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HELLO OPTIMISTS!

Welcome to the 139 new subscribers since our last newsletter.

Mark your calendars! We’re doing a MEETUP in Boston for all of you, in partnership with our friends at , the world’s leading solutions journalism organization and the original team who inspired the work I do here at Granite Goodness : )

We’ll be meeting up on Thursday November 12 from 5:30 - 8:00 PM at Portico Brewing. Address is 101 South St, Somerville, MA 02143. There is a parking garage beneath the building so it’s very easy for folks driving in and out of the city (like me!)

Here is a link to RSVP!

There are ~2,500 of you now, so I would love to meet as many of you as possible! If it goes well we’ll do it again : )

The event will also be taking place during Boston Human Week, which I’d encourage everyone to check out.

This week we’re welcoming Aarron Dupuis, Lisa Boyko, and Caitie Glidden to the Optimists Club!

“There are so many great things happening in NH and New England. I want to support the efforts of Granite Goodness to shine a light on those stories!” - Aarron (Epping, NH)

“As someone who tries to focus on the positive and keep morale up for those around me, including myself, in a world that is overloaded with negative media everywhere you turn it was great to find a group focusing on optimistic news. Especially so close to home for me! I look forward to see what is to come!” - Caitie (Dover, NH)

“I’m trying to sprinkle more optimism into my life, and the optimists club looks like the perfect way to start!” - Lisa (New Britain, CT)

For all you new members, we’ll be sending out the monthly mail this week! If you haven’t shared your address with me yet, reply to this email so I know where to send it!

Today we also drop our conversation with the infamous Matt Shearer, also known as Reporter Matt, whose videos sharing quirky, heartwarming, often hilarious stories about Massachusetts locals have attracted millions of views on social media (I just published it so it’ll appear on Spotify in an hour or so).

Our featured partner this week is Northeast Delta Dental. From the moment he heard about Granite Goodness, President and CEO Tom Raffio has been a loud and earnest champion of our work. Tom and team, we can’t thank you enough!

Now enjoy some good news.

Sustainability & Nature

UMass Amherst launches $120M Future of Food Initiative to tackle global food challenges. The effort will build a 36,000-square-foot innovation center and establish endowed faculty positions to advance research on climate-resilient agriculture, food safety, and nutrition for populations across the globe.

Wild Blueberry Collective purchases 158 acres to preserve Maine’s iconic barrens. Eight Maine women (from an impressive variety of backgrounds!) banded together to secure a $750,000 agreement acquiring a large section of land in Searsport. Their vision is to create public trails, community harvests, and educational programs for Maine’s barrens.

Northern Maine's ancient forests get protected with landmark conservation deal. The New England Forestry Foundation and Irving Woodlands Maine agreed to preserve nearly 500 acres of rare old-growth forest in Aroostook County, protecting carbon-rich ecosystems, pristine ponds, and native wildlife.

Building & Infrastructure

Massachusetts just proved heat pumps can cut winter electricity costs without straining the grid. Last winter, more than 140,000 MA households saved $37 million using discounted rates, demonstrating that winter heat pump demand doesn't require expensive infrastructure upgrades. RI and NY are taking notes!

NH expands rail station to boost North Country lumber mills. State transportation officials and UNH secured $1 million in federal funding to upgrade a transload facility in Whitefield, halving shipping distance and enabling rural mills to add production capacity.

Vermont funds 241 affordable homes with tax credits across seven communities. The Vermont Housing Finance Agency allocated nearly $28 million to build and preserve affordable apartments in rural and urban areas, including elderly housing + family units.

Economics & Opportunity

Connecticut's minimum wage set to rise to $17.48 on January 1, 2027. The state's automatic wage adjustment law, which ties annual increases to economic growth, will raise the minimum wage by 54 cents based on a 3.2% employment cost index increase.

Laconia, NH tests social district model to energize downtown dining and retail. The state's first outdoor drinking zone allows customers to carry beverages from participating bars and restaurants across downtown blocks.

Maine launches $43M heat pump water heater rebate program to cut energy costs. Instant rebates over $1,000 through Efficiency Maine will help households install efficient water heaters that could reduce electric bills by up to $650 annually.

Science & Technology

University of Rhode Island leads $4M wetlands research partnership to protect coastal ecosystems. Funding from the NSF will help expand a partnership between Louisiana State University and URI, developing coastal modeling tools to protect Rhode Island's salt marshes and Louisiana's delta wetlands.

University of Vermont researchers reveal bats' genetic secrets to longevity and cancer resistance. Scientists found that bats evolved unique DNA-repair mechanisms that help them live decades longer than similar-sized mammals, discoveries that could unlock new pathways for treating age-related human diseases.

University of Connecticut scientists turn local seaweed into palm oil alternative. A ~$1.9 million federal grant will fund UConn research converting sugar kelp grown in Connecticut waters into a sustainable replacement for palm oil, reducing U.S. dependence on imports tied to tropical deforestation.

Civics & Community

Vermont joins 23 states with comprehensive data privacy protections. Governor Phil Scott signed the Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act, requiring companies handling data on Vermont residents to disclose data practices and respect privacy preferences from users.

New Hampshire expands protections for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Governor Kelly Ayotte signed bipartisan bills strengthening survivors' rights, including expanded access to protective orders, mandatory massage business licensing to combat trafficking, and broader recognition of coercive control and abuse tactics.

Rhode Island shatters early voting record ahead of primary election. More than 37,000 voters cast ballots at in-person polling sites before the September 9 primary, over double the 2022 total.

