July 8, 2025

Panda Monium

Panda Monium

A 12-year-old's panda-themed Lego creation winning a competition, the discovery of a historical mourning ring by Malcolm, the scientific quest to understand tickling, a bear taking a nap in a Florida backyard, and a runaway sheep in Milwaukee.

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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

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Callaroga Shark Media.

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Hi there, Johnny Mack with five good news stories and

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yes it was Pandamonium. In Washington, DC, a twelve year

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old won the Lego Discovery Center's Mini Master Model Builder

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qualifying competition. That's a lot of words. Ricky grabs some

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Legos and built a scene with pandas taking over famous

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Washington locations including the Washington Monument, the Natural History Museum,

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the Ope Diamond, the Declaration of Independence, a metro station,

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and the stovepie pat from the Lincoln Monument. Ricky, the

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twelve year old said it easily took one hundred hours

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to complete. Malcolm was walking through a field last August.

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He had a metal detector. He found a ring dating

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from the eighteenth century. The lost jewelry is believed to

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have belonged to Sir Bassingborne Gaudry, who, as you know,

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was the third Baronet of Harling. Sir Bassingbourne died in

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seventeen twenty three, a year that was engraved on the

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inside of the ring. It is a morning ring, Morning

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with a U in it. Morning rings are worn in

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memory of someone who has died, typically bearing the name

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and date of the dead person. They were fashionable during

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the early eighteen hundreds. Malcolm tells the story. It was

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six inches down. I dug a little careful plug out

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and looked in the hole. The sun was out. It

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was shining in beautiful, bright, pure gold. It was exactly

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like the day it was dropped on the ground. I

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was shaking. It's a form of time travel. Instantly you're

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back to the seventeen hundreds or Roman times. It's only

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one of two things I've found in my detecting career

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with a name on it. You don't often find anything

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with a human connection. It is a unique ring. Scientists

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are at it again. They're trying to figure out tickling.

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Neuroscientist Constantina Kiltinny says tickling is a complex interplay of motor, social, developmental,

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and evolutionary aspects. If we know how tickling works at

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the brain level, it could provide a lot of insight

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into other topics in neuroscience. Tickling can strengthen the bond

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between parents and children, for us instance, But how does

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the brain process ticklish stimuli and what is the relationship

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with the development of the nervous system. We know that

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apes and gorillas respond to ticklish touches, and even rats

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have been observed being so who's tickling a rat? From

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an evolutionary perspective, what's the purpose of tickling? What do

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we get out of it? Scientists are also trying to

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figure out why we cannot tickle ourselves. The theory is

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because we know when and where we're going to tickle ourselves,

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the brain can switch off the tickling reflex and advance.

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A bear in Florida was in a hot tub. It

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was then taking a nap. I like this bear. The

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bear was caught on camera soaking it up in the

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residence hot tub, then remove the cushions from an outdoor

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couch and took a six hour nap in the backyard.

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This sounds a lot like me, but it's about to

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sound a lot more like me. How did they capture

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the bear? While life officers got the bear to move

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by laying out some donuts? That really does sound like me. Boy,

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There's been a lot of this type of story lately,

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but I'll just do the usual setup. Good news, we

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fenned your sheep. The Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission

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said local police received a report of a sheep on

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Forest Home Avenue Apparently the sheep was pretty fast. A

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local representative told the TV he was booking it. Even

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the officer brought him in said he was really running

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down forrest home, so he was panning. He was exhausted,

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he was stressed out. They were able to create an

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outdoor pen for the sheep and help it cool down

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with some shade and water. The rep said, he was

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really friendly, he was very sweet. So call us if

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you happen to see a go to sheep or something

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running around downtown Milwaukee. Not something you normally see, but

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we're here to help if need. Be appreciate you guys.

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All right, those are your five good news stories for today.

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I hope you have an awesome day. See you next time.

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Coming up a bonus interview our sister.

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I'm going to bring forward and yours and give it

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to you now. And he said, oh wow, that's great,

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Thank you, that's so generous of you. Call that's great.

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But his wife, my sister in law, when ballistic. She said,

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this is too much money, this is wrong. I don't

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want anything to do with and stormed out of the room.

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And I thought, well that's not what I expected. Oh

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my god. So I realized from that that this was

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not an easy thing to do. So I learned a

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lesson from that, and I knew that I had to

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do this authentically. I had to do it right, otherwise

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it was not going to work. So that happened. And

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then the third thing that happened was that I was

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looking at my financial statements and I had more money

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there than I was really using.

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It was sitting there.

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I mean, it was growing, making profits and so forth,

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but it wasn't being used. I wasn't using it for me.

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I wasn't using it for things that I really cared about,

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not for my people. So I thought, well, if I

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have all this money now, why should I wait until

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I die?

