Business for Good Podcast

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 containers to paying tomato pickers more to improving farm animal welfare. Now retired, Bob has a new book out about his career spent trying to help the fast food chain do better. It's a candid look at where he thinks his former employer got it right and where he believes they came up short. If you've ever wondered how a major corporation makes decisions about improving its sustainability footprint, this interview is for you.

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 showcased our episode with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey, and now we're reciprocating by showcasing their fascinating and fun interview with our friend Sara Polon, cofounder of Soupergirl. In this interview, you'll learn more about the food industry--the topic of Adam's podcast--but especially about Sara's decision to start a new chapter of life devoted to conscious capitalism and how she grew from one plant-based soup shop to having national distribution and multi-millions in revenue. Enjoy!

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 showcased our episode with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey, and now we're reciprocating by showcasing their fascinating and fun interview with our friend Sara Polon, cofounder of Soupergirl. In this interview, you'll learn more about the food industry--the topic of Adam's podcast--but especially about Sara's decision to start a new chapter of life devoted to conscious capitalism and how she grew from one plant-based soup shop to having national distribution and multi-millions in revenue. Enjoy!

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 offers felons such second chances all the time.

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 it isn't an ordinary bar of chocolate. Tony's Chocolonely's makes it clear inside its packaging that this company exists for one sole reason: to end modern slavery in the cocoa industry. It was started by a Dutch journalist named Tony who charged himself with the crime of being complicit in slavery simply by being a consumer of chocolate. Somehow he actually got in front of a judge in the Netherlands and brought former child slaves from West Africa to testify against him and against the not-so-sweet side of the chocolate industry. Tony may not have been convicted of a crime, but he did leave the courtroom with a conviction to try to end this dark practice by starting his own chocolate company that would try to guarantee that only free and fair labor was used to make his chocolate bars. And, as you'll hear in this interview, his company, Tony's Chocolonely's, went from zero to the #1 chocolate bar in the Netherlands. And in 2015, the company started in the US too, offering slavery-free chocolate that's quickly gaining popularity among Americans. We're fortunate to have the US manager of Tony's with us on the show, Michelle Wald, who's a wealth of information not just about the problems in the cocoa industry, but about how businesses can be a part of the solution.

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. The Bahamas-based start-up is pioneering on-land coral farming techniques that rapidly grow corals at 50 times the pace they'd normally grow, then transplanting them onto imperiled reefs. Meet the company's cofounder and chief reef officer, Sam Teicher, and learn not just what we're doing that's killing coral reefs, but how for-profit coral farming could just bring them back.

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 on the planet. He's tried to do this not only by using his albums to promote compassion for animals, but also by opening an all-vegan restaurant in LA, Little Pine. And in this episode, we talk with him about all of that, and a lot more. So sit back and enjoy hearing about Moby's philosophy on life, his trials and tribulations, and his efforts to use the power of his various businesses to make the world a better place.