Hey there, welcome.
Thanks for hanging out with us today.
I'm Krista Belpolanco, and this is CNN 5 Good Things.
That is really the connective tissue of fandom.
It helps us remember what we love about sports.
It helps us remember about times when we were young.
It narrates moments in our lives.
The NBA playoffs tip off today, so we asked some basketball fans why the greatest debate in sports never gets old.
Plus, Going into that competition did not assume in any way, shape or form that I was going to be leaving with a date.
A heated rivalry lookalike contest turned into a real-life rom-com.
Then we'll break down new research that identified a surprising and adorable ally in the fight against climate change.
That's a massive gain for no expenditure.
They're just amazing, these little critters.
When we come back... That was magical for me.
She's breaking barriers and she's going to continue breaking barriers.
It's a historic year for Latin artists on some of the biggest stages in music.
All these stories and more after a quick break.
Stick with us.
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Colombian pop star Karol G made history by becoming the first Latina artist to headline Coachella in the festival's 27-year run.
Known for her reggaeton hits, the multi-Grammy-winning singer takes the main stage again tomorrow for weekend two of the popular music festival in Indio California.
She joins fellow headliners Sabrina Carpenter and Justin Bieber.
For many of her fans, she puts on more than a concert.
It's an invitation to celebrate their identity, culture, and roots.
I stand for my Latina community and, at the same time, I'm very proud, because this brings out the best of us unity resilience, a strong spirit.
Raise those flags!
She's telling the crowd raise your flags.
Raise your flags, because she invited fans to bring flags that represent them.
I am one of her biggest fans.
I love her.
She inspired me.
She's amazing.
Edwin Canales traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina to see Karol G perform for the 10th time.
He didn't bring a flag from his native El Salvador that night, but the 27-year-old literally went the distance to get the singer's attention.
He flew to Colombia to find an outfit from the singer's home country.
I find the perfect outfit and I design this hat.
She saw my hat and she come to me.
She hold my hand.
She sings to me.
That was magical for me because I worked so hard to get her attention because it's my favorite artist.
Nick Miller, a content creator from Los Angeles, started learning Spanish so he could sing along to her music better.
His videos crossed Karol G's desk, and her team gifted him a VIP ticket for Weekend One.
It exceeded my expectations.
Just seeing the representation and like all the flags.
And she was like, I'm so proud of where I come from.
You should be proud of where you come from.
And I was like, you know what?
Yes, because we need to be proud of where we come from.
Even me, I'm from here and I'm proud to be from here.
And fans who couldn't be there in person for either show, like Jennifer Torres.
They could still experience the magic.
She streamed last week's entire set from her home in Houston.
The moment that the lights went off.
Until the end of the show, it was just tears, happiness.
So many emotions.
For her to finally get her moment.
As a Hispanic person, going through how we're going through right now in this world, I was like she's breaking barriers and she's going to continue breaking barriers.
That's not just any old Jumbotron moment.
The winners of a heated rivalry lookalike contest are now dating in real life.
And they just went on their second date at a hockey game.
Their love story started two weeks ago when 24-year-old Felix Eller and 22-year-old Aram Matangi entered a contest in DC to see who looked most like Conor Story and Hudson Williams, the actors who play Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander in the hit TV show Heated Rivalry.
While Felix won the Ilya lookalike contest, Aram broke a tie with the bold move.
In my head, I'm thinking, I'm hearing everybody screaming and I'm like there is only one way to top this.
I have to just go for it.
I don't know this man.
I literally met him five minutes ago, but I'm gonna make out with him like we've known each other for nine years.
You can't like right after a kiss be like, so are we like going to hang out after that?
Like you can't like immediately.
So I was like let me test the waters, because I genuinely didn't know if it was mutual at all, if I was crazy.
He gave me his number and then sat down and talked with my friends for a little bit.
And that resulted in making plans for brunch the next morning.
Felix and Aram went on an eight-hour first date and found they have a lot in common, including how much they connected with the plot of Heated Rivalry.
When I was in school there were closet queer athletes who quit the team because of the homophobic locker room talk and then stayed in the closet until they graduated.
And so I think this show does a good job of saying, like, they exist, yes.
We do need to support them.
We need to be here for them.
When you see yourself in the character, you believe in what's happening to the character.
And that character is experiencing love and that character is engaging in love.
