Franz Lidz on Ojai, Restaurants & Archaeology

Franz Lidz is one of very few return guests on the Ojai podcast. If you check out his earlier appearance (Episode 24, Aug. 27th, 2020) you can see why we were eager to have him back. His recent feature in the Los Angeles Times about Ojai's new restaurant scene was widely read and discussed, but that was only the tip of the spear for our wide-ranging discussion. Lidz' career has included decades at Sports Illustrated, and now he is a frequent contributor to Smithsonian Magazine, with insightful, witty and irreverent features that bring to life often dusty and overlooked fields like archaeology and science. He is also an author, his popular book "Unstrung Heroes" about his eccentric uncles was made into the 1991 film of the same name. Besides journalism, Lidz also spent time as an executive with the Detroit Pistons. We talk about how his circuitous career led him to Ojai, what he thinks about the local restaurant scene and food culture in general, why journalism is more important than ever, and what a vibrant, inclusive Ojai would look like (rent control, anyone?). We did not talk about Viking burial customs, the use of slippery elm powder in baseball or the great labor strikes of the 1930s.