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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.
The TikToker Who Changed a Veteran’s Life
CNN 5 Good Things
Dec 6, 2025
A prison and a ministry hosted its first-ever daddy–daughter dance. One creator’s mission to spread kindness turned into a financial lifeline for an 88-year-old working veteran. Two Brooklyn teens saw a broken system and built a tool thousands are using. New research suggests your teenage brain might have stuck around way past high school. Plus, these fun monthly sessions make boring tasks way more bearable.
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Host/Producer: Krista Bo Polanco
Producer: Eryn Mathewson
Showrunner: Faiz Jamil
Senior Producer: Felicia Patinkin
Editorial Support: Samantha Lindell, Jo Parker, Elliott Proctor
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:00
'Hey there, welcome. I'm Krista Bo Polanco, and this is CNN Five Good Things. Meet the two teens from Brooklyn who wanted to fix a problem grown-ups haven't.
Beckett Zahedi
00:00:09
I realized that this issue isn't just affecting, you know, my own life but also millions of others nationwide.
Derrick Webster Jr.
00:00:15
We were like, this has to be like a better way.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:18
'And what if tackling your most mind-numbing task actually became something you looked forward to?
Chris Colin
00:00:23
It's not just a productivity hack. You're gonna love it. Let me sell you on it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:28
'Plus, scientists have identified the age when your brain reaches adulthood, and it's not what you think. And an octogenarian veteran still working full-time gets the surprise of his life from a stranger on the internet.
Samuel Weidenhofer
00:00:39
So just to see that, to see how much I don't know, it's faith in humanity, you know, it shows people care so much about the veterans.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:49
When we come back, some dads behind bars got the chance to show up for their daughters in a way they never had before.
Daughter
00:01:04
Oh my God, thank you Dad!
Dad 1
00:01:07
You know I got you, baby girl.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:09
At one of America's toughest prisons, daughters dressed to the nines walked a pink carpet towards the person some have waited years or even an entire lifetime to see.
Jake Bodine
00:01:19
And I watched a group of men stand with pride and dignity, shedding every label the world had ever put on them. And for one night they were not inmates. They were dad.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:31
'Jake Bodine is the founder of God Behind Bars, a ministry that in part works with prisons to reunite families and restore relationships. They worked with the Angola prison in Louisiana to host the facility's first ever father-daughter dance.
Dad 2
00:01:45
Very excited. I get to see my daughter. I ain't seen her in three years.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:49
Nearly 30 incarcerated fathers were dressed in custom tuxedos, and they took turns waiting at the end of a pink carpet holding bouquets of flowers for their dates. Their daughters from ages five to 20 walked toward them all dolled up for emotional reunions captured by God Behind Bars.
Jake Bodine
00:02:05
It's emotional moment because you know that many of these little girls have had a void in their heart and mind with the absence of their father. And in that moment it's being filled. Same thing for these men.
Dad 3
00:02:20
It's a moment that I'll never forget to bond with my daughter and create a memory.
Dad 4
00:02:24
I just tell her how much I love her and tell her I apologize for all the years I missed in her life and I hope she forgives me and I'll make it up to her with this dance.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:36
Volunteers turned the prison's classroom into a ballroom. The fathers and daughters made their grand entrances and they danced the night away. Later on, the dads had a surprise of their own.
Jake Bodine
00:02:52
The dads wanted to surprise the girls with a a dance of their own. It involved these fans and they choreographed their own dance. They could perform for their little girls at the end of the night. They were fully present in the moment. And so I truly believe that some new legacies were born, but more than anything, legacies were redefined that evening.
Dad 5
00:03:15
I haven't shared a tear like that in a long time.
Dad 6
00:03:15
We're supposed to be the worst of the worst and the hardest of the hardest. And we walk around like that sometimes to be able to see all of us together with our kids, man, the loves of our lives a and with no masks. That was cool.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:26
To check out photos and videos from the event, subscribe to the CNN Five Good Things newsletter and check out God Behind Bars Instagram linked in our show notes.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:38
'88-year-old Detroit veteran Ed Bambas is still clocking in at a local supermarket.
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:03:44
I work five days a week, eight hours a day.
Samuel Weidenhofer (TikTok Video)
00:03:46
And you do that because you have to or.
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:03:49
Yeah, I don't have enough income.
Samuel Weidenhofer (TikTok Video)
00:03:51
Oh my gosh. Do you have a wife?
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:03:53
She passed away seven years ago.
Samuel Weidenhofer (TikTok Video)
00:03:54
Seven years ago.
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:03:56
She was sick.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:56
Ed says losing his pension and the costs of caring for his wife when she was sick forced him to sell their home and keep working. Enter Australian content creator Samuel Wiedenhofer. He's known for traveling the world filming small acts of kindness. He asks his social media followers to nominate others who might need help. Samuel teamed up with a Detroit influencer to track Ed down at the supermarket where he works.
Samuel Weidenhofer
00:04:18
We were like, Oh, we give up, like we can't find him and then we just kept walking around. It was like the biggest shop I've ever been in and we found him on the way out.
Samuel Weidenhofer (TikTok Video)
00:04:27
Just seeing if I could have helped scanning this. Thank you. What was your name?
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:04:32
Ed.
Samuel Weidenhofer (TikTok Video)
00:04:33
I'm Sam.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:34
Samuel launched a GoFundMe to give Ed the chance to finally stop working, and it's raised over one point five million dollars in just a few days.
