As Out to Lunch prepares to go back to hosting live lunches, for inspiration we’re taking a look at some of our pre-Covid shows. Here’s an Out to Lunch Best of: Biographies and Boxing.

Biographies

History is a messy business. It’s full of mixed and conflicting perspectives. It’s subject to revision — for the right or wrong reasons  And while it’s tempting to think of it as a collection of facts, history is really a collection of perspectives. This holds especially true for histories of people. Think about it: there are competing biographies, or authorized biographies, even unauthorized biographies – and, of course,  autobiographies. Christiaan’s guests on this episode of Out to Lunch Acadiana are both writers of history.

Biographer and historian Jason Theriot

Biographer and Historian, Jason Theriot

Jason Theriot is a freelance author, a New Iberia native, and an academic. He’s written on a number of subjects, not just about people, including World War II histories and works about the environment, particularly the Gulf Coast. Jason is a former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School where he worked on Environmental Policy. He’s currently working on a history of tank barges.

Boxing

Deirdre Gogarty Morrison wrote her own history. She published an autobiography about her career as a boxer called “My Call to the Ring.”

World Champion women's boxer Deirdre Gogarty Morrison

World Champion women’s boxer Deirdre Gogarty Morrison

Deirdre was born and raised in Ireland and moved to Lafayette to work with the legendary boxing coach Beau Williford. Irish law prohibited women from boxing professionally but that didn’t deter Deirdre. She was to become Ireland’s first women’s world champion and has been inducted into the international women’s boxing hall of fame.

Deidre is retired from professional bouts now and spends her boxing time coaching both men and women.

world Boxing Champ Deirdre Gogarty Morrison, professional biographer Jason Theriot, and Christiaan Mader Out to Lunch at Chopsticks

world Boxing Champ Deirdre Gogarty Morrison, professional biographer Jason Theriot, and Christiaan Mader Out to Lunch at Chopsticks

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at the now defunct Chopsticks restaurant in Lafayette.

Photos by Lucius Fontenot.

Find out more about extraordinary Acadiana women in sports here.