Robin Gerber, a well-known author, attorney and president of the Committee for Replacing Oil & Gas, talks about how her group received a $50,000 grant (the first yet) from the Ojai Valley Defense Fund to represent Ojai's interests as Ventura County moves forward with its General Plan.

Robin says that fracking, the imminent threat that caused CFROG to form, isn't on the horizon yet, but the situation bears watching.  We talk about Upton Sinclair's book, "Oil," from which the Paul Thomas Anderson film "There Will Be Blood," is based and which was set in southern California including Santa Paula. Gerber told us that the rest of the county is working to overturn Ojai's Five-Pound Rule for emissions in favor of their 25-pound rule. She is arguing the other way around, that our stricter standard should be adapted for the rest of county.

We talk about the historic opportunity for the country to shift toward sustainable energy during this pandemic as we go through a society-wide "Hard Reset." And how cultures can have big shifts — such as that which happened with gay marriage and marijuana legalization — in a very short period of time.

Gerber wrote a book about Ruth Handler, the inventor and president of Mattel Corp, who invented the Barbie Doll more than 60 years ago, after seeing sex fetish dolls in Europe based on a cartoon character. Handler was a pioneer in "demand marketing," going over parents' heads to appeal directly to children through ads on "The Mickey Mouse Club."

Gerber talked about her fascination with Eleanor Roosevelt, which has led her to write two books and a series of lessons in leadership. She had been writing for newspapers and magazines (including a legal affairs column for Readers Digest) and had "helped found the Leadership Academy for woman and underrepresented people." Gerber talked about Allenwood boarding school for girls headmistress Madame Souvestre, who had a profound influence on Eleanor's development, teaching her confidence and the skills necessary to make the world a better place. Gerber said that it only takes one person to make a difference in someone's life. Eleanor's tragic upbringing, no love from her mother, orphaned at age 10, never feeling like she was loved,

"The Princess Diaries," starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, was what gave Robin the idea to write about Eleanor, because Anne's character has in her room a pillow cross-stitched with Eleanor's famous quote: "No one has the power to make you feel inferior without your consent." Robin has also written a counter-factual history called "Eleanor V. Ike," a "what if" chronicle of Eleanor's bid to become president in 1952 after Adlai Stevenson dies of a heart attack. She is now working on an Eleanor-inspired set of courses, "Leadership for Turbulent Times."

We also talked about Robin's one-woman play about Kitty Graham, "The Shot," which was accepted into the prestigious Ojai Playwrights Conference, a two-week intensive workshop experience. Sharon Lawrence was set to star in a performance of the play in Los Angeles in early March, but the pandemic arrived. We talk about the amazing Kim Maxwell, who leads the youth portion of the conference, "teaching them to be unafraid."

We don’t talk about Megan Thee Stallion’s latest romantic misadventure or Russian slap fighting.