Kenneth Wells is a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health, and a senior scientist at RAND. Before participating in a UCLA/Zócalo panel discussion about the problem of homelessness in cities, he talked in the Zócalo Green Room about playing pool as a kid, thinking about a grant proposal during an organ performance, and meeting his wife while working on a cadaver in medical school.
Q: What’s your favorite holiday?
A: New Year’s Eve.
Q: What was the last meal you ordered?
A: Fish tacos.
Q: You grew up in a musical Baptist family. What about gospel music moves you?
A: I was the one in the family moved more by classical music than gospel music. It was the passion—the marriage of idea, text, and music.
Q: Do you find writing music helps you as a psychiatrist, or vice versa?
A: The operas I write are about the kind of issues I work on as a psychiatrist. The opera I’m putting on this year is about schizophrenia.
Q: If you had to live outside of Los Angeles, where would you go?
A: San Francisco. My wife is in love with SF.
Q: Do you watch any trashy television?
A: My wife and I are watching The Good Wife. That’s sort of in between.
Q: Is it true you met your wife while you were both working on a cadaver in medical school?
A: We were in anatomy. It was a required first-year class. She was talking about a book I didn’t like and she loved, so we got in a heated disagreement.
Q: If you could take up a new sport tomorrow, which would you choose?
A: I actually might want to return to a sport of my youth, which was pool. My dad used to have a pool table.
Q: Where in Los Angeles would you take someone who has never been to the city?
A: Most people want to go to beach. I like the Malibu beaches.
Q: When’s the last time you got nervous before going on a stage?
A: Sunday. I was substitute organist at my church. I was only somewhat nervous at first, but then I suddenly started thinking about a grant I’m preparing to submit.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.
