Timeout Radio

Color commentators are sports broadcasters who provide expert analysis and background information, such as statistics, strategy, anecdotes, and injury reports on teams and athletes. They work alongside play-by-play commentators to provide insight and analysis throughout the broadcast when the main commentator is not describing the action. They are called color commentators because they bring insight, stories, and levity to the broadcast and add color to the picture of the play. Doug Kelly, the color commentator for UC Davis football for more than two and a half decades, tells us about his journey to being the radio voice of Aggie football. We talk to Doug about his career and his advice for aspiring color commentators, as well as his analysis of the Aggies' wild 2021 season.

There are 13 million children and teens in the United States who don’t have enough to eat. The COVID-19 pandemic put a huge burden on already-struggling families, and childhood hunger is at its highest level ever. Poor nutrition changes how young brains develop and affects learning, growth, health, and behavior. This episode is about hunger and food insecurity. Maria Segoviano tells us about how Yolo Food Bank increases food and nutrition security by connecting people with healthy, high-quality food. Then we travel to Phoenix, Arizona, where you can find the world's first food bank, one of the greenest deserts in North America, 150-year-old saguaro cactus, temperatures of 100°F over 100 days a year, franchises in four major pro sports leagues, and no daylight saving time.

Esports are a billion dollar industry with millions of fans. Players compete in organized video gaming with teams, practices, seasons, and tournaments. A growing phenomenon, esports are an official high school sport in the U.S. and students can earn college scholarships to play for varsity teams. Esports will be part of the 2022 Asian Games and the International Olympic Committee is talking about including them in the Olympic Games. Justin McBurney (high school physical education teacher and esports coach) and Naish Carlisle (a student on the esports team at Da Vinci High School) tell us how and why they got into esports. Then we visit the birthplace of esports, South Korea. Beyond the global music phenomenon of K-pop, South Korea is the place to go for bibimbap, bingsu, and breakdancing.

Activist—a simple word just three syllables long—has been the subject of debate and polarization lately. Find out how the word alternately took on positive and negative connotations over the past decades. Then learn five things that you can do to become an effective activist and get people to support a cause. Meet Gloria Partida, City of Davis' first Latina mayor, who is a community activist with a long history of disability advocacy. She started the Davis Phoenix Coalition, a group that works to eliminate intolerance and prevent hate-motivated violence, and whose motto is "Rising From The Ashes Of Hate". Then visit Egypt, a cradle of civilization where the phoenix, writing, ink, and paper originated. Did you know that the 365-day 12-month calendar we use today was invented in Egypt to predict the yearly floods of the Nile?