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Podcasts
Off-Ramp
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
Off-Ramp
Exploring Southern California with John Rabe

About the 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.

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Episodes
  • Listen • 6:19
    Listen • 6:19
    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.

  • Listen • 5:15
    Listen • 5:15
    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 fascinating. Masks in theaters? Music in restaurants? It's all there, more than a hundred years ago.

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  • Off-Ramp host John Rabe takes a selfie in a Jeff Koons sculpture at The Broad this week.
    Listen • 47:53
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 47:53
    Mack Robinson comes out of his brother's shadow
    Riding the Expo line from Downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean ... Meet Mack Robinson, Jesse's brother ... Milton Love does not love books like Hooty the Owl Who Couldn’t Fly or Gretchen the Bed Bug with an Attitude ... Bob Boilen and the songs that changed our lives
    Learn More
  • Russ Parsons at his “home away from home,’ Grand Central Market in downtown LA. Image: John Rabe
    Listen • 47:26
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 47:26
    A Philip K. Dick video game and the Garibaldi of the Food Revolution
    Californium, the new PK Dick video game ... bid for a unique dinner with Russ Parsons, John Rabe, and Piero Selvaggio at Valentino in Santa Monica ... the almost-lost living room sessions of jazz pianist Forrest Westbrook ... how to make money in Hollywood AND not be a racist.
    Learn More
  • View from the 69th floor of the Wilshire Grand in Downtown Los Angeles
    Listen • 48:03
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 48:03
    The Atomic Cafe and Coyote Poop
    The Parks Service needs your help to figure out how urban coyotes survive ... remembering the infamous Atomic Cafe ... the existential angst of Laurel & Hardy, restored and remembered ... Can Pershing Square be made into a beautiful park?
    Learn More
  • Off-Ramp host John Rabe on the 69th floor of the Wilshire Grand in Downtown Los Angeles
    Listen • 48:46
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 48:46
    "I can see for miles ..." from LA's new skyscraper king
    The view from the 69th floor of the Wilshire Grand ... Brains On, the science podcast for kids ... our first look inside the Highand Park Bowl ... the Norton Simon summons up a triumph from the 1960s ...
    Learn More
  • Prince's glyph at his Glam Slam club, 1994.
    Listen • 48:14
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 48:14
    Tank you, NASA!
    California Science Center is getting the big orange external tank to go with Shuttle Endeavour ... Guitar hero Albert Lee on the skiffle and early rock scene in Britain ... LACMA opens exhibit on 300 years of men's fashion ...
    Learn More
  • KPCC's John Rabe, "working journalist" covering the Dodgers' Home Opener 2016
    Listen • 47:06
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 47:06
    A laid-back Dodger home opener
    Vin Scully on the roar of the crowd as fountain of youth ... Orel Hershiser on pitcher's nerves ... No, most of us still can't watch the Dodgers on TV ... Rabe eats a Dodger dog: still meh ... Plus: Brendon Eder and Milton Avery.
    Learn More
  • John Muir High School Pitcher Bryan Barrios warms up with coach Robert Galvan.
    Listen • 48:30
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 48:30
    Jackie Robinson's High School has a new field - now what?
    It was 80 years ago that Jackie Robinson went to John Muir High School in Pasadena. He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team. But flash forward to today: what about the team he played on, and the school he went to? Take a leap into a Los Angeles of the future it's unlikely any city will have changed more than Inglewood, future home to the new NFL stadium. We take a look around and talk with Inglewood movers and shakers. And we go inside the Eames House, one of Los Angeles' most important, most beautiful and elusive homes.
    Learn More
  • Actor George Takei as Grand Marshal of the 1997 Nisei Week Grand Parade.
    Listen • 51:45
    Episode Detail
    Listen • 51:45
    The very best: George Takei, John Williams, Vincent Price and more!
    We bring you Off-Ramp greatest (recent) hits: Actor George Takei reflects on the 10th anniversary of his coming out. We dig through the cookbook authored by the late Vincent Price—frightening star of stage and screen. And if you love John William's iconic Star Wars score, New Yorker Music Critic Alex Ross says it's not just nostalgia: there's a serious, brilliant mind at work.
    Learn More
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Credits
Photo of John Rabe wearing sunglasses
John Rabe
Host