Best Progress City U S A Podcasts (2024)

1
A Tale of Two Parishes 29:00

1d ago29:00

29:00

The city of New Orleans is in Orleans Parish. For reasons that are mainly economic and infrastructure-related, Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish are inter-dependent. The two parishes are very different. The rivalry between them isn’t on the scale of the Saints and the Flacons, but it’s definitely real. If you live in Jefferson Parish, the ba…

1
Coffee and Cannabis 31:20

9d ago31:20

31:20

In the world of American coffee culture, 1971 changed everything. That was the year Starbucks was born. For much of the country, Starbucks was the first coffee shop in their town. In New Orleans, our first coffee shop opened in The French Market - in the late 1700’s. For a city not known for being on the cutting edge of business, we were 200 years …

1
Above and Beyond 28:50

17d ago28:50

28:50

There are sayings in the English language that employ literal terms but have no literal meaning. For example, when we describe something as “black and white” we mean it’s obvious, not that there’s literally a black object and a white object. When we say something’s “open and shut” we’re suggesting it’s inarguable, not that anything is literally ope…

1
Jim & Josh Ain't In It For The Money 28:30

23d ago28:30

28:30

When people talk about their business, there are a number of sentences that raise the red flag of skepticism. “Let me explain this as simply as I can” usually means you walk away scratching your head saying “Wait, what?” “Nobody’s ever done anything like this” is typically the precursor to a business pitch you’ve already heard twice this month. And…

1
Focus on U 30:40

1M ago30:40

30:40

I’m sure you’re aware of the many lists that New Orleans finds itself at the top or bottom of. For many years we’ve heard we’re near the top of the list for violent crime. At the same time we’re near the top of the list for best places to start a business. We’re near the bottom of the list of per capita income. And near the top of the list of dolla…

1
The Business of Love 27:19

1M ago27:19

27:19

If you could sell a product every person on earth wants, you’d have a winning business. Right? So - other than a phone upgrade - what does nearly every single person on earth want? Love. And happiness. That’s the product platforms like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and other online dating services are selling. According to the latest numbers out there, 5%…

1
Riding The Rail To Rubensteins 27:01

2M ago27:01

27:01

New Orleans is a city of mysteries. Tourists, fascinated by ghosts and grandeur, learn about them on French Quarter walking tours. For those of us who live here, there are other mysteries. Like, “Why am I paying so much in property tax and my street still has massive potholes?” Here’s another New Orleans mystery that may have crossed your mind - wh…

1
Progress Here Looks Different 28:55

2M ago28:55

28:55

If you Google “demolition videos” you’ll find a seemingly unlimited number of videos of commercial buildings being imploded, and bulldozers mowing down houses. 99% of these videos are posted with gleeful pride. They’re testament to growth and progress. Wiping old buildings off the face of the earth to make way for newer, bigger, and better building…

1
Space and Sea 30:15

3M ago30:15

30:15

Back in 1923, a guy in Norfolk Virginia called T. Parker Host founded a company. He called it, T. Parker Host. 100 years later, in 2023, the company relocated the bulk of their operations to Jefferson Parish to what used to be known as The Avondale Shipyards and re-named it, Avondale Global Gateway. The new name is no exaggeration. It is now, in fa…

1
Dragonfly AI 31:30

3M ago31:30

31:30

Perception and reality can sometimes be two different things. When it comes to money, that can be a problem. You’ve probably had this happen: you’re thinking you’ve had a pretty good month, then you get your credit card bill and you get an unpleasant surprise. Somehow, you’d totally forgotten this was the month the dishwasher broke, you had to take…

1
Fresh and Clean 28:30

5M ago28:30

28:30

Every creature on earth is concerned with his or her appearance. I use the pronouns “his” or “her” intentionally, because in most species this attention to appearance is connected to attracting a mate for procreation. For the human species, things are different. Our interest in our appearance doesn’t need to be connected to mating, or even dating. …

1
It's Only Money 29:25

5M ago29:25

29:25

There’s more to life than money. That’s true. In some circles it’s become fashionable to talk about the goal of business as being about more than single-mindedly making money. Ok, that’s true too. But it’s worth noting that although money can’t buy you happiness, poverty can’t buy you anything. I stole that witty observation from a meme on Facebook…

