podcast
CNN 5 Good Things
Saturdays are for sunshine — especially for your ears. With another election, ongoing wars and natural disasters, we know the news can be a lot to take in and we’re determined to share the bright side of humanity. Every Saturday, take a breather from the headlines and hear all the uplifting happenings across the world with 5 Good Things from CNN.
All Aboard the Googly-Eyed Train
CNN 5 Good Things
Jul 20, 2024
Payton McGriff is one of CNN’s Heroes for her work providing girls in Togo with the uniforms and supplies they need to transform their lives with education. Boston commutes got a little more whimsical after two friends lobbied for some googly eyes on the city’s trains. Breakdancing is making its Olympic debut this summer – meet the athlete that’s representing Team USA. Two stay-at-home moms in Virginia turned their love for flowers into a project that spreads joy and prevents waste. Plus, the planet Venus recently got to jam out to one of hip-hop’s greats.
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo
00:00:00
Hey there. I'm Krista Bo here to tell you about the good stuff happening around the world. You'll hear from some Bostonians who campaign to make their subway commute a little more entertaining.
John Sanchez
00:00:10
Bring some joy into our lives. Give the green line googly eyes.
Krista Bo
00:00:14
Plus, did you hear NASA sent Missy Elliott to space? Well, kind of. From CNN, this is 5 Good Things.
00:00:23
Books have the power to change lives. And that was the case for Payton McGriff. She read the book Half the Sky in college.
Payton McGriff
00:00:32
The book talks about the plight of women and girls around the world. Talks about how there are more than 130 million girls not in school today, and so that completely open my worldview is someone from Idaho, that there is just such a vastly different experience for women around the world.
Krista Bo
00:00:49
And one of the many barriers that prevent girls from going to school is a uniform. That's why she turned a project in college into a nonprofit called Style Her Empowered – or SHE for short. They help 1,500 girls a year in the western African country of Togo.
Payton McGriff
00:01:06
So today, when a girl enters our program, she not only receives a new school uniform, but she receives a full tuition scholarship, full year of school supplies, a reusable menstrual kit, and a year round tutoring from our local staff.
Krista Bo
00:01:21
And Payton's work has earned her recognition as a 2024 CNN Hero.
Payton McGriff
00:01:26
Last year, 99.1% of our students passed their classes and national exams, which are pretty notoriously difficult in Togo.
Krista Bo
00:01:35
Payton developed the idea for her nonprofit while she was doing some field research in Togo. During the spring of her senior year at the University of Idaho, and she met a young woman named Elolo, whose family faced financial challenges, forcing her to drop out of school while her brothers stayed in class.
00:01:56
She's saying that made her sad because her intention was to go to school and become a successful person. 2017 was SHE's first year. And the team hired a local seamstress to make the uniforms, but they soon realized the students were quickly outgrowing them. So, they designed their own.
Payton McGriff
00:02:13
So that was where the uniform that grows was born. We created a dress. It grows six sizes and up to 12in in length, and adjusts in various parts of the body to provide a well tailored fit.
Krista Bo
00:02:27
Elolo has not only graduated from high school, she became the group's assistant director and has recruited hundreds of girls.
Payton McGriff
00:02:33
I think Elolo is just the epitome of when you educate a girl, you educate a community, and she is a role model for every girl in our program who can see themselves in her. It's so girl power. It's so fun.
Krista Bo
00:02:49
To learn more about SHE's work had to cnn.com/heroes. The link is also in our show notes.
00:03:00
When Arielle Lok moved to Boston, she noticed the subway system there, which locals call the T, was missing something. The trains didn't have any whimsy, so Ariel and her friend John Sanchez had an idea.
Arielle Lok
00:03:15
I remember just being on the T platform with John, and I was just like, 'what if we just put, like, eyes on them?'
Krista Bo
00:03:21
By eyes, she means googly eyes on the front of some trains, like giant versions of those silly wiggly eyes you can buy at a craft store. To make their vision a reality, Arielle and John launched a full on campaign. They wrote to transit officials and hung posters at t stops. They even organized a march to the headquarters of Boston's transit authority, the MBTA, complete with signs and coordinated chants.
John Sanchez
00:03:46
Bring some joy into our lives. Give the green line googly eyes. Dot your I's and cross your T's – googly eyes on T trains, please.
Krista Bo
00:03:54
'All in all, it was a successful march, but Arielle said they didn't hear any updates on their googly-eyed demands for a couple months. Then one day, out of nowhere.
Arielle Lok
00:04:03
We got an email being like, yo, we put them on. Five of the trains have googly eyes and me and John were shook.