That’s it for this edition of the Good News in New England Newsletter!1 If you’d like to support Granite Goodness, consider joining our Optimists Club. Learn more about the people behind these stories on our podcast.

Hungry for good news beyond the borders of New England? Check out our very own Optimists Club newsletter.

Thanks for reading!

-Andy & Kaelli

Online he is known as Reporter Matt, where is videos sharing quirky, heartwarming, often hilarious stories about local people have attracted millions of view on social media. In the spring of this year Matt did a live show of his program to a sold out crowd at Boston’s Wilbur theater.

We discuss:

• How he finds and develops his stories

• What good journalism and reporting means to him

• Our shared love of all of New England’s weirdness

and much more.

Follow him on Instagram @reportermatt

This episode was recorded at the Christa Mcauliffe branch of the Framingham, MA public library.

Music provided by Sneaky Miles.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us, as well as our generous community partners:

Resilient Buildings Group

Green Wave Electric Vehicles

Northeast Delta Dental

Treeline Outfitters

Don’t want to receive this newsletter? Adjust your preferences here.

HELLO OPTIMISTS!

Happy Sunday, we have some fresh good news.

Before that, we’re welcoming Sam Coetzee and Sara Bee to our Optimists Club.

“Joining the Optimists Club was a small and intentional way for me to encourage positive thinking in my community! Andy and Kaelli get it — optimism doesn’t mean turning a blind eye when things are bad. It means knowing good things are worth fighting for.” - Sam

“I joined because I want the world- and New England - to be a happy place! And because Andy DeMeo is the most genuine and entertaining person I know.” - Sara (being way too kind obviously)

Just to be super clear, being in the Optimists Club means we physically mail you good news. Yes, I mean snail mail! I got this reaction from someone the other day:

If you’re in the club already and don’t get the mail (but want to!) let me know!

We’re also releasing our conversation with Henry Herndon, who helps towns across NH gain control over their energy supply, often saving money and gaining cleaner energy in the process through the local-organizing-miracle that is community power. Thanks for making the time Henry! (Spotify)

If anyone is looking for something very cool to do in early October, I’d highly encourage you to check out the Radically Rural conference in Keene, NH (Oct 6-8) put on by our friends at the Hannah Grimes Center and led by none other than Julianna Dodson (Optimists Club member and longtime collaborator to Granite Goodness!) Our team member Kaelli will be there capturing some video for the event. If you’re there, say hi!

This week’s featured partner is Resilient Buildings Group. This is the time to be thinking about weatherizing your home + energy efficiency upgrades. If you are, they are the people to ask! I know many of the staff and can attest, they are all wonderful people.

Now enjoy some good news.

Sustainability & Nature

Vermont launches ambitious statewide bikepacking network with Heart of the Greens trail. The 38-mile loop through the Green Mountain National Forest features two off-grid huts and kicks off the “Velomont”, a 485-mile bikepacking route that will connect rural towns, backcountry communities, and open Vermont’s wilderness to new travelers.

Connecticut funds preservation of 1,200 acres and urban green spaces. Governor Ned Lamont announced $9.4 million in state funding to protect open land across 15 towns, moving CT closer to the goal of preserving 21% of its land base. An additional $2.4 million will also improve community gardens in cities across the state.

Rachel Carson Center opens in Maine as new hub for environmental education. The 12,000-square-foot facility in Kennebunk will serve 300,000 annual visitors across its 6,000-acre refuge offering trails through salt marshes, exhibits on endangered species, and community programming.

Building & Infrastructure

New England breaks wind power record with 2,000 megawatts generated. For the first time, offshore and land-based wind farms produced more electricity than all of New Hampshire's gas and hydropower plants combined, driven by Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind coming online.

Vermont's first neighborhood geothermal project breaks ground in Hinesburg. The 36-unit affordable housing development will use underground heat pumps to warm and cool buildings year-round, testing an innovative model for decarbonizing housing.

Farmington, Maine welcomes first new affordable housing in 25 years. Avesta Housing just opened a 25-unit community campus featuring walking trails, natural woodlands, and easy access to downtown Farmington's services and amenities.

Economics & Opportunity

MIT startup builds $1.3B advanced manufacturing facility in Devens, creating 1,000 jobs. Metal parts manufacturer VulcanForms raised $220 million to construct its third Massachusetts factory, bringing high-tech production and skilled employment to the state.

$15M grant funds technology to strengthen New England's seafood industry. University of Rhode Island researchers are developing sensors and cameras giving fishers real-time data on ocean conditions, enabling them to adapt tactics as warming waters reshape the region's fishing economy.

NH’s Harrisville mill gets pub and restaurant with $1.4M in funding. Tax credits and grants from the NH CDFA will complete the final restoration of the historic 1844 Trip Hammer Shop. The project aims to be the latest example of New England mill revivals bringing businesses and residents back to towns.

Science & Technology

Massachusetts awards $9.8M to 37 climatetech companies advancing clean energy solutions. Funding through MassCEC will help startups and researchers commercialize innovations in battery technology, carbon capture, coastal resilience, sustainable materials, and grid optimization.

Geothermal startup Dig Energy completes first project with innovative drilling technology. The company used high-pressure water jets (instead of conventional drill bits) to create boreholes for a Boston office building, cutting water use by 90% and construction waste by 75% compared to traditional methods, all at substantially lower cost.

