Pete Murano was raised all across America. Born in the Northeast, he moved to St. Louis and finally settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. He developed an attachment to an equally nomadic music form, the blues, at an early age. Starting on saxophone at age 11, he began teaching himself to play guitar as a teenager. Murano's music then underwent a natural evolution as he began to explore R&B and rock. Finding himself drawn to the sights and sounds of the Crescent City, Murano soon relocated to New Orleans. The next piece of his musical maturation would stem directly from the influence of his new home. Murano began learning the standards, becoming a working musician in the dimly lit clubs of the city's fabled Frenchmen street.

In 2003, Murano joined forces with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Here, he developed a sound that was all his own, combining elements of rock, funk, and R&B. With Shorty, Murano has written, recorded, and toured the world extensively. His sound on guitar is often raw and distorted, yet soulful. Now, on his first solo release, he embraces that sound as it vibrates into the world.

Pete also runs the Apollo Clinic which brings local youth into the studio to learn about the process of making music alongside Grammy nominated and Grammy award winning musicians and engineers.

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Whistle Monsta sits down with James Beard Award–winning chef Alon Shaya for a deeply personal conversation about food, resilience, mentorship, and what it truly means to serve a community.

Chef Shaya shares the inspiration behind his second cookbook, Memories of a Good Meal: Recipes of Resilience Inspired by Stories of World War II Survival.

About Memories of a Good Meal: An unforgettable collection of recipes inspired by ten diverse, moving stories of Holocaust survivors and WWII heroes, from James Beard Award–winning chef Alon Shaya with author June Hersh. Memories of a Good Meal is a culinary journey that celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit and the transformative power of a good meal.

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In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell sits down with his friend Jeff Duncan. Jeff is the sports columnist for The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com, FOX 8 analyst, and the journalist who has covered the New Orleans Saints longer than anyone in the country. Jeff opens up about his experience of getting to know Steve and Michel Gleason, their inspirational impact, and co-writing Steve's memoir, A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence (available here: https://a.co/d/0cGkgH8l). Jeff and Leroy also talk about the joy of the  @NewOrleansSaints  return to the  @caesarsdome  after Hurricane Katrina. Jeff shares his experience of attending the  @U2official  and  @GreenDay  rehearsal for the pregame festivities, and shares a fun story about Steve and Michel that happened later that night after the game.

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Part 1 of 2. Host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell sits down with longtime friend Jeff Duncan — sports columnist for The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com and the longest-tenured Saints beat writer in America. Jeff traces his unlikely path from a wildlife management major at Eastern Kentucky University to the newsrooms of Louisville, Monroe, and eventually New Orleans. He details breaking the Nick Saban to LSU story by chasing a single anonymous message board post — and the phone call that confirmed everything without a word being said. He also opens up about co-writing Steve Gleason's 2024 memoir A Life Impossible: Living with ALS, and what it was like to watch a man he'd known since the locker room days become one of the most inspiring figures in the country. Leroy closes the episode with a deeply personal reflection on the night of the Saints' return to the Superdome after Katrina — the blocked punt, the tears, and what it felt like for a city to exhale together. Stay tuned for Part 2.

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On Episode 75 of the Only Good Vibes News Network, host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell sits down with his longtime friend, Chef Will Avelar. Will is a New Orleans native, Grace King and Delgado alum, and one of the most genuine success stories this city's food scene has produced.

Will's journey reads like it was written for the screen. He walked into his first restaurant job not even knowing what a busboy was and just figured it out. That fearlessness and hunger to learn carried him through every station in the kitchen, from dishwasher to line cook, butcher to saucier, all the way through nearly 15 years inside Emeril Lagasse's restaurant organization. He worked at Emeril's Delmonico, NOLA Restaurant, and eventually rose to Chef de Cuisine at Meril, Emeril's Warehouse District restaurant.

Then Will did what only the truly loyal and fearless do. He walked away from the top spot to bet on his family.

Together with his father Carlos and brother Fernando, Will built Mawi Tortillas, starting as a small wholesale tortilla bakery in Metairie, then pivoting during COVID to pupusas and birria tacos that went viral on Instagram. What started as a family hustle has grown into one of the most beloved Latin American restaurants in the New Orleans area. And in 2025, Mawi expanded to Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Leroy and Will also get into the 2009 Saints Super Bowl season, the Zen card that set the tone for the whole conversation - loyalty - and why walking in the path of your own heart is the only way to truly win.

