It's New Orleans: Out To Lunch

The world of New Orleans education is changing. For elementary, middle, and high schools that change has been so radical that we've become global pioneers in charter education. There's another education transformation going on that you might be less familiar with. It's a parallel universe. Of paradoxes.

In New Orleans we often take pains to point out what makes us different from other places. It s pretty common to hear comments like, "We re not like the rest of the country" and "We re not like the rest of the South." So it s ironic that two of New Orleans newest icons are representative of The South, and the rest of the country. And they re just a few blocks away from each other The World War II Museum and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The World War 2 Museum was declared America s official national World War 2 Museum by an act of Congress. In 2014 Traveler s Choice named it as the 11th best museum in the world. And by 2017 its economic impact on the city is projected to reach a billion dollars. By any standards the World War 2 museum is a big deal. The museum s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Stephen Watson, joins Peter on this edition of Out to Lunch. Locally, we refer to The Ogden Museum of Southern Art as "The Ogden." The museum takes the abbreviation a step further, referring to itself as

Did you know that more people are scared of public speaking than are scared of heights or spiders And that, when asked, people rank fear of public speaking as even greater than fear of commitment Think about that. Most of us are more scared of standing up in front of strangers for 5 minutes than committing to a relationship for a lifetime. Not Jeff Harris. Jeff is an expert on public speaking. He s a Distinguished Toastmaster at Toastmaster s International. Ali Duffey also deals with fears. Along with ambitions, dreams, brain science, and intuitive magic. Ali is a Life Coach. Jeff Harris and Ali Duffey join Peter Ricchiuti on this edition of Out to Lunch. Chock full of free advice on how to figure out what you want to do with your life. And how to effectively communicate that to other people. Photos at Commander s Palace by Alison Moon.

There are places in the world nobody wants to be. Jail. Hospital. And stuck in an airport, which can feel like a combination of the previous two. If you ve ever sat for hours in an airport and cursed the fact that you can t fly direct from New Orleans to where you want to go, so has Trey Fayard. That s why Trey started up New Orleans based GLO Airlines. There s an even worse circle of Hell you can find yourself in. Not only stuck in an airport, but now your phone s dead. And there s no place to charge it up. Wouldn t it be great if you could get a temporary plug in battery that let you use your phone immediately and keep moving so you re not tied to a wall outlet You can do exactly that thanks to New Orleans startup company Mobile Qubes. New Orleans entrepreneurs Josh Reyher from Mobile Qubes and Trey Fayard from GLO Airlines join host Peter Ricchiuti on this edition of Out to Lunch. Photos at Commander s Palace by Alison Moon.

We ve seen major sectors of the US economy change over the last few years. Retail and energy have both been shaken up. But probably nothing has gotten more people shaken up than changes in healthcare. Peter s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch are shaking up healthcare in New Orleans. Dr. Mark Berenson s clinic is a black Samsonite bag. Dr. Berenson is New Orleans only house call doctor. Dr. Richard Milani is pioneering the use of new technology like the Apple Watch for the biggest healthcare provider in town, Ochsner Health System. Dr. Jose Calderon is a psychiatrist with an unorthodox approach to mental health called Mindful Psychiatry. But he can t be all that crazy as well as his private practice in New Orleans, Dr. Calderon is a consultant to Harvard University and the Mexican Government. Photos at Commander s Palace by Alison Moon.

You'd have to be a certain age and have a certain kind of musical taste to remember Peter Allen singing, All our dreams will come true again, when everything old is new again.

When we talk about big events in New Orleans we typically say Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest.

If you've been shopping lately you might have noticed the growing number of stores that have creative chalkboard signs outside on the sidewalk. You might have also noticed similar creative chalkboard menus in restaurants.

We ve all seen this guy or woman on TV, and we've all said, "Thank God that's not me." The person sweating behind a bank of microphones, trying to explain away something bad. What if one day, maybe through no fault of your own, that person is you Having to explain why things aren't quite how they look. How do you know what to do What to say You could call on crisis management PR specialist, John Deveney. A seasoned crisis management specialist and principal of his firm simply called Deveney, John explains how he does what he does and what to do if you ever do find yourself in the center of a media storm.