Dartmouth Health launches center to improve care for older adults with serious illness. An $11.8 million NIH grant will create the Center for Aging with Serious Illness, supporting early-career physicians conducting research across rural New England to develop better treatments and policies for aging patients.

Civics & Community

Maine Monitor receives $1M grant to expand local news across the state.1 The American Journalism Project awarded the nonprofit newsroom three years of funding to strengthen its operations and reach more rural communities, building on their coverage of underserved counties since 2025.

UConn creates research center to prevent sexual violence on campus. The new center will study sexual violence prevention and work with students and staff to develop solutions that can be put into practice at UConn and other colleges.

Portland Sea Dogs to improve disability access at their ballpark. The minor league team is upgrading signage, accessibility features, and amenities to welcome visitors with disabilities and diverse needs.

That’s it for this edition of the Good News in New England Newsletter!2 If you’d like to support Granite Goodness, consider joining our Optimists Club. Learn more about the people behind these stories on our podcast.

Hungry for good news beyond the borders of New England? Check out our very own Optimists Club newsletter.

Thanks for reading!

-Andy & Kaelli

Some really smart people in NH figured out how regular ratepayers can get both through something called community power, and they’re lead by a wonderful guy named Henry Herndon, who we spoke to today.

We discuss:

• What community power actually is

• What makes it a true “win win” for consumers and the grid

• How NH is actually leading the country in some respects on this issue

• The future of this space locally and nationally

and more!

Learn more about the Community Power Coalition of NH at communitypowernh.gov

This episode was recorded at Treeline Outfitters in Portsmouth, NH

Music provided by Sneaky Miles.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us, as well as our generous community partners:

Resilient Buildings Group

Green Wave Electric Vehicles

Northeast Delta Dental

Treeline Outfitters

Don’t want to receive this newsletter? Adjust your preferences here.

HELLO OPTIMISTS!

Happy fall! We’re back with some fresh good news.

A couple cool things going on lately. First, we want to give a WARM WELCOME to Michele Holt-Shannon and Chris Dugan for joining our Optimists Club.

We also recently sat down with NHPR President and CEO Jim Schachter to talk about media, negativity bias, what makes NHPR unique, and why he is in fact optimistic about the future of local news (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts).

I want to especially thank our Optimists Club as well as our several incredible partners (early believers!) Resilient Buildings Group, Green Wave Electric Vehicles, and Delta Dental for supporting us.

Now enjoy some good news.

Sustainability & Nature

Connecticut’s container recycling rate hits 92%, the nation’s highest. The state’s bottle return system continues to outpace all other states. Connecticut’s 2025 rate jumped 27 points from 2024 after it doubled deposits to 10 cents and expanded the program to noncarbonated beverages.

With $20M investment, Maine upcycles wood-waste into modern materials. The University of Maine-led tech hub will convert low-value timber into advanced construction systems and sustainable packaging, laying the groundwork for hundreds of skilled manufacturing jobs across rural Maine.

Kittery, Maine adopts ordinance to protect vulnerable shoreline. The town's updated floodplain management rules designate climate-vulnerable zones and require rebuilt structures to rise an additional foot above base flood elevation.

Building & Infrastructure

Somerville has eliminated all traffic deaths for four consecutive years. New England’s densest city reduced serious crashes by 50 percent through its landmark “Vision Zero” policies, installing speed humps, redesigning intersections, and slowing traffic on residential streets.

New Hampshire north country towns are getting $3M to build climate-resilient road crossings. A new federal grant will help northern New Hampshire communities upgrade ~15 stream crossings to withstand major storms while restoring wildlife passages.

Rhode Island ends gas subsidies and advances heat pump adoption. The Public Utilities Commission shifted incentives away from fossil fuel systems, making electric heat pumps more affordable for homeowners transitioning off natural gas.

Economics & Opportunity

Connecticut theater design firm becomes employee owned cooperative. In the beginning of this year, Nextstage Design transitioned to a five-person cooperative letting staff who built the business share ownership and decision-making. They have since landed a major multimillion dollar contract renovating a performance center at UMass Amherst.

New program allows NH inmates to earn UNH business degrees. Fifteen inmates at Berlin state prison are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in business administration through a collaboration between UNH, White Mountains Community College, and the NH Department of Corrections. Research shows incarcerated education programs reduce recidivism + expand workforce opportunities.

UVM announces 35% tuition discount for New England students. Starting fall 2027, students from any New England state majoring in programs offered by UVM’s colleges of agriculture & life sciences, education, social services, and environment & natural resources (and more) gain access to substantially reduced tuition, helping to address Vermont's talent pool shortages across various key fields for the state.

Science & Technology

New England’s premier science museum is getting an extraordinary upgrade. Opening in October, the Museum of Science’s new 10,000 square foot “Public Science Common” will feature ultra-high-resolution displays and spatial audio to transport visitors to Mars, ocean depths, within living cells, and beyond.

University of New England launches Shaw Institute for Public and Planetary Health. Backed by a $5 million gift from entrepreneur David Evans Shaw, the institute bridges health sciences, marine research, and environmental work to train graduates tackling climate resilience, coastal protection, and community health across Maine.

Rhode Island is making lab space free for life science researchers. Grants covering lab and office space for up to eight new ventures will reduce barriers for early-stage companies, strengthening Rhode Island’s biotech ecosystem and creating research jobs.

Civics & Community

Manchester, NH officially ends veteran homelessness. City leadership announced the milestone after years of coordinated housing and support services, proving that chronic homelessness among veterans is not inevitable with sustained commitment and resources.

