Sept. 19, 2026

Horse Plays Guitar

Show Notes
Transcript

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 keep Voyager 2 operating for another year as its plutonium-powered generators lose about four watts annually. A 27-year-old junior analyst accidentally emailed a company-wide message that sounded like a resignation and was promoted after executives moved to retain him. Finally, Teddy, a seven-year-old Maltipoo missing for nearly a month, was rescued from a San Diego storm drain and returned home.

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WEBVTT

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I can't even tell you the headline. It'll ruin the story. Hi,

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I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. In Los Angeles,

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a singer-songwriter is working on a debut album, and one

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of the musicians has an unusual approach to the guitar.

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He plays it with his nose. Why? He's a horse.

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Musician Michaela met Yuppie of the Horse while volunteering at

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a horse rescue in Moorpark, California. The horse had never

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been trained or ridden, nor taught to how to play

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the guitar. They spent about nine months getting to know

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each other before one day she brought a musical instrument

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to the barn. The horse approached the instruments on his

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own and started interacting with them. He rubbed his nose

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across the guitar strings, plucked the strings with his teeth,

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and eventually started experimenting with other instruments. He's practically Eddie

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Horse Van Halen. Michaela said, I didn't give him treats

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or anything. It was kind of a miracle how it happened.

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She started bringing instruments to the barn regularly, she says.

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I think he started realizing, like, oh, this is like

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our little communication game. The horse also plays hard. He

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experimented with an accordion, but he's not that good, and

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she doesn't trust him yet with a cello. You see,

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when the horse plays the instruments, he leaves scratches and

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does other damage. But Michaela said, what's the point of

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music if you're not going to share it? Apparently, this

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all sounds like a mixture of dark Americana folk, Portuguese influences,

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and experimental electronic folk. We'll let you know when the

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EP comes out. New York City wants to air condition

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the subway system. As someone who grew up in New

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York City, I say good luck. The mayor is doing

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an $ 800, 000 study to create what officials say could become

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the first transit thermal energy network in the United States.

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They will test this at the Brooklyn Bridge Station and

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Chamber Street Stations. Those are some of the hottest spots

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in the subway system. In 2025, average summer temperatures at

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Brooklyn Bridge reached 96 degrees. That's not the bridge, it's

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the subway station. So how would this work? The system

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would capture excess heat from subway platforms and store it underground.

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Then during the winter, they'll let the heat out to

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warm up some nearby buildings. The mayor said there are

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few feelings worse than escaping the extreme summer heat, only

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to find yourself on a subway platform that is even hotter.

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Good news for Voyager 2. NASA has figured out a

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way to have it live for another year. It's been

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gone for almost 50 years now, but Voyager 2 is

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running out of power. Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and

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gets its electricity from radioisotope thermoelectric generators powered by decaying plutonium.

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Maybe we can connect it to the subway somehow. I

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don't know how that would work, but I'm just vamping here.

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I'm not a scientist. I'm just a podcaster. As the

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plutonium decays, the spacecraft loses about 4 watts of power

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every year. It doesn't sound like a lot, but every

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watt matters. A 27-year-old tech worker says he sent an

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embarrassing email and it got him a promotion. He shared

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this story on Reddit. He was working as a junior

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analyst at a tech company. He tried to send his

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manager a routine status update after getting only like two

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hours sleep. Instead, he accidentally sent the message to the

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larger company mailing list. We used to have this when

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I worked at Sirius. People would be like, I left

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an umbrella in Studio 4 and the whole company would respond.

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It was really annoying. He didn't realize he had done this.

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Then Slack exploded. Coworkers started messaging him things like, wait, what?

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You see, something about the wording made everyone think he

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was leaving the company. He didn't realize what he had done.

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He wasn't going to do that. Then the VP of

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operations emailed saying, let's meet later today to discuss your transition.

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The employee was horrified. He said, I wanted to crawl

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under my desk and live there forever. He thought he

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was going into an embarrassing meeting, but the execs had

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decided they should promote him. The VP said, if you're

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thinking about leaving, let's talk about what it would take

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to keep you. That's amazing. Good for him. All right,

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good news for Teddy. Teddy's a seven-year-old dog, and Teddy's

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back home with her family after disappearing for nearly a

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month and being discovered underneath the streets of San Diego. John,

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did you say underneath? I did. Teddy is a malting

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poo who vanished in July after a side gate at

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her family's home was accidentally left unlocked. The family couldn't

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find her, put up posters everywhere. Her owner, Daniela, said,

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I felt like I lost my best friend. Then after

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a month, Somebody heard barking coming from a storm drain.

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San Diego County Animal Services officers arrived. They lifted a

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manhole cover, shined a light down into the hole, and

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there was Teddy looking back up at them. Brittany works

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for Animal Services and said, we have little straps on

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the back of our vest. My lieutenant hung on to

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me so I could drop down into the hole. It

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reminded me, this is why I do this. It was amazing.

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Nobody knows how long Teddy was in the drain. Nobody

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knows how Teddy got there. We're just happy that Teddy

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is out. And those are your five good news stories

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for today. If you like this program without commercial interruption,

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see you next time. Have a great day.