Business for Good Podcast

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 Nicaragua to founding his own certification program for fair trade that now certifies a wide variety of products you probably buy all the time, from coffee and tea to sugar and even clothing.

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 and eventually quitting her secure job after one fateful phone call to start her own cultured meat company in Singapore.

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

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 world? You may not, but that's indeed what Bob Langert spent his career doing. The former McDonald's executive was at the forefront of many of the decisions the restaurant behemoth made relating to social responsibility, from retiring styrofoam container...

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 for a change, this entrepreneur isn't talking with us; she's talking with our friend Adam Yee of the My Food Job Rocks Podcast ! This first-ever Business for Good Podcast showcase involves trading an episode with another podcast. They recently showcas...

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 for a change, this entrepreneur isn't talking with us; she's talking with our friend Adam Yee of the My Food Job Rocks Podcast ! This first-ever Business for Good Podcast showcase involves trading an episode with another podcast. They recently showcas...

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 Father Greg Boyle asked himself many decades ago, when he became moved by the plight of gang members trapped in a cycle of crime and punishment. Think about it: would you hire an applicant who'd served time for a violent felony? Well, Father Greg offer...

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 get distribution throughout the US did. You may have seen their packaging popping up in the candy aisle: bright oranges and blues with massive text saying TONY's real big on it. But if you happened to try it out, before you even take a bite you'll know...

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, we've killed off half the world's coral reefs , with 20% dying in the past three years alone. What if entrepreneurs could harness the power of business to actually make it profitable to quickly rebuild coral reefs? That's the bet Coral Vita is making....

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 hedonistic living and self-aggrandizement. Well, despite the fact that Moby has sold more than 20 million records worldwide and is so famous in fact that he only goes by one name, his life is driven toward one primary purpose: to alleviate suffering...

Human rights and environmental advocates have tried to reform the diamond mining industry, but what if the answer was as simple as just growing diamonds in a lab? That's what start-ups like Ada Diamonds are betting on. This husband-wife cofounder duo, Lindsay Reinsmith and Jason Payne, sell sell lab-grown diamond jewelry that's molecularly identical to naturally-formed diamonds, but for only two-t...

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 to now founding and running a company whose goal is, just like Dr. Seuss's Lorax, nothing short of saving the trees. And, it's the first interview we've done where a guest plays a musical score live for us, all on a wood-free acoustic guitar, of cours...

Toilets drastically improve health, life expectancy, school attendance rates, and more. And this episode, we've got someone who says every trip you make to the toilet can be a feel-good experience--since the company Simon Griffiths started, Who Gives a Crap , was founded for one reason: to give people in the developed world toilets. Hear what Simon learned at a school for social entrepreneurs. And...

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," he uses his wealth and influence to build a more sustainable world, supporting everything from plant-based and clean meat start-ups to virtual aquariums and clean energy. In this interview, Toni Okamoto and Paul Shapiro go deep with Prince Khaled, cov...

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 nothing but lush, gorgeous green fruit. Instead....as you open it up, whatever green you were hoping for is polluted by brown, rotted yuckiness. Letting fruits and vegetables go bad before eating them is part of the massive food waste problem, and Mic...

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 strategy for Chakr.in --a start-up founded in 2015 that's innovating a way to clear the air in a nation that according to the WHO has 14 of the 15 most polluted cities on the planet.   How are they doing that? Well, Chakr's invented a shield that ca...

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 need to explore a career in nonprofits or public policy. Fast forward to today and Seth's company, Honest Tea , has helped slash billions of sugar calories from the American diet, caused other major drink brands to do the same, and created a sustaina...

You rarely see wildlife advocates protesting window construction. Why not? Windows kill upwards of a billion wild birds in America alone each year. (That's not a typo: billion with a 'b.') It's as if we're primed to think the carnage isn't so bad because there was no malintent; no one went out and purposefully killed a billion birds. Yet the result for the birds is sadly the same: our windows are...

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 class during his whole academic career. In other words, he wasn't exactly the guy people would've placed bets on to become a businessman, let alone one who'd launch a natural foods empire called  Whole Foods Market  that would get purchased by Amazon...