Business for Good Podcast

In 1986, Gene Baur co-founded Farm Sanctuary with a simple theory: show people how factory farming works, and they will stop eating animals. Forty years later, per capita meat consumption in America has risen from 196 pounds to 232 pounds per person, and the number of farmed animals entering U.S. slaughterhouses has doubled from roughly 5 billion to 10 billion. In this episode of Business For Good, Paul Shapiro sits down with his longtime colleague and friend to ask the hard question: what actually moves the needle for farmed animals? Gene traces the arc from early investigations and rescues through the wave of statewide ballot initiatives banning battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates, and explains why he now believes systemic and institutional change matters more than individual persuasion. The conversation covers why awareness campaigns alone have not reduced meat demand, how institutional reforms like default-veg programs and livestock taxes could reshape consumption patterns, and why Gene believes farm sanctuaries can evolve into self-sustaining hospitality operations that model an alternative food system. Things You Will Learn: Why 40 years of awareness campaigns have not reduced meat consumption, and what Gene Baur thinks will actually work. How institutional reforms like default-veg programs and livestock taxes could reduce meat demand without relying on individual persuasion. Why Gene believes farm sanctuaries can become self-sustaining hospitality operations that model an alternative food system. How historical patterns of technological displacement, from whale oil to horse transport, may predict the future of animal agriculture. Why Gene thinks the vegan movement's perfectionism has undermined its own goals. Tools & Frameworks Covered: Red Campaigns vs. Green Campaigns: A framework for understanding two types of advocacy. Red campaigns mobilize people through opposition to cruelty, like banning gestation crates. Green campaigns motivate through positive experiences, like community gardens, plant-based hospitality, and personal wellness. Institutional Choice Architecture: Changing default options in hospitals, schools, and public programs so that plant-based meals are the first option presented, reducing meat consumption without requiring individual behavior change. Sanctuary-as-Hospitality Model: Reimagining farm sanctuaries as revenue-generating operations that combine animal care, plant-based food production, visitor experiences, and education, enabling replication without depending solely on philanthropy. #BusinessForGood #FutureOfFood #AlternativeProtein #SustainableBusiness

Is alternative protein really a failing industry, or are investors just applying the wrong timeline? Noga Golan, Founder of Food Impact Partners and Food Impact Careers, has an unusually clear view of that question. Her executive recruiting firm and free job board sit at the intersection of candidate demand and company hiring across the global food innovation landscape. In this episode with Paul Shapiro, Noga shares data from nearly 60,000 job views and 35,000 application clicks in the first half of 2026, revealing that companies are still actively hiring even as the broader narrative around alternative protein remains pessimistic. Commercial roles now account for 34 percent of job postings, a signal that the sector is shifting from R&D toward revenue generation. Candidates remain especially drawn to fermentation and cultivated meat positions, often with more enthusiasm than skepticism about the sector's future. Noga argues that much of the perceived distress stems from applying venture capital and software timelines to an industry that still has to build physical supply chains, achieve price parity, and shift consumer behavior. She compares the current moment to the dot-com correction, suggesting that the boom-and-bust cycle may look like noise over a 20- to 30-year horizon. Things You Will Learn: Why alternative protein may be suffering from a timing mismatch rather than a technology problem. How the shift toward commercial hiring signals that food tech companies are moving from invention to revenue. Why candidate interest remains strongest in fermentation and cultivated meat despite sector headwinds. Why mission-aligned employees are not automatically more productive than those motivated by other factors. How founders can avoid common hiring mistakes by focusing on execution goals rather than idealized candidate profiles. Tools & Frameworks Covered: Product Market Fit as a Hiring Lens: Evaluating startup viability and team-building decisions through obsessive focus on the end buyer, rather than leading with technology or mission as the primary filter. Goal-Based Executive Search: Structuring the recruiting process around a company's 12- to 18-month business objectives and anticipated challenges, rather than matching resumes to static job descriptions. Sector Timing vs. Technology Readiness: Distinguishing between an industry that has failed and one where investor expectations were calibrated to software-speed returns in a physical production business. #BusinessForGood #AlternativeProtein #FutureOfFood #FoodTech #FoodInnovation

