Humana Inc. has released its latest plan to return workers to its offices in Downtown Louisville. Getting Humana workers back Downtown should be a boon for neighborhood restaurants and shops as it's expected to bring a number of people back.
We chat about that plan on the Access Louisville podcast this week. We also talk about the idea of coming back to the office. We've got some different opinions about the value of being in person vrs. working remotely. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, we determine.
Lastly, we talk about the latest with Louisville's startup scene including a $16 million capital raise for Louisville-based firm Virtual Peaker. 
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services. 

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer gave his final state of the city address last week before the Rotary Club of Louisville. On this week's Access Louisville podcast, we chat with Reporter Michael L. Jones who attended the Rotary meeting about his biggest takeaways from the speech. We also chat about Fischer's legacy and how he will be remembered after leaving office. 
After that, we chat with reporter Laurel Deppen about her recent interview with ScionHealth CEO Rob Jay.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

We roundup some of the latest Louisville area restaurant news on this week's Access Louisville podcast.
Specifically we chat about the owner of two downtown Louisville establishments — Riot Cafe and Limbo — that are looking for help from the community during the always tough winter season.
We also chat about a new hip-hop themed restaurant in Fern Creek, Melt 502. And a the opening date for Guaca Mole in Nulu.
After that we switch gears and talk health care news, with a major investment from Confluent Health. Finally, we wrapped it up with a little talk about UofL's next chapter after the departure of Chris Mack.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. 

Louisville-based FreshFry was on a great trajectory prior to the pandemic, helping restaurant clients extend the life of their frying oil with its oil cleansing pods on a national level. But when the early days of Covid-19 shut down restaurants, things began to look starkly more difficult.
This week on the Access Louisville podcast we welcome FreshFry founder Jeremiah Chapman, who tells us how the company not only survived those difficult days but has actually thrived since — rising like a phoenix, as he put it. 
"And it feels like the market dynamics have changed for an extremely exciting 2022," Chapman said.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services as well as on LouisvilleBusinessFirst.com. 

The character of accommodations are changing in Louisville — offering much more boutique and unusual experiences. We chat about that on this week's Access Louisville podcast.
The impetus of the discussion is a recent cover story in Louisville Business First, which highlights a number of unique hotel projects that have taken place around town in the last few years.
Later on in the show, we chat about some restaurant news, including a new Thai restaurant in Downtown Louisville. The owner of this new restaurant has a great story in that she opened an American restaurant in Bangkok and is now opening a Thai restaurant here in Louisville.  
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Radio Public.

What does 2022 hold for Louisville?
On this week's Access Louisville podcast a full crew of Louisville Business First staffers give predictions for the year. We take on a full range of topics: What will happen with Downtown office buildings, what new stores might come to town, what new restaurants might open and even what will become of specific projects such as the Starks Building and One Park. A few tech predictions make their way in there as well.
The predictions show has become a tradition these last few years with this being the third one. Time will tell if any of these predictions come true (we were hit and miss on our predictions for 2021.) 
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Radio Public.

Was 2021 predictable? In some ways, yeah.
Last year around this time the Access Louisville podcast crew made several predictions about what 2021 had in store. On this week's show we go back and talk about what we got right and what we got wrong.
In some cases the predictions were spot on. For instance, LBF Editor Shea Van Hoy somehow correctly predicted that Muhammad Ali Airport would get a flight to Boston.  But in other cases — such as a prediction that a downtown hotel would close — we were way off (several downtown hotels actually opened.)
We also had a few predictions that were hard to quantify. For instance, was it a make or break year for restaurants? Probably. We certainly saw some places close. But we also saw some new places open ... so it's a bit debatable.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport has finally added a flight to Boston. The new flight starts in June from American Airlines.
Reporter Michael L. Jones joins this episode of the Access Louisville podcast to talk about the announcement. It caps off what has been a big year for the airport in terms of adding flights.
We also talk about the reopening of a staple Louisville music venue, Joe's Palm Room and efforts by local food trucks to feed the hungry following last week's devastating tornadoes in Western Kentucky.
Reporter Laurel Deppen is also on the show to follow up on recent personnel changes at the University of Louisville. She was at the university earlier this week as it named an interim president and interim athletic director. 
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

The news cycle belonged to University of Louisville this week, with President Neeli Bendapudi and Athletic Director Vince Tyra both announcing they’re leaving. 

Plenty has been said about it (here’s a reaction story about Bendapudi’s announcement.) We can’t help but pile on a little more commentary on the situation for the podcast this week.

Later in the show we talk about restaurant news including a new location for Ten20 Craft Brewing and a new food hall in the Beechmont neighborhood.

And we give a quick update on the Louisville mayor’s race, including the news that Carla Dearing is out of the race.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher and Radio Public.

JK McKnight, founder of Forecastle, a long-running music, art and activism festival in Louisville, joins the Access Louisville podcast this week.
McKnight has a new venture: Art of Impact, which is focused on reaching Millennials and Gen Z audiences through experiential marketing. We talk about how this agency does that as well as which brands fit the best.
We also chat about music festivals in general: Their future, Forecastle memories, the tragedy at Astroworld and what may have been behind it.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services.