Meredith Ochs is...

 ...a Gracie award-winning talk show host and deejay, commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered and creator of the series "The Women Behind the Songs," author, journalist, radio consultant, guest speaker, photographer, musician, sailor, and world traveler.

I've been everywhere, man. Australia is my favorite destination (that's me on the Larapinta Trail), with Thailand and Hawaii tied for second. I have a treasure trove of photographs from my travels and I've published numerous articles (and some of my photos) from the road. 

As a magazine writer and radio talk show host, I've interviewed thousands of actors, directors, authors, musicians, comedians, athletes, entrepreneurs, and other folks you've seen on stage or screen, from Quentin Tarantino to Ben Kingsley to Slash to Merle Haggard to that Field of Dreams guy who is also in a band.

I've been deejaying since my teens and I've been on air in New York and nationally for a long time. I love and collect all kinds of music and do periodic deejay gigs, like Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center. I also write songs and play guitar, bass, and percussion, and I've been in a lot of bands, including The Damn Lovelys. Currently I sing with four supremely talented dudes; together we're called Miss Lucy & Walker Blue.

I'm a recovering food writer, but it's still my beat. I interview chefs, mixologists, cheesemakers, bakers, master coffee roasters, pit masters, wine masters, cicerones, and fine food makers of all sorts. Getting to eat and drink with them has been the best education (though making guacamole with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, above, was fun too). I've been delighted to be asked to judge food competitions, most recently the Specialty Food Association's SOFI Awards. I'm also working on a radio series known as the Hungry Highway project.