For the first Off-Ramp podcast episode, let's go back to that amazing day in 2013 when my friend Chris sent me a message:

"Hey, John. My sister and her husband just bought a home in the Valley with a fallout shelter that hasn't been touched in decades. Wanna do an Off-Ramp piece about it?" 

Would I? Should you wear a sport coat to Musso & Frank? Are horizontal fence slats getting old? Are you legally required to take visiting relatives to The Huntington? Yes!

The piece you're about to listen to was probably the most popular one we ever did, in no small part due to the great photos by Mae Ryan. 

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

Welcome from host John Rabe, a public radio veteran and bon vivant who turned exploring Southern California into a radio art form on KPCC's Off-Ramp. Now, he's sharing stories from the Off-Ramp archive - in a lead-lined vault deep beneath Mt Wilson - with you!

Check your feed every Friday, then sit back, listen, enjoy ... and then get out and make your own SoCal adventures!

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios)

He's Alive; The King of Kitsch Named Grand Marshal; Rethinking Pershing Square; Is MOCA Broke?; Pull Some Strings for Bob Baker; Song of Extinction; Long Beach Loves Video Art; Mad Santa; Sing Along

Surviving Thanksgiving

Hooray, Off-Ramp's Back!; Off-Ramp Exclusive: Dinner Party Download; Martin Eisenstadt Hoax; Food Banks in Need; The King of Hancock Park; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; "...Stuffing is evil ..." -- Alton Brown; My Two Left Feet; Letters: Correction

She just became a member!; Martin Eisenstadt hoax; Food Banks in Need; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; The King of Hancock Park; Dumpster Diving For the Working Poor

Making History; South LA Weighs In On An Obama Presidency; The Huntington: Underground; The Famous Red Head was a Red?; Kids These Days; A Mormon at the anti-Mormon March; The Obama Quest For A Puppy!; Prop 8 Results Roundtable; Murder He Wrote; Political Partying; Recession Hits LB Art Gallery; We Saw Long Lines, They Got Bathing Suits; Trombone Poetry; Hollywood Humanitarian; Victory Song

Witnesses to History; The Changeling; The Changeling on Dragnet; OCMA's Biennial; "Andy Rooney" on Ted Stevens; Hand over the Video!; Ask Me!; Law And Order TMU; Call for Obama; Prop Satire; Prop 8 Swings on Latinas; Rest In Peace Delmar Watson; Letters

Delmar Watson, L.A. Photojournalist, 82; Stick it to 'em; Dinner Party Download; Roky Erickson, Resurrected; R.I.P. Rosie the Riveter; Fiddling with Tradition; Meet Dracula, Jr.; Herbal Taste Test; High Stakes at Santa Anita; Emptying the Archives; Their Bubble Burst; Norwegian Black Metal; Don't Bite it, Lick it!; The Bible Props Up '8,' Really?

She Healed the Bay; Dinner Party Download; Silver Seduction; He Made Jazz Visual; Violin Virtuoso; Voter Registration: Now or Never; Door-to-Door Democrat; (Fire)Fighter Pilots; All the Pretty Worn-Out Horses; No TV Coverage: Take Cover!; Haute Cuisine in Hard Times?; On the Fire Lines; The Bradley Non-Effect; Letters