It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

Out to Lunch Acadiana is linking up with Out to Lunch New Orleans and Out to Lunch Baton Rouge for a statewide examination of our businesses and personal finances as we deal with the national public health crisis that is Coronavirus in Louisiana and life in the Covid Economy.

Isolated in their respective homes, Christiaan Mader co-hosts the show along with New Orleans host Peter Ricchiuti and Baton Rouge host Stephanie Riegel. 

On this inaugural edition of Out to Lunch Louisiana, Christiaan discusses the extent to which Acadiana has begun to feel the effects of the onset of the virus, from the oil field to Jefferson Street, with veteran local political insider and current CEO and President of United Way of Acadiana, Carlee Alm-LaBarr.

Stephanie Riegel introduces Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana's healthcare economist, Mike Bertaut, who reveals the scope of the current crisis for the healthcare company, for healthcare nationwide, and for the 1.6million Louisiana residents who are signed up with Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Peter Ricchiuti examines what the the slowdown of business and collapse of the stock market means to the future of stocks with veteran financial consultant, Ricardo Thomas. Is this like every other market turn down that will eventually correct itself and then some? Or are we really in uncharted waters here and therefore looking at a bigger change that we haven't seen before?

Out to Lunch Louisiana will continue as a statewide program for the duration of the public health crisis of Coronavirus in Louisiana.

Photos from the Zoom recording of the program by Jill Lafleur and more information at our website https://itsacadiana.com/show/out-to-lunch/

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Normally on Out to Lunch we're talking about for-profit businesses. But here in Acadiana - maybe more than anywhere else in the country - there are organisations and people dedicated to making a difference rather than a profit. On this edition of Out to Lunch Christiaan Mader is talking with folks who run nonprofit organizations that fill an important gap in community services, saving birds and saving schools. 

Even if your heart's in the right place, you still need to be able to find your wallet. Lafayette is not necessarily an easy place to raise money. People are generous here, no doubt about that, southern hospitality is certainly a local specialty. But people around here value independence and self-determination. Plus, they like a business idea to make business sense, which means they ought to make money and survive on their own. 

That presents a challenge to nonprofits large and small. How do you make big impact on a lean budget? How do you build for the long term when all the money you get goes to the important and expensive work that you’re doing now. 

Abi Broussard Falgout is the Executive Director the Lafayette Education Foundation. For close to 30 years, L-E-F has filled funding gaps for Lafayette’s schools and educators. The foundation is primarily a granting organization, with a tiny staff, and is best known for the annual Teacher Awards, a glitzy gala that celebrates the best teachers in Lafayette Parish. Abi took over as Executive Director in 2019. She’s also an entrepreneur who’s worked in marketing, real estate and hospitality. 

Letitia Labbie runs a wildlife rehabilitation center out of her house in Youngsville. Letitia founded her tiny but effective nonprofit, Acadiana Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation, in 1998. AWER has taken in more than 6,000 birds and small animals over the years, which she treats at often enormous cost, and often entirely on her own. Letitia is currently raising money to establish a permanent treatment center that’s not her house.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded over lunch at The French Press in Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Travis Gauthier and more, at our website.

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If you're in the music business and you can get a dollar for every time somebody says "The music business is changing," you'll probably make more money than however you're making it now in the music business. 

Yes, Acadiana is rich with music, but music makes hardly anybody rich. And getting rich is besides the point. For the most part, the people who play the music that makes South Louisiana famous do so part-time. That includes all those Grammy winners you hear about. 

Sure enough people get by. There’s never a shortage of gigs. And playing Zydeco or Cajun music can be good supplemental income. Plus it’s a great time.  But long term, it’s tricky if not impossible to build a safety net or nest egg that most American workers accumulate over their careers. 

Musicians can’t really retire — not that they would want to — and that means major needs can go unfunded and unmet in the twilight of most careers.  Christiaan Mader's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana are both dealing with this problem, albeit from different angles. 

Major Handy is by all accounts a  living legend in blues and Zydeco. A world traveler. A raconteur, and an auto mechanic. At 72 years old, he’s deeply familiar with the challenges of being a working musician past the traditional retiring age. But he’s a consummate pro and fighter. He suffered a stroke at the beginning of 2020 but is already back on the beat, set to play some gigs in France later this year. Major is also involved with the Music Makers Relief Foundation, a nonprofit that supports and documents traditional musicians in the Deep South.

John Williams is president of Love of People, a nonprofit started by his family in the 1990s, but is best known for Blue Monday, a program he launched in 2016. Blue Monday raises money to help aging musicians pay for medical care and living expenses through an monthly concert and dinner series staged at Rock and Bowl here in Downtown Lafayette. Love of People runs several different initiatives including Musicians Etude, We Care and the Lending Closet, which compensates local musicians who donate their talents to benefits with credits to buy goods and professional services. John is also Executive Director of the Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. 

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Maybe you think Boudoir Photography - intimate, seductive portraits taken for romance or personal empowerment - is something that happens in other places. After all, we're pretty conservative around here. Aren't we? Well, apparently not. 

