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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.
A Pig Organ Pioneer Found His Match
CNN 5 Good Things
Jan 24, 2026
One of the only pig kidney recipients in the world just made medical history, again. Cursive is making a comeback nationwide, but these middle schoolers were ahead of the curve. A group of Buddhist monks are walking across the US with an inspiring message. We tell you about a TikTok trend that’s encouraging to cut down on screen time. Plus, as Hollywood spotlights table tennis, an American phenom shares how the sport changed her life.
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Host/Producer: Krista Bo Polanco
Producer: Eryn Mathewson
Showrunner: Faiz Jamil
Senior Producer: Felicia Patinkin
Editorial Support: Kameryn Griesser, Melani Bonilla, and Andy Buck
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:00
Hey there, I'm Krista Bo Polanco, and this is CNN Five Good Things.
Conrad
00:00:05
It's really cool to learn something new and like to be one of the few people who know it.
Sarah
00:00:10
It just looks really nice and just kind of adds to like show that it's me.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:15
'These middle schoolers are giving an old school skill new life, and it's actually making a comeback in classrooms nationwide. Then we'll follow a cross-country journey by foot, carrying a message that's hard to ignore. And did you know that 2026 is the year of...well, I'll tell you later. Plus, an Oscar-nominated film is putting this sport on the map in the U.S. Meet the athlete who did what no woman has done before in the Pro League.
Lily Zhang
00:00:38
Hopefully it shows, you know, another young girl out there watching that anything is possible.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:44
When we come back...
Tim Andrews
00:00:45
Within a day, I felt like I had not felt in six or seven years, like I never even had a disease. I'm like, it's unbelievable, it is a miracle.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:54
A pig organ pioneer's journey comes full circle. All this goodness and more after a quick break.
Tim Andrews
00:01:07
So I told all the people and I got a fair amount of people on my Facebook, you know, pray for me because I think I might have a chance.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:14
That's Tim Andrews from Concord, New Hampshire. You might remember us talking about him on the show before, and that's because he's one of the first people in the world to live with a genetically modified pig organ. Well, we're happy to report that those prayers have been answered.
Tim Andrews
00:01:28
I made it through the pig kidney and then now I'm lucky enough to get a human kidney that matches me and I'm free of kidney disease. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:40
'After four years of battling chronic kidney disease, the 67-year-old got a new kidney last Tuesday. He named it Spartacus after the famous Roman gladiator.
Tim Andrews
00:01:49
Within a day I felt like I had not felt in six or seven years, like I never even had a disease. I'm like, it's unbelievable. It's a miracle.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:58
He had been on the transplant waiting list since October. Doctors had to remove the pig organ because his body rejected it, and Tim had to go back on dialysis. But he lived with the pig kidney he named Wilma for a record 271 days.
Tim Andrews
00:02:12
One of the things they said was, we're going to try to make the pig kidney a bridge, a bridge to get you where you can get a human kidney and be all better. And if I hadn't done that, if I haven't taken that chance, I was a dead man. I wouldn't be alive today.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:29
'Tim is grateful for Wilma and has big plans for him in Spartacus -- encouraging others to become organ donors, thanking his donor's family, and spreading the word about his medical breakthrough.
Tim Andrews
00:02:40
The whole point was, let's make this something that we can do. Let's make it a reality. Let's make it a hope anyways.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:48
Doctors say this process called xenotransplantation could be available to more people in the next five years.
Tim Andrews
00:02:54
I don't think in a matter of weeks, what do I got to do in the next week or two, thinking that that could be my last week. I get to think long term and relax and enjoy the time I have.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:08
There's so much more to Tim's journey, so if you want to learn more, check out the story by Nadia Kounang at CNN.com. The link is also in our show notes, as always.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:17
So when was the last time you wrote something in cursive? I'm not talking about your signature, but a full sentence. Well, it's making a comeback. Earlier this week, my home state of New Jersey joined a growing list of about two dozen states requiring cursive to be taught in elementary schools. And for the last four years, some middle schoolers in Alexandria, Virginia didn't want to write it off.