Vermont commits state advertising dollars to strengthen local news. Governor Phil Scott signed an executive order requiring state agencies to prioritize spending on regional newspapers and broadcast stations, helping shore up support for ~50 active local news organizations to continue serving their communities across the state.

The Mi’kmaq Nation acquires 83 acres in Aroostook County, Maine. The parcel, called Pugweliget (“living together in a group”), adjoins existing housing and community space in Connor, enabling tribal members to hunt, forage, and access cultural uses.

That’s it for this edition of the Good News in New England Newsletter!1

Want local good news mailed to your home? Consider joining our Optimists Club (support us + local news!)

Learn more about the people behind these stories on our podcast.

Hungry for good news beyond the borders of New England? Check out our very own Optimists Club newsletter or our friends at Fix The News and The Progress Network.

• How NHPR has navigated changes in public media funding

• Reasons for optimism amid a hollowing out of local news

• The extraordinary success NHPR has had in podcasting

• How NHPR balances informing readers and listeners about the world while not overly depressing them

• What makes New Hampshire’s media environment special

and more!

Learn more about NHPR at nhpr.org

This episode was recorded at the NHPR offices in Concord, NH. Thank you to Olivia Comolli for your help recording and producing the episode!

Music provided by Sneaky Miles.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us, as well as our generous community partners:

Resilient Buildings Group

Green Wave Electric Vehicles

Northeast Delta Dental

Treeline Outfitters

We have been busy over here in Granite Goodness land! Our summer was spent doing live events, speaking engagements, and working on a couple secret projects I am excited to unveil soon. If you are ever curious, we regularly update our timeline page with notable activities.

We put on a panel at NH’s Coastal Climate Summit a few months back. One of my favorite themes from that discussion was the difference between seawalls and living shorelines as strategies to adapt to changing coastlines.

Seawalls are strongest on the day they are installed, and become weaker over time as the ocean batters them.

In contrast, living shorelines are weakest when they are installed, but grow in strength and efficacy as vegetation and marsh mature into storm-buffering systems.

This is not so different from how I think of the news!

Read more

This episode is from our third ever live show, which happened August 12, 2026 at the Capitol Center for Arts Bank of NH stage in Concord, NH.

We collaborated with our friends at NHBSR to bring together:

• Ben Conniff: Co-founder, Luke’s Lobster

• Julianna Dodson: Executive Director, Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

• Emily Warren: Director of People & Culture, W.S. Badger Company

• Cody Whelan: Co-founder, Treeline Outfitters (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

We brought all these people together to discuss about how business can do well while doing good. We covered a bunch of other stuff too, and it was a wonderful night.

I want to thank our evening sponsors

Claremont Savings Bank and Revision Energy

Who helped us provide:

• Catering from Laney and Lu

• Photography from Hutch Heelan

• Videography from Windwood Productions

• Music from Sneaky Miles

And an all around great time.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us as well as our generous community partners:

Resilient Buildings Group

Green Wave Electric Vehicles

Northeast Delta Dental

Treeline Outfitters

Link to all photos here!

This conversation is from the 2026 Outdoor Industry Day Barn Raiser hosted by the Granite Outdoor Alliance, where we chatted with local outdoor industry entrepreneurs:

• Eric Hui (Terracea)

• Erika Halaby (Rooted Rose Recreation & Wellness)

• Rusty Talbot (North Country Climbing)

• Phillip Renton (Reklis Brewing Company)

…about why they love doing business + making impact in NH.

Thank you to the Granite Outdoor Alliance, Tyler Ray, Andrew Schuyler, Ericka Canales, the staff at the Barn on the Pemi, and everyone who helped make the Barn Raiser happen for this opportunity.

Music for this episode was provided by Sneaky Miles.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us as well as our generous community partners:

Resilient Buildings Group

Green Wave Electric Vehicles

Northeast Delta Dental

Treeline Outfitters

Hello 2,160 optimists and WELCOME to our 102 new subscribers this month.

We will return this week with more good news but FIRST I am inviting ALL OF YOU to our next LIVE SHOW!

Come watch me somersault (literally) into a conversation with 4 local business leaders about how they do well while doing good, and meet a bunch of other people who believe in our mission.

The show is Wednesday evening, August 12 at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH.1

Get your tickets here!

If you’d like to go, but price is an issue for you or a friend, respond to this email : ) I will personally help.

Flow of the evening:

5:00 PM | Kickoff & Networking
5:30 PM | Live Music with SNEAKY MILES
6:00 PM | Live Podcast Recording
7:00 PM | Social Hour

The panel will feature:

• Ben Conniff: Co-founder, Luke’s Lobster

• Julianna Dodson: Executive Director, Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

• Emily Warren: Director of People & Culture, W.S. Badger Company

• Cody Whelan: Co-founder, Treeline Outfitters (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

We’ll be collaborating with our friends at NH Businesses for Social Responsibility for this event, showcasing how these people and their organizations are changing the game on:

• Creating real “third spaces”

• Environmental stewardship & sustainability

• Reimagining rural economies

• Youth career paths

…and more, brought to you in classic Granite Goodness fashion. As always we’ll also be joined by acclaimed local indie-folk rockstars Sneaky Miles, whose music we use for our podcast.

For a high-level view of what sort of people will be there, check out our Optimists Club page, where you can see and hear from 100+ local leaders representing different towns + industries on what makes them a part of the Granite Goodness community.

