How this Granite Stater is finding the good in New Hampshire—one story at a time 

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Last year, Andy DeMeo had no journalism training and no experience in media. What he did have was a sense that the news was “too heavy and there isn’t enough optimism out there.”

That conviction led him to create Granite Goodness, a biweekly Substack newsletter and podcast highlighting positive news from New Hampshire. Since it launched in June 2024, DeMeo has interviewed over 50 changemakers and collected hundreds of stories about local solutions to challenges.

“Much of the media ecosystem is heavily incentivized to present things in a way that is threatening or negative,” he said. “If that’s all that you see or all that you pay attention to, you would miss a lot of positive, productive, inspiring, optimistic stories and trajectories on a lot of complex problems.”

Granite Goodness has featured interviews with addiction recovery expert Mark LeFebrve, whose work helped New Hampshire and Maine outpace national opioid recovery rates, and Walden Mutual Bank founder Charley Cummings. DeMeo has also included conversations with Sen. Maggie Hassan and Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

DeMeo, 30, grew up in Londonderry and now lives on a small farm in the Mount Washington Valley with his wife, two dogs, and 20 chickens. He has a background in environmental conservation and sustainability, which he studied at the University of New Hampshire. His first interests with Granite Goodness were conversations with environmentalists, but his curiosity quickly broadened.

“I’ve always been pretty extroverted,” he said. “I’m really curious about big problems and how they get better or worse. I just feel like I’ve met and seen a lot of really smart people doing great stuff.”

DeMeo says his approach is rooted in pragmatism as much as positivity.

“I love doing it. It feels good. I think it’s smart, and I have a better life,” he said.

His path to this work wasn’t linear. In middle school, DeMeo dreamed of becoming a boat builder so he could create a boat with a drum kit. That led him to consider a career as a merchant mariner, enrolling at Maine Maritime Academy before changing direction after meeting his future wife. Later, an entrepreneurial competition in college—and even a childhood video game, Donkey Kong 64—sparked his interest in environmentalism after he became fascinated by orangutans (featured in the video game).

In 2017, as a senior at UNH, DeMeo won the Social Venture Innovation Challenge. Drawing on his experience as a cooperative beekeeper, he proposed a residential hive program where commercial customers could host hives on their properties. His startup, called Honey Do, won $5,000.

He was even contacted by a TV producer in California to feature his work with bees on a show about innovative entrepreneurs.

“We did it for two years, and then decided to stop just because of the ethics of it,” DeMeo said. “But it was super fun and I would do it all again because I learned about business and farms and that was really the first seed of us doing anything agricultural or entrepreneurial or outdoorsy.”

After being laid off from Impax Asset Management in March, DeMeo has focused full-time on Granite Goodness. And he’s launched a sister publication, New England Good News. His outlet is also now part of the Progress Network, an organization connecting journalists, researchers, and thought leaders focused on “progress journalism”—highlighting the solutions, innovations, and people driving positive change.

For DeMeo, Granite Goodness has become both a professional project and a personal calling.

“Optimistic people get more done. They are able to do more of the things that they want to do in their lives. So it’s a very pragmatic approach, and it’s also just good for you,” he said.