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CNN 5 Good Things
How about a break — for your ears? At CNN, we know the news can be a lot to take in. So each week, 5 Good Things offers you a respite from the heavy headlines and intense news cycle. Treat yourself to something fun and uplifting every Saturday as we share the bright side of life from all over the globe.
Following the Tracks of a Tiger Comeback
CNN 5 Good Things
Mar 14, 2026
A legendary US Paralympian adds to her medal collection. CNN trekked deep into Thailand’s jungles to follow the surprising journey of a young tiger that’s giving conservationists hope. How the singer behind the hit song from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” reinvented herself after rejection. A car salesman found a way to stand out at his job, and his videos have gone viral. Plus, college students nationwide are training puppies with a purpose.
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Host/Producer: Krista Bo Polanco
Producer: Eryn Mathewson
Senior Producer: Felicia Patinkin
Editorial Support: Allison Cho, Coy Wire, Will Ripley, Rosanna Philpott, Xavian Wu
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:00
Hey there, welcome, I'm Krista Bo Polanco and this is CNN 5 Good Things.
Will Ripley
00:00:06
This area is so remote, and there are tigers.
Rosanna Philpott
00:00:09
Yes.
Will Ripley
00:00:10
And we're sleeping there. And we are sleeping there, outside.
Rosanna Philpott
00:00:12
Yep!
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:13
We'll head into the jungles of Thailand, where CNN went deep into tiger country to follow a cub that stunned conservationists. And from big cats to cute puppies, college students nationwide are raising pups with a big purpose. Then some stories that'll remind you that rejection can be redirection.
Andrew Hires
00:00:31
We don't stop being artists just because we're not making art full time.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:35
This artist once struggled to get gigs, and now he's going viral. And hear how the singer behind one of the biggest songs last year almost gave up before she struck gold.
Ejae
00:00:45
So I kind of felt like, wow, like, if you write a song about this, hopefully it manifests in itself. Which it did, which is insane.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:52
'When we come back -
Oksana Masters
00:00:53
You know, I was told when I was having my legs amputated, I would never walk again, I'll never be an athlete, and didn't know any of this was possible for me.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:02
Meet Team USA's most decorated Paralympian.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:09
'On Sunday, the Paralympic Games in Milan will be coming to a close. And Oksana Masters, the most decorated American winter Paralympian of all time, just added a few more medals to her collection. She won three golds for Para Cross-Country Skiing and Parabiathlon, bringing her total medal count to 22. And she still has more chances to medal this weekend. She won the first gold for Team USA last Saturday in the Parabiathon Women's Sitting Sprint.
Oksana Masters
00:01:36
Oh my gosh, it was amazing to be able to bring home the first gold. I didn't think I was going to bring any gold. So for it to be the first one for Team USA was just, it just feels, doesn't even feel real!
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:48
'The eight-time Paralympian has dominated both the summer and winter games, competing in sports like para rowing and cycling to cross-country skiing and biathlon. Oksana was born in Ukraine with her hands, feet, and legs not properly formed, believed to be linked to radiation exposure after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. She spent the first seven years of her life in orphanages until her American mother adopted her. When she moved to the U.S., she underwent multiple surgeries and had both of her legs amputated, her left leg at age nine and her right leg at 14.
Oksana Masters
00:02:19
You know, I was told when I was having my legs amputated, I would never walk again. I'll never be an athlete and didn't know any of this was possible for me.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:28
But Oksana says adversity has been her biggest motivator.
Oksana Masters
00:02:32
Sometimes you're just dealt with a certain deck of cards and you just got to play them how they are. And I think for me, my background and history and how I kind of grew up, it's my MO. Just another opportunity to show and learn something about myself, how strong I am, how resilient humans are, and just power through.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:55
'At 36-years-old, Oksana doesn't have any plans of slowing down and hopes to inspire the next generation.
Oksana Masters
00:03:01
If someone's telling you no, don't be afraid to be that first one for the next person to see what's truly possible.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:13
In the forests of Thailand that haven't seen tigers in a generation, one cub named Gamma is giving conservationists hope.
Will Ripley
00:03:25
Let's see what we find.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:27
CNN's Will Ripley and Rosanna Philpott trekked deep into the jungle, even sleeping in tiger country, along with the forest rangers trying to bring these big cats back from the brink.
