Episodes

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 85,00...

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 co...

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 brea...

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 o...

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: In Scotland, hikers rescued four dogs after they fell through snow near a cliff, and a rope-lowered rescuer recovered Aggie, a five-year-old spaniel, from a hole after a cold night at 3,000 feet. In Thailand, police disguised as Lunar New Year lion dancers tackled a 33-year-old repeat offender suspected of stealing about $81,000 in Buddhist objects and two 12-inch statues. In California, over 90 fish stocks have been nearly rebuilt after 25 years of re...

Nikon outfitted Grizzler the sheepdog with a camera that snapped photos when his heart rate rose, producing Instagram images of what excites him, from other dogs and food to wildlife and random objects. Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology created a spray-on powder that rapidly forms a hydrogel barrier to seal bullet wounds and remains stable for two years at room temperature. In the Galapagos, 158 endangered giant tortoises were released on an island where they h...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Patrick, who lost an arm in a work accident and learned golf after years of recovery, made a 120-yard hole-in-one with a seven iron at Over Stone Park, saying golf saved his life. Taryn became the first woman to row the 3,000-mile “world’s toughest row” solo from the Canary Islands to Antigua, finishing in 46 days after three years of training. Retired naval officer Joseph lived 93 days in a 100-square-foot pressurized pod at the bottom of the Atlantic, ...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Finnish couple won the 2026 wife-carrying race on a 380-meter course and earned a barrel of local ale, with racers carrying a partner over hills and obstacles amid water-spraying spectators and a 50-kilogram minimum weight rule. The large tortoiseshell butterfly, long classified as extinct, has been spotted in six locations and may be reclassified. In the UK, a rare pale pink fairy club fungus native to Italy was found in England, the first recorded Gr...

Johnny Mac eports that the Two Brothers set a Guinness World Record with a robot solving a 4x4x4 Rubik’s cube in 45.3 seconds using four robotic arms and two cameras with shutters for fairness, beating a 2014 mark of 1:18 after multiple improving attempts. A large study of over 100,000 women found AI analysis of routine mammograms can identify calcium in breast arteries linked to future cardiovascular disease, with mild calcification tied to about a 30% higher risk of serious events, and experts...

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: a Mississippi man gets back the class ring he lost on a beach in 1982 after a treasure hunter found it with a metal detector, still in excellent condition; Richard sets a Guinness attempt by folding 250 paper planes in one hour, beating the previous 200 record with each plane tested for flight; a pet milk snake missing for 15 months is found living under a neighbor’s compost heap and returned home in good health; conservationists reintroduce five red-n...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: the Smithsonian names the Ghostbusters New York City firehouse (Hook and Ladder 8) among 250 places to visit as America approaches its 250th anniversary, with the full list at smithsonianmag.com; German scientists develop a fish gill-inspired wastewater filter that removes up to 99% of microplastics by rolling particles along a cone-shaped mesh into a separate chamber; a Ryanair passenger buys all 68 onboard scratch-card packets and wins nothing, amid re...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: urban explorers Mitch and Jake find a remote Scottish bungalow packed with dusty teddy bears and dolls, allegedly hoarded by a widow, after a long search and trek; Alan at the Trumpet Inn offers a 5% cash discount to offset card fees, shifting payments from mostly card to about half cash; a cow on the loose in Nebraska wanders onto a high school tennis court, prompting a lockdown until police and rodeo helpers herd it to the fairgrounds and back to its o...

Johnny Mac presents five stories: Tom’s Eiffel Tower proposal to Taylor is nearly ruined when a woman with a selfie stick blocks their hidden phone, but the stranger’s own video captures the couple hugging, kissing and showing the ring. In London, Rose alleges a neighbor ripped out her fence, cut into her decking and hot tub enclosure, and moved a new fence over a meter into her garden; police called it civil, but a boundary survey says her original fence was correct and she’s working with the l...