April Courville got a masters in marketing in college and wound up in Minnesota where she fell into boudoir photography. When April moved back to Lafayette she  built a big enough book of business to strike out on her own full time with a boudoir photography business called A. Danette Photography.

Here’s a photography cliche. Why hire a photographer when a phone can do the job? That was already the conventional wisdom 13 years ago when the iPhone debuted. Since then, the lenses have only gotten better and people have started making millions taking pictures of their lives on Instagram. But the professional photographer never went obsolete as predicted. 

That’s because there are plenty of circumstances that require a professional touch — weddings, portraits, magazine features and commercial photography that requires special skills to make the ordinary look extraordinary. That doesn’t mean making a living behind the camera isn’t a hustle. Success in photography takes relentless self-promotion, creativity and maybe a little luck. 

Paul Kieu detoured into photography while on a path toward law school. Taking pictures was a hobby until he figured out he could get paid to do it and he stuck with it after graduating from UL with a degree in political science. He worked as a photojournalist for the Daily Advertiser for several years until leaving to work on his own. Taking a particular interest in culture, Paul’s work captures Acadiana’s boucheries, festivals and celebrations in vivid detail. You can find his photos in several local and regional publications. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. And talking of photographs, if you'd like to see photos from this show by Travis Gauthier you can find them at https://itsacadiana.com/show/out-to-lunch/

More conversation over lunch about Acadiana photography here.

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The term "Silicon Bayou" has been around for some time. It’s the promise of a new economy for Louisiana, sometimes thought of in New Orleans. Beyond the confines of the Crescent City, the Louisiana Silicon Bayou stretches well into Acadiana.

When you think about it, this area has always been the frontier when it comes to business, and that attitude was put on the map by oil speculators who came to be known as "wildcatters."

Today we call that, "entrepreneur." These are the risk takers. The folks hunting for the next big idea and hoping to strike gold. 

Christiaan's lunch companions on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana both work in the world of startups — the new business frontier with a different kind of wildcat. 

Kyle Boudreaux, more often called Skip, got into the startup world early. By 25 he was the CEO of an innovative diaper company. He went on to work in the world of investment capital and he recently launched the first venture capital firm in the area, called Acadian Ventures. 

Bill Dalton has worked in digital marketing since the dot-boom. He launched Firefly Digital in the late 90s with his partner Mike Spears. The company was one of the first ad agencies in the area to build and design marketing campaigns for the web. People still called it the world wide web back then. Firefly Digital incubated the startup Smart Choice Technologies to a successful exit. Now re-branded as Firefly Marketing, Bill’s team provides full-service digital marketing for clients near and far. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded over lunch at The French Press in Lafayette. There are photos from this show by Gwen Aucoin and lots more info on our website https://link.chtbl.com/Vj_kXlwb

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Writers are hustlers. When you get paid cents per word, you’ve got to write a lot of words to make ends meet. And that’s getting harder to do in a crowded market. Anyone can blog. We all learn to string a few sentences together in high school. What’s the point in paying a professional? 

In journalism, there’s actually a crisis because of that dynamic. There are as many reporters working today in the United States as there were 40 years ago. The machines that made publishing a lucrative business — actual printing presses — are rusting over. It’s not that there’s a lack of writing. There’s a lack of money to pay anyone to do it. For most folks writing for a living, that means writing whatever, whenever and however. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana both write to pay the bills — and that's not an easy thing to do. They wear a lot of hats to make ends meet and satisfy their curiosities. 

Writer Charles Garret has led a curious life himself. He’s been a firefighter, a salesman, a mixed martial artist and a poet. Coming this year he’s launching a new venture Tora Arts that will turn back the clock on the communications industry – ditching the digital age for the honest touch of snail mail. 

As a journalist, Chere Coen is a travel writer humping around the south for adventure and good eats. As Cherie Claire she’s a writer of romance novels— and a prolific one at that — publishing as many as two e-books each year. 

Whatever medium they work in — journalism, poetry, advertising — today's writers are hustlers, ready for the gig economy. 

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. You can see photos from this show by Lucius Fontenot, and more, at our website https://link.chtbl.com/Vj_kXlwb

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Acadiana, business is a tradition and tradition is a business - often the family business. There’s a long heritage of musical families around here, dynasties of fiddlers and accordion players handing down the tools and tricks of the family trade to generation after generation. 

It’s one of our greatest exports. Lafayette practically pumps out ranks of acclaimed Zydeco and Cajun musicians and most of them are carrying on something they learned from their parents and their parents’ parents. Throw a rock in any direction. You’ll probably hit a Grammy nominee. Throw another, you’ll hit her momma. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of ut to Lunch Acadiana are both internationally celebrated musicians from famous Cajun families. 

Virginia-born Ann Savoy married into the Savoy family of Eunice and has toured internationally with her band the Magnolia Sisters which explores the feminine side of the Cajun tradition — they’re not actually her sisters. Ann is a writer and will soon publish the second volume of her archival work Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People. 