Ed Bambas (TikTok video)
00:04:42
Oh, thank you.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:45
He plans to present Ed with the fun soon.
Samuel Weidenhofer
00:04:47
It shows people care so much about the veterans because so many of them are left behind. Any act small act of kindness can save someone's life and that's been clear like since what we've been able to do. I have to say thank you to the community and the people who share these stories and who donate a cent because it's not possible without them.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:12
In New York City, affordable housing is notoriously hard to find. But two Brooklyn teens wondered does it really have to be this hard?
Derrick Webster Jr.
00:05:19
When we really looked into it, there was actually still programs and available units for people, but just not a lot of awareness about where to find these properties.
Beckett Zahedi
00:05:29
I just thought like this it you know, finding a home in New York City should not be this difficult.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:33
'Beckett Sahedie and Derrick Webster Jr. Are high school seniors who built a tool to fix that gap. In June, the 17-year-olds launched Realer Estate, a website that pulls in public data and real estate listings to help people find below market and rent stabilized apartments. The service is free with an option to pay for early access to curated listings.
Beckett Zahedi
00:05:54
We estimate the market value of every single listing that we get based on, you know, price per square feet, beds, baths, amenities, building type, building age, building condition. So we can give you a rough sense of how much this would be worth to tell you like if it's currently listed.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:09
The inspiration for real estate came to Beckett after watching his dad's grueling hunt for an affordable apartment in the Big Apple.
Beckett Zahedi
00:06:15
I realize that this issue isn't just affecting, you know, my own life, but also millions of others nationwide.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:21
Then Beckett met Derrick in school and they taught themselves how to code. And since launch, they say about 60,000 people have used the site.
Derrick Webster Jr.
00:06:28
We just found out that last week one of our first users actually found and closed a property that, you know, they found using our site.
Beckett Zahedi
00:06:37
I would say the most rewarding part has been just, you know, seeing all this feedback from people and just seeing that we could even make like a one percent difference in that has been has been great to see.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:49
If you've ever felt like you didn't quite become a real adult until your early 30s, turns out there could be a reason for that. Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK recently mapped out five phases our brains go through. It's a first of its kind roadmap that could help identify when the brain is most vulnerable, and in turn could lead to earlier intervention for issues with memory, attention, or language.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:13
'The study published last week in the journal Nature Communications found that on average, human brains are in adolescence from the age of nine until the age of 32, which suddenly makes my 30s make way more sense. They analyzed MRI scans from more than 3,800 people, ranging from newborns to 90-year-olds to see how the brain's wiring changes over time.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:35
'The first phase they measured is childhood, when the brain is rapidly building and trimming neural connections until we hit nine. Then comes the brain's adolescence, when it's fine-tuning the pathways that help us think faster and communicate information more efficiently. In our early 30s is when they say the brain settles into adulthood, the longest, steadiest era lasting until about 66. Then the brain reorganizes again as early aging starts. And the last stage is late aging, which they found starts from about 83.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:04
More research is needed to confirm whether these ages, 9, 32, 66, and 83 represent universal turning points. But the researchers say this is the clearest picture of the brain's life cycle yet and could help identify the moments when the brain needs the most support.
Chris Colin
00:08:21
Okay, admin night is the next big thing in your life. You're gonna love it. Let me sell you on it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:27
Coming up, how to make the digital chores of adulthood not suck as much. Stick around.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:38
So many portals, so many bills, so many forms and forgotten passwords were all bogged down with bureaucratic tasks that we keep pushing off. A few years ago, journalist Chris Colin from San Francisco realized he and all of his friends were quietly drowning in the same administrative chores.
Chris Colin
00:08:55
We'd all gotten weirdly busy, not just with work, not just with family stuff, but with this weird new category of busyness. It was dealing with insurance, it was filling out school forms, figuring out your airline miles, getting some claim submitted. It was all so much more than it used to be. And I realized it wasn't just depleting us, it was making us kind of isolated. Like all this stuff is so boring. We don't really talk about it. We just sort of put our heads down and and soldier on through it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:28
So he thought if it had to get done, might as well at least try to find a way to enjoy it.
Chris Colin
00:09:33
So I fired off an email to some friends and I said, come over next Tuesday, grab a six pack, bring all of the stuff you've been putting off for weeks because it's so boring, and we'll do it together.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:45
'Chris calls these gatherings "admin night." Once a month, he and his friends get together on a weeknight and work in short 30-minute bursts from 6.30 to about 10 to 10.30 p.m. They take 10-minute breaks in between to socialize or swap tips to solve certain problems. And the only rule is you can't do work work.
Chris Colin
00:10:04
Forbidden, strictly forbidden. You gotta do personal admin stuff. It's not just a productivity hack. Yes, we do get a lot more done, but it's also just kind of acknowledging this thing together that we that we've been suffering alone. The last part of admin night, this is the nerdiest part, but it's also the funnest, is we go around the table and we each name one thing that we are psyched to have accomplished. And then everyone cheers. No matter how big or small you cheer for that person because it's a it's a minor victory.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:37
'All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. And if you like the show, please give us a good rating or review wherever you listen, or send the show to a loved one. It helps us spread the good vibes. And if you have any good news that you're excited about, whether personally or happening in the world, give us a call and let us know. 404-981-2293. Don't forget to join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing wherever you get your podcasts. Take care. Till next time.
