Ep. 68 | Using Tech to Drive Change: Google.org and Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink
Release Date: 06/15/2021
Ep. 81 | The Rapid Rise, High-Profile Fall, and Resilient Recovery of Juicero’s Doug Evans
Business for Good Podcast
This is a story about how one man entered startup life, rose to great prominence, got battered in the press and endured a very public downfall, and then got back up again and kept pushing his life’s mission to improve public health forward.
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Ep. 80 | Is What You Believe About Food Sustainability Wrong? Robert Paarlberg Thinks So.
Business for Good Podcast
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 preponderance of scientific evidence doesn’t support such claims, and that actually both the planet and public health are better off with the synthetic fertilizer banned by organic standards; that buying local may not be better for the planet; and that it’s perfectly safe to eat genetically modified plants?
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Ep. 79 | From Sophomore to CEO: Jessica Schwabach of Sundial Foods is Flying on Plant-Based Wings
Business for Good Podcast
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-based meat company. Two years later, Jessica has gone through two prestigious accelerator programs, created products that have been sold in dozens of stores, and just raised a $4 million seed round, including investment from food giant Nestle.
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Ep. 78 | A Conversation with NYC’s Mayor-Elect Eric Adams
Business for Good Podcast
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 as his new book advocating plant-based eating. At that time, he was also rumored to be considering running for NYC's highest office. Well, spoiler alert: he won the mayoral race! So we're re-running our conversation with Eric Adams now that he's poised to take the reins of power in America's largest city.
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Ep. 77 | Creating a Cultivated Meat Community: Anita Broellechs and Alex Shirazi
Business for Good Podcast
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.
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Ep 76 | Is Your Cat Ready to Eat Cultivated Mouse Meat? Shannon Falconer and Because Animals Think So
Business for Good Podcast
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.
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Ep 75 | The Sweet Side of Starting a (Dairy-Free) Ice Cream Company: Aylon Steinhart & Eclipse Foods
Business for Good Podcast
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 Steinhart and Thomas Bowman were both doing great things to advance the animal-free protein movement, they wondered if they should try their own hands at co-founding a food tech start-up that would put cows out to pasture and mimic dairy with plants. After serious deliberation, they both left their secure jobs to team up and found Eclipse Foods.
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Ep 74 | A Financial Journalist’s Prescription for Making the Economy Work for Animals
Business for Good Podcast
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.
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Ep 73 |From Dust to Dust...or to Soil: Katrina Spade and the Recompose Vision for an Eco-Friendlier Death Industry
Business for Good Podcast
Katrina Spade is on a mission to offer a better way to deal with human corpses, and it involves a process called natural organic reduction. It’s essentially a fancy way of saying she’s invented a method of accelerated composting for your body.
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Ep 72 | Plastic that Won’t Last Forever: Kristin Taylor and the Radical Plastics Story
Business for Good Podcast
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.
info_outlineHow 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 you know about Google.org?
In short, Google.org is the company’s foundation that gives away $200M a year in grants both to social enterprise startups and to nonprofit organizations seeking to use technology to advance their missions. For all you startup founders out there, note that these are dilution-free non-equity grants, or essentially free money as opposed to investments, so listen up.
And in this episode, we’ve got Google.org’s director of product impact, Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink. In it, she tells us about what kinds of companies and charities they support and why, and she discusses what kinds of grant applications she wishes they saw more of.
For example, we hear about Google.org’s work to collect emissions data and make it public, to put up eco-acoustic sensors in rainforests to help catch those who are poaching or deforesting, and even just to give money to those in developing countries who need it the most.
So take a listen and just maybe you’ll be working with Brigitte and Google.org yourself in the near future.
Discussed in this episode
- WattTime: Tech solutions to automate emissions reduction.
- Carbon Tracker: Aligning markets to shift investment away from fossil fuels.
- Climate Trace: Publicizing the sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Rainforest Connection: Using eco-acoustics to prevent poaching and deforestation.
- Give Directly: Giving money directly to those who need it.
- Brigitte recommends reading both Just Mercy and Chasing the Flame.
- Google.org's climate podcast, which you can find here.
More about Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink
Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink is Head of Product Impact at Google.org, where she leads initiatives that leverage emerging technologies and Google’s expertise to address global challenges. She is currently focused on how AI can be used for social impact through efforts like the $25M Google AI Impact Challenge.
She previously led programs focused on how technology can improve global education, innovation for people with disabilities, and crisis response.
Prior to Google.org, Brigitte was a strategy consultant for nonprofits and foundations at The Bridgespan Group and worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and International Relief and Development, focusing on innovative approaches in post-conflict transitions. She has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.