Davisville

Fifty years ago, the Summer of Love made San Francisco an international focus of pop culture, and people are still talking about the ripples. Today we join the conversation by talking with Gary Lee Yoder, a Davis guitarist/singer/songwriter who lived both here and in San Franciso in 1967. We discuss the Davis band Oxford Circle (he was a member), sitting next to Jann Wenner as Wenner typed up the first issue of Rolling Stone, and events that summer in Davis ... including a concert in Central Park where Yoder called the bluff of a police officer who said the band was playing too loud. In the show's second segment, we interview Steve Faith of Davis during this year’s Pin A Go Go pinball festival, which has grown too big to stick around at its longtime home at the Dixon May Fairgrounds. (This photo shows Davis' Sycamore Lane in 1967.)

So, how many hours have you spent today being entertained by images on your phone or laptop? Maybe more than you know or want. Today’s guests have a remedy for that—they decided to turn off their screens each weeknight for a week at 6 p.m., and invited others in Davis to do the same. Today five of the members of Davis Girl Scout Troop 1999, all 10 to 11 years old, and parent leader Jacqui Alldritt (in the back), talk about how the experience changed them, the response from friends and classmates, and the value of looking away from YouTube so you can do something else. They played with friends, read, talked and spent time talking with their families. Some have dogs who were happy to get their attention back!

Mike McPhate lives in Davis, where he writes and assembles stories about California for the online edition of The New York Times. Newsprint is fading as a format, but the Times is no longer just a newspaper. It remains one of the most influential news organizations in the United States, which means McPhate’s work helps to shape the way the country sees and understands California. Today's topics include the job, the “enemy of the people” media criticism from President Trump, how McPhate finds his stories, and why he chose Davis as a base.

Today we talk with Amelia Paterson of Blessed Extracts, a medical marijuana nonprofit that wants to make products in Davis and so is keenly interested in the new marijuana law that the city is creating this spring. We talk about security, regulation, keeping recreational marijuana away from kids, research, why Blessed Extracts wants to make Davis its home, and more. This interview is the last of a three-part series on Davis’ effort to create a new municipal cannabis law now that Californians have legalized recreational use of marijuana throughout the state. If you missed the first interviews, here are links to part 1 (with Davis city administrators Dirk Brazil and Diane Parro) and part 2 (with Yolo County Public Health Officer Ron Chapman).