Business for Good Podcast

Ep. 80 | Is What You Believe About Food Sustainability Wrong? Robert Paarlberg Thinks So.

01 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to food, we often hear that switching to organic, local, non-GMO production methods are what's best for the planet. But, what if the pre...

Ep. 79 | From Sophomore to CEO: Jessica Schwabach of Sundial Foods is Flying on Plant-Based Wings

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For real: What were you doing during your sophomore year of college? Probably not what Jessica Schwabach was doing, which was starting her own plant-b...

Ep. 78 | A Conversation with NYC's Mayor-Elect Eric Adams

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A year and a half ago, a guy few people had ever heard of came on to this show's 44th episode to talk both about the business of police reform as well...

Ep. 77 | Creating a Cultivated Meat Community: Anita Broellechs and Alex Shirazi

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to our first-ever episode taped before a live audience! That's right, episode 77 was taped on-stage at the Cultured Meat Symposium in San Fran...

Ep 76 | Is Your Cat Ready to Eat Cultivated Mouse Meat? Shannon Falconer and Because Animals Think So

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's already plant-based pet food, but what about growing actual animal meat for all of our carnivorous best friends? The company featured in thi...

Ep 75 | The Sweet Side of Starting a (Dairy-Free) Ice Cream Company: Aylon Steinhart & Eclipse Foods

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, two friends were both working in the alt-protein sector, one at the Good Food Institute and the other at Eat Just. Even though Aylon Steinhar...

Ep 74 | A Financial Journalist's Prescription for Making the Economy Work for Animals

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's not every day that hard-nosed financial journalists write about our ethical obligations to animals, let alone do they devote an entire book to th...

Ep 73 |From Dust to Dust...or to Soil: Katrina Spade and the Recompose Vision for an Eco-Friendlier Death Industry

01 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Whether we like it or not, one fact of modern living is that every day we're creating greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution. But should our fin...

Ep 72 | Plastic that Won't Last Forever: Kristin Taylor and the Radical Plastics Story

15 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sure, diamonds—including lab-grown—may be forever. But does plastic also have to be? Not so, according to Kristin Taylor, CEO of Radical Plastics....

Ep. 71 Life as a Scrappy Startup Exec: Doni Curkendall and The Better Meat Co.

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Doni Curkendall was born and raised in Mexico, came to the US as a seven-year-old, and when she entered the workforce started as a receptionist at Goo...

Ep. 70 | The Second Publicly Traded Plant-Based Meat Company: Mitchell Scott and The Very Good Food Co.

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You've probably heard of Beyond Meat's big IPO and their success as a publicly traded company. Sure, they were the first plant-based meat company to g...

Ep. 69 | The Sharks Tried to Buy Her Plant-Based Fried Chicken Company: Deborah Torres and the Atlas Monroe Story

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

So often you hear about start-ups that raise millions or even tens of millions of dollars from venture capitalists before beginning to generate revenu...

Ep. 68 | Using Tech to Drive Change: Google.org and Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How often do you use Google's services? If you're like me, it's many times per hour. So you may think you know all about Google.com. But how much do y...

Ep. 67 | Where's the Animal-Free Materials Revolution? Nicole Rawling of the Material Innovation Initiative Wants You to Launch It

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You've likely noticed that there's been an explosion of investment into the animal-free food space, with producers of alt-meat, milk, and eggs advanci...

Pineapple Express to Disrupting Leather: Mélanie Broyé-Engelkes and Piñatex

15 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's often that we hear about some really cool and promising new technology that's allegedly going to change the game, but only once that tech is scal...

Ep. 65 | The Billionaire Out to End Factory Farming

01 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How often have you wished that more billionaires used their money to do good in the world? Well, you're in luck, because in this episode we talk with ...

Ep. 64 | From Seafood to Seaweed: Monica Talbert and the Plant-Based Seafood Co.

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our oceans are in dire trouble, and a big part of the reason is because we're killing so many aquatic animals for food. But if you want hope, look no ...

You Can Buy a Piece of the Mycelium Revolution: Joanne Rodriguez and Mycocycle Are Literally Turning Trash into Treasure

01 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Landfills are, well, filling up. We're running out of places to put our trash, and the trash we've landfilled won't decompose for centuries.  But, wh...

Ep. 62 | Maximizing the Good We Can Do: A Conversation with Peter Singer

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Typically on this podcast, we showcase entrepreneurs and business titans alike who are using the power of commerce to try to solve serious social prob...

