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.)

Voices from today and yesterday as Off-Ramp marks the 20th anniversary of the Rodney King Riots - which started April 29, 1992 - with a special hour-long program.

KPCC reporters on Driving While Black, be happy in downtown LA with kids, Getty Foundation director assesses Pacific Standard Time, and why restaurants are so damn noisy.

OC man marries a Filippina he met online, raising ire & eyebrows; new online incarnation of LA-based Cracked Magazine; a Grilled Cheese Invitational judge prepares

Alina Szapocznikow's work got more intimate when she got cancer ... why did James Kim lose his ability to speak his native Korean? ... AirSplat and hiring vets ... LA's only known superhero.

Off-Ramp special documentary "Airborne: A Life in Radio with Orson Welles," from R.H. Greene.

During KPCC's Spring member drive, hear the best of Off-Ramp both on air and online: South Bay student poems, Tom Jones, "Columbo" and more!

A Pogues founder explains why Shane MacGowan had to go - The Negro Problem couple's very public breakup - What does that graffiti mean? - GeoCache with Zorro

Off-Ramp's John Rabe goes in-depth with James Fearnley, founding member of the Celtic/Punk band The Pogues, which turns 30 this year.