Krista Bo
00:04:10
'Arielle and John said they hope the googly-eyed trains will make t riders smile, and maybe feel a little less annoyed when their commute is delayed.
John Sanchez
00:04:19
It sort of gives you empathy for the train, like it didn't want to pull up to the station late. It's your friend.
Arielle Lok
00:04:25
We're big believers that the eyes are the window to the soul, and that the soul of a city is its transit system.
Krista Bo
00:04:38
When I think of the Summer Olympics, my mind immediately goes to gymnastics or swimming. But for the first time ever, we're going to see breakdancing as an Olympic sport, and Sunny Choi will be popping and locking for the US in August.
Sunny Choi
00:04:52
I always wanted to be an Olympian. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I'd be Olympian breaking.
Krista Bo
00:05:01
Sunny started breaking in college and says the sport has really helped her find herself.
Sunny Choi
00:05:06
'I was going through life just like a robot, doing everything I was supposed to be doing for so long. And it was breaking that I really turned that all upside down and made me figure out who I am, what makes me tick, why am I doing what I do made me face like my fear of failure, my lack of self-belief.
Krista Bo
00:05:23
'So the 35-year-old decided to quit her six-figure job to pursue her passion.
Sunny Choi
00:05:27
I just like, wasn't allowing myself to dream. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to give it a shot and whatever happens, happens and I qualified
Krista Bo
00:05:35
She's proven it's never too late to follow your dreams.
00:05:44
'Friends Rebecca Shelly and Laura Ruth bonded over their love of flowers. And now, the stay-at-home moms in Harrisonburg, Virginia, have turned that fondness for florals into a nonprofit called Friendly City Florals. They give flower arrangements from events a second life. Laura says they have two ways of collecting donated flowers.
Laura Ruth
00:06:03
We have home growers that donate their flowers that we take and repurpose and send out, and then we have the ability for corporate events, weddings, funerals to donate their flowers.
Krista Bo
00:06:16
Rebecca used to work in the wedding business, so she knew they'd find plenty of still beautiful blooms to repurpose.
Rebecca Shelly
00:06:23
I personally threw gorgeous, stunning flowers into black trash bags because there was no plan for them after the event.
Krista Bo
00:06:32
They gift the rearranged bouquets to places like hospitals, nursing homes and mental health facilities. As a licensed clinical social worker, Laura understood the impact a single bouquet of flowers can have on someone.
Laura Ruth
00:06:44
'They feel special and part of the sense of belonging to the community. The closeness that that fosters is so important for somebody as well-being.
Krista Bo
00:07:01
We know light travels faster than the speed of sound, but how fast can a song travel, say, to Venus? That's next.
00:07:14
'Space recently got a little taste of hip-hop from Earth. CNN's Emily Williams is here to tell us more. Hey, Emily.
Emily Williams
00:07:20
Hi, Krista. So an announcement from NASA this week caught my attention. NASA did a little space deejaying last week and transmitted Missy Elliott song from a lab in Southern California. 158 miles away to Venus. So if you were on Venus last Friday, this is what you would have been dancing to
Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),”
00:07:41
Me, I'm super fly, super duper fly.
Krista Bo
00:07:45
You know, I missed the rocket to go out last Friday on Venus, but I'll try to catch the next one.
Emily Williams
00:07:51
Well, it would have taken you a lot longer to get there than this song did. NASA said it took about 14 minutes for the song to travel from these huge radio transmitters in California, all the way to the planet of love. This is only the second time NASA has sent a song to space like this. The first one was 'Across the Universe' by the Beatles.
Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),”
00:08:14
And wow, I actually didn't know that. Although, you know, if it were up to me, I would have chosen her song. 'Music Make You Lose Control. Music Make You Lose Control.' That one's my favorite.
Emily Williams
00:08:24
That's a really good one. I think my favorite is 'Work It.'
Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),”
00:08:28
That's a good one, too. Classic.
Emily Williams
00:08:30
I do think NASA made a good choice, though. Missy Elliott was pretty excited about it. She posted on X that the sky is not the limit. It's just the beginning.
Krista Bo
00:08:46
All right, that's all for now. Join us tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing. Five Good Things is a production of CNN audio. This episode was produced by Emily Williams and me, Krista Bo. Our Senior Producer is Faiz Jamil. Greg Peppers is our Supervising Producer. Matt Dempsey is our Production Manager. Dan Dzula is our Technical Director. And Steve Lickteig is the Executive Producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Joey Salvia, Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, Jon Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Jamus Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to the CNN Heroes team, CNN Sports and Katie Hinman. And thank you for listening. If you like the show, please consider following it and leaving a good rating and review. It helps other people find the show and spread the good vibes. Take care. Till next time.