Access Louisville

Humana Inc. has released its latest plan to return workers to its offices in Downtown Louisville. Getting Humana workers back Downtown should be a boon for neighborhood restaurants and shops as it's expected to bring a number of people back.We chat about that plan on the Access Louisville podcast this week. We also talk about the idea of coming back to the office. We've got some different opinions about the value of being in person vrs. working remotely. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, we determine.Lastly, we talk about the latest with Louisville's startup scene including a $16 million capital raise for Louisville-based firm Virtual Peaker. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services. 

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer gave his final state of the city address last week before the Rotary Club of Louisville. On this week's Access Louisville podcast, we chat with Reporter Michael L. Jones who attended the Rotary meeting about his biggest takeaways from the speech. We also chat about Fischer's legacy and how he will be remembered after leaving office. After that, we chat with reporter Laurel Deppen about her recent interview with ScionHealth CEO Rob Jay.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

We roundup some of the latest Louisville area restaurant news on this week's Access Louisville podcast.Specifically we chat about the owner of two downtown Louisville establishments — Riot Cafe and Limbo — that are looking for help from the community during the always tough winter season.We also chat about a new hip-hop themed restaurant in Fern Creek, Melt 502. And a the opening date for Guaca Mole in Nulu.After that we switch gears and talk health care news, with a major investment from Confluent Health. Finally, we wrapped it up with a little talk about UofL's next chapter after the departure of Chris Mack.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. 

Louisville-based FreshFry was on a great trajectory prior to the pandemic, helping restaurant clients extend the life of their frying oil with its oil cleansing pods on a national level. But when the early days of Covid-19 shut down restaurants, things began to look starkly more difficult.This week on the Access Louisville podcast we welcome FreshFry founder Jeremiah Chapman, who tells us how the company not only survived those difficult days but has actually thrived since — rising like a phoenix, as he put it. "And it feels like the market dynamics have changed for an extremely exciting 2022," Chapman said.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services as well as on LouisvilleBusinessFirst.com. 

The character of accommodations are changing in Louisville — offering much more boutique and unusual experiences. We chat about that on this week's Access Louisville podcast.The impetus of the discussion is a recent cover story in Louisville Business First, which highlights a number of unique hotel projects that have taken place around town in the last few years.Later on in the show, we chat about some restaurant news, including a new Thai restaurant in Downtown Louisville. The owner of this new restaurant has a great story in that she opened an American restaurant in Bangkok and is now opening a Thai restaurant here in Louisville.  Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Radio Public.

What does 2022 hold for Louisville? On this week's Access Louisville podcast a full crew of Louisville Business First staffers give predictions for the year. We take on a full range of topics: What will happen with Downtown office buildings, what new stores might come to town, what new restaurants might open and even what will become of specific projects such as the Starks Building and One Park. A few tech predictions make their way in there as well.The predictions show has become a tradition these last few years with this being the third one. Time will tell if any of these predictions come true (we were hit and miss on our predictions for 2021.) Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Radio Public.

Was 2021 predictable? In some ways, yeah.Last year around this time the Access Louisville podcast crew made several predictions about what 2021 had in store. On this week's show we go back and talk about what we got right and what we got wrong.In some cases the predictions were spot on. For instance, LBF Editor Shea Van Hoy somehow correctly predicted that Muhammad Ali Airport would get a flight to Boston.  But in other cases — such as a prediction that a downtown hotel would close — we were way off (several downtown hotels actually opened.)We also had a few predictions that were hard to quantify. For instance, was it a make or break year for restaurants? Probably. We certainly saw some places close. But we also saw some new places open ... so it's a bit debatable.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport has finally added a flight to Boston. The new flight starts in June from American Airlines. Reporter Michael L. Jones joins this episode of the Access Louisville podcast to talk about the announcement. It caps off what has been a big year for the airport in terms of adding flights.We also talk about the reopening of a staple Louisville music venue, Joe's Palm Room and efforts by local food trucks to feed the hungry following last week's devastating tornadoes in Western Kentucky. Reporter Laurel Deppen is also on the show to follow up on recent personnel changes at the University of Louisville. She was at the university earlier this week as it named an interim president and interim athletic director. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

The news cycle belonged to University of Louisville this week, with President Neeli Bendapudi and Athletic Director Vince Tyra both announcing they’re leaving. Plenty has been said about it (here’s a reaction story about Bendapudi’s announcement.) We can’t help but pile on a little more commentary on the situation for the podcast this week.Later in the show we talk about restaurant news including a new location for Ten20 Craft Brewing and a new food hall in the Beechmont neighborhood.And we give a quick update on the Louisville mayor’s race, including the news that Carla Dearing is out of the race.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher and Radio Public.

JK McKnight, founder of Forecastle, a long-running music, art and activism festival in Louisville, joins the Access Louisville podcast this week.McKnight has a new venture: Art of Impact, which is focused on reaching Millennials and Gen Z audiences through experiential marketing. We talk about how this agency does that as well as which brands fit the best.We also chat about music festivals in general: Their future, Forecastle memories, the tragedy at Astroworld and what may have been behind it.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

We’ve got another classic Access Louisville restaurant roundup this week. Reporters Michael L. Jones and Eleanor Tolbert join us to talk about several food stories (many of them related to pizza.)• Tony Impellizari is retiring after 42 years • Square Cut Pizza opens in Shelby Park • LaRosa’s is coming to town.• A new generation takes over at Anne’s CaféAfter the restaurant, discussion we talk about Louisville’s priorities in the wake of President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure bill. We recently talked to Mayor Greg Fischer about this topic for an interview.  And lastly we talk about the news that U.S. Bank is moving its local headquarters. It’s the latest company we’ve seen take its offices out of Downtown Louisville.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services. 

