Oct. 4, 2025

Good News if you like a big pizza party

Show Notes
Transcript

Stories include a cheating scandal at the World Stone Skimming Championships in Scotland, research showing chimpanzees consume the equivalent of two alcoholic drinks daily from fermented fruit, New York City turning food waste into compost at the Staten Island facility, Tufts University offering free tuition for US families earning less than $150,000 starting in 2026, and a new Guinness World Record for the largest pizza party held in New Haven with 4,525 participants.

5 Good News Stories is a daily podcast with five positive, uplifting news stories to brighten your day. New episodes every day. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network

John also hosts Daily Comedy News

Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! For Apple users, hit the banner which says Uninterrupted Listening on your Apple podcasts app.

Subscribe now for exclusive shows like 'Palace Intrigue,' and get bonus content from Deep Crown (our exclusive Palace Insider!) Or get 'Daily Comedy News,' and '5 Good News Stories’ with no commercials! Plans start at $4.99 per month, or save 20% with a yearly plan at $49.99. Join today and help support the show!

Get more info from Caloroga Shark Media and if you have any comments, suggestions, or just want to get in touch our email is info@caloroga.com

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:11.000
Callaroga Shark media, guys, what are we doing? Hi? I'm

2
00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:14.560
Johnny Mack with five news stories. Organizers of the World

3
00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:18.879
Stone Skimming Championships in Scotland set a cheating scandal led

4
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:22.199
to the disqualification of several competitors. As you know, the

5
00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:26.519
World Stone Skimming Championships are an annual celebration of the sport.

6
00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:30.399
It's held every September. The rules require the stones thrown

7
00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:33.159
by competitors to skim across the surface of the water

8
00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:38.039
to be naturally occurring slate stones from the island, but

9
00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:41.880
several competitors this year brought rocks that appeared to have

10
00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:44.679
been shaped and smoothed by a machine. Do you need

11
00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:47.399
to win the stone throwing contest that badly that you're

12
00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:50.719
gonna cheat? What is wrong with you? Kyle Matthews is

13
00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:54.320
the event's tossmaster. He told the Scottish Mail. I got

14
00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:57.240
calls from concerned competitors. They were worried people might think

15
00:00:57.399 --> 00:01:00.000
that's how things are done here. I contacted the individual

16
00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.399
who had admitted their transgressions and I had to disqualify

17
00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:06.359
them to give them credit. They deeply apologize for bringing

18
00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:10.120
the sport into disrepute and accepted disqualification and we accept

19
00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.200
that that's the end of the matter. Well no, this

20
00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:15.239
is now being talked about on an international podcast. This

21
00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.920
is very embarrassing for the sport of stone throwing. Mister

22
00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:23.079
Matthews said. Organizers are considering new rules for future competitions,

23
00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.120
requiring participants to choose from stone selected by officials instead

24
00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:29.799
of finding your own. But see that's not fun. I

25
00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.040
like finding my own. Let these cheaters go and have

26
00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:36.400
their own like man made stone throwing contest and don't

27
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.599
hold it in Scotland. Let's keep this competition pure. The

28
00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:42.640
first round of the competition features competitors attempting to skip

29
00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:44.480
their stones across the surface of the water to the

30
00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.680
back wall of the quarry that's about two hundred and

31
00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:50.120
six feet. Those who qualify for the second round then

32
00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:54.079
engage in a sauce off to determine the winner. Congratulations

33
00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:57.840
to Jonathan Jennings out of Kentucky. He became the competition's

34
00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:01.680
first ever American winner. In the adult male category of

35
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:04.959
this year's event, Lucy Woods won the adult female category

36
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.239
for the sixth time. Now, if you hang out with

37
00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:09.840
Johnny Mack, he will often say to you two beers,

38
00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.159
not eight. Two beers is a nice hang with friends.

