PODCAST · society
Off-Ramp with John Rabe
by LAist Studios
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.)
Episodes
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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. Including one of the most disgusting fishes, which was appropriately named for one of the most disgusting humans.
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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 inspired to explore the topic by a measles outbreak, but no matter, the parallels between 1919 and today are eerie and...
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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 bar in Silverlake. His voice is a little rough-edged, which grabs your attention, and he almost speaks many of the…
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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 of the perennial holiday production. Enjoy! Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who…
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Happy 100th Maila Nurmi. Listen to a full-length radio documentary celebrating one of the most remarkable women in TV -- "Vampira"
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 clear blueprint, much later, for Cassandra Peterson's "Elvira" character on TV and in the movies. Nurmi died in 2008.…
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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 Dean Bottrell's "Crafty Little Christmas" Every year, I'd put my name next to twenty toys in the JC Penny and Sears...
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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, everybody had carnitas. It just seemed to form the template of what the modern Los Angeles taqueria should be. --Jonathan...
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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 dreaded - and expected - phone call from Harlan's alter-ego. (Ellison died in 2018 but I wouldn't be surprised if he sent...
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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 candid look at their difficult but ultimately rewarding relationship. (And be sure to listen to my story about when…
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"My grandpa survived the USS Indianapolis," says Kevin Ferguson ... California's last WW1 vet ... and Rabe rides a B-24
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 spirited 112-year old ... Kevin Ferguson tells us about his grandfather Albert, one of the men who survived the sinking of...
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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 like to ride a motorcycle in LA? The obvious person to answer that question was Susan Carpenter, then the motorcycle...
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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 personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to...
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Celebrate "The War of the Worlds'" 84th anniversary with the radio legend's backstory: "The War of the Welles," a radio documentary with George Takei
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 broadcast "The War of the Worlds." In 2013, to mark the 75th anniversary of Welles' radio masterpiece, I commissioned RH...
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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 Arthur Rankin, Jr., Bass produced some of the most beloved children's Christmas TV specials: "The Little Drummer Boy,"...
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Paul Newman's controversial new memoir probably doesn't tell this story: When he taught Karen Ocamb how to clean fish
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 caught fish. When Newman died, Ocamb filed a loving commentary on her two encounters with the star. Then, since Newman…
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Tom Jones reveals the hardest song he's ever sung, rethinks "Letter to Lucille," and tells us why he thinks of his voice as a weapon
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 whoah whoah he's a Rabe..." The person who told me not ever to run it again was Rico Gagliano, who was just jealous. I...
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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 on the piano? For answers, we go back to 2014 to my interview - from the piano bench! - with Maestro Jeffrey Kahane,...
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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 Petros & Money Show" on AM 570 KLAC. At the time, Rabe wrote, "After spending four hours in the KLAC studio in Burbank a...
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Jim Tully, hard-boiled detective pioneer, Chaplin's wingman, the first real Hollywood journalist, and maybe the most famous Angeleno you never heard of
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. And that's the way it was for Jim Tully, who was a household name here in LA in the 1920s and 1930s, then forgotten…
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Meet Julie Gigante, the world's tallest violinist, and Kent Twitchell, who painted her along the Harbor Freeway
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 muralist Kent Twitchell. On on this piece from 2012, we hear from the world's tallest violinist, and the painter…
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Songwriter Paul Williams has Only Just Begun to ride the Evergreen Love Boat to the Rainbow Connection ... and not just on Rainy Days and Mondays
First of all, my songs are basically co-dependent anthems. I write Ouch Mommy Pick Me Up and Love Me songs. -- Composer Paul Williams Yeah, but Paul, they're great songs we can all sing (except maybe "Evergreen," written for Barbra) like "We've Only Just Begun," "An Old Fashioned Love Song,"…
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Ashford & Simpson play the tunes they wrote ... because There Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
Next up in our Summer of Song and excerpts from the stage of the Grammy Museum in 2010 is Ashford and Simpson. Valerie Simpson and her late husband Nick Ashford wrote "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need to Get By," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "Reach Out and Touch...
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Mac Davis sings "In the Ghetto" for you; Rabe sings Davis' "Oh, Lord, It's Hard to Be Humble." You have been warned.
They told Elvis not to sing "In the Ghetto." "It's too political." "You're a white guy singing about a black kid." Etc. Etc. They were wrong. Who wrote it? Mac Davis, who is Part Two of Off-Ramp's Summer Songwriter Series, as we sample the 2010 inauguration of the Grammy Museum's Songwriter Hall…
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RIP Lamont Dozier, 81, penned “You Can’t Hurry Love," “Heat Wave,” and dozens of others ... and helped put Motown on the map
Lamont Dozier, the middle of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Heat Wave,” and dozens of other hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, died Monday at age 81. Duke Fakir, a close friend and the last...
