Take a listen to some of these fine pieces that took you all over Southern California and then, please, help ensure the future of Off-Ramp with a contribution at kpcc.org. Thanks!

Lewis MacAdams - turning 70 this month - takes us up the LA River; James Ellroy takes us back to Dec. 1941 and the start of the Japanese internment; Marc Haefele takes us to the San Francisco of the 50s & 60s.

Kristen Bell is smart, fun, and a KPCC member. She's the main event this week, talking "Veronica Mars," her campaign against the pederazzi, and The Oscars.

The case for keeping the Figueroa Bridge; the Obscura Society; Queena Victoria's selfies; George Pal's Puppetoons in glorious Blu-ray.

RIP Sid Caesar - an exclusive interview; Henry Rollins gets the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award; a Cambodian waitress is becoming a car mechanic; just Kickstart me.

Our commentator seems to be like most Angelenos: she can't see the drought, so she doesn't believe in it. Plus, a new doc shows how auto racing shaped LA.

Can chimps and rhinos tell us anything about sex? Zoo animals lack coital finesse, and there’s no cuddling. Plus: three great guacamole recipes from Bricia Lopez of Guelaguetza.

A museum for Velvet paintings. A fly that decapitates innocent ants in Glendale; can happen to us? Our love/hate relationship with palm trees. The big hockey game.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez name-checked in The Simpsons; Barry McGovern and bleak, black Beckett; the Whisky's business model; and a visit to Night Vale.

We mark the 20th anniversary of the 6.7 magnitude Northridge Earthquake by starting our show at the epicenter of the disaster; and we consider Sheriff Baca's sudden resignation.