For as long as humans and pre-human ancestors have been on the planet -- roughly 2.6 million years or so, we have been eating meat. In fact, recent studies have suggested that had it not been for our carnivorous consumption, humans would not have evolved the way that we did. Over the millennia our tastes have changed but not our love of meat. These days consumers - who spent more than $122B in 2023 on meat - are seeking out high quality, artisanal, organic and sustainable meats. Which is good news for local entrepreneurs cashing in on the craze. Ross Brown's company, Bougie Bologna, specializes in making an all natural bologna using smoked pork shoulder – and if like a lot of Ross’s customers you grew up thinking of bologna as a luncheon meat from Oscar Mayer think again. Ross describes his meat product as Cajun smoked sausage in sandwich form. Ross founded the company in 2022, after nearly two decades in the oil business, because he believed in the product and wanted to be his own boss. Bougie Bologna has proven to be a hit. There are currently three varieties sold in grocery stores from Lafayette to New Orleans, including a deal with Rouses Supermarkets that will put the products in 70 locations across south Louisiana. Ross, aka The Bougie Man, is a native of Lafayette, who is still getting used to running a demanding business that is growing faster than he could have imagined. Derek Stuart is co-owner of The Meatatory, as in meat and laboratory, a craft butcher in Prairieville that specializes in craft burgers and sausage recipes, high end Wagyu and specialty beef cuts, as well as local staples like Boudin balls and barbecue. Derek and his wife, Laura, opened the Meatatory in 2022. It is both a retail storefront and a catering business with a menu that includes charcuterie boards, sides and desserts. Like Ross, Derek grew up in south Louisiana, Ascension Parish, specifically, and developed a passion for food and cooking meat early on. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you subscribe to an online news service, you’re used to getting notifications about news stories the algorithm thinks might impact you. In Southeast Louisiana, you’ll pretty regularly see variations on the headline, “Sea Level Rise Threatens Coastline” or “Louisiana Loses a Football Field of Wetlands Per Hour.” If you’re like most people, you keep scrolling. Or, maybe you read the article, shake your head at the dire situation, but shrug it off because, well, what can you do? The reason you can afford to take a laissez faire attitude toward our disappearing coastline and wetlands, is because there are people who don’t. There are people working every day, here in Baton Rouge, to preserve our piece of Planet Earth. Darius Bonton is the founder, owner and principal of Bonton Associates. Bonton Associates are an engineering company focused on designing and implementing infrastructure and transportation systems that allows us to build what needs to be built, and get where we need to go, without destroying the environment in the process. To the contrary, Bonton is all about delivering solutions to water and transportation issues that do more than just comply with environmental regulations, they actually improve our existing way of life. If you’re looking for an organization whose name doesn’t pull any punches, how about the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana. “The Coalition” the title refers to is a wide range of organizations and people who partner to do an even wider range of activities to save our coast - from planting grasses in marshlands to giving expert advice to local, state and federal organizations. The Coalition is Louisiana’s first statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to coastal restoration. They started out in 1988, and since March 2024 Ethan Melancon has been their Advocacy Director. In 1789 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published a poem called The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. You might not be familiar with the poem, but you probably know a line or two from it. Namely, “water water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink.” The poem is about a sailor stranded at sea, ironically, dying from dehydration while being surrounded by water. The theme of the poem is nature’s indifference to human suffering. Whether or not nature is indifferent to us, we humans continue to do our best to adapt to the elements, and even downright defy them. We owe our very existence in Southeast, and Southwest, Louisiana to past generations’ willingness to drain swamps, build levees, and bounce back from hurricanes. In our current generations, it’s the work of companies like Bonton Associates and organizations like Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana who are continuing to organize, design and execute strategies for containing the power of nature that allow us to remain here, and hopefully will for generations to come. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. Jim Engster sits in as host for Stephanie Riegel. More info about Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Arts and music are essential elements of any real community. They unite us, bring out the human spirit and remind us of the incredible gifts and talents and good things we can do when we let our creativity fly. Baton Rouge isn’t particularly known as a high brow kinda place as far as the arts are concerned but there are plenty of hidden gems, and you don’t have to scratch the surface hard to find outlets and venues that are showcasing the best of the musical, visual and performing arts. Jason Langlois is Executive Director of the Manship Theater, which opened in 2005 on the ground floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts. The building was transformative for downtown Baton Rouge and the theater was its anchor tenant, bringing new cultural offerings to the heart of the city that include musical performances, dance, poetry, plays and movie nights. Jason grew up in Austin and New Orleans and has lived in Baton Rouge since 2001 when he was a student in the EJ Ourso college of business. He has been at the Manship since 2009, started their Films at Manship program and more recently the standup comic series. Over the years Jason has helped grow the theater and put it on more stable financial footing, bringing in new audiences with ever more offerings. Raudol Palacios is Artistic Director and cello and ensemble teacher at Palacios House of Arts, a local family run nonprofit that offers lessons in the musical, visual and performing arts to people of all ages – and regardless of their ability to pay. Raudol and his parents, Gloria Ruiz and Manuel Palacios, started the Palacios House of Arts in 2018, as a way to bring their love of music and arts to the community. The family is originally from Cuba and in 2015 the family moved to Baton Rouge, when Raudol was studying music at LSU. Today, he is a professional musician and also helps run the school with his parents, teaching classes, organizing events and programs and other cultural activities that engage community participation. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. YOu can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Louisiana ranks last in a lot of lists but one area where the state is pretty close to the top is in the number of lawyers per capita. That’s right, Louisiana is 11th among the 50 states in terms of the number of attorneys in the state. While that means you won’t have trouble finding someone should you need to file a lawsuit or negotiate a contract or divorce your spouse – it’s probably a safe bet that they’re not necessarily all good lawyers or happy lawyers because, let’s face it – it’s a difficult, stressful and challenging profession that requires a lot of expertise. And in matters where expertise is required, more is not necessarily better. Lexlee Overton is a Baton Rouge attorney who has found a way to help her colleagues be better, perform better for their clients and feel happier in their profession. Lexlee is a seasoned lawyer, executive leadership expert and peak performance specialist. And melding all this together, Lexlee has created a coaching method, for lack of a better term, that she calls Mind Over Law. Mind Over Law offers team building workshops, one-on-one counseling and training sessions, coaches legal teams, and leads a national leadership program for women. Lexlee developed this method after spending more than two decades in the legal profession and experiencing the kind of burnout she now tries to help her clients overcome. While Lexlee is coaching lawyers, Lauren Temple is coaching people on how to maximize their fitness and physical performance – which brings mental well-being along with it – through her two boutique fitness clubs. Lauren's two fitness clubs, which are both on Perkins, are called Tone BR. The two clubs are a merger of what used to be Tread BR and Pilates Plus. Lauren is a native of Baton Rouge and single mom, raising two daughters, who experienced a terrible injury and had to learn how to walk again. After overcoming those challenges, Lauren was determined to run her own fitness studios. In the years since, she has grown the clubs into successful and growing businesses in a market that is notoriously competitive for gyms and fitness club operators. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baton Rouge often gets a bad rap for being a belt and suspenders kind of town, where people eat in chain restaurants and go to movie theaters and don’t do the kind of interesting, unique things – be they related to food, music or festivals – that are so characteristic of some fo sthe state’s other big cities. But its’ simply not true! And bright young entrepreenuers are taking risks to dispel those misconceptions. Bread Steven Gottfried is owner of the St. Bruno Bread Company, a commercial artisan bread bakery in Baton Rouge that delivers fresh bread daily to local restaurants and more than a dozen grocery stores. St Bruno is a wholesaler and doesn’t have a storefront. And that's intentional, in furtherance of Stephen’s mission to raise the standard of daily bread and elevate the experience of eating everyday foods. Steven is a native of Baton Rouge who learned the craft from chef Gary Darling in Covington before spending several years honing his skills first in San Francisco and then at Bellgarde Bakery in New Orleans. He went out on his own in 2017, originally in New Orleans, but the COVID pandemic changed those plans, and since late 2021, St. Bruno has been based in Baton Rouge. The upside of Covid is that we in Baton Rouge can now get a variety of St Bruno breads including sourdough, French baguette and po-boy loafs. And now, the Circus! Laura Siu Nguyen is an event planner and communications professional who is also the founder of Night Market BTR, a new annual event that celebrates Asian American history in the style of a Lunar New Year festival. Laura created Nigh Market BTR to celebrate culture, community and creativity in Baton Rouge and brings people of Asian American heritage together. Laura is a native of Honduras, who came to Baton Rouge more than 15 years ago to attend graduate school and never left. In the years since, she has been involved in helping launch and promote a variety of events and activities – including her own. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show on itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.