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PODCAST

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun

Caloroga Shark Media / Happiness Good News Lab

Every day the news feels heavy. 5 Good News Stories is your daily antidote — five short, uplifting stories about human kindness, scientific breakthroughs, unexpected heroes, and moments that remind you the world isn"t as broken as the headlines suggest. Hosted by John McDermott, each episode is under 10 minutes and designed to start your morning right or reset your afternoon. If you"re looking for a positive news podcast, a feel-good daily listen, or just five minutes of happiness — this is your

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All Episodes

5:08

We Found D’Artagnan!

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/19

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: In the Netherlands, human remains found beneath the Saint Peter and Paul Church may be Charles de Batz de Castelmore—D’Artagnan—pending DNA testing in Munich; the grave included a bullet and a 1660 coin. In Japan, the Henn na Resort and Spa Kansai Airport checks guests in with multilingual robot dinosaurs and offers themed rooms, ocean views, and multiple baths and saunas. In Brazil, scientists report vast termite-built marundas—possibly 200 million mounds

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4:56

Rare Harry Potter Find

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/17

Five Good News Stories: Rare Harry Potter Auction, Record Carrot Cake, Community Tips, Rope Swing Grandma, and Loose BullJohnny Mac shares five good news stories: a well-read rare first-edition, first-impression softcover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Bloomsbury, June 1997; one of 5,150) owned by Naveed is headed to auction and expected to fetch about $5,000, identifiable by printing anomalies like a duplicate wand list, a missing “o” in “philosophers” on the back cover, and early

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4:41

100 year old organ donor

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/14

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s 24/7 Wildlife Explorers Channel now streams live animal cams, zoo encounters, and educational programming to children in 400+ hospitals across 48 states and 12 countries, helping patients who can’t visit in person. A 100-year-old Nebraska WWII veteran and rancher, Roger Steele, became the oldest U.S. organ donor after his liver was deemed healthy for transplant, highlighting that age isn’t a limit. In Hawaii, Tyler and

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3:40

12,412 pull-ups in 24 hours

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/12

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a woman on a road trip in Australia fell waist-deep into a collapsed pit toilet at the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Zone and was trapped about three hours before a passing tradesman, alerted by her husband, used a rope and his car to pull her out over 45 minutes; Johnny Cruz Buckingham (“Mr. World Records”) set the fastest towed asphalt skiing record at 69 mph behind a car to inspire his child; Buffalo hockey fans finished “O Canada” after a singer’s

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4:33

Vape Squirrel

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/10

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: England completed the King Charles III England Coast Path, a 2,689-mile trail tracing the full perimeter of England’s coastline after 18 years of work, with new bridges, boardwalks, and mostly continuous routing; an opossum stowed away on a cargo ship to Alaska, was found in Juneau, and—since it’s invasive there—was taken to the Alaska Zoo and named Meatball; Chile established a massive maritime protected area of about 386,000 square miles, the third

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5:08

Fake Bear Attack Gang caught because they didn't do...

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/07

Johnny Mac shares five upbeat stories: Jamie turned his intentionally clumsy “bad” paintings—first made as a joke gift for his wife in 2024—into a side business earning thousands, with pieces selling for $60 to several hundred; he’s fulfilled heavy demand and even had Judi Dench sign and donate one for auction. A hot air balloon with 13 passengers made a controlled emergency landing in a California backyard due to shifting winds, low wind, and limited fuel. “The Baron” set a record by pulling a

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3:56

The Most Marvel Tattoos

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/05

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: DJ AG volunteered at the Ann Owens Center, turning a senior center into a rave with a karaoke-style singalong to combat loneliness, with 84-year-olds Helen and Lenny praising the inclusive, memory-filled afternoon. Lorraine swam about 50 feet in cold water for over five hours in a wetsuit to rescue an injured seagull tangled in fishing line; the bird is now recovering with local staff. Tom set a Guinness World Record by tattooing 63 Marvel comics characters

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3:57

A toilet inside your car - and it's voice activated!

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/05/03

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Chinese automaker patented a voice-activated car toilet that slides from under the passenger seat, stores waste in a tank with a rotating heating element to evaporate liquid and dry solids, and uses an exhaust fan to manage odors. A University of Oregon study of 20 healthy adults (ages 20–28) compared hot water immersion, traditional dry saunas, and far infrared saunas, finding hot water immersion raised core body temperature the most, boosting blood flow

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4:00

The World's Oldest Pet Chicken

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/30

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Gerie, a pet chicken in Maine, is recognized as the world’s oldest living pet chicken at 15 years and 100 days, with owner Frank saying she became flock leader and now enjoys an indoor life and human company ahead of turning 16 in July. In Georgia, 12-year-old Macy is praised for running into her burning home to alert her two older brothers and help them escape as firefighters contained the blaze and the cause remains under investigation. In England,

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3:38

Loose Goose

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/28

Dutch authorities recovered a 2,500-year-old Romanian golden helmet stolen in January from a Dutch museum while on loan from Romania, along with two of three stolen gold bracelets; the helmet has a dent and one bracelet is still missing. In Honduras, a healthy male cloud jaguar was photographed for the first time in a decade at over 6,000 feet, the highest recorded elevation for the species in the country. Charles became the world’s oldest first-time grandfather at 91 years, 209 days, and remains

