Episodes

Host Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Hollywood, Florida steakhouse called Class Soiree Steakhouse will host a nude dining experience the first Monday of every month, with clothed staff, rules including no touching, robes and seat covers provided, and pricing of $250 for men, $150 for women, and $300 for couples for adults 18+. An engineering prodigy in Florida, Nathan Thomas, became the youngest college professor at 18 years and 346 days at Miami Dade after earning a master’s in elec...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories, including a farmer bride, Victoria, who rode a Swiss cow named White Chocolate Button into Holy Cross Church after arriving mostly by tractor, then returned to the farm to milk cows with her new husband Mike before their reception. A Cincinnati Animal Care kitten, Gelato, previously seen using a homemade wheelchair, received a custom 3D-printed wheelchair after the story went viral. In Australia, a large python was found in a car’s glove compartment and ...

The episode delivers five upbeat Halloween items: Variety’s 2026 costume ideas, including Nikki from “Obsession,” Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl bushes, Athena or Odysseus from “The Odyssey,” Madison Square Garden Knicks celebrity row (highlighting a Taylor Swift Knicks shirt), doctors from “The Pit,” and Dolly Parton. Chicago Cat Tours announces a Halloween neighborhood cat-walk event on Saturday, October 10, featuring costumed cats and a block party, with registration due by Wednesday, September 30, a...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Binghamton University researchers used Shannon entropy to create a Wordle strategy that solved 99% of puzzles in simulations by maximizing information gain rather than guessing the most likely answer, though it requires running a side program. Researchers in Thailand found Asian elephants can resist impulsive reaching and adapt to a rotated clear box to access fruit, with older elephants adjusting more slowly, informing human-elephant coexistence strateg...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: the Ig Nobel Awards in Zurich honored unusual research including a project burying 1,000 pairs of underwear across 25+ countries to study soil health by measuring fabric breakdown, alongside studies of cockroach milk, nose-blowing mechanics, and the evolution of kissing, with paper airplanes thrown as part of the ceremony. In Florida, deputies found a buck inside a home near the bathroom; they guided it outside, where it repeatedly jumped into a pool bef...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a supposed new island in British Columbia’s Williston Reservoir that vanished and reappeared 18 miles away, which BC Hydro says is actually unstable driftwood and decaying debris; Chardonnay, a four-year-old Australian shepherd, setting a Guinness World Record by jumping across 56 people’s backs in 16 seconds at an Alberta Riverhawks baseball game with 44 seconds to spare; a retired South Carolina firefighter collecting over 2,000 pairs of socks aiming f...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: in Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Mikaela collaborates with Youppi the Horse, who plays guitar with his nose and also experiments with other instruments while they work toward an EP. New York City is funding an $800,000 study to test a transit thermal energy network at the Brooklyn Bridge and Chambers Street subway stations that would capture platform heat, store it underground, and reuse it to warm nearby buildings in winter. NASA has found a way to kee...

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: a Wisconsin Maine Coon named Erebus Anomaly sets a Guinness World Record with 29 toes due to polydactyly, surpassing previous record-holder Jake (28) and a kitten named Toby who matched 28. A Dutch TV host Klaas sets the fastest motorized clog record at 70.05 mph in a polyester-and-fiberglass clog built on an electric go-kart frame with help from inventor Kevin Nicks. In Mexico, fisherman Arasto is rescued after 15 days trapped in a submerged cave, sur...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Lu and his wife, partially paralyzed due to diabetes, began driving China’s coastal provinces in 2014 and are still traveling more than a decade later in a camper Lu outfitted with living essentials while serving as her full-time caregiver. In Italy, police recovered stolen paintings by Renoir ("Fish"), Cezanne ("Still Life with Cherries"), and Matisse ("Odalisque on the Terrace"), valued at more than $10 million, with nine suspects in custody after thie...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories, starting with a Virginia doctor who woke from a dream of a mouse entering her mouth to find a bat on her face; her husband captured it, she went to the ER with the bat, and it tested negative for rabies. Two men metal detecting at New York’s Great Sacandaga Lake found a Red Creek High School class of 1988 ring and, after contacting the school, returned it to its owner Kim, who lost it 28 years earlier. A Swiss man, Robin, set a Guinness World Record in b...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Lithuania hosted the fifth annual Corgi Race of Vilnius, drawing 150 corgis from nine countries, with American corgi Gigi winning the 25-meter final, Mr. Corgington placing second and taking loudest bark, a costume parade won by Amigo, and Latvia’s Tora and Rusty winning a hidden treat search. In Abu Dhabi, Amira’s Ice Station serves date-based soft serve made with naturally sweet kollas dates after years of experimentation, and she is working on her 448...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Punch, a Japanese zoo monkey abandoned by his mother and rejected by other monkeys, went viral with a stuffed toy and now comforts and protects younger monkeys struggling to adjust, acting like a big brother. In England, 76-year-old John fought a parking company for over two years over a 90p fee after a machine printed only part of his plate; a judge dismissed the company’s £277 claim, awarded John £289.50 plus expenses, and he advised drivers to keep ti...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: France has banned unsolicited telemarketing calls unless consumers opt in, with fines up to 75,000 euros per illegal call and limited exceptions for consent or existing contracts. Dale “Graybeard” Sanders, 91, became the oldest person to complete the 2,193-mile Appalachian Trail, finishing Aug. 31 after 71 falls, injuries, and a hospital visit, encouraged by his wife and supporters. UC San Francisco researchers found a frog protein, saxiphilin, that prev...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Spain’s Buñol hosted La Tomatina on August 26, with thousands throwing overripe tomatoes in an hour-long fight rooted in a 1945 food fight and popularized for some by a 2011 Bollywood film; inventor Diana created the iThrone, a waterless toilet that evaporates about 95% of the water in human waste and has been deployed in Uganda, Panama, and the U.S., earning a Global Citizen Wastelets Award and $100,000; ReShark released 82 young zebra sharks into prote...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Colorado researchers studying yellow-bellied marmots launched “OnlyMarms,” a free OnlyFans account with wholesome marmot videos that has drawn about 1,700 fans and roughly $6,000 in tips, plus events like Fat Marmot Week and a fundraising beer called Marmot Tears. Desertas Island land snails, once thought to have only 21 left under a single rock in Portugal, are being restored after Chester Zoo bred 300+ descendants and conservationists removed invasive ...

