"Dearly beloved, We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." You might recognize those lines as the opening of Prince’s 1984 song, “Let’s Go Crazy.” In this classic pop song, Prince is making the point that life is short and we should make the most of it. Prince encourages us to celebrate the joy of living with the chorus, “Let’s go crazy, Let’s get nuts.” Here in Baton Rouge, Mike Andrepont gets crazy for a living. Mike specializes in what we might call Joy-Maxxing: celebrating life’s high-points with his company, AFX Pro. AFX Pro is a special effects company. Their work includes pyrotechnics, stadium tunnel and smoke lighting, weddings, concerts, festivals, and corporate events. Even if you don’t live in Baton Rouge you’ve probably seen AFX Pro's creations because their clients include the NFL, NBA and NCAA. Locally you might have seen their Joy-Maxxing celebrations at an LSU Tigers event, a couple’s first dance at a wedding or a gender reveal party. For some people, celebrating life doesn’t come quite so easy. That’s because they’re starting from a more challenging everyday baseline. And when I say “they,” this group of people might well include you. If it doesn’t it probably includes someone you know, because according to government statistics, roughly 20% of adult Americans take anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication. These 58 million Americans are trying their best to live contrary to Prince’s advice. They’re trying to not go crazy, not get nuts. Here in Baton Rouge, Leigh Blanchard is dedicated to improving the lives of people dealing with anxiety, depression, emotional trauma and chronic stress, using techniques like Reiki therapy, hypnosis, Somatic healing, Aromatherapy and other wellness practices. Leigh is the Founder of the wellness clinic, Life Plus You, on Essen Lane. The Declaration of Independence grants us the right of “the pursuit of happiness.” Some students of US history say the word “pursuit” is intended to be a verb, meaning happiness is something we have the right to chase after. That’s how most of us interpret it. But other scholars say “pursuit” is a noun. Happiness is a pursuit, like the pursuit of stamp collecting, or the pursuit of bird watching. In that sense, happiness is a state of being. Rather than something we’re chasing after it’s something we’ve been granted and need to preserve, like life and liberty. Mike is involved in maximizing moments of already existing happiness, the noun, and Leigh is involved in the active pursuit of happiness, the verb. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laura Nichols never expected aesthetics to become her career. Originally from Lake Charles, Laura came to Baton Rouge to attend LSU and then spent the next decade working as an emergency room nurse before returning to school to become a nurse practitioner. Her first job as a nurse practitioner required a lengthy commute and 12-hour shifts, an arrangement Laura quickly realized wasn’t sustainable as a single mother with two children. Around the same period, Laura became fascinated by the science behind aesthetic medicine after she received a Botox treatment. She began learning injectable procedures and offering services to a small group of ten existing patients she already knew and trusted. When the pandemic disrupted her practice, Laura temporarily worked in urgent care while continuing aesthetic treatments out of a salon on the side. Over the next two years, her client base grew to roughly 200 patients. Eventually, Laura realized the business had outgrown its informal beginnings. So, in 2022, she signed a lease on her own space, and The Face Place officially opened on Perkins Road in March 2023. Now, suppose Laura doesn't want the story to end here. Suppose she has her sights set on growing her business, expanding, maybe, even into other states. Or other countries. After all, WalMart started with a single store in Arkansas. Okay, but it's not 1962. So how would Laura make a dream like that actually happen today? She might turn to a type of investor called an angel. And specifically she might turn to an organization called Gulf South Angels who specialize in investing in companies with growth potential and in helping them with guidance and expertise. Gulf South Angels ranks among the top angel investment organizations in the country in terms of both membership and capital deployment. Here in Baton Rouge the go-to Gulf South Angel to contact is Rick Bond. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's no secret that Amazon and e-commerce in general has been eating retial stores' lunch. You've probably thought to yourself one time this week already - "Do I really have to go to a store to buy that? Couldn't I just order it online?" Well, yes, of course, you can order just about everything online, but it's just not the same as going into a store. Is it? So, if we agree on that, what exactly is the difference? All things being equal, like price and availability, why do we prefer to go shopping in the real world? The secret, as best I can tell, has nothing to do with merchandise. It has to do with another human being actually caring about your happiness. Chase Bass runs George Bass, a family-owned men’s clothing store with locations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Covington. His father George started it, and Chase grew up in it. Some of Chase’s earliest memories are of time spent in the shop. He worked there through high school, went to college, tried investment banking after graduation, and fairly quickly realized that wasn’t the life he wanted. In 2010, Chase’s father saw an opening and offered Chase a job launching the Capital Region location, and Chase has been running the shop in Baton Rouge ever since. George Bass is known for premium menswear and custom clothing, but Chase will tell you pretty quickly that clothes are almost beside the point. The store keeps detailed profiles on every customer — measurements, past purchases, even photos — and the sales staff doesn’t work on commission. Chase says the goal is a customer for life, not a sale this afternoon. They don’t advertise; everything runs on word of mouth. Catherine Pletsch has been needlepointing since she was four years old. Her grandmother taught her. As a teenager she became a regular at The Elegant Needle, then owned by a woman named Marion Gremillion. At 18, Catherine was working Thursday evenings while Marion went to the symphony. By her senior year of college she was working Fridays too. Catherine spent years after college doing other things — wedding planning, church administration, LSU admissions, a law office, a bed-and-breakfast. When she moved back to Baton Rouge from Texas, buying The Elegant Needle became a real possibility. Twelve years ago she did. The Elegant Needle has been around for more than 30 years and has had a genuine resurgence lately. The pandemic brought people back to slow, handmade things. And then in 2023 a TikTok video featuring needlepoint Christmas décor went viral and introduced the craft to a whole new generation. About a third of Catherine’s customers today are first-time stitchers. The first stitch Catherine’s grandmother ever taught her was a French knot, which she still works into special family projects whenever she can. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The media industry is having a rough decade. Newspapers are closing and local TV stations are being consolidated by distant owners. The advertising dollars that used to fund local journalism have mostly migrated to platforms that have no particular interest in what’s happening in your neighborhood. But, along with a number of other trends you can probably name, Baton Rouge isn’t following the rules. Brandon Foreman is CEO of Family Resource Group, a Baton Rouge company that has been connecting families to this community for over 30 years with its “Parents Magazine.” Today Family Resource Group publishes nine brands across seven markets — from Baton Rouge and New Orleans to Denver, Cincinnati, Birmingham and beyond — and has expanded well beyond print into digital campaigns, podcasts, and technology tools for advertisers. Brandon came to FRG through a somewhat unlikely route. His background is in technology — he ran a software company, a broadband internet provider in New Orleans, and launched several other ventures before arriving at the helm of a media company. He and his wife Amy, who is a publisher, received the 2024 Spaht Scholar Award from the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for their work championing literacy and education. When Brandon’s not running around taking care of business, he’s probably in the air. He’s a licensed pilot, and says the skies are where he does some of his best thinking. André Moreau literally needs no introduction. He's a celebrity. A Baton Rouge native and LSU graduate, Andre started his career as a fundraiser at a university, decided at 27 that wasn’t the right fit, walked into television, and spent the next 40-plus years anchoring the news. Andre was the lead sports anchor at WAFB for years, then left for Columbus, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Diego before coming home to Baton Rouge in 2008. He co-anchored the top-rated newscasts at WAFB with Donna Britt, then spent years as anchor and managing editor at Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Andre has an Emmy, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters, and a Special Achievement Award for his coverage of Louisiana’s coastal crisis. He’s covered hurricanes, earthquakes, Stanley Cup parades, NBA championship parades, presidents, and yes, a pope. He retired from LPB in June 2023. By March 2025 he was back on the air at Louisiana First News. He says he missed being plugged in. He missed the scoop. Local media is under real pressure right now. Stations are being bought by companies that have never set foot in Louisiana. Print advertising keeps shrinking. The economic model that paid for local journalism for a century is still being worked out. Yet, here we are in Baton Rouge, bucking the trend. Brandon is betting that if you build media around a community rather than just broadcasting at it — events, partnerships, publications people actually want in their homes — the business will follow. And André continues his 40 years of believing that local news matters to a community. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When was the last time you started a new job? Do you remember what the onboarding was like? The paperwork, the benefits forms, the direct deposit setup, the login credentials that didn’t work yet? Today there’s a whole industry built around making that whole process way less painful — and my first guest today runs one of those companies, right here in Baton Rouge. Craig Broome is a Baton Rouge native who thought he was going to law school. He got interested in employment law at LSU and ended up in human resources instead — landing an HR role at a chemical plant during his senior year. That turned into a career, which eventually led him to a Baton Rouge HR and payroll company called ESS. And then in 2016, he partnered with the Sternberg family to launch Highflyer HR. Along the way Craig served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1994 to 2001 as a heavy machine gunner — which is not a detail you expect from someone who runs a payroll company, but there it is. Highflyer processes payroll for roughly 25,000 employees a week. It serves about 500 clients across 40 states, and has grown from Craig working alone to a 25-person team. The company works with businesses from five employees to over 5,000 — their range includes everything from restaurants and retailers to fire departments and industrial operations. Craig says the goal was never to just sell payroll software. It was to figure out where a business’s people systems were breaking down and fix theme. Another way people connect and gather is over their love of sports. I'm thinking of pickleball. If you haven’t played it yet, you probably know someone who can’t stop talking about it. Xander Triay is the Founder of Baton Rouge’s only pickleball facility - it’s called Electric Pickle. Electric Pickle opened in late 2025 with six outdoor pickleball courts. Open play sessions regularly draw 30 to 40 people. The venue welcomes about a thousand visitors a month. The restaurant and bar menu is built around a few signature items, including a roast beef po-boy based on a family recipe and, yes, house-made pickles. Xander grew up on the Northshore, near Fontainebleau State Park, and spent almost ten years with Chick-fil-A — in leadership roles, working on corporate initiatives, traveling the country to help open new locations. His plan was to eventually run his own store. But that path required a lot of travel, and Xander wanted to stay closer to family. His sister is in Baton Rouge, and when developer Dyke Nelson reached out about a new concept coming to Electric Depot in Mid City, Xander was in. Xander will tell you he’s not really a pickleball person — he’s an operations person. But he’s pretty clear about what Electric Pickle is actually for: it’s a neighborhood place that happens to have courts, not a sports facility that happens to have a bar. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.