Louis Michot grew up in a big, sprawling Cajun music family. Since 1999, he’s toured internationally with Lost Bayou Ramblers, a band he started with his brother Andre 20 years ago. Lost Bayou won a Grammy for their 2017 record Kalenda. Recently, Louis launched Nouveau Electric Records, a label that puts out experimental artists rooted in Louisiana French musical traditions. 

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. See photos by Lucius Fontenot and more at our website.

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There can be a lot of pressure to take on the family business, especially when the family name becomes synonymous with the industry they work in. Imagine what it must be like to be a Hilton or a Disney or a Manning. Everybody copes with it differently. Some embrace it. Some make their own mark on it. Some leave it all behind and do something else entirely. Christiaan's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana come from Acadiana's wide world of sports.  

Christian Willeford is the son of Beau Willeford, the legendary boxing coach and operator of the Ragin Cajun Boxing Club. Willeford’s dad trained scores of boxers in Acadiana over the years and brought the prestigious boxing championship, the  Golden Gloves, to Lafayette. Sadly, Beau passed away in 2019 after a brief bout with cancer. Christian recently announced that he will close the club after a nearly four-decade run but is keeping the Golden Gloves going. 

Leigh Hennesy Robson first made a name for herself as a world trampoline champion. Leigh was coached by her father, Jeff Hennesy, a prominent name in competitive trampolining. For the last two decades, however, Leigh has made a second name for herself, this time in the movie business. Leigh is a stunt double and stunt coordinator. She was Demi Moore’s double in GI Jane and Lucy Liu’s in Charlie Angels. Leigh is one of only a few hundred stunt women working in the film industry today.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Lucius Fontenot and more info about the show on the It's Acadiana Website.

More conversation with remarkable Acadiana sportswoman, racecar driver Sarah Montgomery, here.

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We've always been told that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. In 21st Century America you can add one certainty: the ever changing face of healthcare.

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 the tests the doctor wants, your prescription plan doesn’t cover the medications you need, your doctor’s large office staff spends weeks sorting out what your insurance company owes the doctor and what you owe, and you end up with a gigantic bill and a worse headache than whatever it was that drove you to the doctor in the first place.

And everybody you know has a worse story than you about their own medical misadventures.

In the face of this, there are truly good people in the medical field who are working to deliver better outcomes for both doctors and patients. And to change the nature of healthcare system itself.

Blaine Lindsey is the Vice President of Growth Strategy of a company called Aledade Louisiana. Aledade is a relatively new type of care company,  called an ACO – an Accountable Care Organization. Aledade’s function is to move healthcare from a user-pays model – where you pay the doctor for treating you each time you are sick – to an outcome based model where the doctor gets paid for keeping you healthy and not having to visit the clinic.

Most of us have very little idea about how the business side of medical institutions work. Many doctors themselves don’t understand how the complex mechanics of the healthcare delivery system work. Dr. Andy Blalock is not one of them.

Andy is a nephrologist – a kidney specialist – and also the Chief Medical Officer at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Our Lady of Lourdes has been in Lafayette since 1949 and maintains a dual purpose – to provide the best in cutting edge medical care, and to provide for those who may least be able to afford it.

This episode of Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at Cafe Vermilionville You can find photos from this show by Gwen Aucoin and more at our website https://link.chtbl.com/Vj_kXlwb

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the things we’re proudest of in Acadiana is our culture. And our family. We even talk about the family relationships between our cultures as being first cousins: 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 Zydeco only. And that’s the frottoir, or rubboard.

The rubboard didn’t start out as a musical instrument. It started out as, well, a rubboard. You used it to wash clothes. And then if you put thimbles on your fingers you could make a scratching sound by strumming it. It was Clifton Chenier and his brother Cleveland who came up with the idea of making a metal or stainless steel rubboard. The guy they turned to to make it was their friend and fellow worker at the Texaco Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. He was a master welder, metal fabricator, and fellow Louisiana native by the name of Willie Landry.

Willie’s son, Tee Don Landry, has spent a lifetime making rubboards under the name Key of Z. He’s made around 3,000 of them. They’re in the hands of regular folks and famous musicians – like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Rihanna. There’s even a Tee Don Landry rubboard in the Smithsonian.    

The intertwined Acadian and African cultures that have given us Cajun and Zydeco music and dance have led to the relationship between the styles of music and the people who play them and dance to them being referred to as “first cousins.”

“First Cousins” is the name of a film about this very subject. The film was written, produced and directed by two sisters, Moriah and Elista Istre. Both Istre sisters have a Ph.D and are professional cultural historians.

Moriah is a folklorist and festival programmer as well as being the Director of the movie, First Cousins.

One of the funny things about families is, everybody else's family seems a lot more normal than your own. Till you get to know them! But the more you get to know your Cajun and Zydeco first cousins the more you get to love them. 

You can see photos by Gwen Aucoin and more from this show, recorded live over lunch at  Cafe Vermilionville at our website https://link.chtbl.com/Vj_kXlwb 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.