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 well-regarded "Mycroft Holmes," a mystery-adventure about Sherlock's smarter brother, he joined me on Off-Ramp to talk about it.

Kareem is smart; there's little in Doyle's stories about Mycroft, leaving the field open to him and his co-author Anna Waterhouse to tell new stories, and not incidentally let Kareem explore his Trinidadian heritage, and paint a more accurate picture of the multi-cultural London of Victorian England.

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; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

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 New Yorker music writer, says you can thank Williams. In a long Off-Ramp interview from 2016 with tons of musical examples, Alex makes the case for Williams, and debunks the notion that the maestro is any sort of plagiarist. He also gamely demonstrates how to properly hum the Star Wars theme.

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; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

We meet one of the hundreds of party princesses who work in Southern California; Patt Morrison remembers her friendship with Marlon Brando; Brains On!, the science podcast for kids; LA's secret tunnels.

"Kogi" chef Roy Choi and Patt Morrison on the LAPL's menu exhibit -- I grew up on Bunker Hill -- a new strategy to restart Angel's Flight -- the coyote catcher -- the gang war rumors

Jeffrey Vallance's new show, "The Medium is the Message" ... Brains On! explores kids and language ... are robot underpants the next fitness trend? ... Factchecking "True Detective's" bullet train plotline ... Tired of lists separated by elipses?

Amy Heckerling helps us celebrate the 20th birthday of "Clueless," Molly Knight gets the bakcstory on the Dodgers sale, and we dig Glendale's historic Rockhaven Sanitarium.

Slide on over to San Pedro's Sunken City neighborhood; cleaning up after the Lake Fire; Brains On, the science podcast for kids and curious adults.

As Neil Diamond once said, "Summer love/They call it summer love/But oh, how it feels/And I don't believe make believe." Our bills aren't make believe, and neither, we're sure, is your love for KPCC.

We tour the district with outgoing City Councilman Tom LaBonge; we get a preview of an exciting new podcast; we get a distaff view of "Inside Out;" and hear what it was like to be a kid on the set of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

To celebrate the new Eames Anthology, we talk with the editor and an Eames grandson; Ray Bradbury's Red File; rescuing the brown recluse from its bad reputation.