Ep. 91 - “Meat” the Meat Industry’s Journalist: Lisa Keefe and Meatingplace
In this interview, Lisa discusses her latest trip to Israel where she tried various cultivated meat products, her views on why plant-based meat hasn’t taken as much market share as plant-based milk yet, why the pork industry hasn’t advanced cage-free animal welfare changes like much of the egg industry has, and more.
Ep. 84 - Investing in a Post-Animal Economy: Elysabeth Alfano and VegTech ETF
Perhaps most well-known as the host of Plant-Based Business Hour, Elysabeth has now started the VegTech™ Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, which is traded on The New York Stock Exchange as EATV. Think of it like the S&P 500, but instead more like the Plant-Based 40.
Ep. 83 - Will Fungi Free Fish? Anne Palermo is Betting on Fermentation at Aqua Cultured Foods
Anne is a former asset manager at Morgan Stanley who decided mid-career that she wanted to start her own chocolate company. After growing her first startup to millions in revenue, this mom of three got hooked on the need for animal-free protein and pivoted to start a new company focused on saving the oceans.
Ep. 80 - Is What You Believe About Food Sustainability Wrong? Robert Paarlberg Thinks So.
In this interview, Rob makes his case for more technological innovation in food, not less, including finding ways to reduce the number of animals humanity is raising for food. I found his book eye-opening and hope you’ll enjoy hearing his perspective on food sustainability in this new interview.
Ep. 77 - Creating a Cultivated Meat Community: Anita Broellechs and Alex Shirazi
This is a story of two people who despite not having experience in the cultivated meat space felt so strongly about building a community around it that they started their own podcast, called Cultured Meat and Future Foods, their own conference, the Cultured Meat Symposium, and are now working on a children’s book about cultivated meat together as well.
Ep. 76 - Is Your Cat Ready to Eat Cultivated Mouse Meat? Shannon Falconer and Because Animals Think So
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 this episode, Because Animals, is trying to do just that. And they’re starting with cultivated mouse meat for your cat.
Ep. 74 - A Financial Journalist’s Prescription for Making the Economy Work for Animals
In his new book, How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World, Henry takes his readers on a wild ride through our relationship with animals, including getting a job working at a slaughterhouse himself. Henry repeatedly weaves personal experiences like this one into his narrative, while also making prescriptions for a bold reshaping of the parts of our economy that currently involve animal exploitation.
Ep. 67 - Where’s the Animal-Free Materials Revolution? Nicole Rawling of the Material Innovation Initiative Wants You to Launch It
Enter the Material Innovation Initiative, a relatively new nonprofit organization started by veterans of the animal welfare and animal-free food space. Their goal: to be the Good Food Institute of animal-free materials, helping to attract investment and entrepreneurial activity to build a new industry of animal-free fur, leather, silk, and more.
Ep. 65 - The Billionaire Out to End Factory Farming
As you’ll hear in this interview, Jim has little hope that humans will give up eating meat, so he’s betting instead on simply making meat without the animals. In this conversation we discuss when he thinks such clean meat will be price comparable to conventional meat, whether price parity is sufficient, where he sees white spaces, and more.
Ep. 64 - From Seafood to Seaweed: Monica Talbert and the Plant-Based Seafood Co.
Monica was born into the seafood industry, and for years has been running her family business, Van Cleve’s Seafood, from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. But as you’ll hear in this conversation, a series of events led her to start experimenting with plant-based seafood recipes. And while it’s no longer major news for conventional meat companies to develop plant-based lines since so many are admirably already now doing that, Monica announces in this episode something far more inspirational.
Ep. 62 - Maximizing the Good We Can Do: A Conversation with Peter Singer
Peter Singer is an author and ethicist, and has been routinely called the most influential philosopher alive. He’s widely credited with kickstarting the modern animal protection movement with his 1975 mega-bestseller Animal Liberation, and with popularizing what’s now called the effective altruism movement through his early writings on poverty and more recently with his 2009 book The Life You Can Save.
Ep. 60 - Marrying Cultivated Meat & Plant-Based Meat for the Best of Both Worlds: Brian Spears Shares New Age Meats’ Gameplan
Brian Spears is the founder and CEO of New Age Meats, making meat from animal cells instead of animal slaughter. Previously, he spent eight years as co-founder of Sixclear, creating software and products to automate the research labs and production environments of customers such as NASA, Cisco Systems, Sandia National Labs, and GE Healthcare.
Ep. 59 - Silk and Leather from Fermentation, Not Animals — David Breslauer and the Bolt Threads Story
David Breslauer is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Bolt Threads. He leads technology innovation at Bolt, creating and incubating biomaterials for improved consumer products. His obsession with biomaterials began with graduate research on silk during his Bioengineering Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and UCSF.
Ep. 56 - From Nonprofit Activist to Entrepreneur for Animals: Kristie Middleton and Rebellyous Foods
In this episode we talk about Kristie’s transition from the world of charities to the work of building a company aimed at helping animals. We also discuss how Rebellyous Foods intends to bend the cost curve of plant-based meat and what they’re doing with the $12 million they’ve raised from venture capitalists so far.
Ep. 53 - Wood-Fed Meat? Marc Chevrel and Arbiom Say Bring it On
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 your feedstock, is it called “wood-fed meat”? No matter what you call it, Arbiom has raised about $30 million to produce it.
Ep. 47 - The Solo-preneur: How Colleen Patrick-Goudreau Paved Her Own Way to Help Animals
If you’re interested in the plant-based world, you likely know Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s name, since Colleen is essentially a brand unto herself, often known as the Joyful Vegan. In fact, The Joyful Vegan is the name of her latest (and 7th) book. A long-time advocate for pragmatic and friendly animal advocacy, Colleen has built her own empire of revenue streams that allow her to earn money by putting out her positive message of compassion and joy into the world.
Ep. 33 - Real Leather without the Cows
Provenance Bio is now coming out of the shadows and is ready to start talking about its big plans to keep people wearing leather, but instead of it coming off the backs of cows, they’re leaving those cows out to pasture and making real leather, animal-free.
Ep. 32 - From ConAgra to Culturing Fish Cells
You’ve likely heard the Biblical story in which a small amount of fish were multiplied to feed thousands. Well, in 2020, Lou Cooperhouse is literally multiplying the fish—or at least their cells—in the hopes of again feeding the masses, and saving our planet at the same time. Lou’s company, BlueNalu, has raised millions of dollars to culture fish cells into real fish meat that looks and performs just like conventional fish, but without the mercury, microplastics, nor oceanic exploitation.
Ep. 31 - Can Beer Brewery Waste Help Solve Plastic Pollution?
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 gets recycled and virtually all of which will last for centuries), Lori Goff is betting that biotech will be part of the solution to creating functional plastic alternatives that are so biodegradable you can eat them.
Ep. 21 - Sampling a Historic Pint of Ice Cream with Perfect Day
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 either, Isha Datar. A series of online chats led to the idea of jointly creating a company that would put cows out to pasture by making real dairy proteins without the involvement of a single cow.