If you want to get a sense of what our live shows2 are like, here are some pictures from our first two:

And here are the recordings!

I hope to see you there! Come meet Kaelli, our new team member. If nothing else, we’re going to take the first ever group picture of our Optimists Club, come join us!3

-Andy

• Maeve Nolan (Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast)

• Annie Cox (Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership)

• Cory Riley (Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve)

• Brianna Hagan (Town of Hampton)

…about how they are helping people and wildlife in new Hampshire and beyond adapt to a changing coastline and climate.

Thank you to Kirsten Howard, Alex Maxwell, Lisa Wise, and the whole team at the New Hampshire coastal adaptation working group for having me!

Big thank you as well to Brian Yurasits for your camera help during this recording, and to Maeve, Annie, Cory, and Brianna for a great conversation.

JOIN US Wednesday August 12 for our next live show at the Bank of NH stage in Concord, NH.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us, as well as our generous partners Delta Dental, Resilient Buildings Group, Green Wave Electric Vehicles!

Excited to share our next live show is coming up on Wednesday August 12 in Concord, NH. I’ll be sharing again this week to our full list of 2,000+, but you all (114 and counting!) are the inner circle of optimists : )

Get your tickets here, use code SAVE50 for a discount!

Come watch me somersault (literally) into a conversation with 4 local business leaders about how they do well while doing good.

The panel will feature:

• Ben Conniff: Co-founder, Luke’s Lobster

• Julianna Dodson: Executive Director, Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

• Emily Warren: Director of People & Culture, W.S. Badger Company

• Cody Whelan: Co-founder, Treeline Outfitters (and past Granite Goodness guest!)

We’ll be collaborating with our friends at NH Businesses for Social Responsibility for this event, showcasing how these people and their organizations are changing the game on:

• Creating real “third spaces”

• Environmental stewardship & sustainability

• Reimagining rural economies

• Youth career paths

…and more, brought to you in classic Granite Goodness fashion. As always we’ll also be joined by acclaimed local indie-folk rockstars Sneaky Miles, whose music we use for the podcast.

Check out our first two live shows if you want to get a sense of what they’re like:

3S Artspace Local Podcasters Night

Rex Theatre

Hope to see you there!

Now please enjoy some fresh good news from around the globe. Here are seven of my favorite stories lately:

Read more

Hello everyone!

Excited to announce a new spin-off podcast series we are doing. It’s called Yankee Dynamism, and will be focused on New England’s tech sector.

Here I want to provide context for why I am doing this and where it fits into Granite Goodness more widely.

I’m a lifelong New Englander and New Hampshire native who spent 10 years as a career environmentalist. In that time I came to believe that our biggest problem wasn’t actually a lack of progress on important issues, but rather, that much of the public just had no idea about the solutions and progress we had made. Put another way, I think our biggest problem is too many of us are too pessimistic about the prospect of making the world better.

So, I became a solutions journalist and started a media brand called Granite Goodness, devoted to sharing optimistic local good news that actually matters across New England.

In the two years I’ve been doing Granite Goodness, I have mostly avoided technology as a topic. I did this because I felt like most of the time when people encounter this idea that we should be excited and optimistic about the future, it’s almost always about technology.

I first wanted to show audiences that you could be optimistic about the future, not just because computers get faster, but because people themselves are actually pretty good, our society solves problems all the time, and the news media tends to over-inform us about everything going wrong.

And while I feel that mission is realized, technology is an ever more important part of how the world gets shaped, for better and for worse. So I wanted to give it its own unique focus within Granite Goodness in the form of this spin-off podcast series.

Many people today have a cynical view of technology, seeing the industry as rife with out of touch billionaires obsessed with power, channeling America’s brightest minds toward figuring out how to addict us to screens and amplify our worst qualities. And while I think some of those views are justified, my job is to help tell a different story about what’s possible in the world.

The goal of this show is not to deny that tech can be used to make the world worse. Like any tool, it can be channeled towards negative or positive ends. Tech also helps spread culture and ideas across the globe. It helps people learn languages, recipes, make friends and discover art. It helps us power society with more renewable energy and raise living standards for the world’s poorest.

I believe the stories we tell literally shape the future we envision and build, and that too often we’re over-exposed to narratives of pessimism and decline. We need a different story, and a better one, that isn’t just based on hype and yet another delivery app.

It’s also personal for me. My brother, a type one diabetic, has his very life sustained by an insulin pump. My sister, born with a painful jaw condition, is now being healed through advancements in medical treatment. My wife and I live in rural New Hampshire on a farm powered by solar panels, with internet access beamed in from the sky.

I’ve made the conscious choice to stay and build a life in rural New England because I think this place and its people are unique, and have a lot to offer the world as it navigates a blistering pace of change.

The American Revolution began in New England 250 years ago, and while the region has remained at the frontier of much social and democratic progress, it remains one of the few places where at a café or hiking trail, there is a pretty good chance the humans you run into could be congresspeople, chicken farmers, CEOs, volunteer firemen, or all of the above. I often remark to people that the executive director of New Hampshire’s leading tech consortium, is also actually a chicken farmer, and I don’t think this is an accident.

Tradition and progress are often experienced as conflicting forces, but in New England, more often they are mutually reinforcing ideals. Nowhere else in the world is there such a combination of farmers markets, local direct democracy, world class universities and science, reverence for history, and liberal values blended with rural character.

