Episodes

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 ...

A black bear wandered into the Exchange mall at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, ate a peach, was caught on security cameras pooping, and was safely escorted back to the woods with no injuries. In Australia, a city gathered over 600 trombone players to perform “76 Trombones” in an attempt to break the Guinness record of 368 set in Washington, DC in 2012. In India, 15-year-old Parth created an AI app, Project Sadak, to report potholes via GPS-tagged photos, leading to 11 repairs. Rishi ...

Johnny Mac: OPP Grenade Warning, 600+ Trombone Record, Outback Barber, Oldest Water Skier, Denmark Santa Congress Ontario Provincial Police remind the public not to transport found explosives after someone brought an unexploded WWII grenade into Ottawa police, advising people to leave such items in place and call police for disposal. In Australia, Ipswich City Big Band organized a Guinness World Record attempt with more than 600 trombone players performing “76 Trombones,” awaiting certification....

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: 19-year-old Blake in England was scammed selling his MacBook on eBay but, after police were unhelpful, he and his mom went to the delivery address (a restaurant) and got the laptop returned, though he advises others not to do the same. In downtown San Jose, the long-unsolved “San Jose Semaphore” puzzle atop Adobe’s headquarters was decoded by Brian as pixel color values that form a rose from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus; Adobe teased a new puzzle with...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a 76-year-old Florida woman received the license plate “SQZ A55,” initially demanded a replacement, then decided to keep it after family and friends encouraged her; a Colombian theme park set a Guinness World Record with the world’s largest ceramic piggy bank, which accepts coin donations for local animal shelters and includes an interior exhibit and observation deck; 30 beluga whales from Ontario’s closed Marine Land are being relocated after permits we...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: International Skinny Dip Day, officially recognized by the American Association for Nude Recreation, has raised over $60,000 for the Fistula Foundation since 2019, funding surgery for about 96 women, with 571 participants at Blind Creek Nude Beach in Fort Pierce, Florida. In Rhode Island, Centerville Bank gave employees $100 gas gift cards, and many chose to donate them to Meals on Wheels to help cover fuel costs for its 26-car fleet. A 230-foot renewabl...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: A Myrtle Beach restaurant buyer found $12,000 in $100 bills hidden in a cabinet left by the previous owner, contacted a local TV station to help locate the owner, and returned the money. Paris is expanding an underground cooling network that pumps cool water from the Seine through about 120 kilometers of pipes to chill thousands of buildings, with plans to triple the system by 2042. In Washington, the Erickson family sold their 94-acre Vine Maple Farms p...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: vet Dr. James Greenwood says dogs can have a favorite person based on personality and energy match, with clues in body language like a full-body wag, “helicopter tail,” excited greetings, and choosing to sit close; daily walks help build the bond. In Canada, former fisherman Sean founded the Clean Harbours Initiative in 2018 after seeing seafloor debris, including ghost gear, and a major cleanup removed about 15,000 pounds of trash from Bay Roberts Harbo...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Kansas City’s 120-year-old Rock Island Bridge over the Kansas River has reopened as a $20 million destination with restaurants, event space, walking paths, and panoramic views, after engineers found its steel structure largely intact. In Kent, England, two garden ornaments thought to be concrete were identified as rare 18th-century Italian marble busts from Florence (1720–1730) depicting Apollo and Diana. Paris’s Musée d’Orsay opened a permanent gallery ...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: John and Keisha renewed their vows atop a 60-foot water slide at Land of Natura Water Park while attempting Guinness records, including six slide trips in wedding attire, as part of a 30-day cross-country vow-renewal tour. Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin created a prototype jacket that pulls moisture from the air to produce about three-quarters to one and a half pints of drinkable water daily, with potential uses for outdoor and emergency ...