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This guy played on or produced tons of your favorite songs from the 1970s. Meet Clarence McDonald, the man behind the music
Whoa. There I was, sitting on the piano bench as he played the hits he was involved in. "I know that song. And that one. I played that one on the radio when I was a DJ!" Because if it was a hit, there's a good chance Clarence McDonald had a couple hands in it - on the keyboard or as producer.…
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Happy 100th Birthday Norman Lear ... He talks America, the First Amendment, the "pursuit of happiness," and his service in a bomber in World War 2
When I interviewed Norman Lear for Veterans Day in 2019, I asked for dibs on his 100th birthday interview. He immediately agreed, looked skyward, and said, "Hear that God? I've got a commitment!" Then Covid-19 happened. So as Lear turns 100 (on July 27), we'll have to make do with a rerun ... but...
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Surfridge resident remembers when LAX turned his beachside neighborhood into a ghost town
Did you you read Caitlin Hernandez's LAist longread about the history of LAX and how to keep it from driving you totally around the bend? This time on Off-Ramp we're digging into one of the most surprising and weirdest aspects of the airport's history ... when the airport created a ghost-town…
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White officials thought late great sax man Big Jay McNeely was corrupting the youth
When the Grammy Museum honored Big Jay McNeely in 2017, when he was 90, they said: McNeely is a true original and the last of a generation of blues/R&B musicians who inspired the early rock pioneers, and are still around to remind us where popular music came from. As Off-Ramp jazz correspondent...
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Meet the only novelist to score 38,387 points in the NBA. Spoiler Alert: It's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and "Mycroft Holmes," set in an accurate multi-cultural London
There's something Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has loved as long as he's loved basketball: Sherlock Holmes. Like so many of us, he watched the old movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce on TV and fell under Holmes' spell; he even thought Holmes was a real detective. In 2015, when Kareem published his...
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Alex Ross says you're probably humming "Star Wars" wrong ... and more on the surprising music of John Williams, who is NOT a copycat.
John Williams is so ubiquitous now, as former leader of the Boston Pops and the man behind the music for so many Lucas and Spielberg films; and old-fashioned lush orchestral scores are now so common, it's hard to believe they were endangered a few decades ago. But they were, and Alex Ross, the…
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In-depth with Renaissance man LeVar Burton ... from "Roots" to "Reading Rainbow" to TNG to comics to St Augustine
LeVar Burton has been blessed with enough intelligence, curiosity, and talent to be a pop-culture triple threat. When most actors would be happy to have one iconic role, he's been Kunta Kinte in "Roots," Geordi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and the host of "Reading Rainbow." When we talked...
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"Ragged, loud, and fast. We had found our band." Metallica's backstory, told by a kid who was there
Nowadays, Steven Cuevas is a classy public radio veteran. But back when Metallica was just starting to find fame, he was one of the sweaty kids who formed the band's first real fanbase. And when he wanted to tell the story on Off-Ramp in 2009, when Metallica was being inducted into the Rock &…
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The backstory to El Chicano's groundbreaking megahit, that time Adolfo was name-checked on "The Simpsons," and the podcast that connects the dots
It's a three-fer this week! First, in the summer of 1970, you couldn't pass through the un-airconditioned parts of Los Angeles without hearing radios blaring "Viva Tirado," the groundbreaking hit from El Chicano ... an East LA band who were the first Latino group to play The Apollo. We get the...
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Naked Reporter Ends Drought? Sanden Totten teaches us how to save water by taking a "Navy Shower" ... plus an astronaut tells us how they stay clean in space
With Governor Newsom contemplating mandatory water restrictions - because we are actually using MORE water this year, despite his warnings - it seems like a good time to bring back the time Sanden Totten, now the host of Brains On, took a timed Navy shower back in 2015 ... on the radio. The Navy...
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Peacock, eat your heart out! Off-Ramp host John Rabe rode shotgun in the pink Corvette with the real Angelyne
It was 2015. I was at a comic book store late one night and in strode Chris Nichols of LA Magazine. "John, Angelyne is outside and she'd give you a ride in the pink Corvette if you want." He had me at Angelyne, and the ride was awesome. 45 minutes later I had an audio portrait of one of the…
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How LA's WW2 Mayor used radio to support the Japanese Incarceration ... and what it did to George Takei's family
Over the years Off-Ramp was on the air, LA City Archivist Michael Holland researched, wrote, and narrated many pieces for the show that used the city archive to illuminate aspects of the city's history most people have forgotten or don't know in the first place ... like Mayor Fletcher Bowron's...
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Photographer Catherine Opie got exclusive access to Elizabeth Taylor's house ... so so do you, kinda.
