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, plus a national Hometown Media Award for excellence from the Alliance for Community Media in 2024. Contact: davisville @ dcn.org
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Davisville, May 30, 2022: The weather is changing, so mind the plantsMon, 05/30/2022 - 6:10pm | Bill BuchananSo here we are in Davis, starting another summer during a drought while also adjusting to larger changes in the weather. Don Shor (pictured) sees the impact of these changes from several angles, as the owner of the Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, and as a certified nursery professional, landscape contractor, and lifelong gardener on his land near Dixon. Local gardeners get the benefit of his advice on the weekly Davis Garden Show, which he co-hosts with Lois Richter on KDRT, and in his garden column in the Davis Enterprise. Today we extend the conversation to talk about how plants mediate heat, changes in what people are buying in Davis, why Davis is a good city for his business, and smart ways to use less water to get trees and plants through this drought. |
Davisville, May 16, 2022: The lost town of MonticelloMon, 05/16/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananHave you heard about Monticello, the small town west of Winters? In the 1950s it was destroyed and flooded to make room for Lake Berryessa, the reservoir created by Monticello Dam. This vanished town is the subject of the current exhibit at the Winters Museum. Today’s guests talk about why Monticello existed and how it emptied, and share stories about people who lived there. Our guests are Woody Fridae, president of the Historical Society of Winters and a former mayor of Winters, and Carol Fitzpatrick, whose family lived in Monticello. She tells an interesting story about meeting a man in his 80s who, decades earlier, had been visiting Monticello at what turned out to be a critically important moment for her family. |
Davisville, May 2, 2022: By finding tiny crocheted Triceratops, UC Davis students are finding each otherMon, 05/02/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananAs the Covid pandemic dials down in Davis, people are finding different ways to reconnect. Today’s story presents a way that’s off the scale in charm and whimsy -- it involves tiny crocheted triceratops that students are making and hiding on the UC Davis campus, for other students to find. Just for the fun of doing it. A Discord server for the project has more than 3,400 members so far, and Berkeley might be next. Today we hear from the founder and two co-leaders of the Davis Triceratops community: UC Davis undergraduates Jennine Eng, Ada Lei, and Sebastian Carpintero. This photo (from left) shows Ada, Jennine, and Sebastian with three of the hundreds of dinosaurs created so far. |
Davisville, April 18, 2022: Still playing on the big screen, but not like they didMon, 04/18/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananWatching movies on the big screen was once a mainstream, shared cultural experience. Think of the crowds that turned out for the Harry Potter movies or Titanic. Those days are gone. So wrote New York Times columnist Ross Douthat last month, and today we ask longtime film reviewers Derrick Bang and Matias Bombal what they think about this idea. Is the change due only to competition from other media, or is something else at work? What does it matter, regardless? Derrick, an author and frequent guest on Davisville, writes for the Davis Enterprise and his blog, Derrick Bang on Film. Matias posts reviews at Matias Bombal’s Hollywood and on KAHI radio, and formerly managed the Crest Movie Theatre in downtown Sacramento. |
Davisville, April 4, 2022: Newsom wants to compel treatment for severely mentally ill among the state’s homelessMon, 04/04/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananGov. Gavin Newsom has proposed “care courts” for every California county. They would “allow treatment for more homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders,” says the Associated Press, “but also compel some of them into care.” That’s a change — compelling severely disturbed people to accept care, instead of just offering it to them. Bill Pride, executive director of Davis Community Meals and Housing and one of today’s guests on Davisville, estimates that half of people who are homeless have a severe mental health disorder. This change could make a major difference in their lives, and in the extent of homelessness. Pride cautions that achieving this change in care would require years of sustained efforts and expense. We also talk with Yolo Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven about the county’s existing Mental Health Court, and how Newsom’s proposal might work alongside what Yolo already does. |
Davisville, March 21, 2022: Andy Jones updates us on teaching at UC Davis during the pandemicMon, 03/21/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananIt'll take awhile to fully understand what the pandemic has changed at UC Davis, but we learn more about the impact today during a return visit with longtime instructor Andy Jones. Andy, who is also an educational technologist, last appeared on Davisville a year ago, when the pandemic was about a year old. At the time, he was teaching one of the first classes to meet in person since the pandemic shut down the campus in spring 2020. Conditions have improved this past year — UC Davis will mostly stop requiring masks indoors on March 19 — but “normal” no longer means what it did. We talk about what that means, plus opportunities that have emerged from the disruption. |
Davisville, March 7, 2022: How live music is returning to DavisMon, 03/07/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananLive music is music, obviously, but it’s also culture, a reason to get together with friends, part of the economy—and this spring, as in-person performances continue to resume in Davis, it’s another marker of how the Covid pandemic is easing. Knock on wood. Today we talk with Danny Tomasello, who’s part of the Davis Music Fest, and musicians Sam Misner and Megan Smith about the hodgepodge return of local concerts, what might have changed for keeps during the pandemic, this June’s Fest, and the need for someone to write about local music the way that Wendy Weitzel writes about local businesses and restaurants. (The photo shows Misner and Smith onstage at Berryessa Brewing in Winters in February 2020, right before the pandemic hit.) |
Davisville, Feb. 21, 2022: The Capitol Corridor expects to bring more changes to DavisMon, 02/21/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananThere’s lots of news this spring from the Capitol Corridor, the Bay-to-Sacramento passenger train service. Short term, it's recovering from the pandemic, plus taking steps to counter problems that have made too many trains run late. Longer term, it's considering 1) a new central platform in Davis that would connect to an underpass from the station and from the Olive Drive side of the tracks, and 2) changes to the County Road 32 crossing east of town. And if you look ahead a few decades, the corridor anticipates faster trains and better connections from Davis to the Bay Area through the ambitious Link21 "megaregion" project. We talk about all this today with Rob Padgette, the service’s managing director. |
Davisville, Feb. 7, 2022: Anne Hance, who helped start ExploritMon, 02/07/2022 - 6:10pm | Bill BuchananThis interview with the late Anne Hance, who died in August 2019, first aired on Nov. 27, 2017. Anne Hance lived an interesting life. A zoologist by training, she grew up in England during World War II, came to Davis in 1968, co-founded and helped lead the Explorit Science Center for a third of a century … and those details are just part of her story. She also had the most wonderful voice. We talk with her on today’s program. |
Davisville, Jan. 24, 2022, updating a top UC research story: How cattle plus seaweed will help the climateMon, 01/24/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananYou might remember this story from all the attention it got in spring 2021: Research at UC Davis says that adding small amounts of a certain seaweed to cows’ diets reduces the methane they produce by up to 82 percent. This change in diet could do a lot to help the climate, because cattle and other ruminants produce about 5 percent of greenhouse gases in the United States. The University of California says this work was one of its 10 best UC research stories for 2021. Today we update the story with UC Davis Animal Science Prof. Ermias Kebreab, who explains the research, its value in feeding people and reducing climate change, and how far along they are in bringing their work to market. |
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
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