1
Onesie Green Beans 29:50

5M ago29:50

29:50

For a good deal of human history, if you wanted something done you had to do it yourself. As societies became more stratified, we developed division of labor. Today, things are so specialized people over 60 comment this current generation can’t do anything for themselves. Despite the fact that kids are writing code that powers the platforms these c…

1
Pickleball Sailing 27:00

6M ago27:00

27:00

If you’d been living in the 1800’s you might have found yourself sitting at a lunch table asking your friends, “What are y’all talking about? What is “tennis”?” Today you’re more likely to ask, “What is pickleball?” Pickleball Like tennis, pickleball is played on a court with a net. The ball is a kind of wiffleball. And instead of a racket, a pickl…

1
A Cure For Polarization 33:45

6M ago33:45

33:45

We hear a lot about “polarization” these days. And for good reason. It impacts all of us. There are two types of polarization: political and financial. You can probably make a case they’re related, but we’re talking about the financial variety. Most conversations about financial polarization tend to take the same shape. They begin with the observat…

1
Bourbon and Cake 28:30

6M ago28:30

28:30

If you lived in New Orleans between 1953 and 2021, you might remember Baker Maid Fruitcake. It was made here, and in its earlier years was hugely popular. But tastes change. Somewhere along the line fruitcake became relegated mostly to the holidays. In 2009, when Greg Sorensen took over his family business as its 4th generation co-owner, he reasone…

1
Brave New World 28:35

7M ago28:35

28:35

If anything good came out of the Covid 19 pandemic it was the advent of remote working. For some people that means they now work from their dining room table, or spend a chunk of their work day at a coffee shop. Other people have taken the opportunity to move out of expensive big cities to places not known for advancing careers. For example, over t…

1
Fat Boys Pepper 30:30

7M ago30:30

30:30

Anybody can have a good idea for a business. I’ve already had a couple this morning: Ice that stays frozen longer in iced coffee. And a real-time updating system from the doctor’s office that tells you they’re running an hour late. They might both be good ideas. But there’s a big difference between a good business idea, and a good business. That di…

1
Kids Yoga Tattoos 28:00

7M ago28:00

28:00

Humans are social animals. We like to hang out and talk. We could, conceivably, create spaces where we could go, solely to talk to other people. But the way our society is structured, everything has to be paid for. Would people pay to go to a place just to talk to each other? Maybe. But that’s not what happens. What happens is, we socialize with ea…

1
Screen Time IRL 28:20

9M ago28:20

28:20

Most animal species go through a juvenile developmental stage where they play with each other. Think, puppies and kittens. Human beings are different. We don’t grow out of playing. We come up with myriad ways for people of all ages to enjoy themselves. Here in New Orleans there’s a whole industry devoted to creating fun things for adults to do. Som…

1
Once More With Feeling 37:10

9M ago37:10

37:10

Specific areas of the US are associated with specific industries. In those places, people who work in those industries can make a lot of money. For example, Silicon Valley is known for tech. Software development is so lucrative for so many people there its driven the cost-of-living sky high. In Los Angeles, the TV and movie industry creates enormou…

1
NOLA x South West 27:35

9M ago27:35

27:35

Walk around the French Quarter any night, go to any music club from the Bywater to Uptown, or join any second-line, and you soon understand New Orleanians’ perspective on life. We’re open-minded and accepting. Famous people move here because they discover nobody’s judging in New Orleans. Everybody’s equal. By and large that’s true, but might I sugg…

1
Bomb Ass Bayou 29:00

10M ago29:00

29:00

If you go to the drug store and check out the hair and skin-care aisles, you’ll find shelves crammed with products. There seems to be a product for every conceivable hair type and skin condition. But, actually, there’s not. Even one of the most successful brands, Aveeno, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, is on the lookout for new products. So mu…

1
Sailing 29:10

10M ago29:10

29:10

People who own their own sailboat sometimes describe sailing as, “Like standing in the shower ripping up money.” The point being, not only is a sailboat an expensive item to buy, but sailing is a prohibitively expensive hobby to take part in. Which is unfortunate because the earth’s oceans, lakes, and breezes are accessible to everyone and, really,…

1
Stuff Goes Wrong 28:17

10M ago28:17

28:17

Oil companies spend a huge amount of money and devote massive resources to exploring for oil and pumping it out of the ocean floor. But, nothing lasts forever. When an off-shore oil well dries up, oil companies don’t exhibit quite the same zeal for plugging the well and dismantling and removing the massive drilling platform. That job is given to a …

