podcast
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 Lucky Guy with a Tooth for an Eye
CNN 5 Good Things
Sep 27, 2025
The last time the Chicago River Swim happened was when Calvin Coolidge was president. These bears in Alaska bulk up for the winter – and for internet glory. A rare surgery brought one man’s world back into focus. New space technology might help fight wildfires. Plus, the 100+ year long streak is over for a family in Texas family.
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Host/Producer: Krista Bo Polanco
Producer: Eryn Mathewson
Showrunner: Faiz Jamil
Senior Producer: Felicia Patinkin
Editorial Support: Alexander Rodway
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:00
'Hey there, welcome. If you need your faith in humanity restored, then you came to the right place. A nine-year-old from Illinois set up something way sweeter than a lemonade stand in his front yard.
Ethan Wargo
00:00:12
It just feels like I'm doing the right thing.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:15
And this isn't your average study abroad program.
David McCullough III
00:00:18
'I think what we're working on should be America's next civic coming-of-age ritual. There's an antidote to prejudice. It's connection under the right circumstances.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:29
Plus, one man's journey from street kid to super dad, and you'll meet Time's kid of the year. From CNN, I'm Krista Bo Polanco, and this is Five Good Things. All this goodness and more after a quick break.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:47
If you're listening to this today, September 20th, Bad Bunny's taking the stage in San Juan, Puerto Rico one last time in a show we can all watch. And the residency comes to a close on a date that holds huge significance for Puerto Ricans, the anniversary of Hurricane Maria's landfall eight years ago. This wasn't just any old concert series. It was a love letter to the island and a cultural comeback story.
Jorge Perez
00:01:11
I had no idea it was gonna be so huge as it really is.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:15
'Jorge Perez runs the Coliseo, the venue in San Juan where 30 shows have taken place over two months. Out of fear fans would be targeted by ICE, the genre-bending rapper stayed home instead of touring in the continental US. He offered the first nine shows and the last one to the locals who have a 787 or a 939 area code. If you know, you know.
Jorge Perez
00:01:37
It's a statement of his commitment to his island, of giving back a person who could have done this anywhere, Vegas, any other large city, and chose Puerto Rico where his roots are. So it's just very special.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:49
Tourism agency Discover Puerto Rico says the residency drew 600,000 people from all over the world to the island. Local economists estimate the shows have already generated at least $200 million in revenue for Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from Maria and the pandemic. Perez says he thinks the final figure will be much higher.
Jorge Perez
00:02:10
It's united Puerto Rico. It hasn't only been in the San Juan area, this has impacted the whole island.
Sebastian Muniz Morales
00:02:18
Some Puerto Ricans, we have this thought that here there's no future, but he made us understand that Puerto Rico is more than that.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:26
'That's 20-year-old Sebastian Muniz Morales, a local artist who designed the merch for the residency. He says working with Bad Bunny changed how he sees life on the island.
Sebastian Muniz Morales
00:02:37
I don't have this thought anymore of like, wow, I have to go and have a better future, but instead I have to fight for my future to be better here.
Amran
00:02:48
This is the first time I've been away from home. The first time that I went on an airplane.
Ivy
00:02:53
People tell me I need to go meet new people, go see new things, but I don't know how. And so really doing this right now has been incredible just because.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:04
Amran is from Wilmer, Minnesota, and Ivy's from Harriman, Utah. They spent a week exploring the Big Apple through the American Exchange Project, a free study abroad style program for high school seniors, but with a twist.
David McCullough III
00:03:17
Rather than sending students to another country, we send them for free to an American hometown that is culturally and politically and socioeconomically very different from the one that they're growing up in. And then through a second week, they host students in their own hometown because then the experience becomes a window into another person's life and then a mirror back on your own.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:41
David McCullough III started the program with the first trip in 2021 after trekking over 7,000 miles across the US himself. He says that road trip in 2016 changed his life.
David McCullough III
00:03:52
It gave me a front row seat on where so many of the divisions we see ripping apart our country were coming from. Students all over the United States were complaining about the same thing. They were saying, I feel like I'm growing up in a bubble, which means that they are not really allowed the opportunity to connect with people who are really different from them. And that's not only a needed skill for their lives as citizens, but it's a necessary skill for life.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:18
Nearly 600 students participated this year, visiting places as different as Anchorage, Alaska, and Little Rock, Arkansas, to Palo Alto, California, and New Orleans. And David believes this is just the beginning.
David McCullough III
00:04:30
My pipe dream is that a million kids a year get to have this experience, and that one day, a week in another town ought to be as common to the high school experience as the prom.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:39
From Amran and Ivy's group, New York City was their classroom. They saw a Broadway show, rode the subway, walked through Central Park, and shared an Airbnb like one big family.
Amran
00:04:50
It's like we're all a part of something together. It just made me realize how little I actually know about the people who I share America with.
Ivy
00:04:59
'I think what we're working on should be America's next civic coming-of-age ritual.