Will Ripley
00:03:37
Yeah, so Gamma is a young wild tiger in northern Thailand, and he's become a bit of a celebrity, I'd say, among conservationists. He was first detected as a cub on camera traps in this area where tigers had almost completely disappeared.
Rosanna Philpott
00:03:53
Yeah, and what makes Gamma so remarkable is that he's not just surviving, he's actually moving. So he's traveled miles along a forest corridor that conservationists thought would take decades to be used, but within months Gamma was on his way and that tells conservationists that their efforts are actually working.
Will Ripley
00:04:13
So what are you showing us here? So we actually got to follow Gamla's path. We joined these rangers and scientists along what's called the Mae Ping corridor. It's a stretch of forest that links these two major protected areas in Thailand. And we went hiking through thick jungle, we camped in tiger country, and along the way we're checking these camera traps in places where people were not even sure that tigers would ever return.
Rosanna Philpott
00:04:35
And on those cameras, you can see him growing. So first, he's a small tiger cub with his mother, and then he's lankier teenager exploring out on his own.
Will Ripley
00:04:44
And it's so rare to find paw prints and to actually get a picture of a tiger in this vast forest. So it really does feel like you're piecing together a detective story.
Will Ripley (field recording)
00:04:53
Oh my gosh. So we're seeing tigers reoccupying this vast range. Two years ago, we rarely saw tigers. It's really beautiful. It's so beautiful. This is what...
Rosanna Philpott
00:05:07
Gamma's Journey is kind of one hopeful chapter in a much bigger tiger comeback story in Thailand, but also in Southeast Asia. And it shows that when you do protect forests and crack down on poaching and give wildlife room to move and breed and survive in these areas, then tigers will use those corridors.
Will Ripley (field recording)
00:05:26
And it doesn't mean that the work is done. Obviously one snare or one conflict with humans could still be deadly, but it does prove at least that the strategy is on the right track.
Rosanna Philpott
00:05:35
For us, I think, seeing how much effort goes into protecting a single young tiger, from rangers on patrol to local communities learning to live alongside that wildlife, that was incredibly inspiring.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:49
If you want to see Gamma, check out their full report at cnn.com. You'll find the link in our show notes.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:56
If you ever see a puppy in a tiny yellow vest walking across a college campus, there's a good chance that precious pup is hard at work. Students at more than a dozen college campuses across the country volunteer with the Guide Dog Foundation to help raise future guide dogs for the visually impaired before the pups turn a year old.
Mariah Mack
00:06:15
The puppy I'm currently raising, his name is Aegius and he's a lab. He's like the chillest puppy I've ever met.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:24
'Mariah Mack is a junior at Mississippi State University in Starkville. She started working with Aegius when he was 10-weeks-old. Now he's about 13 months and will graduate to formal guide dog training this spring.
Mariah Mack
00:06:38
I think the most rewarding part has been watching all the puppies learn and grow and, you know, getting puppies has kind of made me more responsible and I've definitely been better with my time management and that's transferred over to like my academics as well.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:55
Students like Mariah are called. Puppy raisers. They train the dogs for about a year and take them everywhere, from lectures to libraries, so the pups can learn how to stay calm in busy spaces.
Georgia Gaylor
00:07:05
I feel like the question our puppy raisers get the most when they're out in public is oh how are you going to give them back at the end of the year?
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:13
Georgia Gaylor is an Assistant Puppy Program Manager for the Guide Dog Foundation. She actually started out as a puppy raiser herself.
Georgia Gaylor
00:07:20
But I think a lot of our raisers just like try to keep that mission in their mind of it's going to someone who needs them and the dog has a bigger purpose.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:28
If you're interested in becoming a college puppy raiser or volunteering with the Guide Dog Foundation, check out guidedog.org.
Andrew Hires
00:07:38
As a new car salesman, they're not going to give you any of the big leads until you prove that you can sell. It's up to you to generate that business. So how can I separate myself from the other salesman?
Andrew Hires (singing)
00:07:50
20 Chevy Camaro CL1. Less than 10,000 miles .It's made for lots of miles
Andrew Hires
00:07:59
I don't think they have 15 years of opera experience.
Andrew Hires (singing)
00:08:04
This Camaro's the dream ride for you!
