Over the years Off-Ramp was on the air, LA City Archivist Michael Holland researched, wrote, and narrated many pieces for the show that used the city archive to illuminate aspects of the city's history most people have forgotten or don't know in the first place ... like Mayor Fletcher Bowron's active campaign against Japanese-Americans during World War Two. Bowron, who lived from 1887-1968 and was mayor from 1938-1953, used radio to drive his point home, and the transcripts of his speeches aren't pretty.

This time, we'll hear Holland's piece from 2017, and from the same year, George Takei telling us what happened to his family when FDR signed his infamous Executive Order 9066.

Note: "Internment" was, of course, a euphemism, so politicians and others didn't have to say they were putting innocent people in prison. Our policy at KPCC is to call it "incarceration." 

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.)

(This is the second part of a two-part episode.)

This time, we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest days in LA history: Friday, April 29, 1992, when the all-white Simi Valley jury found 4 LAPD officers not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. Rage, protests, and violence, broke out across the city and lasted for days.

Five years ago on Off-Ramp, we marked the 25th anniversary with a full hour of interviews, archival footage, and an unflinching reckoning of the LAPD and its legacy of violence. We wound up with an interview with the late Rodney King.

That's what we're going to listen back to on this episode, but please remember that a lot has changed in five years, and one of them is that as a newsroom - like a lot of other newsrooms around the country - we at KPCC and LAist no longer use the phrase LA Riots.

While riotis used historically, we cannot ignore the media's role in popularizing a term that is now often used as a dog whistle for race. Words like response, unrest, or uprising encourage our audiences to think deeper about its origins.

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.)

Kris Kristofferson sings at Janis Joplin's star ... Agnes Varda at her new LACMA show ... the Hammer tries to show the arts can bring back a neighborhood ...

Rob Verdi's rare and unusual saxophones, LA's first film and John Ridley's latest, Tiberius - not so bad, and the lasting influence of The Twilight Zone TV series.

R.H. Greene's new documentary, "War of the Welles," shows how Orson Welles got to "The War of the Worlds," and says it really did panic millions of listeners.

Mexican-American superstar Pepe Aguilar's first public radio interview; Jefferson Starship's Craig Chaquico emits Beamz with a new instrument for the non-musical masses; facing death rationally; and gourmet ghosts.

Celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Shuttle Endeavour's triumphal arrival at the California Science Center ... the Cyrus Cylinder comes to the Getty Villa ... the Mediterranean house gecko and you ...

A rabbi and a priest walk into a fundraiser, and talk about guilt ... Vin Scully on his life, work, and possible retirement ... Father Boyle on Pope Francis, so far ... Patt Morrison and Nate Silver talk sports, stats, and California politics.

Cliff's Books closes in Pasadena ... Gil Garcetti celebrates the iron workers who built Disney Hall ... Happy Birthday Hollywood Sign and Herb Jeffries, the Bronze Buckaroo ...

Gunnar Hansen's "Chain Saw Confidential." A cheap solution for barotrauma makes biologists and rockfish happier. Weighing fracking in Sacramento. Slapstick 101.