Ep. 61 | Modernizing Contraception with Your Choice Therapeutics' Akash Bakshi

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that two of every five births in America are unplanned?  That's not to suggest that an unplanned baby is going to be an unloved baby, of...

Ep. 60 | Marrying Cultivated Meat & Plant-Based Meat for the Best of Both Worlds: Brian Spears Shares New Age Meats' Gameplan

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Founded in 2017, New New Age Meats is practically old school when it comes to cultivated meat companies.  In mid-2018, the nascent startup debuted it...

Ep. 59 | Silk and Leather from Fermentation, Not Animals — David Breslauer and the Bolt Threads Story

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you've ever heard of Bolt Threads, you may know them as one of the OGs in the space of growing animal products without animals. After all, since th...

Ep. 58 | The Meat Company that's Put Nearly a Billion Dollars into Plant-Based Meat

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Of all the major meat companies, none has embraced plant protein in the way Canada's largest meat company, Maple Leaf Foods, has. Not only has the com...

Ep. 57 | From Corporate Giant to Pre-Revenue Startup: Irina Gerry's Journey to Alt-Dairy Newcomer Change Foods

15 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You've heard the old adage: Humans plan, and God laughs. That truism could nicely describe Irina Gerry's life, which has been pretty remarkable so far...

Ep. 56 | From Nonprofit Activist to Entrepreneur for Animals: Kristie Middleton and Rebellyous Foods

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a regular listener of the show, you likely already know that reducing humanity's reliance on animals for food is one of the most pressing ch...

Ep. 55 | Ubiquitous Energy's Susan Stone Intends to Power Our Cities with Invisible Solar Panels

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We may hear a lot about solar power and renewable energy, but sadly, our civilization is still voraciously addicted to fossil fuels. Even in a technol...

Ep. 54 | From Startup Founder to Investor & Philanthropist: Chris Bryson's Wild Ride to Do Good

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Most start-ups fail. Many that don't fail still don't have spectacular results. Chris Bryson, however, defied the odds by founding and running a compa...

Ep. 53 | Wood-Fed Meat? Marc Chevrel and Arbiom Say Bring it On

15 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Meat from a cow who's eaten an entirely grass-based diet is typically called "grass-fed meat." So when you're making plant-based meat with wood as you...

Ep. 52 | The Business of Election Security with Aaron Brantly

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is of course a historic election for many reasons, one of them being that there's very high concern about how the votes will be counted. We're ju...

Ep. 51 | Making a Living as an Influencer: Toni Okamoto & The Plant-Based on a Budget Story

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is a special episode, because the guest holds many interesting titles for our purposes: Toni Okamoto is the founder of Plant Based on a Budget, a...

Ep.50 | The Conscious Leader: Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When this podcast was first launched in 2018, the very first guest was Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder John Mackey. In that episode, we talked a...

Ep. 49 | Priming the Market for Fungi-Based Meat: The Prime Roots Story with Kimberlie Le

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Think about how many plants there are: hundreds of thousands of different species. Yet when you look at plant-based meats, nearly all are made of one ...

Ep. 48 | Upcycling Mining Waste: The Phoenix Tailings Story with Nick Myers and Thomas Villalon, Jr.

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Think about how much metal you use in your life. Your phone. Your canned drinks. Your car. Well, for every ounce of metal in our lives, there are seve...

Ep. 47 | The Solo-preneur: How Colleen Patrick-Goudreau Paved Her Own Way to Help Animals

15 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Normally on Business for Good, we focus on companies using innovative commerce to solve serious social problems. In this episode though, we're focusin...

Ep. 46 And You Thought Goodwill Was Just a Used Goods Store. Lori Dearwester Shares the Charity's Story

01 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Maybe you own some things from Goodwill or at least have donated unwanted items to them. But when you think of Goodwill, what comes to your mind?  Ma...

Ep. 45 - Bringing Plant-Based Meat to India: The Good Dot Revolution

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Oftentimes when Westerners think of India, we tend to think of it as a land of vegetarians. It's true that India has given the world some pretty aweso...

Ep. 44 - The Business of Police Reform with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are few people with more credible voices on police reform than Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.  As you'll hear in the interview, Adams t...

Making Tap Water Cool Again: Will Bottled Water Be the Next Cigarette?

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Let's face it: even though we all know there's a huge problem with single-use plastic bottles, right or wrong, most Americans just don't trust tap wat...

