It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Prize winning economist. He is the inventor of what is called the micro economy. He came up with the idea of making micro loans to people in 3rd world countries so they could start a small business. Yunus s latest thoughts on the capitalist economy include the opinion that one of our biggest stumbling blocks to happiness and the fulfilment of our true human nature is that...

In the tech industry there s always a "next big thing" on the horizon that s going to change everything. It happens so often there s a name for this syndrome. It s called "disruption." The next big disruption that everyone s talking about is driverless cars. While we don t know when a driverless car is actually going to pull up outside your house or whether anyone is going to have the courage to g...

Here in Acadiana, one of the things we value is tradition. By that we mean not just Cajun and Creole culture, but the old fashioned ways of doing things. We don t mind if business takes a little longer to conduct and includes a long lunch and longer conversations about our families and football than business cause that s just how it s done around here. On the other hand, we like to keep up with wh...

Over the last couple of years we ve had to deal with the fallout from big changes in the oil business. We have been far less battered by equally cataclysmic changes in the film business. If you haven t been keeping up, here s the thumbnail sketch. In 2003 the Louisiana legislature decided to attract film production to the state by giving film productions 30 of their budget. In cash. That meant, if...

According to the United States Geological Survey, 71 of the Earth s surface is water. And 96 of that in other words, almost all of it is ocean. Seeing most of the planet is ocean, you might wonder why it s called "Earth" at all. In theory, it should really be called "Water." And seeing there are billions more fish than there are humans, you would think we relatively few humans would be dominated b...

If you live in Acadiana there s a good chance you attend your fair share of festivals. It seems like there s a festival around here just about every week. That s because there is. If you re in a Cajun band and you think at one time or another you ve been booked to play all of them, Google "Acadiana Festivals." I bet there s a couple you haven t heard of. The crown jewel of our Acadiana Festivals i...

We hear a lot in the national news about the global economy, and how we re all connected. Here in Acadiana we can certainly see how our families are connected, but it s often difficult to see our connection to the rest of the state, much less the nation, and the world. Sitting in for Peter Ricchiuti on this edition of Out to Lunch, Aileen Bennett introduces two local businessmen who are both part...

The legendary Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote, in old Scots Brogue, "The best laid schemes o mice n men, gang aft a gley." The Scots brogue was the British equivalent of Cajun French. In English we ve translated it as, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Burns frequently wrote about innocent country creatures. Especially the way their lives can be impacted by the forces of our wo...

Aileen s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch are in the same business grooming. There is, however, one significant difference between their two businesses. They serve different species. One is for human beings. The other is for dogs. Renee Ezell is the owner of the human oriented business, The Refinery Downtown. At The Refinery they specialize in men s haircuts and hot towel shaves. Plus they h...

For a great deal of the time humans have been walking around on Earth we were like other species. We spent most of our time outdoors and built shelters to sleep in, or to take refuge from severe weather. Somewhere along the line, that changed. Now most of we humans spend most of our lives indoors. Inside buildings. Our structures have become far more than just shelters. Some are essential to indus...

The legend of Evangeline is the Cajun Romeo and Juliet. It s a story that captures the essence of the Acadiens experience. And it s as romantic as any ever told. The story of Evangeline Parish is equally essentially Cajun. It might be a little more down to earth than the eternal search for love. But then again, if that search includes the love of boudin and cracklin some folks can be as determined...

You might have heard of a recent study about chocolate milk. Although it sounds absolutely preposterous, this perfectly legitimate study found that 7 of the American public believes that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. 7 of the population is around 20 million people. Although it sounds laughable, the explanation offered for what seems like extraordinary ignorance is that so many of us live s...

We all reach conclusions because of sound. We say a person "sounds nice." A song "sounds romantic." Or an idea "sounds good." When we reach these conclusions, what we re doing is attributing feelings and emotions to sounds. Giving sounds feeling and emotion is the province of Peter s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch. Jason Harrington designs and builds hand crafted amplifiers for music and v...