How does a nuclear energy startup with roughly a million dollars in revenue become an $8 billion publicly traded company sitting on $3 billion in cash? In this episode of Business For Good, Paul Shapiro sits down with Caroline DeWitte, Co-founder and COO of Oklo, to find out what investors are betting on and why the company believes it can deliver. Oklo is building compact nuclear powerhouses that use fast neutrons to extract up to 95 percent of the energy in nuclear fuel, compared to roughly five percent in conventional reactors. The company plans to run its first plants on recycled fuel from a reactor that operated from the 1960s through the 1990s, turning what most people consider nuclear waste into a viable energy source. DeWitte explains how the system shuts itself down through natural physics if something goes wrong, eliminating the need for the layers of backup systems that drive up costs in traditional nuclear plants. The conversation traces Oklo's evolution from a one-megawatt micro-reactor concept to 75-megawatt powerhouses designed for data centers and utilities. DeWitte discusses how Sam Altman became an early backer and longtime board chair, why the company chose to go public through a SPAC during what she calls the doldrums after the SPAC rush, and how President Trump's reactor pilot program allowed Oklo to begin construction under an accelerated Department of Energy pathway. Things You Will Learn: How fast reactors can recover up to 95 percent of the energy in nuclear fuel, compared to roughly five percent in conventional water-cooled reactors. Why Oklo's reactor design shuts itself down through natural physics without any human intervention. How the company went from a grad school idea to an $8 billion publicly traded company backed by Sam Altman. Why President Trump's reactor pilot program dramatically accelerated Oklo's construction timeline. How Oklo brought a reactor from a greenfield site to nuclear criticality in under a year. Tools & Frameworks Covered: Fast Reactor Technology: A nuclear reactor design using fast neutrons and liquid sodium cooling that can fission elements conventional reactors cannot, enabling fuel recycling and dramatically higher energy extraction from uranium. Nuclear Fuel Recycling: A process for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel so that up to 95 percent of its energy content can be used, reducing the volume and half-life of remaining waste from thousands of years to a few hundred. Reactor Pilot Program (DOE Pathway): A federal framework allowing the Department of Energy to work with the NRC on reactor reviews and permit early construction, significantly compressing deployment timelines for advanced nuclear companies. #NuclearEnergy #AdvancedNuclear #CleanEnergy #NuclearInnovation #EnergyInfrastructure #Oklo #BusinessForGood

What if the same drilling technology that powered the shale boom could be redirected to produce clean, carbon-free electricity around the clock? In this episode of Business For Good, Paul Shapiro sits down with Tim Latimer, CEO and chairman of Fervo Energy, to explore how a former oil and gas drilling engineer built one of the most celebrated clean energy companies in the country in under a decade. Tim started Fervo in 2017 with two core beliefs: that the world would need more reliable clean electricity, and that advances in horizontal drilling had made geothermal energy dramatically more cost-effective than anyone in the geothermal industry realized. Those beliefs led to a partnership with Google, a pilot project in Nevada that produced the first horizontal geothermal well ever drilled, and a 2026 IPO that raised over $2 billion. The conversation covers why geothermal has remained a rounding error in the energy mix for over a century, how Fervo reduced drilling times from 70 days to 21 days in just four years, why their process differs fundamentally from oil and gas fracking, and what milestones investors should watch as the company scales toward 500 megawatts at its Project Cape site in Utah. Things You Will Learn: Why geothermal energy has remained less than 1% of U.S. electricity despite being over a century old. How horizontal drilling technology borrowed from oil and gas is transforming the cost structure of geothermal power. Why Fervo's process is structurally different from fossil fuel fracking, even though it borrows similar techniques. How Fervo went from startup to a multi-billion-dollar publicly traded company in under a decade. Where the next wave of geothermal entrepreneurship opportunities may emerge across the value chain. Tools & Frameworks Covered: Horizontal Drilling for Geothermal: Applying directional drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to access deeper, hotter rock formations and dramatically increase well productivity compared to traditional vertical geothermal wells. The Earned Secret Framework: The idea that successful startups are built on insights that incumbents have missed, whether because the timing was not right, the technology had not yet transferred across industries, or conventional wisdom had not caught up with reality. Investors Invest on a Line, Not a Point: A fundraising philosophy emphasizing consistent delivery against stated milestones over multiple rounds, building credibility that compounds with each stage of execution. #BusinessForGood #SustainableBusiness #CleanEnergy #FutureOfEnergy

What if the same drilling technology that powered the shale boom could be redirected to produce clean, carbon-free electricity around the clock? In this episode of Business For Good, Paul Shapiro sits down with Tim Latimer, CEO and chairman of Fervo Energy, to explore how a former oil and gas drilling engineer built one of the most celebrated clean energy companies in the country in under a decade. Tim started Fervo in 2017 with two core beliefs: that the world would need more reliable clean electricity, and that advances in horizontal drilling had made geothermal energy dramatically more cost-effective than anyone in the geothermal industry realized. Those beliefs led to a partnership with Google, a pilot project in Nevada that produced the first horizontal geothermal well ever drilled, and a 2026 IPO that raised over $2 billion. The conversation covers why geothermal has remained a rounding error in the energy mix for over a century, how Fervo reduced drilling times from 70 days to 21 days in just four years, why their process differs fundamentally from oil and gas fracking, and what milestones investors should watch as the company scales toward 500 megawatts at its Project Cape site in Utah. Things You Will Learn: Why geothermal energy has remained less than 1% of U.S. electricity despite being over a century old. How horizontal drilling technology borrowed from oil and gas is transforming the cost structure of geothermal power. Why Fervo's process is structurally different from fossil fuel fracking, even though it borrows similar techniques. How Fervo went from startup to a multi-billion-dollar publicly traded company in under a decade. Where the next wave of geothermal entrepreneurship opportunities may emerge across the value chain. Tools & Frameworks Covered: Horizontal Drilling for Geothermal: Applying directional drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to access deeper, hotter rock formations and dramatically increase well productivity compared to traditional vertical geothermal wells. The Earned Secret Framework: The idea that successful startups are built on insights that incumbents have missed, whether because the timing was not right, the technology had not yet transferred across industries, or conventional wisdom had not caught up with reality. Investors Invest on a Line, Not a Point: A fundraising philosophy emphasizing consistent delivery against stated milestones over multiple rounds, building credibility that compounds with each stage of execution. #BusinessForGood #SustainableBusiness #CleanEnergy #FutureOfEnergy