The LA-based Catherine Opie is one of the world's most famous working art photographers, and in 2011, she was given exclusive access to Elizabeth Taylor's home in Bel Air,, which she photographed before and after the star's death. Although she never met her, you feel from the photos that Opie…
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BONUS EPISODE: Carol Downer, 88-year-old abortion rights pioneer, reacts to SCOTUS draft on Roe v. Wade
(CONTENT ALERT: This piece includes frank discussion of abortion and clinical descriptions of abortion procedures.) We're all processing the news that a draft ruling from the US Supreme Court supports overturning Roe v. Wade, which has protected a woman's right to an abortion in the US for almost...
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The LA Uprising - 30 Years Later: The stories you haven't heard - Pt 2
(This is the second part of a two-part episode.) This time, we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest days in LA history: Friday, April 29, 1992, when the all-white Simi Valley jury found 4 LAPD officers not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. Rage, protests, and violence, broke out...
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The LA Uprising - 30 Years Later: The stories you haven't heard
This time, we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest days in LA history: Friday, April 29, 1992, when the all-white Simi Valley jury found 4 LAPD officers not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. Rage, protests, and violence, broke out across the city and lasted for days. Five years ago...
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dublab's Mark "Frosty" McNeill helps us relive the glory years of The Atomic Cafe, Little Tokyo's loud, greasy, sticky, punk Mecca
Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" goes "they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot." Well ... what if they tore down a cool place to ... improve public transit? (Insert sound effects of a Progressive's head exploding here.) Anyway, that's what happened. The Atomic Cafe, at 422 East First…
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True Crime! Murder! Scandal! In 1922, an L.A. woman kept her lover in the attic ... and her husband in the dark
This story is weird even by today's standards. It starts in Milwaukee, where Dolly Oesterreich secretly kept her teen lover Otto in the attic of the house she shared with her husband Fred. When Dolly and Fred moved to L.A., Otto moved, too; and was reinstalled in the attic of the Oesterreich's...
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Meet the two friends from the Valley who convinced Charles Schulz to integrate "Peanuts" in 1968
Charles Schulz got hate mail, and newspaper editors threatened to pull his strip "Peanuts," after he showed Charlie Brown meeting Franklin Armstrong on the beach on July 31st, 1968. All because Franklin was Black ... in fact, the first Black character in a mainstream daily comic strip. This time…
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The Rags to Riches to Rags story of Pio Pico, a giant of Los Angeles history
Pico Boulevard, Pico Union, Pico Rivera ... they tell the story of one of the most fascinating figures in California's 19th Century history: Pio Pico, the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule, and a revolutionary who helped make the missions forfeit their land. But at the time of…
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Enjoy a Dodger home opener with no labor issues, no Covid, no parking or traffic headaches ... and a guaranteed Dodger victory!
We get it if you're a little sour on Major League Baseball right now, but turn that lemon into lemonade by checking out this whole episode of Off-Ramp recorded at the 2015 Dodger home opener. We got Justin Turner, Vic the Brick, Roz Wyman & Richard Montoya debunking the Chavez Ravine myth, the...
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"Moonface" and "Vermont Avenue" podcast star James Kim couldn't talk to his parents - literally - because of First Language Attrition
Today, James Kim is a successful podcast host, producer, and writer. You know him from "The Competition," "Moonface," and "Vermont Avenue," which won Tribeca's first Best Podcast award. And he's just wrapped up a project with Disney. But ten years ago, he was a fresh-faced Off-Ramp intern with a...
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Meet Pepe Aguilar, the son of two Mexican cultural icons, who stays true to his mariachi roots
In 2013, I headed to the Calabasas studios of Pepe Aguilar, who had just scored a #1 on iTunes with his latest independent release, a tribute to his father's rival, the late Vicente Fernandez. Pepe, now 53, is the son of the late Flor Silvestre, a star of Mexico's Golden Age of Cinema, and the…
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This LA couple bought a pristine Mid-Century ranch home in the Valley ... complete with a pristine Mid-Century BOMB SHELTER!
For the first Off-Ramp podcast episode, let's go back to that amazing day in 2013 when my friend Chris sent me a message: "Hey, John. My sister and her husband just bought a home in the Valley with a fallout shelter that hasn't been touched in decades. Wanna do an Off-Ramp piece about it?" Would…
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Welcome to Off-Ramp, your passport to exploring Southern California
Welcome from host John Rabe, a public radio veteran and bon vivant who turned exploring Southern California into a radio art form on KPCC's Off-Ramp. Now, he's sharing stories from the Off-Ramp archive - in a lead-lined vault deep beneath Mt Wilson - with you! Check your feed every Friday, then…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.)
HOSTED BY
LAist Studios
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Off-Ramp with John Rabe have?
Off-Ramp with John Rabe currently has 49 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Off-Ramp with John Rabe about?
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...
How often does Off-Ramp with John Rabe release new episodes?
Off-Ramp with John Rabe has 49 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Off-Ramp with John Rabe?
You can listen to Off-Ramp with John Rabe on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Off-Ramp with John Rabe?
Off-Ramp with John Rabe is created and hosted by LAist Studios.
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