Sherisse Kenerson
00:03:38
I was writing on the board in cursive, and the students who were rising sixth graders looked at me like I had a strange thing on my head. And I'm like, what's going on? They said, we don't know what you're writing. I said, wow.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:49
That's the moment that's sparked the cursive club at Holmes Middle School, led by multilingual teacher Sherisse Kenerson. It's an afterschool program where students meet twice a week to learn the skill that largely disappeared from classrooms for quite some time. You know, teaching cursive used to be considered a cornerstone of elementary education for over a century. But by 2010, Common Core, which is a set of national education standards, didn't require it. So school districts in 45 states stopped teaching it.
Sherisse Kenerson
00:04:16
The wave of technology is what kind of pushed it out. Students didn't need to write in cursive any longer or even write in print. They were getting adapted to technology. They had to text. So I think that that's probably what happened. It got pushed to the wayside.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:31
But Ms. Kenerson says, cursive can still offer something screens don't.
Sherisse Kenerson
00:04:35
Scientifically, it's proven that the same type of skills that you develop when you learn an instrument, you develop, when you write in cursive. It's also proven that your brain, if you were to put it on a scale of one through 10, it's on 10, it' on fire. It's exciting when you are writing in cursive. When you're writing in print, it is only on a five. And when you're typing or texting, it on the zero. It allows you to be an individual. Just like your fingerprint, your signature is just that. No one else will have that. So having that little piece of individuality, those things are important.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:05
And these sixth and seventh graders agree.
Conrad
00:05:07
It's really cool to learn something new and like to be one of the few people who know it.
Halle
00:05:13
I've been using it for all of my assignments since it feels easier than print. Planning to use it when I write checks when I'm older.
Sarah
00:05:20
I feel like it just looks really nice and just kind of adds to like show that it's me.
Willow
00:05:25
I think when I get older, I'll use it like all the time. The letters look like really fancy.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:31
Ms. Kenerson hopes this teaches them more than just how to write in cursive.
Sherisse Kenerson
00:05:34
I hope that they keep with them that spirit of a growth mindset. They don't give up. They try things that look challenging, and they see if they can do it or not, and they stick with it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:47
A group of Buddhist monks are walking 2,300 miles across the American South on a journey they call the Walk for Peace. CNN caught up with them last week in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bhikku Pannakara
00:05:58
We want to raise awareness of peace to all the people, so hopefully everybody will live in unity and harmony. Because it's not about religions, it's not about converting, it is not about anything else but peace.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:11
About 18 monks and their rescue dog, Aloka, plan to walk across 10 states, single file, along country roads and highways. They started in Fort Worth, Texas on October 26th and plan to stop in Washington, D.C. in February.
Bhikku Pannakara
00:06:23
I just wanted to share a moment, share a message to all the people who we meet along the road so that way everybody can practice to have a peace of mind, to have peaceful life. Just to want to share that message of mindfulness, loving kindness and compassion.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:40
The monks are currently making their way through North Carolina and heading to Virginia. Large crowds have cheered them on along the journey.
Evan Robinson
00:06:48
I felt inspired because if they have the energy to walk all the way here from Texas, I have the the energy to do whatever I need to in life.
Stephanie
00:06:57
And the purpose behind it is so like it signifies what we need across
Melisha Ziegler
00:07:01
the U.S. The world needs peace and so it's just bringing everyone together and it's so heartfelt to see this happening in real time.
Clare Hoffman
00:07:09
I think all of us are tired of all the hate, all the violence, and we just need a little bit more peace. I probably personally can't make a difference, but I can carry that peace to my family and my friends and maybe we all together can make a different.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:28
2016 Nostalgia is taking over social media feeds, and in case you missed it, TikTok has also dubbed 2026 the year of analog.
TikTok 1
00:07:37
Going analog is shaping up to be the next trend of 2026.
TikTok 2
00:07:40
2026 is the year of the analog.