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In New Orleans, food and Saints football is a passion and a lifestyle. And nobody lives it harder than Ben Collier.

On this episode of the Only Good Vibes News Network, host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell sits down with Ben Collier - better known to Saints Nation as Cyborg Saint, one of the most recognizable superfans in the entire NFL. But there's way more to Ben than the costume. He's also the owner of Ben's Burgers, the beloved chargrilled burger joint at 2008 Clearview Parkway in Metairie. 

Ben's superfan alter-ego, Cyborg Saint, was born on Halloween night 2010, when Ben got tickets to a game, decided to show up in costume, and never looked back. As a kid he always made his own costumes - cutting car floor mats into pads, building a black and gold superhero suit from scratch. What started as one night of fun turned into a full superfan identity, with Ben earning season tickets, suiting up for every home game, and joining a krewe of superfans who travel together and even attend the Superfan Hall of Fame in Ohio every summer. 

Off the field, Ben built Ben's Burgers into its own thing - chargrilled burgers, chicken sandwiches, smoked sausage, chili cheese fries, shakes, and a homemade hickory smoked BBQ sauce and fry sauce that people come back for again and again. His signature sandwich? The Big Ben. 

This is a conversation about fandom, entrepreneurship, community, and what it means to go all in on the things you love - in the greatest place on earth.

Who Dat!

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On this episode, host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell welcomes Michael Guidry — New Orleans oil painter, Louisiana marsh devotee, and the artist critics have called "the punk rock Audubon." Trained at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts and LSU, Guidry builds richly layered compositions on wood, burlap, canvas, and aluminum — inspired by time spent at his fishing camp in the South Louisiana salt marsh. From albino alligators to bayou wildlife to the myths and memories of personal experience in the natural world, his work is bold, vibrant, and distinctly New Orleans. A fascinating conversation about art, life, and seeing the world a little differently. See his work at mguidrystudio.com.

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Former Saints punter, Thomas Morstead, came through the FanCave and we had a real, honest conversation about anything and everything. Thomas is just a genuinely good dude. I'm proud to call him a friend, and New Orleans should be proud that he still calls this city home and continues to give back to the community.

Don't miss this one. No politics. No negativity. Just good vibes. Who dat.

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New Orleans has always been a city that creates. RicRACK makes sure that creativity never goes to waste.

On Episode 70 of the Only Good Vibes News Network, host Leroy "Whistle Monsta" Mitchell sits down with Jena Housman (Board Treasurer), Shel Roumillat (Creative Reuse Store Manager), and Julie Lodato (Project Management & Marketing) from RicRACK — a New Orleans-based 501(c)3 nonprofit that's been transforming textile waste into opportunity for 15 years.

Founded by costume designer and wardrobe veteran Allison Parker, RicRACK was born out of a simple but powerful idea: connect the mountains of donated fabric and clothing from Louisiana's booming film and television industry with a mission to teach the city how to sew. The result is one of New Orleans' most unique nonprofits — part creative reuse shop, part community sewing studio, part sustainability movement.

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Jazz Fest brings the good people to New Orleans, and this week it brought some incredible guests straight to the OGVNN studio. Leroy Mitchell welcomes Dennis and Tami from the Only in the Green Room podcast, a backstage artist interview show that gives listeners the kind of access you can only get when the cameras stop rolling and the real conversations begin. But then the tables turn. Dennis and Tami flip the script and put Leroy in the hot seat, interviewing the man behind the whistle about his journey to becoming Whistle Monsta - the persona, the brand, and everything in between.

And that's not all. Jamie Bernstein makes his return to OGVNN! A New Orleans-based singer-songwriter with roots woven into the city's music and culture, Jamie's latest album ZEUS was recorded aboard a sailboat in the Bahamas and draws on his sobriety journey, his love for New Orleans, and the kind of raw, unfiltered storytelling that defines the city's best artists.

Jamie recently performed at French Quarter Festival and continues to be one of the most authentic voices in the Crescent City music scene.

This episode is a celebration of music, community, and what happens when good people find each other through a shared love of New Orleans.

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