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Why don't I bring it forward?

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And then it was a long process for me to

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come around to that, but that's what finally started this,

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and I said, well I'll do it.

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Now.

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Let's back up just a bit. Tell us a little

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bit about your new book. What is the Happiness Experiment.

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Well, this is a recording of the real events with

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real people who I decided that I would bring forward

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the inheritance the money I had for them in my

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will and made it a prequest. So it was a

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chunk of money that they were going to get. Well,

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they were still young enough to enjoy it, and I

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was still alive to see it happening.

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So I saw what they were doing.

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So when I sat down with them, I talked about

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money and happiness and how one can cognect. And I said, look,

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I'm going to bring this forward to give it to you,

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but what I want from you is a plan so

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you use this money, so it's really a big benefit

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for you. I don't want this to overwhelm you. And

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they said what kind of plan? I said, I want

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a happiness plan? And they said, a happiness plan?

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What's that?

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So you know, nobody has seems to have a happiness plan,

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but it's one of the most important plans you can get.

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And it doesn't have to be a very complex What

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is it that makes you happy? What values do you

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want to pursue? You know, what goals and dreams do

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you have, and you can pursue them. And so I

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got them to write a happiness plan. And then when

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I saw the plan, I gave them all the money

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all at one time, and so then they took it

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and I watched them with their plan. I saw all

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their plans, what they did and how they became happier,

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and so you know, that had to be written about

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so because I wanted other people to see what they

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did so they too could do the same thing.

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Which prequest is the most unique one you've come across.

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Well, it was a very very painful and sad story

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because two dear friends of mine had a beloved daughter

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and she was hit head on by a drunk driver

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and killed. She happened to be eight months pregnant at

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the time, so that killed the granddaughter too.

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And also their daughter.

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They were totally totally wiped out, devastated, and they died emotionally.

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They had decided that they could never be happy again.

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It would be wrong to be happy. They didn't deserve

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to be happy because their darling daughter had been killed.

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Tremendously painful, awful, awful story. So they were grieving. Six

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years later and I met with them and I told

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them how much they had added to my life and

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how much I was so grateful to them, and that

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I wanted to express the gratitude and I put them

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in my will and they could accept that, and I said,

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but I want you to have it now, and they

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said oh no, no, we can't accept it. They turned

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it down. They turned it down. Well, we worked and

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I said, look, I'm leaving it open. So several months later,

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I think his wife persuaded him to do it. Actually,

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you know, and you know, so they said, okay, we'll

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do it, because if we're going to wait until you die,

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why not do it now. And they did that and

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it wasn't the money, interesting life, they said, it was

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the coaching that made the big difference, that changed their

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mind their mindset from being so negative. You know, we'll

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never be happy again. We don't deserve to be happy.

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And the coach turned there thinking that mindset around and said, look,

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you know it can be you can be happy again.

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And they started to get the mindset of happy people.

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And now you cannot believe what these people they're traveling

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all over the world. They're in Tahiti right now. They

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climbed Killimungarrett. These people are loving life. And it was

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a major change. That is one of the most heartfelt,

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wonderful results of the And in a sense, she said,

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the wife said, this prequest changed or saved my life

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because we were no longer living, we were dead.

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And this brought us back to life.

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Yeah, I mean dealing with grief, and many of us

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have I have. You know, when you're in those depths,

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it's really it could be really difficult to find your

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way out of it. And you know, often it looks

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like there isn't a way out of it, and you know,

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sometimes you want to map, right, and it looks like

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this concept could be a good map for you if

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it sounds like it was for these folks. I always

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like to end interviews by asking is there anything that

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I didn't ask that I should have?

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How can my listeners benefit from this book?

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What should they do? What would be.

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Good for them? And so I'll answer that question. First off,

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think about happiness, Think about being happiness. Do you deserve

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to be happy? And you can be happy, but you

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have to make it as a choice. I'm going to

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increase my happiness just that if you make that realistically,

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I want to and I'm going to increase my happiness

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that choice. And then talk to people about it. Talk

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to a husband or wife or a girlfriend or a friend,

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a therapist or coach, talk to somebody about it and say, look,

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I'm made the decision that I want to be happier

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and I'm like you to help me create a happiness

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plan and then work on it. And it's not that hard,

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but it is challenging, but it's a wonderful exercise. If

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they do it, I guarantee they will increase their happiness.

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I guarantee it.

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Carl Barney is the author and the book is called

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The Happiness Experiment, A Revolutionary Way to Increase Happiness. Carl,

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where can people find the book?

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Wherever books are sold?

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And it's now available for pre order from Amazon and

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they can go to the Happiness Experiment dot com and

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they can pre order it there, and I hope they will.

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Carl, thanks so much of the time. I really appreciate it.

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Yeah, thank you, Dan. It's been fun.