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.

Dinner Party Download Launches Its Own Web Site!; Palin the Evangelical Feminist; N.O.W President Introduces Sarah Palin; Colcord Home; All-You-Can't-Eat; Palin Fever; Take A Virtual Trip of the Wasilla Assembly of God; Hard Times; Stone on "W"; Where's the Peace?; Happy Birthday, Philippe's!; With a Wink and a Nod; Letter From Reader

Dinner Party Download Launches Its Own Website!; R.I.P. Paul Newman; The People v. Experts; How to Manage Mismanagement; Spinning Out on The Melt Down; Failing at Bailing Out; Environmental Utopia?; Hard Times, Not End Times; Frangela - The Wisdom of the Crowd; Born Again: The End Times are Coming!; Hard Times II; Hearts of Palm UK; Hard Times III; Urban Homestead; Frank McCourt on the Dodgers

Dinner Party Download; Tom Bradley, in Retrospect; In The Shadows Of History; Peter and the Wolf in 21st Century LA; He Followed in Bradley's Footsteps; The Bradley Effect?; Bradley Good and Bad; Drive-by Driver; Angelenos on Tom Bradley; Chapin Sisters: Born to be Famous; L.A.P.D.: Art Division; The Hollywood Hills are Alive...; To Bail Out or Not To Bail Out; Is Sam Out of Time?

Dinner Party Download; Back on the Tracks; No Smoking...Anywhere; David Foster Wallace, R.I.P; DFW, Telling It Like It Is; Icarus in Outer Space; Charles Perry to the Rescue!; Getting an F in Detention; Historic Art Heist; Celebrating World Sacred Music

Dinner Party Download: Citay Beats; The Wish Tree; Landscape-Goats; The Immigrant's Dream; Give me LHC or Give Me Death!; The LARGE Hadron Collider; Getty Preview; George Putnam R.I.P.; The Lawn Bowling Life; This Citay's Rockin'; Stay Funky, Froggy's; Creating Vintage Photos

Haiku Contest Update!; Dinner Party Download: Barista Throwdown; He's Always Part of the Team; They Wear Their Colors Proud; They Shout Their Voices Loud; McCain's Theme Song; The Titan of Trailers; Ben Vereen: Up Close and Musical; Cut-Throat Coffee; The Sounds of Death Race; Chinese Type-Casting; You're a Good Man, Bill Melendez; Schulz and Baseball; A Labor of Laughs; Congrats, Quinn!; Music Featured on Off-Ramp: Priscilla Ahn's "I Don't Think So"

Welcome to the Coachella Valley!; Dinner Party Download: On Princeton; Jesse Jackson, 20 years ago; Date Shakes in the CV: Part 1; A Good Indian Wife; Date Shakes in the CV: Part 2; Princeton, The Erudite Rockers; She Drew the Line; Racy Dates?; The CV before AC; Stay Away from the Germs!; Music Featured on Off-Ramp:

Dinner Party Download; Rat 'Em Out; "If It's Yellow..." (c'mon you know the rest); Charles Perry: A Man For All Hallucinogens; These Germs Were Catchy; Broncos for Barack; Punch and Judy, Uncensored; Darby Crash, circa 1980; Queen of Disco in LA; Germs Culture; "Hi, Traffic Man!" Debuts