1
Come By and See Us 27:00

11M ago27:00

27:00

New Orleans is a city of distinctly different neighborhoods. 73 of them to be exact. We’ve got broad-brushstroke boundaries like Uptown, Mid-City and Algiers. Within those – and sometimes seemingly between them - we have areas with names like Black Pearl, Gert Town, Milneburg, and Desire. And if you want to get even more specifically local, you sub…

1
Schoolhouse Socks 29:00

11M ago29:00

29:00

From its very inception, and for a couple of hundred years, New Orleans was a place people moved to from all over the world. Toward the end of the 20th century, things started to go in reverse. Every year since 1963 more people were leaving New Orleans than arriving here. Then, early this century, the tide turned again. Among the many reasons for t…

1
Black Coffee 27:00

11M ago27:00

27:00

When we talk about a business, we assume that success can be measured numerically, in dollars and cents. The more revenue and the bigger the percentage of profit, the more successful the business. We also assume that the focus of the business, is the business itself. Normally, these assumptions are true. But, like all assumptions, there are excepti…

1
Cinched and Sober 27:00

12M ago27:00

27:00

Around 70% of the US economy is driven by consumer spending. In other comparable economies, it’s different. Canada, France, Germany and Japan, all peg consumer spending at around 50%. What this means is, the enormous might of the world’s most powerful military and globally dominant financial system, is powered by you and me, buying stuff. That, in …

1
High Risk 34:50

1y ago34:50

34:50

When you make a commitment, you’re assuming you have a certain amount of knowledge about the future. For example, when you get married, the vows about sticking together from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health presume there’ll be rough times ahead. What you’re also assuming is, you’re not going to …

1
Death & Coffee 28:40

1y ago28:40

28:40

“Would you like to go get coffee?” When somebody asks you that, you know what they mean. They’re not suggesting, literally, that you might want to synchronize a trip to procure coffee - they’re inviting you to talk. Maybe they want to talk about work. Relationships. Kids. Parents. Movies. Music. Sex. Religion. Politics. School. You could probably l…

1
Turbo Thinkers 28:48

1y ago28:48

28:48

There was a time in the U.S. - not all that long ago - when all of us fell into one of very few homogeneous groups. You were either an employer or employee - there was no such thing as a “gig economy worker” or “startup entrepreneur”. Very few people were openly members of any of the categories L, G, B, T or Q. And nobody referred to themselves as …

1
Lobster Bratz 28:05

1y ago28:05

28:05

If you made a drinking game out of “New Orleans Clichés” and had to do a shot every time someone said, “New Orleans is famous for its food,” by lunchtime you’d be more drunk than a tourist on Bourbon Street wearing Mardi Gras beads in August. If you live in New Orleans, you can be justifiably proud of our cuisine. But there are only so many poboys,…

1
Gone Fishin' 30:30

1y ago30:30

30:30

Typically, a “fish story” is a tall tale about “the one that got away.” It’s usually told by a person relaying details about a peaceful day spent fishing on placid waters when the most exciting thing that happened was a fish that could have been dinner swam away. Like so many things, it’s different in Louisiana. Here, fish stories include hurricane…

1
The Village People 31:15

1y ago31:15

31:15

In 1996, then first lady Hillary Clinton popularized the saying, “It Takes A Village” when she published a book with that title. The original saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” is variously attributed to African and Indigenous American societies. Wherever it came from, its meaning is widely accepted. And that is, the knowledge and skill…

1
IT Diaries 31:51

1y ago31:51

31:51

It’s impossible to imagine having a business these days that isn’t plugged into the internet. Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business – like a plumber, a lawyer, or you have a retail store – the first thing a new client does before they do business with you is check you out online. You know that’s true because you do it yourself. We all do. And …

1
File Under A For Audition 27:50

1y ago27:50

27:50

Most workplaces have a place to go when you’re not working. A lunchroom. Cafeteria. Or maybe a space with an espresso machine and a ping pong table. These non-work spaces are also places where unplanned but valuable work conversations happen. Social science has a term for these kinds of unintended incidents. They’re called “latent functions.” Laten…

1
Hope Hustlehawks 29:31

1y ago29:31

29:31

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a “curiosity” as “a strange fact.” On today’s show we take a look at two business curiosities. The first is - The greater your need for money, the harder it is to borrow it. In 2022, Elon Musk, then the richest man in the world, had no problem borrowing 13 billion dollars to fund the purchase of Twitter, a comp…

