Hi, I'm Dan Premack and welcome to Axios Recap. Today's Thursday, March 25th. New jobless

claims are down. The corporate tax rate may be going up and we're talking to Ben and Jerry

about the new era of corporate civic responsibility. CEOs are America's new politicians.

That's a line coined by my boss Jim Vandahy in the middle of 2019, as more and more

companies began expanding their mission beyond just core product and shareholder value.

It's a trend that then rapidly accelerated last summer in the wake of George Floyd's

killing and then almost seemed expected by the time of the January 6th insurrection.

But not everyone is new to using their business as an agent for social change.

Ben and Jerry's, which is objectively the most delicious ice cream in your grossest

freezer, has mixed its founder's political activism with its corporate activities since almost the moment

it was founded in 1978. For example, Ben and Jerry's created so-called peace pops to protest

nuclear proliferation during the Reagan era. It later was a vocal and early advocate for gay marriage

and at one point even had a policy whereby the company's CEO couldn't make more than five times

what its lowest paid employee made, although that policy disappeared when Unilever bought

Ben and Jerry's in 2000.

More recently, the company's eponymous co-founders have been advocating for an end to qualified

immunity for police officers and have even created an entire advocacy group around it.

So today we want to talk with Ben and Jerry, who officially remain company employees,

although they don't have any day-to-day responsibilities.

We'll ask about their legacy, what they think of the rising tide of corporate activism,

and, of course, ice cream. That conversation in 15 seconds.

We're joined now by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, better known as Ben and Jerry. Ben, let's start with you. Can you talk a little bit

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