TikTok 3
00:07:42
Word on the for you page is that we're going analog in 2026.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:46
And the digital fatigue is real. The Quad/Harris poll found a majority of all four adult generations wished disconnecting was easier, with Gen Z and millennials hovering at around 80%.
Ramishah Maruf
00:07:56
Going analog is more of a deliberate lifestyle shift than totally going cold turkey from all technology. People from all ages are sort of tired of letting AI and algorithms take their lives and they saw the value in getting offline and crafting and spending time with your family and friends in real life.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:14
'CNN business reporter Ramishah Maruf dug into the trend. We've linked her piece in the show notes. She found that people are really trying to find more hands-on hobbies.
Ramishah Maruf
00:08:23
I had spoken to Michaels for this story and they had mentioned that their guided craft sets, which is like diamond painting, paint by numbers, knitting especially has just skyrocketed over the past year. And the reason is that people are using these crafts to decompress and get offline and stop totally doom scrolling.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:42
So Ramishah decided to try it herself. For 48 hours, she ditched her phones, her laptop, Alexa, and her Kindle and went analog.
Ramishah Maruf
00:08:50
The biggest thing for me was, I learned to take the world in around me. It was one of the nicest starts of my day I ever had.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:59
She said she could see herself doing it more often. So why not give it a whirl?
Ramishah Maruf
00:09:02
Things like craft nights, recipe nights, they're such a good way to connect with the people around you and form a community and just getting off the algorithm.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:13
'Up next, this four-time Olympian is rising in a game where the US are newcomers and made history in the meantime.
Gwyneth Paltrow (Marty Supreme Trailer)
00:09:22
Let me ask you something. Do you make money with this little table tennis thing?
Timothy Chalamet(Marty Supreme Trailer)
00:09:27
Not yet.
Gwyneth Paltrow (Marty Supreme Trailer)
00:09:27
Do you have Give a job.
Timothy Chalamet(Marty Supreme Trailer)
00:09:27
No.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:30
'Have you seen "Marty Supreme" yet? The film from A24 starring Timothee Chalamet might just land him an Oscar come March. And the box office hit sparked some interest in the sport of table tennis in the US, where America's professional team is now in its third season. It's widely popular in China, Korea, and Japan, so for an American to not only be competitive but one of the best in the sport is a big deal. In November, Lily Zhang from Palo Alto, California topped the Major League table tennis' power rankings list, the first female to do so. The 29-year-old now sits in the top 10 at number 8. Her parents are from China and introduced her to the sport. And her path to the top started somewhere unexpected.
Lily Zhang
00:10:11
I started playing because my parents, they would play for fun and then they kind of introduced the game to me when I was seven years old. And funnily enough, we actually started at the laundry room at Stanford campus because my dad was a professor there. So I would just play with them for fun to kill time while we waited for our laundry.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:30
'She made the U.S. National team at 12-years-old. And at 16, Lily became the youngest American table tennis player ever to compete at the Olympics back in 2012.
Lily Zhang
00:10:40
I had no idea where it would lead me. I mean, just fell in love with the game and I guess dove head first and here I am today.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:48
Being at the games, she said, was a dream come true that she basically had to keep pinching herself.
Lily Zhang
00:10:53
I remember multiple times in the games thinking like, why am I here? How am I here? And I remember like specifically a moment during the opening ceremonies. It was like Serena Williams to my right and then Kobe Bryant to my left. And I was like, this is not real, I'm not here right now. It was just, you know, the best moment of my life. So I'm really grateful for that.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:11:16
She's competed in four Olympic Games total and hopes she'll make it five for the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
Lily Zhang
00:11:22
Hopefully it shows, you know, another young girl out there watching that anything is possible.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:11:30
All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. Really appreciate it. I hope this helped you find a little more peace in your day as the Buddhist monks would want. And there's more goodness where that came from if you sign up for the CNN Five Good Things newsletter. The link to subscribe and all of the articles that we mentioned are 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. Til next time.
