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.)

The LA-based Catherine Opie is one of the world's most famous working art photographers, and in 2011, she was given exclusive access to Elizabeth Taylor's home in Bel Air,, which she photographed before and after the star's death. Although she never met her, you feel from the photos that Opie knew Taylor intimately.

In 2017, when the photos were exhibited in the exhibit "700 Nimes Road," Off-Ramp host John Rabe spoke with her about the experience.  

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.)

From Hollywood's historic Musso & Frank restaurant, Off-Ramp brings you a special Academy Awards preview episode.

Zoey Tur gets back in the chopper for her groundbreaking new job on Inside Edition; the head of WET in Burbank explains how to make a really cool fountain; a retro video game arcade in Old Town Pasadena lets you play on cultural artifacts.

We walk Skid Row with VA chief Bob McDonald; how Vidiots changed journalist Elina Shatkin’s life; a classical bassist who went to New Guinea to study a singing and composing tribe.

We spend a few minutes in the Idle Hour; talk bars with atmosphere with 1933 Group's Bobby Green; talk judges' robes with Kevin's dad; and meet radical quilters.

The annotated H.P. Lovecraft ... France's proud history of satire ... Oscar nods at the chosen few ... the late Taylor Negron loved Lucy

RH Greene sits down with Chaz Ebert at the Palm Springs Film Festival; we remember poet Michele Serros; Patt Morrison looks back and forward at Jerry Brown; and Marc Haefele takes us to the Fowler museum for an exhibit that almost didn’t happen.

As 2014 wraps up, Off-Ramp looks back at some of its best music coverage: all female tributes to Iron Maiden, Venice Beach's most beloved busker, Henry Rollins and more.

A surprising Hannukah TV special; a deeper look at "Batman Returns;" Angela Lansbury, Queen of all Medias - and Mediums; our All-Star Night Before Christmas