Jerry Abramson, Christy Lee Brown help us look back at Louisville's milestones

Access Louisville

We've got a special Access Louisville Podcast this week — and it's special for a couple of reasons.
First, two guests join us: Jerry Abramson, former mayor of Louisville and executive-in-residence at Spalding University; and Christina Lee Brown, philanthropist and namesake of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute.
Secondly, this week's show is special because it was recorded in front of a live audience at our offices in Downtown Louisville for the first time.
The theme of the show was to look back at Louisville's milestones over the past 40 years. What did we get right? What surprised us? And what's on our wishlist for the future?
The expansion of what is today known as Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport was one example that Abramson highlighted. But we also talked about more recent developments, such as the building of the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville.
As far as looking ahead at what the city needs in the future, Brown said the top thing on her wishlist is that everyone see the real value of health for our community. The idea of creating jobs is solid, she said, but we need to ask ourselves about employees health too.
"How can we care for those employees psychological health in new kinds of ways? How can we take care of their air, water and soil in new kinds of ways," she asked.
Abramson noted the importance of education and civic engagement.
"This whole citizenship thing has sort of evaporated," Abramson said. "You need to engage — there's a responsibility. For democracy to work, you have to have an educated electorate."
Those were just a few of our favorite takeaways. You can listen to the entire show in the player above and on popular podcast services, such as Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First.