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.

Does true love exist? Can you dig safely out a million pounds of dirt from under your house? Can you win a dinner party in 8 and a half minutes?

Hank Rosenfeld asks people, "What's the Richest You've Ever Been?" ... A Life of Crime - How the Scam Works ... EatLA: Happy Hours ... New Music Night at the Crawford Family Forum ... English Dracula v. Spanish Dracula ... the Car Culture and the SoCal Economy ... is the 14th District Council race about to go nuclear? ...

Wayne White's one man stage show ... Hard Times goes to South Central ... Dinner Party Download ... Vang Pao -- Arlington bound? ... Pluto's Assassin ... LA Phil and Dudamel go to Europe ...

Ron Perlman and Nameer El-Kadi on "Quest for Fire," one of their most demanding films ... Vietnamese cuisine from North to South ... getting through Hard Times with Pasadena's Union Rescue Mission ... personal finance for kids ... mobile murals ... Mark Peel says, "Skip culinary school." ... Pacific Serenades marks 25th year of chamber music with piece by Army major ... This Old House in Silverlake

Ron Perlman and Nameer El-Kadi tell Off-Ramp's John Rabe about their first movie: 1981's "Quest for Fire," a landmark film about human life on Earth 80,000 years ago.

Why did he dig a cavern under his house? ... Mac Davis: "And then I wrote..." ... Making Merguez with Farid Zadi ... Graham Moore, 28-year old author of "The Sherlockian" ... Dale Hoppert: "Leave the snow where it is!" ... Two OCMA artists who say "Touch my art!" ... Steve Lopez and the real lesson of the Arizona rampage ...

Graham Moore, a 28-year old Angeleno, on his debut novel, "The Sherlockian."

RH Greene celebrates iconic director Paul Mazursky ... Kevin Ferguson remembers Captain Beefheart ... Mark Peel says, "skip culinary school and work" and Dale Hoppert says, "put down that snow and step away from the vehicle" ... And Then I Wrote: Mac Davis sings "In The Ghetto," "Memories," and "A Little Less Conversation" ...