Off-Ramp listeners, introducing The Big Disaster: The Big Burn from LAist Studios. As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis dives deep into personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and maybe even thrive while the world around us burns. 

Listen to this episode and catch all the others here. 

Preppi is giving a free emergency kit with any purchase over $100. Go to preppi.com/thebigburn for more information.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

This piece from the vast Off-Ramp archive is from the very first Off-Ramp - August 5, 2006 - and it's still one of my favorites because it answers a very simple question. What's it like to ride a motorcycle in LA?

The obvious person to answer that question was Susan Carpenter, then the motorcycle columnist for the LA Times (now at Spectrum News 1), who put a little microphone into her helmet and then took off down the streets, roads, and freeways of LA.

Support for this podcast comes from 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.

Exploring Southern California with John Rabe and Kevin Ferguson and the rest of Team Off-Ramp.

The CBS and NBC pilots chasing OJ 20 years ago are transgender; someone is killing the peacocks of Rolling Hills Estates; crowning the savior of the Wigwam Motel on Route 66.

A billion-dollar facelift for the LA River, Clipper Darrell weighs in, LA's "Big Parade," and Llyn Foulkes stars in a new doc, celebrating Disney's Golden Books.

Jelly Roll Morton is buried ... in East LA? ... Two new books explore the Chinese-American nightclub scene ... Where wannabe WWE pro-wrestlers go to get noticed ... Orson Bean and the woman who bit his father's knee

Zoey 101, Episode 3: We continue to track Bob Tur's transformation to Zoey Tur. Marc Maron, mayor of Highland Park.

RE this week's show: we reconsider the Eagles' inescapable "Hotel California," rediscover Channing Peake, revisit Jeffrey Kahane at the piano, and revere Roy Orbison.

Ben and Ellen Harper's new album and the Claremont link, Pacific Standard Time focuses on Latinos, and Jeffrey Kahane is a classical music rebel

The LA Chamber Orchestra's Jeffrey Kahane gives us a Bach master class; Ruth Reichl says she was scared to write her first novel; and hit-and-run victim Damian Kevitt finished his ride.