It's Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch

Aging is a hot topic in America these days. So is anti-aging. On the one hand, the Baby Boomer generation are now in their late 50s which means big changes to our workforce, retirement system, and healthcare delivery system, all of which are creating business opportunities for companies that meet the needs of the aging population. On the other hand, the relentless desire to remain youthful has cre...

Aging is a hot topic in America these days. So is anti-aging. On the one hand, the Baby Boomer generation are now in their late 50s which means big changes to our workforce, retirement system, and healthcare delivery system, all of which are creating business opportunities for companies that meet the needs of the aging population. On the other hand, the relentless desire to remain youthful has cre...

According to the Global Wellness Institute, the global health and wellness industry is now worth $4.2 trillion. The industry has been growing with 12.8% between 2015 and 2017 and represents a whopping 5.3% of global economic output. For local entrepreneurs, that is creating a lot of opportunities – but that also means there’s a lot of competition. Nicole Cummins is owner of  Barre...

Down on Silicon Bayou, local Baton Rouge companies are carving out an amazing space in the tech sector. They’re designing impressive software platforms and tools that are attracting worldwide attention. Steve McKinney  is the Chief Operating Officer of  Cell Control , a Baton Rouge company that, in 2009, came up with technology to help eliminate distracted driving. In the years sin...

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve flown across the country or around the world, for that matter. There’s something that continues to dazzle and fascinate us wingless, human creatures every time we get in an airplane, whether a single prop or a jumbo jet, and get ready for take off.  When cars were invented, they were originally known as "horseless carriages." In the sa...

If you think "Silicon Valley" sounds cool but "Silicon Swamp" doesn't, you're probably not from South Louisiana. Here in South Louisiana we love the swamp, it's a part of who we are. The reason "Silicon Swamp" might sound weird is that we are less inclined to identify ourselves as the home of tech innovation. Well, maybe it's time for an altitude adjustment! There are  impressive start-up bus...

There aren't many occasions to talk about fine art and movies in the same sentence. And you'd be forgiven for thinking there's even less occasion to consider the financing of movies and fine art as having anything to do with each other. And that's why we have lunch! So folks from what might seem to be disparate endeavors can talk and find out they actually have something in common. Ann Connelly is...

Every place has a history and a past, but preserving the best of it and keeping it relevant doesn’t just happen, you have to work at it. On this show we're very bullish on keeping Baton Rouge vital economically and socially, but today we're talking about looks - keeping Baton Rouge beautiful. We're not being shallow and fixated on appearance, cities can be more attractive economically and so...

Time was, every town had cobblers and tailors. Fairy tales and history books alike are replete with references to these noble tradesmen, who kept people "shodded" and clothed. Today, you can still look good in a sharp suit and shiny shoes. Commerce has evolved from local service providers to department stores, big box retailers and online sites, but, here in Baton Rouge, although old fashioned bus...

"Retail apocalypse" is a term we’re starting to hear frequently. It suggests a coming meltdown of retail reality due to the impact of Amazon and other online retailers on brick and mortar stores. Stephine Riegel's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge are, in two very different ways, fighting it out on the front line of retail apocalypse. Chris Russo Blackwood is co-owner of Rus...

Technology is all around us today, making possible things we never even imagined. Here's two: an app that is the Uber of medical care, and Virtual Reality that  makes it possible to train employees to work in a chemical plants or recreate the battle of Okinawa. Perhaps an equally surprising fact about these innovations is that they are being created here in south Louisiana. Vashon Craft is Di...

As the tech industry evolves and matures, all sorts of new opportunities are created for entrepreneurs, who see where existing technologies don't meet a need or don't go far enough to deliver what customers demand. If you listen to national shows like "How I Built This" or Freakonomics, you're familiar with the type of wildly creative person who doesn't take no for an answer and comes up with a gr...

We talk a lot about business on this show, and what it takes to be successful in business. On this edition of Out to Lunch Stephanie focuses on an aspect of business that doesn't typically get so much attention: ethics. Aaron Beam is a former executive who travels around the country lecturing on ethics in business. It's a topic he knows well. In the late 1990s, Aaron participated in a 2 billion se...

