Ojai's newest performing venue will be the site of a special benefit for veterans, "Heroes Healing: Songs from the Wilderness," on November 2 from 3 to 7 pm. It's being organized by Open Circle Foundation and Heroes Healing Homestead in Homer, Alaska, to provide a wilderness therapy experience for veterans suffering from service-related PTSD.

Joining us on the podcast are Open Circle's founder Miriam Jones and Heroes Healing's Atz Kilcher. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Kilcher was the star of Discovery Channel's "Alaska: The Last Frontier," for 12 seasons. He is also the father of Jewel, the singer-songwriter who has sold 30 million albums. She got her Grammy-nominated start as a young child playing in a duo with her father, who is a well-known songwriter and yodeler in his own right.

Kilcher has several connections to Ojai. His mother spent several months here when he was a teenager, leaving him to "hold down the fort" at the family homestead in Kachemak Bay in Homer, Alaska, and he is well acquainted with the numerous contingent of Ojai residents who also homesteaded in Homer (see Mark Lewis' story "O Pioneers!" in the Fall 2019 issue of Ojai Quarterly).

The November 2nd concert will take place at the brand-new Topa Bowl in upper Ojai at the Topa Institute. Also on the bill are Andrew Wiscombe, Stephen Covell, and Kate & Secily Anderson. The event will also feature storytelling, crafts, food and more.

Operation Encore is another key organizer for this event, helping develop veterans who are musicians through performances and recording opportunities. Open Circle connects veterans and other at-need people with the wilderness for restoring purpose and a sense of community.

Kilcher and Jones talked about how this event came together through a fortuitous encounter with Jones and her co-founder in Alaska, Kilcher's Vietnam experiences, why tje wilderness is essential for mental health, what it's like to live on a rugged homestead while being filmed for more than a decade, and their various journeys that led up to this moment.

We did not talk about Aztec death whistles, mah jongg or the Japanese royal family.

For more information on this event and the organizers check out ... https://www.foundation.weareopencircle.com/ or https://www.homeralaska.org/listing/heroes-healing-homestead/2654/