Davisville

Bill Buchanan
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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 17 Excellence in Journalism awards from the San Francisco Press Club since 2018, including first place in radio/podcast public affairs programs for 2025, plus a national Hometown Media Award for excellence from the Alliance for Community Media in 2024. Contact: davisville @ dcn.org

  1. 3D AGO

    Davisville, Feb. 9, 2026: Think of homes in Davis in the 2030s and ’40s — what do you see?

    Davis is updating its General Plan, which is meant to guide Davis’ physical development as a community through 2050. The update is a classic, easy-to-overlook civic project that works better when more people know about it and add their ideas about what they want for Davis. The Davis Community Action Network, a local nonprofit, has spent the last couple of years meeting with people in Davis and Yolo County to learn more about what they would like to see happen in Davis, particularly in the areas of housing and climate. The group summarized its work in “From Voice to Vision: Community Insights for Davis’ General Plan Update,” released a year ago. The housing question has been refreshed by the City Council’s decision last month to place the proposed 1,800-home Village Farms development on the June 2026 ballot. Today we talk about what the report says with Judy Ennis, executive director of the network, and Jonathan London, a member of its board. The map shows Davis, in this case divided into City Council districts. Village Farms would be built in the notch located in north central Davis.

    29 min

  2. JAN 27

    Davisville, Jan. 26, 2026: You have four weeks to make a short movie. On your mark …

    One of the new events in Davis for 2026 is a competition, led by a Davis marine biologist whose awards include an Emmy for his camera work, that’s open to anyone willing to make a short movie during the next month. The film must include a Davis-centric prompt to be announced this Wednesday, Jan. 28, and run no longer than 7 minutes. You’ll have about 4 weeks to get it all done. The goal of the Davis Flash Film Challenge “is just to get people to make movies,” says Craig Musburger on today’s Davisville.“We really want to help kind of build on the creative community of Davis and the surrounding area.” Musburger is president of Everywhere Science, a Davis nonprofit, but the movies don’t have to use science as their subject. He says he won’t be surprised to see superheroes or romantic comedies among the entries. As long as the entry doesn’t exceed the bounds of a PG-13 rating, “anything goes and everybody’s welcome.”

    29 min

  3. JAN 13

    Davisville, Jan. 12, 2026: With research cuts, ‘this is what you’re giving up’

    The Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal spending on university research have prompted Ed Kiggins, who leads communications for the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, to start the Minds Over Matters podcast highlighting research at UC Davis. Every two weeks, he talks with a different UC Davis faculty member about their work and why it matters. “Think about reducing Alzheimer’s from a death sentence to basically an inconvenience. That’s the kind of work that’s going on here, and that’s what’s on the block right now,” he says today on Davisville. “Those are the things that … the federal government is intent on keeping from you. We don’t really understand why. No one’s really given us a clear answer as to that regard, but our job is not to engage in that battlefield, our job is to say, ‘this is what you’re giving up, if you choose to go down this path.’ “ The image is the logo for the Minds Over Matters podcast.

    28 min

  4. 12/30/2025

    Davisville, Dec. 29, 2025: Three ideas about Davis

    The turn of the year is a natural time to step outside the usual stream of events, and that’s what we do today. We asked three previous guests of Davisville to each offer an observation about Davis as 2026 begins — something they like about the town, or would change, or think is misunderstood or overlooked. Their choices could be serious, light or anything in between.  On today’s program you’ll hear from Tim Keller, who started Inventopia, a business incubator in Davis, who says Davis should plan to be much larger than it is; Sonora Slater, a recent graduate of UC Davis and former editor of the campus news publication, the California Aggie, about young adults moving from Davis to midtown Sacramento; and Andy Jones, a former poet laureate of Davis, an academic technologist, and a UC Davis lecturer in writing and other subjects, who first appeared on Davisville more than 15 years ago. He talks up downtown's quirky public art. We interviewed each separately by Zoom. Each has seen Davis from different perspectives, and we hope this audio snapshot offers some homegrown food for thought. (The music between the segments comes from the Byrds' 1968 record, The Notorious Byrd Brothers)

