Maine For Keeps

Alec Porteous has run the numbers. He’s been the CFO of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services. He’s been the Commissioner of Administrative & Financial Services, the state’s top budget job. He’s been the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer at the University of Southern Maine. And now? He’s sounding the alarm. In this episode, we dig into Maine’s budget explosion and wh...

Lt. Nick Goodman has been a cop in Portland for over 20 years. He’s run narcotics stings. Solved cold cases. Led Portland’s SWAT team through high-risk raids and manhunts. He’s watched the city change, from a place where gunfire made headlines to a place where “another shooting” barely raises eyebrows. This episode is a raw, unfiltered look at what public safety in Maine actually looks like today...

Stephen Bowen has seen the future of education, and he’s seen what happens when we ignore it. As Maine’s former Commissioner of Education and now Executive Director of the Hoover Education Success Initiative at Stanford, Stephen brings a rare perspective: deep local roots combined with a national, bird’s-eye view of what actually works. In this episode, he lays out a bold, actionable vision for ho...

Charlie Baker has a reputation for making big, complex institutions actually work. As governor of Massachusetts, he was consistently ranked the most popular governor in America, running one of the bluest states as a Republican without getting bogged down in partisanship. Today, he’s the president of the NCAA, steering college sports through its most turbulent era. In this conversation, Baker share...

Mitch Daniels has worn a lot of hats: Governor of Indiana, President of Purdue University, and before that, business executive and federal budget director. But through it all, he’s carried a reputation for doing the hard, unglamorous work of making institutions perform better. In Indiana, Daniels balanced the budget after years of deficits, capped runaway property taxes, and launched one of the bo...

This week on Maine For Keeps, Jonathan goes solo from North Haven Island to share why he’s still a raging Maine optimist and why it’s time for our state to stop dividing a shrinking pie and start making more pie. Part personal story, part blueprint for Maine’s future, this episode digs into what makes Maine unique, and what’s possible if we unleash our natural strengths. Highlights from the episod...

Maine’s rural communities have a healthcare problem — too few providers, too much distance, and too many people falling through the cracks. But what if the solution was already parked in your town, sirens off, waiting for the next call? In this episode, Jonathan Bush sits down with Dr. Jonathan Busko (emergency physician and EMS innovator), Dr. Charles Burger (primary care pioneer), and Jeff Brown...

What does it really take to bring a city back to life? In the latest episode of Maine For Keeps, I sit down with Mayor Tom Koch , the longest-serving mayor in Quincy, Massachusetts — and the man behind one of the most impressive downtown transformations in New England. When Mayor Koch took office in 2008, Quincy’s downtown was full of empty storefronts and faded promise. The shipyard was long gone...

Ohad Maiman is one of the most visionary figures in modern aquaculture. After successfully launching The Kingfish Company in the Netherlands (one of the world’s most sustainable land-based aquaculture operations) he set his sights on the U.S. market. His goal: bring clean, tech-enabled fish farming to rural Maine. His promise: a $200M investment, 80+ jobs, local hiring, low emissions, and zero imp...

What started in the basement of a YMCA is now one of the most innovative community centers in the country. In this episode, Jonathan Bush sits down with Barrett Takesian , founder and executive director of Portland Community Squash , a one-of-a-kind community hub that blends sports, youth development, immigrant integration, and economic mobility under one roof. Barrett shares how he turned a few s...

How do you fix a government system that punishes truth-tellers, hides behind confidentiality laws, and fails the very people it’s supposed to protect? In this episode, former Maine Secretary of State and longtime legislator Bill Diamond joins Jonathan Bush for a sobering look at what’s really happening inside Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) — the agency responsible for child...

Sarah Lemonick is a U.S. Navy veteran and now a product manager at Atomic Canyon, where she’s helping shape the future of nuclear energy with AI. In this episode, she joins Jonathan Bush to talk about what Maine — and the country — can learn from her experience operating nuclear reactors aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. Together, they explore: – What small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) actual...

When athenahealth opened a small office in Belfast, Maine, no one expected it to become one of the state’s largest private employers. But under the leadership of Jonathan McDevitt , that office grew from a couple hundred people to nearly 1,000—creating real career paths in a rural community that had long been overlooked. In this episode, Jonathan Bush sits down with Jonathan McDevitt, former Senio...

What happens when a seasoned CPG operator and Liquid Death investor comes home to launch her own brand in Maine? Jen Millard is no stranger to growth. She helped take Bed Bath & Beyond public. She sold startups to Mastercard and DoorDash. And after decades of success, she returned to her home state to launch mainelove — a fast-growing canned water company that taps into Maine’s most undervalue...

What happens when the boats disappear, the buyers retire, and the next generation doesn’t come back? In this raw and revealing conversation, Jonathan Bush sits down with Martin Molloy—a Navy vet turned legendary lobster buyer—to unpack what’s really happening to Maine’s working waterfront. They talk about the hard truths behind the decline in young lobstermen, the quiet collapse of Matinicus and N...

Melissa LaCasse left public radio in New York to build Tanbark , a Maine-based startup replacing single-use plastic with sustainable molded fiber. The catch? She’s doing it in a state with almost no growth capital, aging manufacturing infrastructure, and endless red tape. In this episode, Jonathan Bush sits down with Melissa to talk about: Why Maine’s forests are our best climate asset What it act...

Maine is a state built on small businesses—so why did Forbes rank us 45th out of 50 for small business friendliness? In this episode of Maine For Keeps , Jonathan Bush sits down with Nate Cloutier, government affairs director for Hospitality Maine, to unpack the absurd barriers holding back Maine’s restaurant, hotel, and tourism industries—from soda fountain laws still on the books, to family leav...

Andrew Bonarrigo isn’t a venture-backed CEO. He didn’t get a grant. He didn’t inherit a business. He started out cleaning antique bricks from the Rockland Jail, selling them for 35 cents apiece—and used the proceeds to build his own masonry company from scratch. Today, he runs one of the most respected construction crews on the coast of Maine. Year-round work. Eight full-time employees. On time. O...

Everyone agrees Maine needs more housing. So why isn’t it getting built? In this episode of Maine For Keeps , Jonathan Bush sits down with Matt Marks, a lifelong Mainer and construction industry veteran, to pull back the curtain on the real reasons development in Maine is so painfully slow—and what we can do to change it. They cover: 🛠️ Why developers are walking away from projects before they sta...

Maine isn’t just losing opportunities. We’re driving them away—with energy policies, regulatory gridlock, and a learned helplessness that’s sinking our economy. In this episode of Maine For Keeps, Jonathan Bush sits down with Matt Jacobson, Director of Sales & Marketing at Summit Natural Gas of Maine (and former CEO of Maine & Company), to have a brutally honest conversation about: How Mai...

Maine is full of hardworking entrepreneurs, but too often, they have to leave the state to build something big. Luke Holden is one of them. He grew up in Cape Elizabeth, a third-generation lobsterman with Maine roots as deep as they come. But when it came time to start Luke’s Lobster, he didn’t do it in Portland. Or Rockland. Or Bar Harbor. He went to New York City. Why? Because Maine made it impo...

Maine has the *location*, the *workforce*, and the *quality of life*—so how can we get more businesses to choose Maine??In this episode of *Maine For Keeps*, Jonathan Bush sits down with Peter DelGreco, CEO of Maine & Company, to unpack the hard truths about why economic development is so damn hard. From regional energy policy to regulatory gridlock, to anonymous lawsuits that try to kill proj...