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 in 2012, we covered all that and a lot more ... like his favorite saint, and what it was like having Richard Burton as a father. (Kidding!)

And, since we're dropping this episode just before Juneteenth, we're including LeVar's readings of the Preamble to the US Constitution, plus the 13th and 15th Amendments.

(Note: Burton cites Bill Cosby's work in children's educational TV ... this interview was conducted two years before the allegations that would eventually lead to Cosby's prison sentence.)

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.)

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 & Roll Hall of Fame, he got ahold of never-before-heard tape to take us back to those early days in San Francisco.

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.)

He's Alive; The King of Kitsch Named Grand Marshal; Rethinking Pershing Square; Is MOCA Broke?; Pull Some Strings for Bob Baker; Song of Extinction; Long Beach Loves Video Art; Mad Santa; Sing Along

Surviving Thanksgiving

Hooray, Off-Ramp's Back!; Off-Ramp Exclusive: Dinner Party Download; Martin Eisenstadt Hoax; Food Banks in Need; The King of Hancock Park; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; "...Stuffing is evil ..." -- Alton Brown; My Two Left Feet; Letters: Correction

She just became a member!; Martin Eisenstadt hoax; Food Banks in Need; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; The King of Hancock Park; Dumpster Diving For the Working Poor

Making History; South LA Weighs In On An Obama Presidency; The Huntington: Underground; The Famous Red Head was a Red?; Kids These Days; A Mormon at the anti-Mormon March; The Obama Quest For A Puppy!; Prop 8 Results Roundtable; Murder He Wrote; Political Partying; Recession Hits LB Art Gallery; We Saw Long Lines, They Got Bathing Suits; Trombone Poetry; Hollywood Humanitarian; Victory Song

Witnesses to History; The Changeling; The Changeling on Dragnet; OCMA's Biennial; "Andy Rooney" on Ted Stevens; Hand over the Video!; Ask Me!; Law And Order TMU; Call for Obama; Prop Satire; Prop 8 Swings on Latinas; Rest In Peace Delmar Watson; Letters

Delmar Watson, L.A. Photojournalist, 82; Stick it to 'em; Dinner Party Download; Roky Erickson, Resurrected; R.I.P. Rosie the Riveter; Fiddling with Tradition; Meet Dracula, Jr.; Herbal Taste Test; High Stakes at Santa Anita; Emptying the Archives; Their Bubble Burst; Norwegian Black Metal; Don't Bite it, Lick it!; The Bible Props Up '8,' Really?

She Healed the Bay; Dinner Party Download; Silver Seduction; He Made Jazz Visual; Violin Virtuoso; Voter Registration: Now or Never; Door-to-Door Democrat; (Fire)Fighter Pilots; All the Pretty Worn-Out Horses; No TV Coverage: Take Cover!; Haute Cuisine in Hard Times?; On the Fire Lines; The Bradley Non-Effect; Letters