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.
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If San Francisco were an hour closer to Davis, how would that change life in Davis? We might find out in the next 10 to 20 years, thanks to a program that is starting to take shape now. Link21, sponsored by BART and the Capitol Corridor, would add a second transbay rail crossing as part of an ambitious, expensive plan to extend rail connections throughout the 21-county megaregion that stretches from Yuba County to Monterey. The program’s components include faster Capitol Corridor train service between Sacramento and San Francisco, among other changes. People throughout the region will have a chance to shape what gets built, and doing it all fairly is one of the major goals.
Today we talk with Camille Tsao, Capitol Corridor project manager for Link21, about what’s in the works.
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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? |
The Covid-19 pandemic is about a year old. The first vaccinations have been given, and better days are ahead, but we’re months away from normal, and the county health officer even said this month that we're “probably about to enter one of the darkest times of the pandemic so far.” The deaths and illness are the biggest impact, followed by the damage to jobs, business and the economy. Today we talk with Cory Koehler, executive director of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, about how Davis' 2,500 businesses are faring this far in, different ways they’re coping, and what might be ahead. The chamber hosts its annual State of the City event online on Feb. 3, and the consequences of the pandemic are sure to be front and center.
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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?
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Doug Hatton has appeared as Santa Claus at events in and around Davis for more than 20 years. On today’s Davisville he talks about the experience, what Davis kids ask for, the time a girl asked for an ATM for her room, how he manages expectations, and the enjoyment he gets from doing it all. Listening is important, he says, kids can sense if someone really wants to talk with them, and yes, his beard is real. (Broadcast originally aired in December 2018.)
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Chris Hillman co-founded the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Desert Rose Band. He helped create iconic recordings like “Eight Miles High,” The Gilded Palace of Sin and Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and his latest record, Bidin’ My Time in 2017, was produced by Tom Petty. One of his earliest steady paying gigs, in 1964, was in a concocted band whose ersatz hillbilly songs included a tune about a mule. The music was “horrible,” he says. But great adventures were about to begin. Now 76, Hillman has collected some of his stories and experiences in his new book Time Between, and talks about a few of them today on Davisville.
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Even though the pandemic has closed theaters in Davis for most of 2020, we’re still presenting our annual movie show with Davis film critic Derrick Bang—even if only to learn what has survived the dislocations of the year. Derrick writes reviews for the Davis Enterprise and his blog, Derrick Bang on Film. We talk about how the pandemic has affected movie-making and his job as a critic, the films still coming out at what would normally be a big time of the year, and films he’s looking forward to. Because movies reflect the culture, I also asked him to list a few movies about pandemics, such as The Omega Man and Andromeda Strain.
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KDVS, the University of California Davis radio station run by students, is at a crossroads. It’s the last occupant of Freeborn Hall, and must move. It’s coping with a pandemic that has reduced access to its studio. Technology and patterns of how students listen to music has changed tremendously since the station began in the 1960s, so that’s another factor. And mixed in with all that is its legacy of decades as a voice for music and ideas that reflect the interests of UC Davis students. Today we talk with Noel Fernandez, the general manager of KDVS and a UC Davis senior, about where the station is headed.
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So … have you heard about the Book of Lists? Did you even know they exist? The lists collect information about Greater Sacramento and other large cities and metros nationwide – not just statistics that might interest an accountant, but also lists like minority- or women-owned businesses, or largest employer in Yolo County, or fastest-growing companies. You can learn a lot about an area by reading them. My guest today has helped research and create these lists for 36 years in our area: Sharon Havranek, who will retire as senior director of research for the Sacramento Business Journal at the end of 2020. Today we hear what the lists are all about, including some of the colorful details—such as the time they counted cars in an employees’ parking lot to help figure out how many people worked for a prominent but reticent company, and why she decided never to repeat the list of top state Lottery sales outlets.
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