Andrew Hires
00:08:07
My name is Andrew Allen Hires. I live in Merritt Island, Florida. I'm a professionally trained opera singer and car salesman.
Andrew Hires (singing)
00:08:15
Act now if you are clever!
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:17
Singing since he was in his church choir as a child, the bass baritone embraced opera at Florida State University and went on to get his master's in voice performance at Binghamton University. His early opera career included work in New York, San Francisco, and Colorado. Andrew was even planning to tour Europe.
Andrew Hires
00:08:34
And when it was time for me to end my young artist career and jump into main stage, that was when I found out I had a tumor, I had cancer. And so that is a pretty inopportune time to have to take a break from it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:47
He was 30 when he was diagnosed with cancer. The chemo treatments damaged his voice, so he spent about a year and a half working to rebuild it. Then, just as he was finding his voice again, COVID put his music career on pause, again. When things opened back up, Andrew picked up opera gigs and odd jobs here and there. But his last gig was almost a year ago with the Cleveland Institute of Music. So on January 28th, a day after his birthday, he took a job selling cars at a dealership near his home.
Andrew Hires
00:09:14
It felt like taking a step back. I was just trying to remind myself that it's not giving up. It's refocusing for the time being and get the resource to be able to move to a bigger city where there are arts to be be able make a living.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:29
And so he decided to blend his worlds together. He started posting videos of him belting out dramatic opera arias about the cars for sale. He's had millions of views on Instagram and TikTok. And while they haven't generated a sale yet, Andrew's got some leads.
Andrew Hires
00:09:50
'The reaction to these videos has in one way kept me sane, you know, giving me that hope that people really validate my talent. We don't stop being artists just because we're not making art full-time. And it's not one that I came up with, it was my partner reminding me of that. Just because I'm not singing opera doesn't mean I'm an opera singer.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:08
Up next.
Ejae
00:10:13
It was a song that I needed at that time.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:15
Meet the superstar that almost wasn't. Now she's hoping to make Oscar history this weekend. Stick around.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:24
If you've had this song stuck in your head over the past year, you're not alone.
"Golden"
00:10:36
We're going up up up, it's our moment. You know together we're glowin. Gonna be, gonna be golden."
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:36
'The smash hit Golden from the most-watched Netflix film ever, K-Pop Demon Hunters, has been everywhere. Last month, it made history as the first K-pop song to win a Grammy, and on Sunday, we'll see if they'll also bring home an Oscar. The song and the film have been nominated for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature. But Golden almost didn't happen because the singer and co-songwriter behind it thought her music career was over.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:11:01
'Starting when she was 11, Korean-American singer Ejae spent about a decade training at SM Entertainment, one of the biggest companies in the industry. The goal: to debut as a K-pop star. But her agency dropped her before that could happen. Ejae spoke to CNN's Alison Cho about her rollercoaster of a journey in the music industry.
Ejae
00:11:20
'Being dropped after being in the company for so long was the same feeling as if you probably were with someone for like a 10-year relationship and break up with them. For a long period of time after that, I did feel very hopeless. Like I don't know where to start in music.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:11:37
But that uncertainty opened a new door. She graduated from NYU in 2014, where she studied music production and psychology. And when she wrote her first song in a studio session, something clicked.
Ejae
00:11:49
I had a huge fight with my ex at the time, and I wrote about that. And it was the most cathartic feeling ever once we were done. It was really helped me get through the breakup way better than any other advice that my mom or my girlfriends can give me. And I think that's when I fell in love with like, oh, pop writing is kind of fun. And that's like when the journey started.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:12:11
'Ejae went on to co-write major K-pop hits, including "Psycho" by Red Velvet, before eventually landing the lead vocal role in K-Pop Demon Hunters. She told Netflix the film's character Rumi's journey reflects her own.
Ejae
00:12:24
I really connected with the character a lot, striving to be perfect. It's like her desperation to reach this goal that feels unrealistic, but still kind of yearning for it. So it was a song that I needed at that time. And so I kind of felt like, wow, like if you write a song about this, hopefully it manifests in itself, which it did, which is insane.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:12:48
All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. There's more goodness where that came from. If you sign up for the CNN 5 Good Things newsletter, the link to subscribe if you haven't already is in our show notes. And join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing, wherever you get your podcasts. Have a good day, take care. Till next time.
