Ojai: Talk of the Town

Explorer, conservationist, mountaineer and author Rick Ridgeway has lived a life that is best summed up in the subhead of his seventh book, "Life Lived Wild:" Adventures at the Edge of the Map." Each chapter of this book covers a different adventure, all of them told in Rick's compelling style.  These adventures included climbing uncharted peaks in the Himalayas, searching the r...

Few people, perhaps no one, has been more involved in pushing for the removal of Matilija Dam than Paul Jenkin, campaign coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation and founder of Matilija Watch. Paul was there in 2000 when U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt climbed on top of a giant crane and removed a 16,000 pound chunk of the dam. He's still there now, guiding and directing the process thro...

The prolific writer Catherine Ann Jones recently published her seventh book, "East & West: Stories of India." She has also written 12 plays and numerous television scripts. She came on the podcast to talk about the most recent book, a collection of stories about the subcontinent, where she explores the lingering effects of colonialism, people enduring and thriving, and the magic and...

Ojai's own Casey Roddick is coming out in the NFL draft (end of April) this year. The 6'5" 304-pound offensive lineman just came off a 13-0 regular season as an anchor of the No. 6 Florida Seminoles. He also played at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is expected to be much-sought after in the NFL draft. Casey grew up in Ojai, starting out with Eagles Football, and advancing...

The cover story of the Spring OQ celebrates the Krotona Institute for Theosophy Center's 100th anniversary with a fascinating interview with Dr. Pablo Sender, Maria Parisen and Elena Dovalsantos. The story was written by Kate Fernandez based on this podcast . The event will be celebrated April 15th through April 26 at the august institution that stands on the hillside in the center of the Ojai...

Heather Stobo and Lisa Casoni, owner and operators of Beato Chocolates, moved to Ojai in 2010. They opened Porch Gallery in 2013 with the goal of pairing up artists of different genres and mediums to "see what happens." They came to Ojai with open minds and hearts and quickly became integral to the community. The Sunday morning impromptu gatherings on the famous porch became an accelerat...

Ojai CARES (Cancer Awareness, Resources, Education & Support) was founded in 2013 by Susan Kapadia after her own bout with breast cancer. After volunteering with cancer support groups in Santa Barbara she realized that Ojai residents needed/deserved their own. In the decade-plus since, Ojai CARES has built a sense of community of the people afflicted by this dread disease, while also advocatin...

California Treasurer Fiona Ma's husband Jason Hodge is a Ventura County resident and firefighter. Consequently she has a long history with Ojai and so stopped by the studio for a chat on a recent visit. Surprisingly, Ma is only the second CPA to hold the position of the state's chief accountant, managing California's $310 billion budget in the state's $3.8 trillion economy, which,...

Matt Henriksen grew up in Ojai and witnessed many changes throughout the years, but one constant remained for the committed bibliophile, Bart's Books, founded in 1964. Working at the time for an insurance agency, Matt found the work a little drab for his taste, and to supplement his income began doing odd jobs around the bookstore he - and hundreds of thousands of other people - love. When man...

Hall of Fame Skater Chris Miller is still winning championships in his 50s with his iconically smooth, fluid style and precision against other legends like Tony "Birdman" Hawk. Growing up near the famous Pipeline Skate Park in Upland, California, Chris turned pro while still a high-schooler. He's since gone on to win about every competition on the circuit. Miller found an outlet for...

Chef Robin Goldstein has written "A Taste of Ojai," "A Taste of Santa Barbara," and "Wine Country," as well as catering many high-profile events in and around the area. She also travels to Europe each year to sample local cuisines and returns freshly inspired to expand her culinary repertoire. A long-time Ojai resident, Chef Robin grew up in the restaurant business in...

In this reprise edition, writer and frequent OQ contributor Kit Stolz talks about his epic walkabout, covering every one of the 2,560-miles of Pacific Crest Trail, from the deserts along the border with Mexico, to touching the fence that separates the U.S. from its northern neighbor in Washington State's foggy pine forests. We talk about this epic journey, the lessons learned along the way, an...

