Paul Shapiro
 
 

Author | CEO | Podcaster

 
 
TedX South Lake Tahoe with harpoon.jpg
 

Paul Shapiro is the author of the national bestseller Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World (published by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books in 2018, with an updated paperback edition in 2024). He's also the CEO of The Better Meat Co., a five-time TEDx speaker (2023 talk here!), the host of the Business for Good Podcast, and a long-time leader in food sustainability. In 2023, he was named as a Most Admired CEO by the Sacramento Business Journal.

The company Paul co-founded and runs, The Better Meat Co., uses fermentation to turn microbes into meat within hours, creating a far more sustainable and humane method of satisfying our “meat tooth” than raising and slaughtering animals for food. 

He's been interviewed by hundreds of news outlets from CNN to StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson as an authority on food and agriculture sustainability. He’s also published hundreds of articles in publications ranging from daily newspapers like the Washington Post to pop-sci publications like Scientific American to magazines like FORTUNE to academic journals.

Shapiro lives in Sacramento, California with his wife Toni Okamoto Shapiro, author and founder of Plant-Based on a Budget, and their very friendly pit bull Eddie. If seeing a cute dog with a gigantic box head being happy will improve your welfare, you’re invited to follow Eddie on Instagram.

Watch Paul’s 2023 TEDx talk!