Downtown Louisville is getting something new: Dream Hotel. Details of this facility just dropped and we discuss it on this week's episode of the Access Louisville podcast. A key point to consider here is the size of the hotel: 168 rooms. That's not as big as the Omni, Marriott Downtown or Galt House. But it is larger than some of the boutique style hotels we've seen popping up around town since the pandemic took hold.Later in the show, we talk about work finally getting started at the new VA Hospital. This project has been a long time in the making.And lastly we chat about a new convenience store (yeah really, a convenience store.) Farm Stores just opened up in town and we chat about its drive thru model.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcast, Google, Spotify and more. 

Social media has impacted American culture in a lot of ways — for better or worse. On this week’s Access Louisville podcast, we talk to Brad Luttrell, co-founder and CEO of Louisville-based GoWild, which operates a social media platform focused on hunting, fishing and outdoors. We cover a lot on the show — how he started, how he’s raising money and so on. But a big piece of our discussion is focused on how Facebook and YouTube are censoring hunting and fishing culture. Luttrell takes issue with this as he sees hunting and fishing as something that’s been a part of human culture for millennia. As that censorship is happening he’s made the move of pulling all advertising from Facebook, which he admits was a weighty decision because it takes GoWild's discourse out of the mainstream.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services like Apple Podcast, Spotify and Stitcher. 

One of Louisville's biggest industries — health care — is going through dramatic changes of late. That's a key discussion for us on this week's Access Louisville podcast.The biggest headline we have in this realm is the anticipated launch of ScionHealth.  This company is expected to be launched and headquartered in Louisville following LifePoint Health's acquisition of Kindred Healthcare, which was announced in June. As a part of this a key ambassador in Louisville's health care scene, Ben Breier, is stepping aside — at least for now.After that we talk about Forecastle founder J.K. McKnight's new venture — and the return of live music. And lastly, we wrap this week's show up with discussion on some fast food news this week: Freddy's Steakburgers and Jack in the Box both launching in the Louisville area.

Startups are an odd thing.On the one hand, they're often small, sometimes micro, businesses — not yet changing the world. But on the other hand, it's fascinating  to watch a founder put so much on the line for an idea they believe in.On the Access Louisville podcast this week, we chat about a couple of Louisville area startups that we're watching with great interest. The first is Kidvestors, a company that's educating young children on investing; and BehaVR, a virtual reality company that's investigating anxiety treatments using VR. After that, we chat about Louisville Business First's Fast 50 list of growing companies. Interestingly, some of the companies that saw tremendous growth in the last year were impacted by the pandemic — although in some what positive ways. Finally, we wrap things up with a bit of chain restaurant news, including new locations for Jersey Mike's and Green District in Louisville.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. Yo

There's much to talk about on this week's Access Louisville. We chat about the new One Park North development being proposed in the Highlands. A restaurant in the area that's closing if it isn't sold. And the latest political news. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services.

A  former church in Louisville's Clifton neighborhood is being redeveloped into office space. We chat about the transition and who's behind it on this week's Access Louisville podcast. It's an interesting project (photos here) and it gets us chatting about the future of office space. Will office towers be less useful post-pandemic as smaller spaces that require less commitment gain in popularity? After that, we chat about a new location for Quill's coffee in Louisville's Norton Commons neighborhood. We talk about a distribution center project that Kroger is pulling the plug on and the fate of the Louisville Zoo's train attraction.We also say farewell to LBF Reporter Chris Larson. Larson has been with LBF for five years and this is likely his last podcast as he's moving on to another position.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services.

There's plenty going on in Louisville's restaurant scene of late.On this week's episode of the Access Louisville podcast, reporter Eleanor Tolbert joins us to talk about several recent stories. Against the Grain, a well-known brewer in Louisville, is opening a sandwich shop. There's something new moving into the former Pesto's spot in Downtown Louisville. And Decca is reopening in NuLu, following some changes to its ownership and a Covid-19-related hiatus.Later in the show we talk about a couple of Louisville spots that made Yelp's national bourbon bar rankings. And lastly we chat about Louisville Business First's Forty Under 40 program. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on popular podcast services. 

The Kroger Co. is getting a little more competition in Louisville with Publix entering the market. Louisville Business First reported that the Florida-based grocery store chain is moving into East Louisville earlier this week.  LBF reporter Ellie Tolbert joins the Access Louisville podcast to talk about where exactly the store is going and who is bringing it to town.She also tells us about breakfast chain First Watch's plan to open another location in Louisville. These two news items get us going on a big food tangent. (Sigh. Typical.)After that, reporter Haley Cawthon tells us about a new product covering Kentucky's startup and technology scene: KY Inno. It's a new platform from Louisville Business First, which she is overseeing. And lastly, we chat about the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, including some stories from Louisville area executives who were close to the attacks. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on most popular podcast services

In a football game, is it usually better to go for it on 4th and short? Or is punting the safer betIt actually depends on a lot of different factors and the situation, of course. But making that decision correctly, in a specific situation, is one thing that Louisville tech company EdjSports strives to help teams do. The company provides data and analytics to improve decision making in sports. This week on the Access Louisville podcast, we sit down with EdjSports Co-founder Sean O'Leary to talk about a recent move that will put the company more in focus for its founders. We also talk about the market for sports betting, prospects for Louisville's entrepreneurial scene and more.  Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can find it on most popular podcast services.