Listening Lyrics

Bapu Vaitla, running to represent district 1 on the Davis City Council, talks about music and share tracks that inspire and galvanize all our efforts towards building a better world today on Listening Lyrics.

From his campaign website: “Bapu Vaitla was born in rural India and spent his childhood in Chicago and Los Angeles. He came to UC Davis for his undergraduate studies, where he forged strong bonds with the social and environmental justice community in town, learning about the power of science to change the world.

"His professional career has been in the global fight against hunger. He earned his PhD at Tufts University, focusing on the politics and economics of hunger, and later did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University on climate change and food security. As former chair of the Social Services Commission, he led Davis's groundbreaking public safety reform process, and continues the fight to make affordable housing a policy priority.

"He is a member of the Davis Homelessness Alliance and on the Board of Cool Davis, the leading non-profit organization in town working to build resilience against climate change. His day job is with Data2X, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation that focuses on improving knowledge about the lives of women and girls worldwide.”

Timothy Walker is a folk musician and singer-songwriter originally from the Atlanta area, but currently residing in Davis as he works on his PhD in English literature. He performs and writes music under the stage name Threadbare, Brother. His first full-length record, When the War is Through, was released in 2011. The album explores the themes of spiritual transformation in the midst of personal grief and uncertainty.

After a long hiatus from performing, he is working on a new set of songs that seek to portray the complexities of queer love, loss, and longing in the aftermath of religious trauma.

Listen to this program over the air, via streaming on kdrt.org, via the show archives, or on most podcast apps under the name Listening Lyrics.