About this episode

The episode explores Peggy Cherng's journey from engineering to co-founding Panda Express and her impact on the fast-food industry.

Peggy Cherng never set out to work in fast food, but her engineering mindset transformed how millions of Americans eat. Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack trace Peggy Cherng’s journey: from electrical engineering and simulating battlefields, to co-founding Panda Express with her husband Andrew and becoming a billionaire. By applying data and rigorous standardisation, Peggy Cherng helped turn a single mall food-court experiment into the largest Chinese fast-food chain in the USA, with their orange chicken becoming a cultural staple. Good Bad Billionaire is the podcast that explores the lives of the super-rich and famous, tracking their wealth, philanthropy, business ethics, and success. There are leaders who made their money in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street and in high street fashion. From iconic celebrities and CEOs to titans of technology, the podcast unravels tales of fortune, power, economics, ambition and moral responsibility. Simon and Zing put their subjects to the test with a playful, totally unscientific scorecard — then hand the verdict over to you: are they good, bad, or simply billionaires? Here's how to contact the team: email…

People in this episode

Hosts: Zing Tsjeng, Simon Jack

Guest: Peggy Cherng

Topics covered

• fast food
• entrepreneurship
• business success
• cultural impact
• engineering
• billionaires

Keywords

• Peggy Cherng
• Panda Express
• fast food
• entrepreneurship
• billionaire
• orange chicken
• business ethics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Panda Express, BBC World Service

More episodes of Good Bad Billionaire

• Toto Wolff: Mercedes's billion-dollar F1 boss · March 8, 2026 · 45 min
• Ronnie Screwvala: The cable guy · March 1, 2026 · 40 min
• Larry Ellison: Winning the database wars · February 22, 2026 · 46 min
• Elizabeth Holmes: From CEO to criminal · February 15, 2026 · 48 min
• Ben Francis: UK’s youngest billionaire · February 1, 2026 · 46 min
• Lucy Guo: The woman training AI · January 25, 2026 · 41 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Good Bad Billionaire podcast page.