Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. (Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)
Latest episodes
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6 min
Meet Milton Love, the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Sea
Off-Ramp commentator Milton Love, an eminent marine biologist at UC Santa Barbara, is also a great storyteller. And this time, he tells us stories about how fish got their names. I…
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5 min
Flu v Covid ... The eerie parallels between LA's responses to the 1919 and 2020 pandemics
In 2015 Michael Holland, the LA City Archivist, dug into his files to explore how the city reacted to the 1919 flu epidemic that killed millions around the world. Michael was inspi…
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7 min
Larry Davis: tears in his beer led to singing career - at 74!
"My whole approach is to have a conversation with the listeners. The words have to mean something to me." I first heard Larry sing c2010 at The Other Side, the long-closed piano ba…
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40 min
A Christmas Carol ... the old time radio version, and some new takes on the Dickens classic
Off-Ramp's Chistmas present to you is our annual holiday special, A Christmas Carol Redux, which combines the old time radio version - starring Lionel Barrymore - with new versions…
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50 min
Happy 100th Maila Nurmi. Listen to a full-length radio documentary celebrating one of the most remarkable wome…
In 1954, Maila Nurmi shocked the world as sexy horror host Vampira on KABC. She rocketed to national, then worldwide stardom, then quickly faded ... although her character was a cl…
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8 min
David Dean Bottrell is a charming warning to little kids: Don't be greedy little Christmas pigs!
"I would run my sticky fingers across images that seemed to be beamed from some magical, alternative universe where people gave dinner parties and owned patio furniture." -- David…
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8 min
One late King of Food helps us remember another: Jonathan Gold on the legacy of King Taco
Sure, there had been tacos al pastor before he did them, but after the popularity of King Taco, everybody had tacos al pastor. People had had carnitas before, but, suddenly, everyb…
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20 min
A rite of passage for LA journos: Rabe recounts his angry phone call from Harlan Elllison
In 2013, I visited an utterly charming and impish Harlan Ellison at his remarkable home and talked at length with him about his work as a prolific Sci-Fi writer. Then came the drea…
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13 min
How Leonard Nimoy found peace with Spock, himself, and his son Adam
From 2016, let's listen back to my interview with Adam Nimoy, who had just released "For the Love of Spock," his documentary about his father Leonard Nimoy. It's a loving but candi…
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20 min
"My grandpa survived the USS Indianapolis," says Kevin Ferguson ... California's last WW1 vet ... and Rabe rid…
For Veteran's Day 2022, we're listening back to three pieces from the Off-Ramp archive. Tamara Keith, now with NPR, talks with California's last surviving World War 1 vet, a spirit…
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9 min
What's it like to ride a motorcycle in LA? Susan Carpenter says, "life affirming"
This piece from the vast Off-Ramp archive is from the very first Off-Ramp - August 5, 2006 - and it's still one of my favorites because it answers a very simple question. What's it…
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36 min
The Big Disaster: The Big Burn from LAist Studios
Off-Ramp listeners, introducing The Big Disaster: The Big Burn from LAist Studios. As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis dives deep into perso…
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49 min
Celebrate "The War of the Worlds'" 84th anniversary with the radio legend's backstory: "The War of the Welles,…
Here's a bonus Off-Ramp Episode to celebrate a special anniversary! In 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre scared the pants off the American public with the CBS Radio broadc…
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8 min
RIP Jules Bass, 87. Was his "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" a Hanukkah TV special hiding in plain sight?
Today, we dig into the Off-Ramp archives to pay tribute to a man named Jules Bass, who was a part of our childhood. Bass died Tuesday at the age of 87. With his partner, the late A…
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9 min
Paul Newman's controversial new memoir probably doesn't tell this story: When he taught Karen Ocamb how to cle…
Karen Ocamb is now a leading LGBTQ journalist in LA, but decades ago she was a cranky teenager on the East Coast, who was very gently reproved by Paul Newman over some freshly caug…
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8 min
Tom Jones reveals the hardest song he's ever sung, rethinks "Letter to Lucille," and tells us why he thinks of…
I start this week's podcast with a piece of audio I was instructed never to play again. Ever. It's Tom Jones adapting his mega-hit "She's a Lady," so it goes "He's a Rabe, whoah wh…
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22 min
You sit on the piano bench next to Maestro Jeffrey Kahane ... and talk Bach, clapping (No!), and The Clippers
Is an NBA team like an orchestra? Does a classical maestro play showtunes? Is it okay to clap between movements? Are major keys happy and minor keys sad? Can Rabe play three notes…
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11 min
Rabe talks with Petros Papadakis, radio's loudest and second smartest host. (Matt "Money" Smith is first.)
From 2014, Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Petros Papadakis, former singing waiter, captain of the USC football team, English major, color commentator, and co-host of "The Petro…
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16 min
Jim Tully, hard-boiled detective pioneer, Chaplin's wingman, the first real Hollywood journalist, and maybe th…
Sheesh. They even got the details wrong on his gravestone! But that's the way it was 80 years ago. People passed in and out of the public consciousness like trains in the distance.…
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8 min
Meet Julie Gigante, the world's tallest violinist, and Kent Twitchell, who painted her along the Harbor Freewa…
If you drive through downtown LA on the 110, you've seen it ... the huge mural of the classical musicians. Who are they? Who did it? That's the LA Chamber Orchestra, painted by mur…