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4:09

Rocky the dog Found in the Mountains

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/26

Johnny Mac shares five positive stories: Croatia has been declared free of landmines after more than two decades of demining following the 1990s Balkan Wars, removing about 107,000 mines at a cost of over $1 billion and the lives of 40–60 deminers. In Kazakhstan, a rewilding program is restoring habitat for tigers by planting tens of thousands of trees and supporting prey species; a breeding pair from the Netherlands is adapting in a semi-wild reserve, and saiga antelope have rebounded from 48,000

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3:12

The Man with the Most Teeth

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/23

Johnny Macc shares five good news stories: a 33-year-old man in Malaysia set a Guinness World Record with 42 teeth, discovered after counting and confirmed by x-ray, with no health issues. Police in Georgia used “a lot of muscle” to capture a very large, heavy tortoise that escaped a high school enclosure and wandered into the community. Scientists in South Korea created a spray-on powder that stops bleeding in about one second by forming a hydrogel barrier reacting with calcium in blood, aimed for

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3:25

18000 Barbie Dolls

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/21

Johnny Mac presents five light news stories: a Cincinnati woman says a raccoon repeatedly enters her apartment through a hole in the roof and kitchen cupboard, bringing trash inside, while another raccoon was found on a liquor store bathroom floor after apparently drinking alcohol. Heavyweight boxer Jarrell Miller won at Madison Square Garden but his toupee came loose during the fight, and he later said ammonium-bleach shampoo made his hair fall out days before. A German Guinness record-holder with

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3:47

Pig has one million instagram followers

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/19

Guinness World Records recognizes Merlin the pig for the most Instagram followers (1.1 million), with videos showing him using more than 30 house buttons to communicate needs. A 41-year-old man named Chris survives a sudden cardiac arrest during a gym class thanks to fast CPR and defibrillator shocks administered by his trainer Robin and paramedics before he was airlifted. Rocker Suzi Quatro, now 75, celebrates passing her driving test after realizing she’d been driving in the UK without the proper

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3:39

Gravedigger retires at age 92

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/16

Johnny Mac shares five stories: Alan, a grave digger at Galveston Cemetery in Indiana, is retiring at 92 after setting a Guinness World Record for 73 years and 75 days on the job, a role he began as a one-week fill-in in 1952; a Flaming Hot Cheeto shaped like the Pokémon Charizard (“Cheeto-ard”) sold at auction for $87,840 after being bought on eBay for $350; Gloria, a 62-year-old immigrant from Barbados and Florida waitress, has served over 270,000 meals to people experiencing homelessness since

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4:11

Wild Turkeys delay Staten Island Subway

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/14

A Doctor Adopts a Young Heart Patient, New Prostate Scan, and MoreJohnny Mack presents five good news stories: a 4-year-old boy named True, born with congenital heart disease and in foster care, arrived alone for a seven-hour heart surgery at Children’s Nebraska Hospital when his social worker had COVID; anesthesiologist Dr. Amy and her husband Ryan adopted him a month later, and with help from relatives and a coworker, all six siblings found homes, including True’s sister Lainey adopted by Amy and

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5:29

Need Support? Call 867-5309

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/12

Johnn Mack shares five good news stories: Amy and her 10-year-old son Lorenzo in the Bahamas tossed a message in a bottle with contact details, and a year later a teacher in Portugal found it and connected with them. A missing page from a medieval manuscript preserving Archimedes’ work, including propositions from “On the Sphere and the Cylinder,” was rediscovered at a French museum, with plans for advanced imaging to reveal more text. Oxford researchers found European hedgehogs hear up to 85,000 Hz

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4:00

Raccoon gets head stuck in peanut butter jar

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/09

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Maryland man stopped at a Royal Farms in Forest Hill for fried chicken, bought lottery tickets, rolled two $50 wins into more tickets, and ultimately won $1 million—so excited he left his food behind and called his kids; he’s played for 30 years and previously won $50,000 twice and $10,000 weeks earlier. In Hawaii, the Hawaii Pacific University-led Bounty Project has removed 84 metric tons of abandoned “ghost gear” in just over three years by paying

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4:07

80 Year Old Man redeems "Bring Your Dad for Free...

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/07

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Doha-based couple fleeing conflict in the Middle East is praised for navigating complex pet travel rules to evacuate with their dog via Riyadh, Istanbul, and Berlin; Greece organized a special evacuation flight bringing over 100 stranded citizens and their pets home from the Persian Gulf, stressing pets are family, not luggage. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh engineered E. coli to convert PET bottle plastic into L-DOPA for Parkinson’s by breaking

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3:46

Older Male Whales Sing Better, Get More Loving from...

5 Good News Stories - happiness and fun ·

2026/04/05

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: In Colorado, an 80-year-old terminal cancer patient and vintage car fan named Max got a surprise “last car show” when about 50 classic cars paraded past his Lakewood home after his granddaughter’s social media request. In Brazil, a new “Bob law,” inspired by a loyal orange dog who spent 10 years by his owner’s grave, will allow cats and dogs to be buried in family cemetery plots if sanitary conditions are met. University of St Andrews researchers found older

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