    29 min

  5. 12/16/2025

    Davisville, Dec. 15, 2025: Crest movie palace focuses on its next era

    The Crest movie theater in downtown Sacramento has changed its mix of attractions several times during its long history — the vaudeville-era graffiti near the top of the curtains is one sign of that — and owner Bob Emerick has begun to revise the mix yet again.  Emerick, who bought the theater in 2011 and resumed managing it this year, says it’s still possible to run a movie palace like the Crest as a business. “I think it is. You have to look at the niche markets. I think ethnic programming is far too underrepresented in Sacramento. Bollywood, for instance.” So that’s one opportunity. Community events, such as graduations, are another draw, as are $2 tickets to movies that attract crowds of people who want to watch a familiar film with their friends. Plus concerts. “You have to hustle. You have to adapt. You have to find entertainment for the venue,” he says. And a note for Davis: “Davis is absolutely key to keeping the Crest Theater alive,” says Emerick (an engineer who has three degrees from UC Davis), “because of the number of patrons from Davis.” (Photo shows Davisville host Bill Buchanan inside the Crest before a Bruce Cockburn concert in November 2023.)

    28 min

  6. 12/02/2025

    Davisville, Dec. 1, 2025: The silver lining is the public’s response

    It’s been a strange year for food relief, marked most recently by the sporadic suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid during the federal government shutdown this fall. Today on Davisville we talk with two people deeply involved in different areas of Davis food relief: Liane Moody, executive director of the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee, and Max Morgan from the Davis Night Market. They talk about what they’ve seen this year, the growing demand for food assistance, underlying causes, and short- and long-term ideas that could reduce the problem. We talk about prospects for 2026. “The skeptic in me says, oh, this is going to keep getting worse,” Morgan says. “The one big optimistic point, which Liane [talks] about too, is the way the community has stepped up support as things have hit a whole another nadir. It’s really impressive.” The photo shows food and gifts collected and given away during STEAC’s holiday program in 2021.

    29 min

  7. 11/18/2025

    Davisville, Nov. 17, 2025: Davis critic Derrick Bang sizes up 2025’s year-end movies

    Today we enjoy Davisville’s annual fall movie show in which Davis film critic Derrick Bang (pictured at KDRT on Nov. 16) tells us about movies he’s looking forward to as 2025 ends, plus ones he’ll dodge if he sees them sauntering his way. Unless they’re playing in Davis, in which case he feels obliged to review them as the hometown critic. We also talk about why major movies are trending longer, despite the common wisdom that people’s attention spans have grown tiny; watching comedies among an audience, where others’ responses can alert you to a joke you might miss if you’re watching alone; and a court in India that awarded a movie-goer nearly $1,400 because he’d been obliged to watch too many ads before the movie. Derrick sides with the judge. Derrick writes movie reviews for the Davis Enterprise and Derrick Bang on Film.

    29 min

  8. 11/04/2025

    Davisville, Nov. 3, 2025: Yolo Local news and information project takes another step forward

    Yolo Local, an emerging Davis Media Access project to create a new place for local information and news -- with the goal of countering the decline of local news outlets -- has wrapped up several months of conversations and research to learn more about what people in Yolo County want and need. This fall the project published a report with insights and ideas, and early next year they'll start using this work to define what Yolo Local will be and how it will function. It'll probably include a website. Other ideas include producing information in Spanish, and a "backbone" that news outlets might use to work together and share resources. Today we get an update with Autumn Labbe-Renault, DMA’s executive director, about how this work in progress is coming together. (The photo shows a Yolo Local sticker displayed at the DMA offices in Davis)

    28 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

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 17 Excellence in Journalism awards from the San Francisco Press Club since 2018, including first place in radio/podcast public affairs programs for 2025, plus a national Hometown Media Award for excellence from the Alliance for Community Media in 2024. Contact: davisville @ dcn.org

Information

  • Creator
    Bill Buchanan
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    50
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
  • Show Website
    Davisville