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.)

Mapping Eden; At Eden's Edge; Sound of Los Angeles; Hank Rosenfeld Can't Skate Backwards; The Man Who Made Plants Sexy; Compost It; May the Force be With You; To Seed or Not to Seed; Inner-City Academic Athletes; Smells like Smog; Reporter's Roundtable

The Observatory Revisited; Like a Phoenix; The Dark Patron of Griffith Park; Reporting in Flames; Theatricum Botanicum; Passing the Torch; Pomona's Cinema Paradiso; Billy Pew; Letters

Going BioDiesel; BioDiesel My Ride; Trolling for Oil; Vegging Out; Spiny Forest; Slide Show'n'Tell; Longing for Llano; Hungary for Sausage; Double Jeopardy; Fast Food Dude-Revisited; Theater LAndscape; Reporter's Roundtable

Off-Ramp to the I.E. Special thanks to cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz for plugging our little show in his nationally distributed comic strip, La Cucaracha (click "enlarge" to see.) This week, Off-Ramp explores the Inland Empire. The nation's fastest growing community is home to one of the world's oldest orange trees, Chick-fil-A and more. Next week, Off-Ramp will be broadcasting live from LA Times Festival of Books. We'll be at Dickson Court North, Zone F, booth 601. Come vist, we'd love to meet you. -John (and Queena)

Steve Lopez; Susan Straight; Russ Parsons; Chris Abani; Roving Reporter: Henry Winkler; Roving Reporters: Authors@Google; Roving Reporter: Spirituality Book Stand

Note from Off-Ramp This week, we take you to the world's biggest train store in Culver City, which is closing soon... another casualty of the Internet. Looking forward, on April 28th we'll be doing a live show from the LA Times Festival of Books. We'll talk with columnist Steve Lopez, chef Nancy Silverton, novelist S.E. Hinton and others. In the meantime, go visit the train store (info below). There might never be anything like it again. -John and Queena

Hot Ramen; I Eat Ramen, Here Me Roar!; The Tristan Project; Don't Be Koi; Sherlock Rock; Shopping in the Rain; The Good and the Ugly; Skinny Model Ban; Remembering Bob Clark; Reporter's Roundtable

City Hall Tower; Lucille Ball Remembered; El Pollo Chino; Star Power; Downtown LA Rising; Comic Book Legend Len Wein; These Streets Aren't Paved With Gold; Final Four