We hear a lot on this show from entrepreneurs — some successful, some just starting out— about what they do and what makes them tick. On this edition of Out to Lunch we turn our attention to a whole new breed of business people: high school entrepreneurs.  Deborah Sternberg is founder and chairperson of the Baton Rouge affiliate of a nationwide organization called Young Entreprene...

Teach For America is a nationwide initiative to address the shirtage of teachers in the US. A recent study estimated that the nationwide shortage in 2018, which was around 110 thousand, is expected to nearly double to 200 thousand by 2025. Teach For America is an organization that seeks to enlist and mobilize bright, motivated future leaders and put them to work for two year stints, helping improv...

Kelli Scott Kelley is a leading light in the world of Baton Rouge art. Kelli is an artist and a professor of painting in the LSU School of Art. Kelli has exhibited and lectured throughout the United States. She specializes in mixed-media narrative paintings, drawings and objects, and has authored a book featuring her narrative artwork entitled Accalia and the Swamp Monster in 2014, for which she r...

Over the next few years, the disaster management industry in the United States alone is expected to top $122 billion dollars, which points to a lot of problems with our climate, but also to the many opportunities that exist for companies able to respond to the needs of city, state and local governments when they’re hit hard by natural disaster. Louisiana has a growing expertise in the disast...

Because you live in Baton Rouge, you might be familiar with the Albert King lyric, "Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die." We want to stay alive as long as we can, and we keep finding new ways to do it. On this edition of Out to Lunch we're talking about two of the newsest and most popular: CBD, and Orange Theory Fitness. Heather Carter is owner of Mountain Pure CBD, a Baton Rou...

Teaching skills and imparting knowledge are perhaps the greatest gifts and tools we can give to the young, and the young at heart, hungry to learn. Local Baton Rouge entrepreneurs are coming up with creative ways to turn the act of teaching and educating into small businesses with limitless potential. Jacques Hopkins was an electrical engineer whose desire to be an online entrepreneur led him, fiv...

Agriculture is one of Louisiana's major industries. But while we know a lot about the rice, sugar cane and cattle farms around the state, there are other types of farms and aspects of farming you may not be so familiar with. For example, bees and crickets! David Fluker is a second gerneration cricket farmer. David owns and operates Fluker Farms, a Port Allen based family farm company that grows li...

In politics there are the kings, and then there are the king makers political consultants who are the power behind the power. In business, it s not that different. There are the companies, and then there are the consultants, experts and industry associations who lobby on their behalf, help them shape their image, and guide them through crises with messages that will resonate with an increasingly s...

Making it in today s business environment isn t about hanging out a shingle and selling lots of widgets. It s about constantly reinventing yourself, creating your own unique brand and, in some cases, branding yourself as an expert in helping others create their own brand. It s business 21st century style, and Baton Rougeans are proving themselves adept at playing by the new rules. Cary Bonnecaze i...

Baton Rouge is home to a lot of budding entrepreneurs. It s also home to a lot of just plain interesting people, whose companies and careers have propelled them to be creative forces, influencers and advocates for nonprofits, the needy, and doing the right thing in the community. Ava Leavell Haymon is a poet and author of four books who served as Poet Laureate for the state of Louisiana from 2013...

Though Louisiana isn t known for its tech community, Silicon Bayou has produced some pretty impressive tech companies over the years. One of the most impressive is a nationwide industry leader, Watch Systems. Mike Cormaci is president and co founder of the nearly 20 year old IT company that is well known to law enforcement agencies around the country because of its flagship product, Offender Watch...

In 2018, the U.S. wedding industry was worth an estaimted $75 Billion. The average wedding set the happy couple, or their parents, back by a whopping $44,000. That's nearly double the average cost of a just a year or two earlier. But, for every action there's an opposite and equal reaction. Today, brides are balking at spending big money on weddings. And savvy entrepreneurs are finding ways to mak...