New England’s unique embrace of authenticity, independence, community, and progress is not a coincidence, or a fluke. It’s actually just who we are. I call this spirit: Yankee Dynamism.

I actually wrote an essay about this nearly a year ago celebrating these qualities and expressing some surprise that there wasn’t more of a tech / progress-oriented movement here given I thought we had all the right ingredients.

Not long after that, I met Rae and Ryan Lambert, who told me about this absolutely crazy project they dreamt of pursuing: an intentional community for tech enthusiasts and founders, based in NH (codenamed: Freedom Village).

If you’ve met Rae & Ryan, you know that once they decide to do anything, they don’t wait, they move fast! Before long, Freedom Village became an actual project more than an idea.

Parallel to this, I had been mulling over the concept of Yankee Dynamism in my mind, seeing all the while how crazy and fast the world of tech was moving. Given the unique attributes my corner of the world has, I felt there was an opportunity to have a bunch of cool local conversations just focused on this question of what do we want our relationship to technology to look like?

I share more about this in the podcast, but basically I think it’s not a good thing for hugely consequential industries to be led by small groups of people representing a narrow set of values and perspectives. My vision for a better future imagines a much wider diversity and flourishing of innovation hubs, across the country and the world, and less overwhelming influence from Silicon Valley.

Anyway as luck would have it, Ryan and Rae felt ready to announce their project just as I was wanting to launch this spinoff podcast, and I thought it would be the perfect way to kick it off.

Just to be super clear, Yankee Dynamism is secondary to everything else Granite Goodness already is. It is a separate podcast that anyone can opt-into listening to. Our regular programming will continue as usual, and the flagship podcast, Granite Goodness, is returning in the fall with a more inclusive, standard format. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is episode one. I hope you enjoy it!

On episode one, I am joined by Rae, Ryan, Jeremy, and Ian, who together are building a literal village and intentional community for tech optimists, founders, and enthusiasts, here in New Hampshire. Inspired by the state motto “Live free or die” they’re calling it Freedom Village.

I think their vision is a powerful expression of the values and ideas this show is about, mainly, how can we balance being excited about technology while still embracing the things that make us human? Who is doing something about that in a way that reflects New England values?

In addition to this, they’re throwing a whole two day summit in August devoted to celebrating and making the case for why more people should build innovative businesses in New Hampshire.

We also talk about the balance between risk, progress, and regulation in biological and nuclear tech, the aesthetic of solar punk, political tribes, using tech to help people make friends with strangers, and a bunch of other fun stuff.

Freedom Summit

Freedom Village

Follow Yankee Dynamism on Spotify

Rae’s Substack: IRL > URL

Granite Bio Innovation

• Tori Gerlt (Resilient Buildings Group)

• Jackson Kaspari (Community Power Coalition of NH)

• Katharine Cusack (Clean Energy NH)

Join us Wednesday August 12 for our next live show at the Bank of NH stage in Concord, NH.

Big thank you to our Optimists Club for supporting us, as well as our generous partners Delta Dental, Resilient Buildings Group, Green Wave Electric Vehicles!

Thank you Treeline Outfitters for hosting us!

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NOTE FROM ANDY

HELLO OPTIMISTS!

We’ve been busy! Welcome to the 197 new people who’ve joined us since our last newsletter.

Across some of my shenanigans the last 6 weeks, I’ve learned that a fair amount of people who engage with Granite Goodness don’t really know the how or why behind it. To boot, there are now more than 2,100 direct email subscribers, so I feel I should take a minute to quickly re-introduce myself!

My name is Andy DeMeo, I am a life-long New Englander (mostly via NH) with a ~10 year career in the environmental / sustainability space. I’ve worked in climate policy, impact investing, beekeeping, carbon accounting, and before any of that, a whole lot of restaurants.

Through dumb luck I met some pretty smart people in my work, and over time felt that (by virtue of their smartness) perhaps the world was actually making more progress on important problems than the steady stream of negative eco-news would have us believe.

Turns out we are, and not just on environmental issues.

The gap between public perception and expert opinion on any given issue is no surprise. What is surprising is which direction it often runs, in that the public is often more pessimistic than the evidence warrants.

It matters that people know about progress for so many reasons. Having an awareness of what's going right protects your sense of purpose and agency against the ever-present pull of doom. A basic belief in the ability of people to improve things is good for your mental health. Both qualities make a person more likely to help a neighbor, volunteer, innovate, engage in civic systems, or simply talk to a stranger (optimism also makes you better looking, this is scientifically proven).

“Restored my faith in humanity” is an oft-invoked phrase, because we’ve somehow collectively settled on this notion that our default state is a lack of faith.

I find that so depressing, unacceptable, and frankly, counterproductive for anyone who wants to make the world a better place.

Thankfully, so do tons of other people, who for years have been at the work of communicating the general concept of optimism & progress via a fast-growing web of journalistic and academic outlets. Virtually all of them focus on stories of progress & good news from a global perspective, but none I could find are trying to bring this concept locally.

It makes sense why. It’s an unusual idea, because generally progress journalism / studies is concerned with weighty non-local stakes i.e. how humanity is faring in its dance with the four horsemen of the apocalypse.1 Nonetheless, the phenomenon of “progress” is experienced locally, and the most fun opportunity I see is to engage an audience + community with a local orientation.2

This led me to starting a hobby project two years ago called Granite Goodness,3 a podcast about my home-state and the ways that various people were making it better. The first ten episodes I produced totally in secret, having convinced ten friends of mine to be guinea pigs for this weird idea.4 As a last minute-addition, I also made a good news newsletter focused on NH, and then released it all at once.

