It's a very special time for football in Shreveport-Bossier. You can find my full discussion with the Shreveport Rouxgaroux here.

Here are the questions I asked:

0:28 1. Let’s just start with some of the basics.

Heather, you are the Fan Club Director for the Shreveport Rouxgaroux Roux Krewe and Chase you are the Center for the Shreveport Rouxgaroux. Heather, start by telling me a little about our newest pro team that we’re so excited to have. Where do you play in town? And when is your next local game?

2:21 2. I haven’t been to a game yet but I definitely plan to come. Chase, I’ve heard arena football described as a circus with a football game or as NFL meets hockey. I’ve heard you say, “Hopefully it will be so loud I can barely hear the quarterback tell me to snap the ball” and “Usually if you’re not scoring at least 50 points, you’re not doing your job right.”

Tell me what I’m going to experience when I come to a game.

5:14 3. It’s a special time for football in Shreveport-Bossier. We have Centenary bringing back football after more than 70 years of not having a team and in a little over a year we’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Independence Bowl. It’s such a wonderful opportunity to have a professional arena football team in our community. Heather, tell me about the Roux Krewe. And tell me some things that will help encourage families to come out and support the Shreveport Rouxgaroux.

7:08 4. Chase, I’ve heard you say, “I just really love to play football.” Tell me some about your football history. Where are you from and where all have you played? And how about the football history of some of your teammates?

10:10 5. I read about an arena football team in Wyoming. It’s a town of 37,000 that sells out a 5,000 seat arena every game. I also read, in preparing for today, that the Rouxgaorux contracts each of their players to do something in the community at least two times a week. And I heard that the Rouxgaroux players stay on the field after each game to meet kids and their fans.

So all that to say how can we make sure that this community adopts the Rouxgaroux as their team and ensures they are here for many, many years to come?

0:35 1. In the spring of last year you came to us from Paducah, Kentucky to take the reins as the Executive Director of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. Since 1948 Shreveport has been blessed to have a symphony. In fact, it’s the oldest continuously operating symphony in Louisiana.

We’re going to cover all kinds of aspects of the Shreveport Symphony today. But let’s start here. I know you do a lot of work with and in the schools. Tell me about some of this if you could.

2:55 2. Let’s talk some about your vision and initiatives. Tell me first about some of the things that will continue or stay the same with you at the helm?

3:41 3. And then let’s talk about some of the things that will be different or that are priorities for you to add or change.

5:37 4. What are the Symphony’s greatest challenges today and for those in our community listening, how can they best help you achieve your mission?

9:15 5. I once heard your great Music Director Michael Butterman say the following,

“We are all being rewired through our connectivity, through our devices and so on. We’re looking for the next ding, the next little stimulation. The idea of being multi-tasking and scattered is something that’s just kinda creeping into our very way of being. So that’s a challenge but it’s also an opportunity. What I mean by that is that more than ever I think people are looking for chances to kinda unplug. To transcend that kind of frantic pace. They might find it through prayer. They might find it through meditation. I suggest you can also find it through really losing yourself in great music like we play.”

You and I are a bit in a similar business. We are both selling quality of life enhancements to the community. How do you sell that to people when it’s not necessarily easy to quantify or demonstrate a ROI for?

This week we are talking with one of our community's great couples who are filling gaps and doing hard things. You can find my full discussion with Lindsi and Dany Martin here.

0:34 1. Neither of you is from here yet both of you have contributed greatly to making our community better. Lindsi, for close to ten years you brought us the much beloved Well + Fed Louisiana restaurant. And Dany you are a Partner and Wealth Advisor at WFA, formerly Williams Financial Advisors.

Today I’m going to lean heavily on your perspective, because it’s so unique, and focus on some of the incredible things you’ve done beyond your professions.

Let’s start here today. Tell me a little about where both of you are from and who taught you this sense of caring about and service to your community.

4:06 2. All right, Lindsi, this one is for you. I have to ask because I am the Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana. Shreveport recently was rated the 6th most obese city in the United States in WalletHub’s 2025 rankings. As someone who owned and ran a vegan restaurant for nearly ten years, is Shreveport-Bossier becoming more health conscious? And, what are some things that we can do to continue to get listed lower in these national overweight and obesity rankings?

9:12 3. This podcast was created in response to what I saw as a growing sense of community apathy and low self-esteem. Both of you represent the exact opposite of that. As a couple who have done and continue to do so much for our community, what do you see as ways to get more people, like you, to focus more on WE than ME?

17:42 4. Dany, I heard you say in an interview that Lindsi describes the two of you and your community work as “gap fillers”. Share some of the story about how your family became bigger through your involvement with Common Ground.

30:20 5. Will each of you share a story of a preconception you had or a gap in understanding or awareness that you had that has changed since you became foster parents?