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: an Italian lottery player in Bitonto won about $1.15 million but mistakenly threw away the ticket after a store scanner said it was “non-payable,” and a local garbage company safely sorted the collected trash to recover the intact winning ticket; a juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtle found stranded in Wales in December 2023 was rescued by Anglesey Sea Zoo and, after 2.5 years of permits and planning, will be transported in a temperature-controlled crate ...

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx opened Dax House, a renovated convent residence offering housing-insecure women private rooms for $250 a month, a permanent address, and case management through a partnership with the Sisters of Charity of New York and DePaul USA. Chester Zoo in England celebrated five endangered secretary bird chicks after its first successful breeding in 95 years, credited to the father bird sharing incubation. Thorn...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories, including a TikTok-viral baby sea turtle named Franklin in Barbados that safely reached the ocean after onlookers let nature take its course, with a marine biologist explaining the beach crawl’s developmental importance. Two former teenage pen pals, Jo Ellen and Eiko (Agnes), reunite after 50 years when Jo Ellen uses Google to find her in Illinois and they meet for brunch. In suburban Chicago, Wheaton’s Buddy Baseball program pairs volunteers with player...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: St. Mary’s, Canada begins removing about 330,000 gallons of fermented fish sauce left in an abandoned Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company factory, with crews draining tanks, mixing the liquid with peat moss, and burying it in a prepared pit. In upstate New York, the Salamanca City Central School District postpones introducing “Sally,” a $60,000 robot teacher’s assistant, after questions from parents, teachers, and officials about data collection and concerns ...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a 639-year performance of John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP in a medieval church in Halberstadt, Germany, begun in 2001 and scheduled to end in 2640, using an electric blower to sustain notes and drawing crowds for rare chord changes while helping fund church repairs; Paralympic medalist Mohammed completing the Triathlon Across America by swimming around Manhattan, cycling 3,000 miles across 16 states, and running 300 miles on a prosthetic leg with careful wound-...

Barley, a golden retriever whose seizure medication dulled her personality, regains her spark after bonding and playing with Louie, a duck acquired via Facebook Marketplace for Justin’s garden center; 67-year-old Claire cycles 6,835 miles from Portugal to Norway on her bike “Margaret” to honor her father and raise awareness of motor neuron disease, noting strangers’ generosity and an encounter that helped an MND-affected family speak openly; standup comedian Dan Hudson seeks verification for a w...

Johnny Mac delivers “five and a half” good news stories, starting with his dogs safely getting back inside on their own. In British Columbia, a five-year-old is reunited with his pink stuffed donkey after BC ferry staff turned it into a social media star, renaming it Churro the Burro. In Illinois, a maintenance worker is stranded 130 feet up inside a gas station sign for about five hours after a boom lift malfunctions, and is rescued using a replacement boom. In Japan, a vending-machine-sized “h...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a man dressed as Spider-Man for Superhero Day helped a wheelchair user cross a busy Arkansas intersection and the act went viral after police posted traffic-camera footage; a Nebraska family reunited with their missing dog, Chung, found 642 miles away after five years despite a microchip complication; the Phenom 300 EV business jet will add Garmin’s emergency auto land system, inspired by the 1999 Payne Stewart crash; Oakland Parks, Rec, and Youth Develo...

Edinburgh’s Hilda Houseplant Hospital, created by Rosanna, treats struggling indoor plants through diagnoses such as repotting, trimming, pest treatment, quarantine, and even liquid drips, plus tips like watering by pot weight and moving plants from direct sun during heat waves. Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, begins retirement at the Pangeia Elephant Sanctuary after Portugal’s wild-animal circus ban took full effect in 2024; the sanctuary aims to eventually house about 35 elephants and ...