1
Rollin' On The River 31:00

1y ago31:00

31:00

The Americans With Disabilities Act became law in 1990. It prohibits discrimination based on any kind of impairment, and mandates provision of access to public places for people in wheelchairs. You may have noticed that over the past few years the city of New Orleans has been updating sidewalks to provide wheelchair access at intersections, so peop…

1
Weights and Waiters 30:20

1+ y ago30:20

30:20

All of us occasionally grapple with the existential human question, “Why am I here?” In those moments, to ascribe some sort of relevance to our presence on earth, we might aggrandize the importance of our occupation. For example, try this. Wherever you are right now, pick a random object. Now make an argument for why it’s the most vital element of …

1
High Above New Orleans 34:16

1+ y ago34:16

34:16

In September 2022, Apple announced the release of the iPhone 14. Since the creation of the iPhone in 2007, Apple has been responsible for almost every major innovation in cellular communication. Patents notwithstanding, these innovations almost always find their way onto other operating systems. So, what starts out on the iPhone ends up on every ph…

1
The Birthplace of Work/Life Balance 39:20

1+ y ago39:20

39:20

People who come to New Orleans as visitors often spend most of their time in the French Quarter and pack their stay with excessive indulgence. They start drinking way earlier in the day than they do at home. They stay out way later at night than they do at home. And they eat meal after meal of New Orleans’ specialty dishes, laden with cream, butter…

1
Tradition 27:00

1+ y ago27:00

27:00

In New Orleans, we’re big on tradition. We believe that doing things the same way they’ve been done for generations keeps us connected to our history and maintains the grandness of the city that our forebears created. But there’s a difference between tradition and habit. That difference can be knowledge. For example, in the 1950’s if you, your pare…

1
Niche 34:35

1+ y ago34:35

34:35

If you have a business that depends on sales, you can try and sell everything to everybody, like Walmart. But seeing there’s almost no way on earth you can compete with Walmart, you need to come up with a more niche approach. Having a unique product and finding people who need it is the pathway to success. Supply and demand. Simple enough, right? W…

1
Neuro Push 29:11

1+ y ago29:11

29:11

When we’re confronted with a challenging task, we reassure ourselves it’s probably achievable by saying, “Well, it’s not brain surgery.” We say this because every single thing created by humans – from the sewer system to satellites - ultimately came from the human brain. And yet how the brain works remains among the most vexing and mysterious eleme…

1
Not Drowning, Clowning 31:03

1+ y ago31:03

31:03

We’re all too familiar with horrific news stories about school shootings, teenage drug overdoses, and social-media-driven teen suicide. But these aren’t actually the country’s biggest causes of childhood death. The leading cause of death in children aged 1-14, after vehicle crashes, is drowning. Although we’re deeply divided about how best to solve…

1
Count Us In 32:18

1+ y ago32:18

32:18

If you spend any time working with colleagues on Zoom, or other video platforms, you know there is one main goal all these products are trying to achieve: Real-time collaboration. You’re sitting at your desk, or kitchen table, and your colleagues are scattered around the country, or the world. But the conversation, the screen, and the whiteboard yo…

1
Getting Ahead With Hair 28:36

1+ y ago28:36

28:36

There are a few famous families in New Orleans. The Nevilles. The Mannings. The Marsalis family. The Batistes. The Brennans. I could name more, and you can probably think of others too. Like mine, your list of names is likely going to be families of sports figures, musicians or restaurateurs. There are also families of business people here in New O…

1
Chocolate Stocks 32:15

1+ y ago32:15

32:15

There’s a good chance you haven’t won the lottery. But you can probably imagine what you’d feel like if you did, because you’ve experienced a version of that kind of financial good news at some point. Maybe when you’ve gotten a bonus at work. Or when the IRS says you overpaid your taxes and sends you a refund. Everybody likes free money. For the mo…

1
Holistic Health 28:20

1+ y ago28:20

28:20

Most of us measure our health inversely - by how infrequently we have to see a doctor. If we never have to go to the doctor, we must be super-healthy. But, if our only contact with the healthcare system is when something is wrong with us, can we really call that healthcare? Isn’t it really ill-health care? That’s the perspective that has led a rece…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Progress City U S A Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide