It’s Acadiana: Out To Lunch

Hosted ByChristiaan Mader

OUT TO LUNCH finds journalist Christiaan Mader conducting business Acadiana style: over lunch. Each week Christiaan invites guests from Acadiana's business community to join him. Beyond the foundations of the Acadiana economy - oil, cuisine, music - there is a vast network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even some of the country's largest companies who call Acadiana home. Out to Lunch is the cafeteria of the wider Acadiana business community. You can also hear the show on KRVS 88.7FM.

A Hays Down Town – Out to Lunch – It’s Acadiana

Here in Southwest Louisiana we are buffeted by elements and forces largely beyond our control.

We don’t have the luxury of debating whether climate change is man-made or a natural phenomenon. Whomever is causing it – man or nature – we have to live with the reality that changing weather is bringing one hundred and 500 year storms far more frequently than centuries apart. And eroding coasts are robbing us of the very land that some of us live on.

Alongside that, the economies of our urban centers and small towns have been, for a long time, at the mercy of the vagaries of international oil prices.

You might wonder what the heck these broad- brush subjects have got to do with you, your house, or your daily errands. YOu’re about to find out! Aileen’s lunch guests are both involved in making the link between where we live and how we live. It’s a link you might not normally think about, but it’s fascinating. And vital.

Geoff Dyer 

Geoff Dyer is the CEO and Director of Design for the Downtown Development Authority in Lafayette.

Geoff is an urban designer with an international reputation. He’s designed more than 80 projects in 18 states across the US. He’s both an enthusiast and an authority on downtown revitalization. Which is what he specializes in here in Lafayette.

Ursula Emery McClure 

Ursula Emery McClure is a founding partner in the firm Emery McClure Architecture, and occupies the prestigious seat of A. Hays Town Professor in the School of Architecture at LSU. Ursula has won numerous international prizes for her architecture and her firm’s work is internationally recognized as well. Here at home, Ursula’s designs are sometimes controversial as she champions forward thinking design while, as she puts it, “being caught between the global petro-chemical infrastructure and an alligator.”

Photos from lunch at Social in Lafayette.