Ep. 42 - Selling Cellular Agriculture the Nonprofit Way: Isha Datar and New Harvest

01 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a regular listener of the show, you may recognize the name of this episode's guest since she's been mentioned on at least two past episodes....

Ep. 41 - Solving Plastic Pollution and Poverty Simultaneously: The Plastic Bank Story

15 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In many countries, walking down city streets vividly brings to life two serious problems: plastic pollution and poverty. While there are charities try...

Ep. 40 - Sheltering in Place...for Millennia: Deep Isolation Has a Plan for Nuclear Waste

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Some states are beginning to open their economies after weeks of shutting down to try to flatten the COVID curve. But there are some things that we re...

Ep. 39 - $200 Million for Plant-Based Chicken: The LiveKindly Co. Story

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What do you get when you combine executives from Unilever and Nestle with alt-protein investors and $200 million? In 2020, it turns out you get a new ...

Ep. 39 - The OG of the Plant-Based Meat Movement: Seth Tibbott's Tofurky Story

07 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today, everyone knows what plant-based meat is and chances are they've at least tried it. In many ways, those people have Seth Tibbott to thank. Seth,...

Ep. 38 - Making Plastic Disappear with Notpla's Seaweed Packaging

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When two college students were concerned about the plastic packaging choking our waterways, they wondered if they could invent a better way to contain...

Ep. 37 - Making Meat Out of Thin Air

15 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You already know about plant-based meat. You're also familiar with meat grown from animal cells, often called cultivated meat or clean meat. But have ...

Ep. 36 - Protecting the Planet from the Ground Up

01 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The challenge of climate change can seem daunting, but trying to solve daunting challenges is exactly what Google X does. One former employee of Googl...

Ep.35: From Funding Alt-Protein to Starting His Own Company

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In many ways, Ryan Bethencourt is an OG of the biotech alt-protein scene. As a cofounder of biotech accelerator Indiebio, he was part of the team that...

Ep. 34: $50 Million to Crack the Egg: Real Egg Proteins without the Chickens

01 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By the time he was 22, Arturo Elizondo had already interned in the White House and for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. But as the recent colleg...

Ep. 33: Real Leather without the Cows

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do people with ideas for businesses to save the world find cofounders? If you're fashion designer Michalyn Andrews, you read journal articles by s...

Ep. 32: From ConAgra to Culturing Fish Cells

01 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You've likely heard the story about the Jew who was said to have taken a small amount of fish and multiplied it to feed thousands. Well, in 2020, ther...

Ep. 31: Can Beer Brewery Waste Help Solve Plastic Pollution?

15 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Plastic is amazing at doing so many things—except going away. As the planet increasingly swims in humanity's plastic garbage (nearly none of which g...

Ep. 30: Bean-Free Brew

01 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the 29 previous episodes of this show you've heard about pork without pigs, milk without cows, diamonds without mining, and even wood without trees...

Ep. 29: TurtleTree Labs

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What do  you get when you combine a Google leader, a dairy industry executive, and an engineer? Apparently, if you're in Singapore, you get a new sta...

Ep. 28: Bringing Power—Solar and Social—to Rural Africans, with Lyndsay Holley Handler

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

You've heard the folklore time and again: a group of young idealists starts a company in their garage with dreams of one day changing the world. In th...

Ep. 27: Your Trash Is Tom Szaky's Treasure

15 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

You know the story: there's a bright college student who drops out of an Ivy League school to embark upon an entrepreneurial journey, founding his own...

Ep. 26: The Meat-Scientist-Turned-Plant-Based-Entrepreneur

01 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Many of the people running plant-based and clean meat companies are vegetarians themselves who often have come out of the animal protection or environ...

Ep 25: Can Helping the Homeless with Surplus Food be Profitable? Jasmine Crowe is Betting on It.

15 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For a lot of people, when they walk by someone who's homeless, their inclination may be to look the other way. One day for Jasmine Crowe, however, she...

Ep 24: How Often Should Workers be Paid? Safwan Shah Has an Idea

01 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Should employers really make their employees wait two weeks to get paid? You may not think it's that important, but imagine if you had less than $400 ...

Ep. 23 - Josh Tetrick on Resilience in the Face of Both Adversity and Success

15 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Josh Tetrick in 2011 cofounded Hampton Creek, later renamed JUST, the idea of applying tech to food to solve public health and sustainability pro...