Wherever you go in the world you find human beings have two things in common. We all like to eat. And we all like to incorporate into our living spaces non functional objects we call art. In many countries we've institutionalized these traits. We dine in restaurants and we hang art in galleries.

There are so many great musicians in New Orleans, there's got to be a reason. Maybe it's something in the water. Or maybe it's something in a building on the corner of Chartres St and Saint Ferdinand. That's NOCCA

Property values are going up in New Orleans. Parts of the city that buyers have been avoiding for years are now desirable addresses.

When it comes to business, we all agree on one thing we all want to succeed. Typically we measure success numerically the more profit we make the better we're doing. Sure, we'd all like to make billions, but the reality is most of us are not going to turn our businesses into Facebook or Apple. For many people in business, just keeping the doors open and the lights on is succeeding. Peter Ricchiuti s guests on Out to Lunch take whatever your definition of success is whether it's making a fortune or just making it till Friday and help you get there. Aimee Adatto Freeman is the founder of Aimee Freeman Consulting and an Adjunct Professor of Business Studies at Tulane University. For the past 20 plus years Aimee has been concentrating on improving business results by teaching business owners and executives to communicate more effectively, with some remarkable results. Phyllis Cassidy is the founder and director of the Good Work Network. Good Work Network provides business development services to minority and wome

In 2005, many of us in New Orleans found ourselves in a position we could never have imagined. Homeless. Our place of work closed down. Our insurance companies refusing to compensate us. And our government largely useless. Until then it was just a clich

There's an old saying about how to be successful in business Build a better mousetrap. Meaning find a product everybody wants and do it better. Peter s guests on Out to Lunch today have come up with new variations of products that enjoy massive worldwide popularity. Soft drinks and coffee. Geoffrey Meeker has a little yellow truck you might have seen around town delivering his French Truck Coffee. And Roy Nelson has a truck that he drives around town delivering his Fest Cola. Fest Cola and French Truck Coffee are great examples of the better mousetrap theory but things aren't as simple as they were when we were apparently overrun by mice. Today a new product comes up against a myriad of obstacles from shelf space to branding and in this case a market dominated by Coca Cola and Starbucks. In the You Heard It Here First segment of the show, Renet Brunet punts his plans for Cafe 821 Livre, a delivery service from his Cafe 821 in the CBD. Hear a longer conversation about Cafe 180 Livre here. All the photos on thi

For the past few years with all the Hollywood folks in town it's not unusual for someone at Whole Foods in New Orleans to whisper, Do you know who that is

Everybody likes to think they're important, but here in Louisiana we really are. Two sectors of our local economy are major components of the national, and global, economy oil and gas, and renewable energy. Outside of the oil companies who physically drill for oil, there is a huge industry of companies who do everything else from building oil rigs to delivering groceries to the men and women who work on them. One of the biggest offshore support companies in the world is headquartered here in New Orleans. Tidewater. Joe Bennett from Tidewater is Peter Ricchiuti s guest on Out to Lunch today. So is Ben Foley, from Keystone Engineering. Keystone builds oil rigs, but Ben's division of the company is building a whole other energy structure offshore wind turbines. It s surprising the role these two New Orleans' companies are playing in the global energy marketplace. Photos on this page taken at Commander s Palace by Cheryl DalPozzal.

The financial markets go up and down. The value of real estate goes up and down. The dollar strengthens and weakens. Financial advisors have a wide range of theories of risk versus diversification that they say can either make you a fortune, or hedge your bets.

In 1814 it was the British who were "runnin down the mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico." Today, ships of almost every nationality are steaming down the river to the Gulf. 54 of them belong to International Shipholding. Their fleet of cargo vessels ply international trade from their current headquarters in Mobile, Alabama but they re set to return soon to their original home in New Orleans. International Shipholding is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and its CFO and Vice President is Manny Estrada. Manny joins Peter on this edition of Out to Lunch. Randy Bullard also spends a lot of his time on the river, but also in it and under it. Randy is the President of River Services Company. The company has offices in Harahan, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky and a fleet of 10 ships that provide river services like underwater construction, welding, and salvage. In the You Heard It Here First segment of today s show Ron Gard introduces his entrepreneurial idea Wavepool. Which, incidentally, h

Most businesses grow successful over time as their owners find more efficient ways to make and market specific products.