David McCullough III
00:05:05
There's an antidote to prejudice. It's connection under the right circumstances.
Ethan Wargo
00:05:14
I just like your personality.
Claire Wargo
00:05:16
Thank you. I like the shirt you're wearing. It's like a camouflage.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:21
'That's nine-year-old Ethan Wargo and his twin sister Claire from Sycamore, Illinois. It wasn't hard for him to give her a compliment because that's kind of his thing.
Ethan Wargo
00:05:31
I was reading the Dog Man book called The Scarlet Shedder by David Pilkey where two characters were running an insult stand. And I was like, I think I can make something out of that. What about a compliment stand?
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:47
Ethan set it up first in July on his family's front lawn where friends and strangers would stop by for some free compliments. CBS News captured this interaction.
Ethan Wargo
00:05:56
I liked your bike. I love your little vest. I think you look really handsome. I like your bracelets. Thank you for the compliment. You're welcome.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:05
'Right next to Ethan's, Claire runs her own stand selling handmade arts and crafts. Over summer break, the twins worked side-by-side for hours each day. But now it's a weekend gig when the weather's nice. But he's open to making compliments upon request, especially for his mom, Jessica.
Ethan Wargo
00:06:20
I like how she's raising us and just, I think she's doing great.
Jessica Wargo
00:06:24
Well, thank you. It's been really great for them, you know, to kind of see the results of what they put out in the world and see it come back to them. People stop by and drop off a card or say that he made their day and stuff.
Ethan Wargo
00:06:37
It just feels like I'm doing the right thing.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:44
'Before Peter Mutabazi became one of America's most well-known foster dads, he called himself by another name growing up: Garbage Boy. At age 10, he ran away from his abusive father and spent five years sleeping near a dump in Kampala, Uganda. That all changed the day he tried to rob the wrong guy.
Peter Mutabazi
00:07:03
He said, "hey, what's your name? I'm like, ooh, now you're scaring me. So remember, kindness means danger.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:12
Kindness was a foreign concept to Peter, but he told the man his name. And instead of turning away, this man of faith, Jacques Masiko, gave him food and over time, something more.
Peter Mutabazi
00:07:23
He's the only person that made me feel I was a human at the moment, you know?
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:27
Jacques then asked him if he would go to school if he had the chance. And at first he said no, but then Peter caved when Jacques promised him three meals a day in return and eventually a spot in their family.
Peter Mutabazi
00:07:39
I just saw something I've never seen before. Well, he gets to sit with his family. They are laughing and talking. He's super educated. I want to be like him.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:49
And he is. Peter is now 52 and works as a child advocate in Charlotte, North Carolina. On top of that, since 2016, he's fostered 47 children, adopted three, and is in the process of adopting another kid. He posted a battered on TikTok earlier this year.
Peter Mutabazi TikTok
00:08:05
I want it to be that dad that can truly be there for kids who need a dad, who sometimes feel unseen, unheard and unloved.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:16
Up next, she's 17 and is Time's Kid of the Year. And what she built might help your parents or your grandparents. We'll be right back.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:28
'When her grandfather nearly got scammed, Tejasvi Manoj from Frisco, Texas, didn't panic, she got to work. And the app she created is why Time Magazine dubbed the 17-year-old this year's Kid of the Year.
Tejasvi Manoj
00:08:41
So I was driving home with my father one day when we noticed like a lot of missed calls from my grandfather. And basically he explained how he was almost about to send $2,000 actually to someone posing to be like a relative. And he was so ready to just send that money.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:58
It was a close call for her grandpa and a wake up call for Tejasvi.
Tejasvi Manoj
00:09:02
My grandfather was a very careful person. So then I realized that if he was so ready to send the money, like how many other people or how many older adults would have done it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:13
The FTC reports there's been a massive spike in reported losses from cyber scams with combined losses of seniors who reported losing more than $100,000 increasing eightfold in just the last four years. So she built Shield Seniors, a website that can analyze suspicious emails or messages and determine if they're scams or not. And if they are, users can report them easily.
Tejasvi Manoj
00:09:36
There's also a AI chat bot in which older adults can type their cybersecurity questions in and it will give very simplified responses and it'll also educate them as well.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:49
Shield Seniors is still a work in progress, but Tejasvi is not slowing down. The high school senior is applying to colleges now and wants to study computer science and AI.
Tejasvi Manoj
00:09:58
I never ever anticipated it becoming this big, but I'm so grateful. And this is something that I definitely do want to continue. I do want help as many people as I can.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:14
All right, that's all for now. There's more good news where that came from if you sign up for the CNN Five Good Things newsletter. The link to subscribe is in our show notes.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:22
And join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing. Host David Rind speaks with former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to discuss the impact of Jimmy Kimmel's show being yanked off the air. Thank you so, so much for listening. You know, it really means a lot that you'd spend your precious time with us. Have a good day, take care. Till next time.