Ep. 22 - Turning Down the Global Thermostat

01 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are few people who know more about climate change than Columbia University's Graciela Chichilnisky. Not only did she propose and design the car...

Ep. 21 - Sampling a Historic Pint of Ice Cream with Perfect Day

11 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi were both in their early 20s when they were e-introduced to each other by another person they'd never meet in person ei...

Ep. 20 - What common traits do serial inventors have?

02 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered what makes the most successful inventors tick and whether you could develop more of those traits? That exactly what NYU busines...

Ep. 19 - Giving Farmers a Fairer Shake

16 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Rice has devoted his life to trying to give the farmers who grow our food a fairer shake. That crusade has taken him from the coffee farms of Nic...

Ep. 18 - Growing a Cleaner Shrimp Industry in Asia

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we hear from Shiok's CEO, an impressive serial entrepreneur and scientist Sandhya Sriram. She shares her journey of getting her PhD a...

Ep. 17 - Cleaning for Good with Biokleen

15 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Biokleen is a textbook case of conscious capitalism, and we've got their managing director, Barry Firth, on the show with us this episode!  

Ep. 16 Will Mycelium Materials Save the World?

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ep. 15 - Making McProgress for Good

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When you think about picking a career that'll help make the world a better place, do you think of working at the largest fast food company in the worl...

Ep. 14 - From Stand-Up Comedian to Saving the World with Soup

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sara Polon is saving the world, one bowl of soup at a time. The entrepreneur who recently was on Shark Tank and the TODAY Show has a lot to say, but ...

Ep. 14 - From Stand-Up Comedian to Saving the World with Soup

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sara Polon is saving the world, one bowl of soup at a time. The entrepreneur who recently was on Shark Tank and the TODAY Show has a lot to say, but ...

Ep. 13 - Would you hire a convicted felon? This guy does.

21 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you're in management, you have to think all the time about whom to hire. But have you ever wondered....who would Jesus hire? That's the question Fa...

Ep. 12 - Building a Sweeter, Slavery-Free Chocolate Industry with Tony's Chocolonely's

01 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's not every day that someone charges themselves with a crime, but that's exactly what the founder of a chocolate company that's just starting to ge...

Ep. 11 - The Business of Saving Coral Reefs with Sam Teicher

01 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

For decades conservation charities have been trying to save the oceans, but sadly, the tide hasn't turned in their favor. In just the past 40 years, w...

Ep. 10 Moby Is a Rock Star for Animals

15 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When you think about someone using their business for good, you don't usually think of a rock star. And when you think of a rock star, you might think...

Ep. 9: Lindsay Reinsmith and Jason Payne Are (Lab-)Growing a More Cultured Diamond Industry

01 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Human rights and environmental advocates have tried to reform the diamond mining industry, but what if the answer was as simple as just growing diamon...

Ep. 8: Saving Trees with Joe Luttwak, the Entrepreneurial Lorax

17 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hear from the founder and CEO of Lingrove, Joe Luttwak, in this new interview about his journey from working at Ferrari to founding a guitar company t...

Ep. 7: Simon Griffiths on How Toilet Paper Can Save Lives

19 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Toilets drastically improve health, life expectancy, school attendance rates, and more. And this episode, we've got someone who says every trip you ma...

Ep. 6: The Saudi Arabian Prince Who's Investing in a More Humane Future

06 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal isn't your typical vegan. A son of the man TIME magazine calls the "Arabian Warren Buffett," h...

Ep. 5: Michelle Masek Uses Science to Make Your Produce Last Longer

29 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

You know that feeling: You've been patiently waiting for your avocado to ripen for days, trying to divine that perfect moment to cut it open and see n...

Ep. 4: Bharti Singhla Ushers In a Pollution Revolution

15 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Black pollution is the new green in India, as Bharti Singhla points out in this episode. A chemical engineer, Bharti's the executive vice president of...

Ep. 3: Seth Goldman on Sweetening the Less-Sugar Market

01 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Seth Goldman started his career three decades ago thinking that if he wanted to make an impact on public health and agricultural sustainability, he'd ...

Ep. 2: Lisa Schon on Saving Wildlife with Bird-Friendly Glass

01 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

You rarely see wildlife advocates protesting window construction. Why not? Windows kill upwards of a billion wild birds in America alone each year. (T...

Ep. 1: John Mackey on Conscious Capitalism

26 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As a student, John Mackey was an idealistic hippie who worked in a vegetarian co-op while studying religion and philosophy. He never took a business c...