The Birth of Good News Good Planet

Photo by Howie Roemer: Mandy Stapleford, creator of Good News Good Planet stands in front of her ceramic artwork at Ennui Gallery in Taos, NM. She holds an award from the NM Broadcasters Assoc. for Best Specialty Program in 2021.

It takes a village, it really does… Back in 2015, I was hanging out with a few of the new owners of KNCE, 93.5 FM, True Taos Radio. I shared with them my distress with the endless barrage of seemingly only negative news in the media. I asked them if they could just read a good news story on the air in the mornings, because I knew the stories were out there. Co-owner Rita O’Connell replied, “Why don’t you do it?”

Ha! What? Um, ok? And thus, Good News for a Good Planet was born (we later shortened the name to Good News Good Planet for social media). KNCE co-owner Max Moulton told me what microphone to buy and showed me how to use Garage Band on my MAC. I began researching, writing, and recording the stories. KNCE began broadcasting them in April of 2015. My little 2-minute audio spots of good news were a welcome respite right off the bat. Generally, I supplied two stories weekly and took a few months off the project annually, when re-runs were played.

At first, it was just me and my laptop at my desk. After that first year, I welcomed the help of writer and teacher Gina Gargone. A year later, I hired Rachel Cohen, who brought the technical and organizational savvy I needed. The project was growing, but it was becoming a real job that I did for free. I loved it, but this was not sustainable. In 2021, Arroyo Seco Live swooped in and saved GNGP, by offering their incredibly generous financial support to make all this good work happen! Now I get incredible writing assistance from fantasy author Kim Gordon, and I work with a website manager, a business manager and a social media designer. And this multi award-winning show is professionally recorded and produced at Max Moulton’s Taos studio, Gizmo Productions.

Over the years I’ve been rewarded with so many encounters of people telling me how much they like the program. I’ve experienced people singing the jingle to me in the grocery store or hugging me upon learning that I’m “that Mandy”. Once, at a coffee shop, a woman came up to me in soft tears and shared how that morning’s story had lifted her out of a moment of despair.

I am so grateful for those heartfelt affirmations, all reminding me that this work does matter. I also love being a part of KNCE, who, as of 2025, has garnered multiple New Mexico Broadcasters Association awards, including “Radio Station of The Year” twice! I’m honored to have GNGP be included in that group, with three NMBA awards for “Best Specialty Program”.

I’ve always enjoyed making Good News Good Planet, because it’s a feel-good project for me, as I constantly find stories about the best of humankind. There are plenty of good people, organizations, and good corporations doing good things around the world. Our mainstream media just doesn’t report it. Me, I collect those stories and share them because I know just how powerful they can be.

The tagline of Good News Good Planet is “Change your focus, change your world.” And I absolutely know that to be true.