Maine For Keeps
Maine For Keeps
Podcast Description
Welcome to Maine For Keeps, hosted by Jonathan Bush. Each week, we're sitting down with real Mainers - from small business owners fighting to survive, to industry leaders and innovators, to working folks trying to make ends meet - for raw, unfiltered conversations about:
→ The real stories of what's killing Maine jobs (like the 174 we just lost at the cement plant)
→ How Maine's smartest businesses are finding ways to win despite the obstacles
→ Why "environmental protection" often hurts both business AND the environment
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores critical issues affecting Maine's economy, highlighting themes like job loss, business innovation, and the impact of environmental policies. Episode examples include discussions on the loss of jobs at local cement plants, strategies employed by profitable companies, and the complexities of regional energy policies, with a focus on how these factors influence the state's economic landscape.
Welcome to Maine For Keeps, hosted by Jonathan Bush. Each week, we’re sitting down with real Mainers – from small business owners fighting to survive, to industry leaders and innovators, to working folks trying to make ends meet – for raw, unfiltered conversations about:
→ The real stories of what’s killing Maine jobs (like the 174 we just lost at the cement plant)
→ How Maine’s smartest businesses are finding ways to win despite the obstacles
→ Why “environmental protection” often hurts both business AND the environment
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 impossible.
In this episode of Maine For Keeps, Jonathan Bush sits down with Luke to break down:
🔥 Why Maine businesses struggle to scale—and what has to change
🔥 The red tape, taxes, and regulations that keep entrepreneurs out
🔥 How Maine’s housing crisis is blocking economic growth
🔥 Why Luke eventually came back—and what it’ll take to keep the next generation from leaving
If we want to restore the Maine dream, we need to fix the structural issues that push our best and brightest elsewhere.
Can we actually make Maine a place where entrepreneurs thrive? Let’s talk about it.
Disclaimer
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