Welcome to this episode with guest George S. Stuart. This 95-year-old marvel has created more than 400 meticulously detailed figures at 1/4 scale of many of history's most important figures - including Louis XIV, Catherine the Great, Abraham Lincoln and many more. Around 200 of these historical figures are exhibited in a special gallery at the Ventura County Museum. It is widely regarded as th...

From the vault: Malcolm McDowell joins the podcast to talk about "A Clockwork Orange" on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. He goes deep on his complicated relationship with director Stanley Kubrick, the strange sequence of events that led to him being picked for the role, his close working relationship with other great directors, including Lindsay Anderson, Kubrick's passion proj...

Sophie Ward Koren has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pen, and has published two books with a third on the way. She also has a busy blog and Instagram account chronicling her essays, poetry and stories about raising children in Ojai. Her work has been published in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, V Magazine and others. Born and raised in Perth in Western Australia, the oldest of four childre...

Jim Bailey, founder and director of Rock, Tree, Sky - an immersive school located in upper Ojai, has been a key participant in an exciting new approach to education, called Education Reimagined. Jim was among the invitees of distinguished educators who attended a seminal conference in Rhode Island earlier this year, called "Exploring Ecosystems in Community: Insights, Questions, and Collabora...

Janelle Kandziora of Janelle's Interiors is featured on the cover of this Winter issue of Ojai Quarterly with her lead designer Erin Bernthal. She talks about how she brought her varied experiences to the range of residential and commercial properties on which they ply their trade. As Ojai has long been a laboratory in the art of living, this timely and relevant conversation hits home. She sha...

A well-known artist and illustrator, Darren brings his distinctive pen to many recognizable places around Ojai for his hundreds of thousands of followers. Darren talks about growing up on the frozen tundra of Buffalo, New York and how he lucked into a graphic design course in high school that gave him the idea he could create a career for himself doing what he'd be doing anyway — drawing. We r...

T.C. Boyle has written 19 novels and hundreds of short stories, and is a winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award. In the Fall issue of Ojai Quarterly, Kit Stolz reviewed his latest, "Blue Skies," the comically dystopian misadventures of a family on the brink of catastrophes, both environmental and personal. Boyle covers a wide range of topics on the podcast, including growing up in impoverished...

Author and screenwriter Mark Frost grew up in a show business family, worked at famous Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, before heading to Hollywood to work for Steven Bochco, who revolutionized television with "Hill Street Blues," where Mark as on the writing crew with David Milch and also worked with another Ojai resident, Mimi Leder. Not long after he joined David Lynch to co-create &qu...

The Ojai Storytellers Festival takes place October 26-29 with a full lineup of events from the nation's top practitioners of this ancient art form. We are joined by Kara, the festival's executive director and Antonio, one of the key storytellers. Kara gives us the rundown on how the festival works, its place in our community and how it is integrated with local schools, and also, new this y...

Rick Ridgeway is a well-known adventurer, explorer, climber, naturalist, one of the original "Do Boys" with Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and North Face founder Doug Tompkins. In this reprise from several years ago, he joins the podcast to talk about his latest book of 25 adventure, "Life Lived Wild: Adventures at the Edge of the Map" as well as the climate crisis, extinctio...

Ojai's foremost serial entrepreneur and angel investor Bill Moses drops in for a spirited discussion about a range of issues facing Ojai, including the local economy, dealing with national companies when you own a local company, the Thomas Fire, his background growing up in rural Pennsylvania, moving and shaking on Wall Street, making the move to Ojai and the future of the world. Bill is the c...

Rebecca Simon, PhD, teaches at Oak Grove School and is the author of two popular books on the public's fascination with pirates. The first is "Why We Love Pirates: The Hunt for Captain Kidd and How it Changed Piracy Forever," and the second, just released this summer, is "The Pirate's Code: Life and Laws Aboard Ship." She writes both for general audiences and as an acad...

Welcome to another exciting episode of Ojai's podcast. Just in time for October's Adopt-A-Dog Month, we have a very special guest with us, Eric Knight, the executive director of the Humane Society of Ventura County. Eric is a passionate advocate for animal welfare, and he joins us to shed light on the incredible work being done at the shelter in Ojai. Eric takes us on a journey through the...