Access Louisville

We talk strategy with the CEO of a popular Louisville attraction on this week's Access Louisville podcast. DeVone Holt has been at the helm of the Muhammad Ali Center, as president and CEO since September . He's the first in the organization’s history to hail from Louisville. On the show he talks about how he plans to both foster local relationships and expand the organization's rea...

The bourbon news doesn't seem to stop flowing. We chat about a major strategy change for Louisville-based distiller Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BF-A, BF-B) on this week's Access Louisville podcast. The discussion was spurred by the recent news that the company, which owns Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester and other spirits brands, is laying off 12% of its global workforce...

We chat about what's next for the bourbon industry on this week's Access Louisville podcast. Specifically, LBF Bourbon Reporter Stephen P. Schmidt is on the show to talk about the coming year for the industry. Schmidt recently talked to several people in the industry for a two-part story on the year ahead in this signature Kentucky space. He heard a little bit of everything from speculat...

We've open up our crystal ball, blew on the circuit board and put it back together. Surely, now, we're ready to predict the future.  As we have the last few years, we start another year of the Access Louisville podcast by making predictions for what we think will happen in the area over the next 12 months.  We tackle a large range of topics in our predictions — construction, sports, busi...

If only we had a crystal ball. In the last several years, the team at LBF's Access Louisville podcast have developed an end-of-the-year tradition where we sit down and try to predict what might happen the next year. In this week's episode, we revisit predictions we made for 2024 — and it was a mixed bag on what we got right and wrong. Some of the things we covered include Racing Louisvil...

We catch up with a major Louisville nonprofit on this week's Access Louisville podcast. Tamera Reif, senior director of Housing Services at Volunteers of America Mid-States, is on this week's show to talk about a number of ongoing projects with the organizaiton. She spends her days in the world of residential homeless and housing work — a key issue affecting Louisville in recent years. S...

We've got a classic restaurant news update on this week's Access Louisville podcast. Reporter Michael L. Jones is on the show to tell us about Byrdie's . James Beard-nominated Chef Jenner Tomaska and his wife and business partner Katrina Bravo opened Byrdie’s, a new French-inspired bistro, in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood on Thursday, Dec. 12. Byrdie's is on the first floor of...

How important is a proposed $250M development around Louisville Slugger Field? We chat about that on this week's Access Louisville podcast. Reporter Joel Stinnett initially reported on this project, on Dec. 2. and is on this week's show to share a few insights and details about it. The Louisville Sports Entertainment District would be a 500,000-square-foot mix of housing, retail, hospita...

After some struggles years ago, Louisville-based Rainbow Blossom has a great last few years.  Rainbow Blossom, an independent chain of natural food markets that specializes in natural grocery, body care and health and wellness products, just opened a new East End location a few months ago . It also made LBF's Fast 50 list of growing companies in Louisville in this year, with revenue rising 18...

We go over all the latest restaurant news on this week's Access Louisville podcast. LBF Reporter Michael L. Jones is on the show to tell us about several interesting developments.  Notably, Jones shares the story of Frank Faris, who formerly owned Genny's Diner and today is behind the Frickled Pickle Express food truck. Jones, who has reported on the restaurant scene in Louisville for ma...

This week on the Access Louisville podcast, we chat about the Givaudan Sense Colour explosion that shook the city on Tuesday, Nov. 12.  Two people were killed in the explosion, which took place at 901 Payne Street.  On the show we talked about the atmosphere in the newsroom the day it happened and some of the fallout, including damage to surrounding homes and business. And we discuss past violatio...

A couple recent real estate deals allow plans for a proposed 27-story tower to move forward.  And we chat about those transactions on this week's Access Louisville podcast.  LBF Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett is on the show to talk about New York City-based Zyyo's latest moves toward building the facility, as it has closed deals to purchase 140, 138 and 136 W. Market Sts., according to de...