Johnny Mac delivers five good news stories: Hershey Bears fans continued a 25-year “teddy bear toss” tradition, throwing 81,796 stuffed animals onto the ice after the team’s first goal (after setting a 102,343 world record last season) to benefit children and families in Central Pennsylvania. The nonprofit American Prairie removed its 100th mile of derelict barbed wire, eliminating about 500,000 pounds of scrap metal to help wildlife move freely, as it works toward national park designation afte...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: In Texas, Sean enlisted an entire preschool class to surprise his fiancée Zoey with a bridal shower; the couple had attended the school at age four and reconnected at a 2021 summer camp. New research from Newcastle University suggests a single 10-minute high-intensity cycling session can quickly change blood molecules, increasing 13 proteins including one tied to DNA repair, potentially helping suppress cancer growth in overweight but otherwise healthy a...

Nicola ignored her husband Martin’s advice to stop entering prize drawings and won a £4.5 million, mortgage-free, fully furnished five-bedroom Lake District home with a private lake plus $315,000 cash, giving the couple financial security and options to live in, rent, or sell. A notorious 22-room Florida “theme park” house—with rooms like a saloon, pirate room, 1950s space theme, and a taxidermy room with stuffed cats—found a buyer at the $500,000 asking price to become a short-term rental. A se...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Vancouver opened a pop-up Museum of Personal Failure at Kingsgate Mall, created by Evan after a breakup, featuring donated objects with written explanations such as a wall of rejection letters, failed relationship notes, broken car parts, and unfinished songs. A missing parakeet named Snow was caught after landing on a kindergartener’s head at St. No’s Catholic School and was reunited with her family. In San Diego, Cassie received a library copy of The I...

Host Johnny Mack presents five good news stories: a small climbing rock called “Portable the Rock” disappeared from Squamish, British Columbia and was later spotted 1,700 miles away at the Iron Man bouldering area in Bishop, California, with plans to return it; six American bison (three males, three females) were released onto Native prairie land at Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve in Kane County, Illinois, marking their return after about 200 years; in China, doctors preserved a 30-year-old w...

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a coyote is filmed swimming ashore at Alcatraz Island, with park rangers alerted and an amateur naturalist saying it could survive briefly on the island; a decades-missing class ring found buried on a New Jersey beach by a metal detector enthusiast is traced from the initials “BW” to Barbara Ledge of Crete High School (class of 1966) and returned to her Nebraska family; an animal shelter in Nova Scotia reports having no animals currently available for ad...

Johnny Mac presents five stories: Austrian researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna document a Swiss Brown cow named Veronica deliberately using sticks and a long-handled brush to scratch herself, meeting the scientific definition of tool use. Off the coast of Baja California, underwater photographers and free divers rescue a devil ray (mobula ray) severely entangled in a buoy line from a shark fisherman while sharks circle nearby; after being freed, the ray swims away and re...

Johnny Mac shares five uplifting news stories. First, a woman's cats discover a mouse, leading to an elaborate but failed capture attempt. Second, a finger prick test may soon simplify Alzheimer's diagnoses. Third, researchers identify bacteria as a contributor to kidney stones. Fourth, a Chilean man quits his job after being mistakenly paid 330 times his salary and wins a legal battle. Lastly, Michigan State Police successfully return a wandering donkey named Dolly Parton to her owner. 5 Good ...

In France, a man donates his field to create an orchard and community garden. In Poland, an emu is safely returned home after a forest adventure caused by fireworks. At the Rio Zoo, animals get popsicles to beat the summer heat. In New Zealand, a 66-year-old hiker missing for two weeks is found alive. Finally, the TSA reveals the most unusual items left at airport security, including turtles in a bra and a replica bomb. 5 Good News Stories is a daily podcast with five positive, uplifting news s...

Johnny Mac shares five intriguing and positive news stories. A Tennessee candy shop deals with a bear that repeatedly breaks in, while volunteers in Wales discover hundreds of old shoes, possibly from a 19th-century shipwreck. AI-powered robotic sorters help Republic Services improve recycling efficiency. In Rome, the House of Griffins, a historical Roman site, can now be toured virtually. Finally, an overturned truck spills 264 kegs of beer, causing a highway closure but leaving everyone safe. ...

Johnny Mac showcases five quirky and uplifting news stories: a police officer mistakenly reported as a frog due to AI errors, a herd of sheep causing chaos in a German supermarket, a Belarusian daredevil breaking a sky surfing record over Mount Everest, goats attempting a break-in at a retirement facility in Washington, and a Chinese stuffed horse going viral due to a production error that gave it a sad appearance. 5 Good News Stories is a daily podcast with five positive, uplifting news storie...