Those first twelve months were a lot of fun,5 and when Granite Goodness turned 1 in June 2025, I expanded the scope to cover all of New England.6

I’ve since come to believe that this kind of solutions journalism, a dedicated beat for things going well, could (and should) be an entire branch of the media. If nothing else I think there should be a bigger ecosystem of competition here, and I hope my work can inspire others. I don’t know that optimistic solutions journalism will ever be the “whole enchilada” but it should be much bigger than it is now given how many win-win opportunities are in this space.

Granted, it is a political question what “going well” means, but I sincerely think there is plenty of relatively uncontroversial, substantively positive stuff happening that most Americans would think is pretty good i.e. how are we improving our relationship to the environment? What opportunities exist in the economy? What creative ways are we providing more housing? Making progress on social issues? Enhancing civic engagement?7

These are the stories I try to curate and share on the regular to remind people that good news exists in plain sight, and it’s not just fluffy stuff to make you feel good.

Over time this has become a really fun exercise because my brand’s aperture for “good news” is very wide, in that I draw on a lot of different sources. Local journalists + newspapers, municipal press releases, university research journals, economic briefs, social media posts, podcast interviews, and many other things!8

In that same vein, when I explain what the hell Granite Goodness even is on a given day of the week, the answer could be so many things now. It’s a digital & print newsletter / social media project / community / idea platform / mental health resource / fund-raising vehicle for local news / podcast / live event producer / speaking & emceeing outlet / podcast production company / passion, etc.

In reality, it’s a hybrid of all these things, so I’ve taken to just calling it a “media brand.”

Anyhow, enough exposition for now, but that’s the 10,000 foot view of what we’re doing here and why.

For anyone who’s been with us since day one, or yesterday, I just want to say:

Wow.

Thank you.

I love you.

This whole thing is just beginning.

I want to especially thank our Optimists Club, the amazing group of paid supporters to Granite Goodness, as well as our several incredible partners (early believers!) Resilient Buildings Group, Green Wave Electric Vehicles, and Delta Dental. Grappone Automotive as well I’d like to thank for sponsoring our first ever live show last fall.

If you like what we do, hop on this optimistic pirate ship. We’re seeking more partners and sponsors. Last month >200,000 people saw our social media content, so the ground here is fertile and growing fast. Year 1 was about exploration, year 2 was about proving the concept, and year 3 will be all about executing the vision. Expect a lot more of everything we do.

In that spirit, we also just made our first ever hire. Welcome Kaelli Gehrung, who is going to help us get more Granite Goodness out there to more people.

Now enjoy some good news.

PS if you’re local to NH and around on Tuesday evening 6/30, we’re doing a live podcast at Auspicious Brew in Dover, NH to close out pride month. I have unironically named this event “Granite Gayness.”

Sustainability & Nature

Maine residents can now power their homes with plug-in solar. Maine is the second state to legalize plug-in solar, the small panels that hang on a balcony or fence and feed power straight into a standard outlet. The panels require no rooftop, no permit, no utility sign-off, and are saving locals up to 20% off their average electric bill.

Vermont just became the first state in the country to ban paraquat. The pesticide has been linked to Parkinson’s disease for years and is already banned in more than 70 countries. Other states are lining up to follow Vermont’s lead.

Rhode Island is reducing food waste in schools. A new law requires schools to audit what they throw away and divert all of it by 2029, expanding what gets recovered and shared so less edible food ends up buried in landfills.

Building & Infrastructure

Maine is paying homeowners to expand housing supply. Residents in Rockland, Bath, and Brunswick can get up to $10,000 from the Midcoast Council of Governments toward an accessory dwelling unit built in their backyard, provided it becomes a long term rental.

Rhode Island is turning pavement into sponges for heavy rains. Ten communities from Providence to Block Island won nearly $1.1 million in EPA grants to redesign how they handle stormwater, trading aging drainage for rain gardens, tree filters, and basins that absorb heavier storms.

Batteries are a growing part of powering New England’s grid. In Massachusetts, three electric school buses in Acton-Boxborough are kicking off the state’s first vehicle-to-grid pilot, charging overnight when power is cheap and clean, then feeding it back on hot afternoons when the grid is straining, potentially earning the district enough to cover a year of charging.

Similarly, in New Hampshire, new utility programs let home and community batteries do the same, easing strain on the grid and paying owners for the power they share, with publicly owned buildings joining in as well. For example, Lee, NH’s public library battery system allows them to double as an outage-resilient community center. This is what libraries can be in 2026!

Economics & Opportunity

In Connecticut, farmers are organizing to solve shared problems. The state's 120 markets long operated in isolation, each one troubleshooting vendor rules, permits, and slow days on its own. A new statewide coalition now connects organizers to share resources and knowledge about how to smoothly operate local markets.

Massachusetts is training a new generation to drill for clean heat. The country’s first geothermal drilling training center opens in Framingham this year, built to retrain gas workers and bring in newcomers. America’s geothermal workforce is projected to triple by 2050, with centers like these leading the way.

The University of New Hampshire is leading a push for America to grow its own seafood. The US imports $20 billion more seafood than it catches or farms at home. NOAA has tapped UNH to lead a new five-year, $13.5 million institute to close that gap, building on the university’s successful model in New Castle, NH, where it already raises 20,000 pounds of steelhead trout a year.

