Ojai Coffee Roasters is featured in the Winter issue of Ojai Quarterly magazine. Stacey recounts how she and her then-husband, Kent, were meandering through California’s...

When husband-and-wife chefs Perfecte Rocher and Alia Rocher took over the storied Ranch House, they didn’t just reopen a restaurant — they resurrected a legacy. On this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with the Rocher couple to explore their journey from international fine-dining kitchens, through a four-star stint with their former Seattle restaurant, to planting roots in Ojai’s bel...

Ojai has always been a place where voices matter — artists, thinkers, seekers, misfits, and makers. But what happens when a public-speaking club sheds the corporate rules and reinvents itself in the spirit of this valley? In this week’s episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with Karen Banfield , founder and president of the new Ojai Valley Speech Club , and Severo Lara , its vice president...

Meet Saw and Brittany Naing, the husband-and-wife team powering Ojai’s rock-and-roll barbecue joint Joplin’s — and the culinary force many locals already know from The Dutchess. Saw grew up in Myanmar under military rule, fronting a heavy-metal band whose politically charged lyrics earned him unwelcome attention from the junta before he emigrated to Los Angeles in 2007. Los Angeles Times+1 In Cali...

In this episode we welcome two remarkable newcomers to the Ojai, California community: Susanne Chess and Bob Evans. Susanne, a founding member of Tiabzu LLC (based in Ojai) whose mission is to reinvent desalination through modular, deep-sea-inspired reverse-osmosis systems that dramatically reduce energy demand and harm to marine ecosystems. Tiabzu+2Tiabzu+2 Bob is a visionary ocean-entrepreneur,...

In this episode of Ojai Talk of the Town , we sit down with artist Tom Pazderka — a Czech-American painter, sculptor, writer and thinker whose journey from communist Czechoslovakia to America as a teenager has deeply shaped his practice. Born in Český Brod in 1981 and emigrating to the U.S. at age 12, Pazderka says those early years of dual identity and upheaval still echo in his work. LUM+4LUM+4M...

In this episode of  Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with Randy Roth, founder of the Leather Apron Club — a twice-monthly gathering of Ojai locals committed to keeping the art of conversation alive. Modeled after Benjamin Franklin’s original “Junto” society of the 1730s, the Leather Apron Club has been meeting for the past eight years to exchange ideas on politics, environmental issues, foreign...

Meet Saw and Brittany Naing — the husband-and-wife team behind Ojai’s new rock-and-roll-tinged barbecue spot, Joplin’s, and the culinary force you already know from The Dutchess. Saw is executive chef and partner at The Dutchess, where his Burmese-Indian roots shape one of Ojai’s most celebrated menus; at Joplin’s, he channels that same precision into brisket and ribs, leaning on good cuts, time,...

SPECIAL EPISODE: This week, we dive into the heart of storytelling and community as we gear up for the 30th annual Ojai Storytelling Festival, taking place this Thursday through Sunday (October 23-26) in the beautiful Ojai Valley. I’m joined by two remarkable voices behind the festival: Kara Martin Lakes, the Executive & Artistic Director of Performances To Grow On, which produces the Festival...

What makes a city fertile ground for creative reinvention? In this episode, we sit down with Fred Fisher , one of the architects immortalized in the iconic 1980 photograph on the sands of Venice Beach, and now a pillar of the Ojai community. The photo, taken by Abe Pildas of Fisher, Robert Mangurian, Eric Owen Moss, Coy Howard, Craig Hodgetts, Thom Mayne, and Frank Gehry for Interiors Magazine, ca...

On this episode of  Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with composer, songwriter, and sound designer Stephen Geering — whose music you’ve likely heard even if you haven't heard his name. Growing up in a deeply musical family (his mother, Jenny, was a concert pianist and teacher), Stephen began his musical education at age seven, learning piano and classical music in Chicago and Ravinia. In Geer Mu...

This week on  Ojai Talk of the Town , I sit down with Brian and Lisa Berman, two longtime Ojai residents whose life together has been devoted to peace, reconciliation, and healing. Their journey began in Germany at a Holocaust memorial event: Brian, a sculptor who lost family to the Holocaust, and Lisa, a German citizen searching for ways to understand and repair her nation’s history, met in that...

Brian and Lisa Berman’s story begins in one of the darkest chapters of human history and arcs toward a lifelong dedication to healing and peace. Brian, an award-winning sculptor whose relatives perished in the Holocaust, and Lisa, a German citizen struggling to reconcile her country’s past, first met at a memorial event in Germany. That moment of shared reckoning became the foundation of a partner...

What happens when you give young adults leaving foster care more than just a roof over their heads? At Mesa Farm on Ojai’s East End, the answer is dignity, stability, and a real chance at self-sufficiency. With ten tiny homes nestled among citrus orchards, vegetable plots, and honeybee hives, Mesa Farm is more than a facility — it’s a launchpad. Residents, ages 18–24, gain practical skills like in...