39
00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.759
Eight is something else entirely, And now researchers have found

40
00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:20.479
this to be true. They find the chimpanzees eating fermented

41
00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:23.960
fruit in their native habitats consume the equivalent of nearly

42
00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:28.120
two alcoholic drinks per day. That's right. The researchers analyzed

43
00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:32.199
twenty one species of fruit regularly eaten by chimpanzees in

44
00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:35.800
Uganda to measure the alcohol content. They tell us, across

45
00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:38.680
all sites, male and female chimps are consuming about fourteen

46
00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.680
grams that's like half an ounce of pure ethanol per

47
00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:44.280
day in their diet, which is equivalent to one standard

48
00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.319
American drink. When you adjust for body masks, it's like

49
00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:49.800
two drinks. We're gonna have to get these chimps in

50
00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.759
White Castle to, you know, take the edge off on

51
00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:55.000
the walk home. Scientists tell us human attraction at alcohol

52
00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:58.240
probably arose from this dietary heritage of our common ancestor

53
00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:02.520
with chimpanzees. New York City is turning food waste into

54
00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:06.840
black gold to improve these cities' soil health. Waste items

55
00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:10.960
like watermelon rines, greasy pizza boxes, and you're trimming they're

56
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:15.599
being composted at the Staten Island compost Facility. They take

57
00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:17.680
in one hundred to one hundred and fifty tons of

58
00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:21.960
organic material every day. There used to be a garbage dump.

59
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:23.719
Is that Is that a I feel like that's not

60
00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:25.639
a PC term? Am I allowed to say garbage dump?

61
00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:27.080
Or am I gonna get canceled? There used to be

62
00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:33.680
a sanitation facility on Staten Island. It was just like huge, huge,

63
00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.400
but they close that down a while back. Tuffs University

64
00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:40.400
will be tuition free for US families earning less than

65
00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:43.080
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The president of Toughs

66
00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:45.879
University said, we're sending a clear message that Toughs is

67
00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:48.000
committed to meeting the full need of all its students.

68
00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:51.360
US undergraduate students whose families make less than one hundred

69
00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.120
fifty thousand dollars a year will attend tuition free beginning

70
00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:56.639
in the fall of twenty twenty six. Students with an

71
00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.240
annual family income of less than sixty thousand dollars will

72
00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.759
typically receive a financial aid package with no student loans.

73
00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.560
The new policy, known as the Tough Tuition Pact, is

74
00:04:04.599 --> 00:04:07.879
meant to ensure that students from all backgrounds know that

75
00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:10.879
a tough education is within reach. I lost track of

76
00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.280
how many stories. I've recorded a bunch of these today,

77
00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.199
including the Halloween ones, and I'm a little punchy from

78
00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:18.560
doing those because those made me laugh. Let's see what

79
00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:22.160
did I do? I did? The Stones is one, Beers

80
00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:24.120
is two. Why don't you edit this out, John, because

81
00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:28.360
that's not fun. Black Gold composting was three, toughtless four. Okay,

82
00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.399
it's five good news stories and this is story number five.

83
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.639
It's one of those world records and it's not you know,

84
00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:37.079
what would those guys do, those guys that make stuff up?

85
00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:42.279
They would hop on one leg while juggling. But that's

86
00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:43.879
not enough. They always have to add like a third thing.

87
00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.920
Hop on one leg while juggling in fourteen seconds in

88
00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.360
the rain. Well, it's not that at all. This is

89
00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:53.519
the Guinness World Record for the largest pizza party. Why

90
00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.720
wasn't I invited to this? The Taste of new Haven

91
00:04:57.399 --> 00:04:59.639
held a record attempt at the new Haven Green. More

92
00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.360
than no nine thousand slices of pizza were handed out.

93
00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.439
I would have had three, four, I mean, if they

94
00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:09.480
were free, definitely would had three. There were forty five

95
00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:13.040
hundred and twenty five participants, breaking the record of just

96
00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.000
thirty three hundred and fifty seven participants set by the

97
00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.920
Pizza World Champions in Sulsan twenty twenty three. Now, some

98
00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:22.279
lazy matthire forty five twenty five times two is around

99
00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.879
nine thousand, but somebody must have had one slice, so

100
00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.040
I could have had a third slice to balance that out.

101
00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:31.120
Togains to the nine thousand slices. The new Haven mayor

102
00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:34.439
on social media said new Haven has once again demonstrated

103
00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.560
it's pizza supremacy and why the Elm city is the

104
00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:40.439
pizza capital of the country and the world. With four

105
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.399
five hundred and twenty five Pizza Party participants, the love

106
00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:47.360
for pizza and new Haven was literally palpable and unclear display.

107
00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.720
And those are five good news stories for today. I'm hungry,

108
00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:51.639
have a good day.