Science & Technology

Scientists are vaccinating New England’s trees against Dutch elm disease. In Vermont, researchers are deliberately infecting 5,000 saplings bred from rare survivor elms, then breeding the heartiest survivors. The goal is to bring American elms back to the floodplains where they once slowed floods and filtered water.

Connecticut just unveiled its next-generation ocean research craft. The Sound Outlook, a $2.2 million catamaran (for the non-nautical, this is a boat with two hulls), can slip into bays and estuaries as shallow as two feet, opening up eelgrass beds and coves unreachable to previous crafts that have monitored Long Island Sound’s health for decades.

New Hampshire is clearing the path to STEM careers for low-income students. Saint Anselm College won its largest-ever NSF award to fund up to 80 scholarships for students moving from community college into STEM degrees. The program builds a path all the way from a two-year school to a master's at UNH.

Civics & Community

For the first time since 2013, Massachusetts lost fewer than 1,000 people to opioids in a year. It’s a milestone a decade in the making, the product of years of steady investment in treatment, harm reduction, and recovery across the state.

Connecticut just passed one of the strongest data privacy laws in the country. Residents will be able to wipe their personal information from every registered data broker with a single request. The law also bans surveillance pricing, where companies use your personal data to charge you more than they'd charge someone else for the same thing.

Vermont just made concert tickets fairer. A new state law caps resale prices at 10% above face value for independent venues. It also bans fake “official” ticket sites designed to trick fans, prohibits selling tickets you don’t actually have, and requires resellers to be upfront about who they bought from.

New Hampshire's theater scene just got a boost. Plymouth's beloved Flying Monkey theater was donated to a local nonprofit, shifting the venue into community ownership. The move allows for grants and donations that ticket sales alone would struggle to match. Similar models have helped sustain independent theaters across the country.

That’s it for this edition of the Good News in New England Newsletter!9 If you’d like to support Granite Goodness, consider joining our Optimists Club. Learn more about the people behind these stories on our podcast.

Hungry for good news beyond the borders of New England? Check out our very own Optimists Club newsletter or our friends at Fix The News and The Progress Network.

Thanks for reading!

-Andy

I cannot believe there are now over 100 of you. If you haven’t shared your info yet and would like to be displayed on our page, please let me know!

If you missed it, the recording from our last live show is now out.

Kicking off the new month with some fresh good news from around the globe. Here are seven of my favorite stories lately:

Read more

The theme of the evening was simple: we aren’t competing with each other, we’re all competing together against the giant media industry of conflict entrepreneurship pumping out cynicism 24/7.

It was a very special, very optimistic night!

THANK YOU TO:

• Green Wave Electric Vehicles for sponsoring the evening

• 3S Artspace for having us

• Hutch Heelan for the wonderful photos

• InFocus Media for the videography

• Haley Levesque for joining us at intermission to share about NH Community Media

• Ivo, Laura, Becky, Alison, Liz, Marissa, Emily, and Jenn for joining us!

Dr. Beewell explores holistic health, entrepreneurship, and wellbeing through wide-ranging conversations on mind, body, and modern living, hosted by Dr. Steve Ivanoski.

Creative Guts is an interview-style podcast exploring the roots of creativity and how it connects us to the world around us. Hosted by Laura Harper Lake, Becky Barsi, and Joe Acone.

Real Time Creator is a voice-note style podcast documenting the raw, real-time journey of creative reinvention after a career break, hosted by Alison Kinsey.

New Hampshire Has Issues is the podcast that dares to ask, how many issues can one state have? Hosted by Liz Canada, an advocacy director who helps people understand issues and take meaningful action.

One Quick Thing shares quick, actionable ways to connect with your community when it matters most, hosted by Marissa Emanuele and Emily Briand.

Telltalks Northeast features deep-dive conversations with small business owners, entrepreneurs, creatives, and makers across the Northeast, hosted by Jenn Bakos.

Sydni Collier is Director of Leadership Programs at Alnoba, where she coordinates leadership offsites for strategic partners and leads youth development programming.

This episode was recorded at Alnoba in Kensington, NH.

Learn more at alnoba.org

Music provided by Sneaky Miles

Thank you to our Community Partners Resilient Buildings Group, Green Wave Electric Vehicles, Delta Dental, and Treeline Outfitters for their support.

Zeina Eyceoz is the current Executive Director of NH Businesses for Social Responsibility (NHBSR). She joined the organization after teaching sustainability at Southern New Hampshire University and Harvard Extension School.

Michelle Veasey is the former Executive Director of NHBSR, where she served for 13 years before transitioning to the role of Advocacy Director. She is recently retiring after a career defined by coalition building and relationship-driven change across the New Hampshire business community.

This episode was produced in partnership with NH Possible, focusing on NH Businesses for Social Responsibility. Learn more about them at nhpossible.org and nhbsr.org

NH Possible is a collaboration between:

• Health Strategies of NH

• NH Health Cost Initiative

• HealthForce NH

• Foundation for Healthy Communities

• NH Center for Justice & Equity

• NH Fiscal Policy Institute

• NH Businesses for Social Responsibility

• and the NH Center for Nonprofits

Together, they are building a statewide movement envisioning a New Hampshire where individuals, families, communities and businesses all have what they need to thrive, including a sense of belonging, opportunities for civic engagement, optimal health, and access to educational and financial opportunity.

Music provided by Sneaky Miles

This episode was recorded at Ripple Effect Studio in Manchester, NH