Summer lasts a long time in this part of the world. We take advantage of it by doing stuff outside like crawfish boils and bike rides. Meg Arcenaux is an expert on both of these Summertime activities. Meg is the owner of the bike shop Hub City Cycles as well as a pop up crawfish boil business called Hawk s Boil Up. When you look back on your childhood, hot Summers seemed to stretch on forever. One...

There s a pretty good chance that you listen to podcasts in your car. There s a one hundred percent chance that at some point you re going to have to stop for gas. When you do, there s a ninety percent chance you won t go into the gas station. Nine out of ten people get gas, pay at the pump, and drive off. Which is something of a tragedy. Because they don t know what they re missing. Inside the mo...

To the rest of the United States, the symbol of Louisiana is the alligator. Gators slither across T shirts, baseball caps, and posters in every souvenir shop in the state. You can find the cute critters doing everything from smoking a cigarette leaning up against a gas lamp in New Orleans French Quarter, to playing the accordion in a pirogue in the shade of a cypress tree on a sleepy bayou. Here i...

Apparently, back in the dim distant past, people used to get sick, go to a doctor, get cured, and go home. We d pay the doctor for his or her services, and everybody would walk away happy. That was a long time ago. Now you go to a doctor, you get a battery of tests, you get referred to another doctor who specializes in what may or may not be wrong with you, your insurance company refuses to cover...

One of the things we re proudest of in Acadiana is our culture. A big part of it is music and dance. Cajun and Zydeco. There are similarities and notable differences between Cajun music and dance, and Zydeco music and dance. Leaving aside for the moment the intertwined Acadian and African influences, one major musical difference, obvious even to people from outside, is an instrument you hear in Zy...

In Acadiana there are a number of Holy Trinities. There s the original, Christian, one. There s the roux onions, peppers and celery. And there s the Acadian Agricultural trinity Sugarcane, crawfish, and rice. In the rice capital of the world, Crowley Louisiana, The Falcon Rice Mill has been a family business since 1950. It s the only family run rice mill in the country. And it s the home of Countr...

We generally talk about heroes in a time of crisis. When we re in some kind of life threatening danger, a hero is an ordinary person who does something extraordinary. In the normal course of events, in a small town, a hero can be almost the opposite. A hero can be an extraordinary person who does something ordinary. Like growing vegetables. Or making soap. In the hands of hometown heroes, these ot...

We often hear people lamenting mostly politicians that manufacturing in America has hit an all time low. The catch cry you hear frequently repeated is, "we don t make anything here anymore." Here in Acadiana we know that s not true. We make pretty much everything. On this edition of Out to Lunch Aileen Bennett sits in for Peter Ricchiuti and introduces two people who make things Alison Bohl Dehart...

If you travel around Louisiana, you see enormous differences from north to south. And even more from east to west. It s always been this way, to some extent. But the differences have arguably never been as extreme as they are now. Here in Lafayette, and in Acadiana in general, we re going through some pretty major changes as we adjust to the new reality of the oil business. Meanwhile, just an hour...

Just 135 miles apart, a 2 hour sprint on the interstate or a scenic ramble on the 90, New Orleans and Lafayette are two of America s most culturally interesting cities. Economically, though, they re different. New Orleans is booming and growing while Lafayette is facing headwinds from a depressed oil economy and the continuing after effects of floods that are combining to limit opportunity. Given...

If you had a dollar for every time someone on radio or TV said, "Here in Acadiana we re known for our food," you probably would have made about a hundred dollars this month already. You wouldn t be as wealthy, though, if you were collecting a dollar on the sentence, "Here in Acadiana there is a sizeable segment of the population open to a medically holistic, nutritious approach to diet with an emp...

A few football seasons ago, after years of losing, the Saints suddenly started to become a winning team. People back then would explain the change of fortune with a knowing look and two words "Drew Brees." In Acadiana, people have recently started exchanging that same knowing look when they talk about the impressive number of new businesses starting up around here. Folks look at each other and say...