Davis has interesting people, ideas, connections, and events. On Davisville, host Bill Buchanan presents stories that have some connection to Davis. The program has won 13 Excellence in Journalism awards from the San Francisco Press Club since 2018. Contact: davisville @ dcn.org
Podcast
Davisville, March 6, 2023: Electrifying Davis as the city adapts to climate changeMon, 03/06/2023 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananThe city's plan to cut carbon pollution in Davis to net zero by 2040 relies on electrifying buildings and transportation, plus other visible changes. On today’s program Kerry Daane Loux, the city’s project manager for the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, and City Council member Bapu Vaitla talk about why Davis must change, and what’s ahead. The council will take up the plan again in April. “The next steps are very important. We’ve arrived at a hundred actions, 28 priorities, but we know that we need to prioritize within the priorities and say this year, what are the three, four, maybe five actions that we want to become law,” Vaitla says on Davisville. “It doesn’t necessarily need to be mandates, but it does need to be policies that we would place at the top of the list in terms of the climate impact they’re going to have, in terms of the greenhouse-gas reduction impact. “ … The idea stage is nearing the end of its first phase, but now it’s the implementation stage where all of us need to be involved and give, give of ourselves.” |
Davisville, Feb. 20, 2023: Decades later, the Tuskegee Airmen still have things to tell usMon, 02/20/2023 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananIf you’re reading this, you likely already know at least a little about the Tuskegee Airmen. These 16,000 men and women helped defend the United States during World War II even though as Black Americans they had to overcome Jim Crow laws and racism just to be allowed to fight for their home. Today’s guests are Leigh Roberts and Lanelle Brent, whose father George “Spanky” Roberts was a fighter pilot and Tuskegees’ commander during the war. The sisters help run the Tuskegee Airmen Heritage Chapter of Greater Sacramento. You might have heard them speak in Davis. |
Davisville, Feb. 6, 2023: Did ChatGPT write this? How would you know?Mon, 02/06/2023 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananChatGPT is a new tech tool that can write — maybe “write” should appear in quotes — by using advanced technology and vast databases of text. So is this ability a good thing, the word equivalent of a calculator? Or does use of ChatGPT reduce the need for people to learn how to think and write coherently? In today’s Davisville we talk with Andy Jones, a longtime writing instructor and educational technologist, and Margaret Merrill, a senior instructional design consultant, both at the University of California, Davis. They list pluses and minuses of ChatGPT, their encounters with the tool, how they can tell when someone has used ChatGPT to write something, and how they approach this latest evolution in artificial intelligence. Their discussion is fascinating. |
Davisville, Jan. 23, 2023: Not as visible as their buses, but working on itMon, 01/23/2023 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananThe student government at UC Davis employs more than 1,000 people, speaks for one of the most important constituencies in Davis, and runs popular local services and events like Unitrans and Picnic Day. But less than 6 percent of students voted in the Associated Students of UC Davis fall 2022 election, so what are people overlooking? Today we talk with ASUCD President Radhika Gawde (pictured) about engagement, students’ biggest concern (the rising cost of living), and their relief services for students, plus her appreciation that UC Davis lets students dabble in classes across disciplines, and wish for more late-night food options in town. |
Davisville, Jan. 9, 2023: An exit interview with Dan CarsonMon, 01/09/2023 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananIn the nearly 106 years that Davis has been a city, the City Council has had fewer than 100 members total. Not a big number for a city that now numbers 67,000 people. Today we talk with Dan Carson, who became the newest former member of the council after losing his seat to Bapu Vaitla last November. We talk a little about Measure H and his lawsuit challenging the ballot statement opposing the measure, a criticized tactic that Carson later regretted. We spend more time on what he learned about the city from being on the council, how he thinks Davis is doing, and what he does and does not miss now that he no longer has the job. |
Davisville, Dec. 26, 2022: Mayhem at Twitter, plus confidence that eventually we’ll get a handle on social mediaMon, 12/26/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananWe have two main threads today: the chaos at Twitter since Elon Musk took over, including why the social platform matters, plus a conversation about social media and whether we’ll ever figure it out. Cindy Shen says we will. She’s a social media expert and professor of communication at the University of California, Davis, and points out that people have always figured out how to get a handle on disruptive technology -- including things we no longer view as technology, such as the printing press. “Over time, as people become more accustomed to the technology, we don’t see technology as this causal agent," she says. "We realize that humans have agency as well. ... We have a say about how we want to use the technology, maybe to maximize its positive impact and minimize its harms.” How do we get to this better place? Digital media literacy is a start. |
Davisville, Dec. 12, 2022: How donors in Yolo County give their moneyMon, 12/12/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananThe end of the year is a big time for giving. Today we talk about what people in Yolo County prefer to give to, what inspires them to donate, and what doesn’t, as measured by this year’s survey of donors from the Yolo Community Foundation. The county has about 600 nonprofits. Executive Director Jessica Hubbard discusses the survey, the limits of the responses, where local wealth comes from, concern for arts/culture nonprofits and other “second responders,” and the outlook for 2023. |
Davisville, Dec. 5, 2022: Yiyun Li, a writer of growing acclaim, once taught at UC Davis (first aired in 2015)Mon, 12/05/2022 - 6:10pm | Bill BuchananYiyun Li’s reputation as a writer continues to rise. Her books have earned her several major awards and have taken her to Princeton, where she teaches and serves as director of its creative writing program. In spring 2015, when she was teaching writing at UC Davis, she appeared on Davisville to talk about her work and the short story “A Sheltered Woman” that had won her what was then her latest award. Today we replay that interview from May 18, 2015. |
Davisville, Nov. 21, 2022: The annual movie show with Davis critic Derrick BangMon, 11/21/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananDerrick Bang says he’s looking forward to seeing Steven Spielberg’s new movie, The Fabelmans, but hopes to pass on the modern-cannibals-in-love story, Bones and All. It’s time for our annual year-end movie talk with Derrick, and Davisville host Bill Buchanan begins by confessing he has seen only one movie in a theater this year. We also get Derrick’s take on some of 2022’s worst movies, some of its culturally significant ones, and how he keeps interested in movies after watching, reviewing and dissecting them since his days at the California Aggie in the 1970s. |
Davisville, Nov. 7, 2022: Guaraldi’s popular Christmas classic goes deluxeMon, 11/07/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananThere’s a lot of magic in Vince Guaraldi’s music, especially A Charlie Brown Christmas. This fall Craft Recordings is releasing extended deluxe versions of the holiday classic, and we talk with three of the people involved: brothers Jason and Sean Mendelson, whose late father Lee Mendelson was the executive producer of the Peanuts holiday specials, and Davis author Derrick Bang, who wrote the expanded CD/LP’s liner notes. We also talk about the soundtrack to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which Craft released in August. Holiday music would be very different if Lee Mendelson hadn’t brought Guaraldi and Peanuts creator Charles Schulz together. We hear about how they met, talk about Guaraldi and the music — and Jason gamely recreates the moment when, as a kid, he was voicing Marcie in the Happy New Year, Charlie Brown TV special and the character gave Charlie Brown a smooch. |
Comments
You're a Davis icon, Bill. Keep up the good work of providing local, informative, and quality programming.
Bill, listen to the first 10 minutes of my show dated 7/7/2010. I hope you approve.
Paul Sheeran
Just wanted to say thanks for an outstanding interview with Freedom From Hunger's president, Chris Dunford.
Keep up the good work!
Sam Citron
thanks, Sam!
This is the program in question; it aired Jan. 25:
http://www.kdrt.org/node/2689
Bill
Post new comment