It’s New Orleans: Out to Lunch

Hosted ByPeter Ricchiuti

OUT TO LUNCH finds the country's most entertaining finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch. Each week Peter invites guests from the New Orleans business world to join him, sometimes for fine dining others for pizza. From CEO's to startups, managers, musicians, biomed needle-movers, Silicon Bayou success stories and entrepreneurs of all stripes put aside the elevator pitch and the talking points and actually enjoy themselves. It's business, New Orleans style.
You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

STEM – Out to Lunch – It’s New Orleans

In 1967, Edward de Bono invented “Lateral Thinking.” It’s a type of reasoning that solves problems by steps that might not be obvious. 

For example, how do you get more college grads to enter the workforce wanting to go into technology? Regular logic would suggest employers pay more to people in these positions. Or offer college scholarships.

Todd Wackerman

Todd Wackerman has come up with a lateral thinking solution. It’s called STEM Library Lab. It allows high schools to get kids interested in STEM subjects by lending schools science and tech equipment that they couldn’t otherwise afford.

Flor Serna

Flor Serna is working laterally on the problem of only 3 in 10 people in engineering being women, and only 1 in 10 being women of color. Flor is the Executive Director of Electric Girls – a non-profit learning space where girls learn STEM skills from each other.

In a world where everything we hear about seems to be some form of disturbing news that’s delivered by mass media that half of us distrust, or social media that most of us distrust, it restores your faith in human nature to discover that there are people out there who are genuinely working for the greater good of all of us.

Peter Ricchiuti, Flor Serna, Todd Wackerman

Photos over lunch at Commander’s Palace by Jill Lafleur.