Davisville

It’s been a nerve-wracking year, so maybe we could use some Nerve Wrackin’ Theatre. And that’s what we now have, thanks to today’s guest and Davis Media Access. In March, DMA began airing a syndicated show by the name of Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin’ Theatre that observes the late-night tradition of airing monster and sci-fi movies, sometimes of terrible quality, for fun, humor, diversion, and occasionally an insight or two. Host Frank Wallace-Ailsworth, aka Lord Blood-Rah, hosts the program from his home in the Bay Area.

In Davis, you can find his show at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays on DCTV (channel 15 on Comcast, menu 99 on ATT U-Verse); listen to this interview to find out why on earth you might want to.

For more about the program, including viewing options if you don't have cable, see http://www.lordbloodrah.com/

We hear a lot about teen bullying, but this research from the University of California, Davis, is new: It says most such bullying occurs among peers climbing the social ladder, and the “highest rates of bullying occur between friends, and between friends of friends.” As if junior high weren’t difficult enough.

Today I talk with sociology Professor Robert Faris about why this happens—it’s “driven by this pursuit of something that is so ephemeral: popularity in high school,” he says—and what to do about it. Many conventional anti-bullying efforts, Faris continues, aren’t working. Churning, low-quality friendships contribute to the abuse, but solid and stable friendships can be part of the cure.

The report's co-authors are sociologists Diane Felmlee at Pennsylvania State University and Cassie McMillan at Northeastern University.

We have a new president in the White House, but the conflicts that tear at the country haven’t gone away. To do more than separate into groups and shout at each other, we need to do a better job of addressing and resolving conflicts. On today’s Davisville Kara Hunter, executive director of the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center, talks about how to handle conflict, wherever we find it.

She believes the quantity of conflict might not have increased in recent years, but our exposure to it has. Also, people might have become more comfortable sharing their disdain, disappointment and disillusionment.

To address the prevalence of conflict, she’d start in three areas, which she discusses on the show. She’s optimistic that we can get a handle on the problem, but says we’ll need good leaders who demonstrate conflict management, and we’ll need to consider our “will” – when we’re confrontational, are we just venting? Or once that’s done, do we really want to see change?

Brett Lee just spent 8 years on the Davis City Council, including two years as mayor. As he leaves office, we get his take on where Davis is strong (volunteerism), some lasting effects of the pandemic on the town, what he’ll do next, and how his views changed on the perennial question in Davis: Where do you allow developers to add housing, if anywhere?