Louisville is getting a new international grocery store — which got us talking about the market's needs on this week's Access Louisville podcast. LBF Reporter Joel Stinnett joins the show this week to tell us about Saraga International Grocery, which has signed a lease and will open its first area store at 200 N. Hurstbourne Parkway inside The Forum Center . This was formerly the site of...

After some struggles years ago, Louisville-based Rainbow Blossom has a great last few years.  Rainbow Blossom, an independent chain of natural food markets that specializes in natural grocery, body care and health and wellness products, just opened a new East End location a few months ago . It also made LBF's Fast 50 list of growing companies in Louisville in this year, with revenue rising 18...

Like many communities, Louisville has a shortage of teachers. We talk about efforts to address it on this week's Access Louisville podcast.  Rowan Claypool, founder and CEO of Teach Kentucky, is on the show to talk about his organization's work. Founded in 2003, Teach Kentucky aims to help college graduates launch their teaching careers in Louisville’s public schools. The organization ha...

We talk campaign finance trends on this week's Access Louisville podcast.  A few weeks ago, LBF Reporter Piper Hansen began digging into donation trends among workers at some of Louisville's biggest employers. She found that most of those donations (for the second quarter of 2024) went to Democratic presidential nominee and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donal...

We've got a little bit of everything on this week's Access Louisville podcast. To start off the show, we chat about what Louisville and Kentucky had offered the Sundance Film Festival. As we've reported multiple times in the last year , Louisville had been in consideration for the legendary film festival but that is no longer the case.  That said, LBF Reporter Michael L. Jones did r...

We didn't get the part, but we gotta keep auditioning. Louisville was recently snubbed on a bid to land the Sundance Film Festival. As we reported a few weeks ago, the legendary film festival had Louisville on a short list for possible relocation. Then it narrowed its list even further and the Derby City is now out of the running . But that doesn't mean our film ambitions have dried up e...

We catch up with the latest restaurant news on this week's Access Louisville podcast. Reporter Michael L. Jones leads the podcast with a story about Renshoku Ramen, an Old Louisville restaurant that has faced a few struggles of late, including being hit by a car ( known as being MagBarred ) more than two months ago. The crashed killed the driver and caused a fire that spread to the building a...

Every once in a while, you have to look back at your career and your place in the community and not only ponder where you've been but look ahead at what's coming next.  That's what we did on Monday, Sept. 9 as we sat down with our newest inductees in LBF's Forty Under 40 Hall of Fame: Sandra Frazier, founder, Tandem Public Relations Jimmy Kirchdorfer, chairman and CEO, ISCO Ind...

Louisville has a big decision to make about what kind of public transportation system it wants.  Transit Authority of River City, better known as TARC, is facing a "fiscal cliff" as a result of several factors , including covid-era stimulus funding running out. We talked about the issues with TARC executive director Ozzy Gibson on a bonus episode of the Access Louisville podcast this wee...

Is Louisville's lack of population growth a cause for concern? We talk about that on this week's Access Louisville podcast. LBF Reporter Piper Hansen recently finished a story examining population trends in Louisville .  Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau released in June show Jefferson County’s population decreased by 1.4%, nearly 11,000 people, between April 2020 and July 2023. Mean...

Join us for Access Louisville's next live recording: Sept. 9 at JA BizTown, sponsored by Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana. Tickets and details here . We switch into sports talk radio mode on this week's Access Louisville podcast with three big local sports business stories. Stephen P. Schmidt, who covers sports business at Business First, tells us about Bellarmine University moving its...

Join us for Access Louisville's next live recording: Sept. 9 at JA BizTown, sponsored by Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana. Tickets and details here . The former the Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Co. shipyard — Jeffboat, as it's known — is no doubt one of the area's biggest redevelopment project. The former shipyard, closed to downtown Jeffersonville (and just across the Ohio Rive...

We check in on some retail news on this week's Access Louisville podcast.  Topping our show is a story from Reporter Stephen P. Schmidt on Swags, a popular retailer for runners, changing hands. Schmidt talked to the founder of the store about how this handoff came together .  In other retail news, Kroger is making some headlines lately both with a new store on Louisville's East End and p...