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.)

The Ashes of Oakridge - One Year Later ... Arthur Dong's "Hollywood Chinese" documentary becomes an exhibit ... Eli Broad and Sam Hall Kaplan help Off-Ramp mark MOCA's 30th ... Lisa Ling and KCET on middle-class homelessness.

Mayor Picks Beck to Lead LAPD ... Melrose Larry Green Weighs In ... Dracula author pays tribute to his late, great brother ... Jackson Musker has Encounter at LAX ... CyberFrequencies on Life on the Web.

A Halloween Special ... Chris Ames and the Dog in the Nighttime ... RH Greene's News Take on Dracula ... Lugosi, Jr. on Life with Father ... Bats: Behind the Myths ... Creepiest Moment from Richard the Third.

We're for Contradancing ... It's Mourning at Heritage Square ... New Dracula Memoir Preview ... Rabe's Family History ... WEB EXCLUSIVE: Comics Icon Marv Wolfman ... Selling Medical Marijuana.

Randolph Mantooth of "Emergency!" and "Scream of the Bikini" ... John and Queena pitch good journalism and public radio ... Ed Asner on "Up!" ... Carl Orff teaches kids music ...

Richard III - done straight for once ... Dinner Party Download makes you smarter ... Asner's radio work ... Spiders creep into the Natural History Museum ... Meet the Raincoats

Orff-Ramp Music for Kids ... the late Henry Hopkins on Race in Art ... the Eagle Rock music festival ... Jackson Musker has the poop on zoo poop ... CyberFrequencies on stars who explode online ...

Music Savant Brian Eno's art installation comes to Long Beach... John Rabe plays Mo Roca at the Aquarium, sustainably ... Will Riverside's Chris Arreola become the new World Heavyweight Champ?