UPDATE: "Drive" opens Friday, September 16. Here's the Off-Ramp interview with the man who wrote the novella the movie's based on. Translator of French obscurata, poet, sci-fi author and editor, bluegrass musician, noir novelist, musicologist, Friend of Haefele. James Sallis, writer for almost 50 years, is finally a bit famous because he wrote the novel "Drive," which the new Ryan Gosling movie is based on. In a special Off-Ramp podcast, KPCC's John Rabe talked with Sallis about his long career.

Off-Ramp commentator Marc Haefele lived in New York City for many years, so he wasn't shocked that Muslims wanted to build a community center, and perhaps a mosque, near Ground Zero. After all, he knew they'd been a major part of that neighborhood since -- are you sitting down? -- 1870.

You know the phrase, “Only in L.A.?” It goes for San Francisco, too, where officials are debating whether to make nudists sit on towels when they’re out in public. KPCC’s John Rabe spoke with the L.A. Times’ Maria LaGanga for details.

Tad Daley is a former speechwriter and policy analyst for Congressman Dennis Kucinich and the late U.S. Senator from California, Alan Cranston. He’d gone to New York to speak at the United Nations. This story, special for Off-Ramp, is about what he wound up doing instead. (Tad is also author of Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World.)

The eight Republican candidates for president gathered for a debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley this week. Hundreds of reporters also showed up, including KPCC’s Frank Stoltze….who takes us now into a place well known to political reporters.

Phillip Peters has brought his 5,000 gallon shark tank trailer to the LA County Fair, where it's on display -- with him in it -- every day for the run of the fair. He tells Ashley Bailey why he does it, where the sharks come from, where he takes them, and which shark is his favorite.

More than 45 years after it was recorded, the Beach Boys are finally officially releasing "Smile" – one of the band's most notoriously challenging, but influential, records. The album was written by Brian Wilson in collaboration with Van Dyke Parks - a composer whose name you might not have heard, but whose music you certain have. Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson talked with Parks about "Smile" and his solo career.