"The Morning Show," starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, is Apple TV's flagship show this fall with its lightning-quick writing, superb acting and tense, plot-driven examinations of the cultural landscape. It is the brainchild of director and executive producer Leder, the latest project in her brilliant career.

Season Three debuts September 13th, and brings in a new featured actor (Jon Hamm) and several gripping storylines.

We talk about her growing up in New York and Los Angeles, her big breaks that got her and her talented pen into the industry, some of her mentors and the many obstacles she had to overcome, as a woman, to reach the success she has today.

The wide-ranging conversation also includes our favorite films and television shows, best directors, actors, the studio system and, with the writers/actors strike, missing the camaraderie of the promotional tours for the show. We also talk about the many twists and turns of the Morning Show plot, how "legacy media" is a great prism for looking at the schisms in American politics, the threat of Big Tech and the interpersonal dramas that afflict everyone from the lowest to the highest pinnacles of society.

Mimi's film "On the Basis of Sex" about the early career of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also came in for discussion, as well as the connection to Ojai through "friend of the pod" Judith Hale Norris, the supervising attorney for the 10th District Court of Appeals, and the momentous shift of the Dobbs decision and its likely implications for years to come.

We did not talk about bottlenose dolphin migrations, the Chinese Warring States period or the latest fashion-forward shoe designs.

Check out "The Morning Show" below (the first episode is free).

https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-morning-show/umc.cmc.25tn3v8ku4b39tr6ccgb8nl6m?mttn3pid=Google%20AdWords&mttnagencyid=a5e&mttncc=US&mttnsiteid=143238&mttnsubad=OUS2019800_1-670311437945-c&mttnsubkw=122311402254__Hvgufltl_&mttnsubplmnt=_adext_