And I think it was so hopeful for me to be like oh yes, me as an AAPI person can have these things happen to me.
In the fight against climate change.
New research suggests one of the most unexpected solutions is already hard at work.
Beavers have an important part to play.
I mean, they are really one of the most profound ecosystem engineers.
They just create this massive explosion of life that simply wasn't there before.
Joshua Larson is a professor at the University of Birmingham in England.
He led a study in Switzerland to find out what happens to planet-warming carbon pollution when beavers get to work, building dams and creating wetlands.
It turns out, those habitats beavers create don't just help plants grow and wildlife thrive.
They can also act as powerful carbon sinks, places that absorb more carbon than they release into the air.
Researchers found a beaver-engineered wetland stored more than 1000 tons of carbon in just 13 years, about 10 times more than the same landscape without beaver activity.
So if you imagine all those areas, if they're able to just turn some of those into really active carbon sinks, they could get about 2 of Switzerland's carbon emissions goals, which doesn't sound like much, but they're doing it for free.
The beaver's doing all that work on its own.
So that's a massive gain for no expenditure.
But the climate benefits from beaver dams don't stop at capturing carbon.
In the US.
They're also helping landscapes withstand some of the biggest threats from climate change — wildfires and droughts.
Wildfires, of course, are getting more destructive, more severe with climate change.
And beavers, of course, are not a silver bullet.
But having more beavers on the land, creating more beaver dam complexes and more wetlands could slow wildfire down.
Jen Clan is a wildlife conservationist with the Colorado Nature League.
When we're suffering drought, a lot of our wildlife suffers as well.
Beavers literally build the infrastructure that retains the water, that allows for this life to continue.
They're just amazing, these little critters.
A blind man just ran a marathon without a physical guide by his side.
And he did it using AI-powered glasses.
I've done a marathon untethered, but I've done it as first person, using smart glasses and an app called Be My Eyes.
A world's first.
It's an unofficial record.
It'd be great if I had that certificate, but in my mind, it is a world's first.
Clark Reynolds, also known as Mr. Dot, completed the Brighton Marathon in the UK last weekend.
Through a live stream on his glasses, he was able to connect with volunteers who could guide him through the course in real time.
Go, go, go.
You're about to go through the finish.
Without those volunteers in my ears, I would have probably given up around 15 mile marker.
It's amazing.
Beyond racing.
He believes this technology could help ease the isolation that often comes with vision loss.
Being blind is a very lonely experience sometimes.
And you can have someone who's been in my eyes and they could like chat with you for five minutes, you know, and they could say oh, you know, there's some ducks in the pond or something.
You know what I mean?
You could have that experience and not feel lonely.
And I think that's a real game changer for the sight loss community as well.
The NBA playoffs are here and so is the greatest of all time debate that never seems to go away.
Up next hear what one of the top contenders for GOAT status really thinks of that debate and why fans refuse to let it go.
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The NBA playoffs start today, and for fans that means big matchups and a debate that's never benched.
Who is basketball's GOAT?
Some say the greatest of all time is Michael Jordan.
Others say LeBron James.
Bill Russell's name gets thrown out there.
Everyone has an opinion, even Michael Jordan himself.
The six-time NBA champion told the NBA on NBC show last month that he doesn't like to get caught up in the debate, especially since it can create animosity between players.
The whole GOAT term is never going to be something that I ever will get high or low about, you know.
It just doesn't exist with me.
It is an empty comparison.
You absolutely never find the true answer to that question.
But agree or not, fans aren't letting it go.
With all due respect to NJ who, by the way, is the greatest of all time I don't think the NBA GOAT conversation is pointless.
The NBA GOAT debate is so fun because there's no right answer and because it makes you appreciate the players more who played in all different times and all different eras.
There's really no right answer, because it comes down to what team they were on the era in which they played and what metrics you might even judge them by.
There are so many factors, stats and numbers social and societal impact, the longevity of the player, their media presence.
It's just too difficult to say.
Look, I hear Michael Jordan, and honestly, he's not wrong.
But here's the thing.
The GOAT conversation isn't for them, and it's for us.
Because that debate, that is really the connective tissue of fandom.
It's how a 60-year-old connects with their 20-year-old kid over players that they never watched together.
Sports fans love to debate.
I also think it's what makes players want to reach and achieve the status of GOAT.
CNN contributor and longtime sports journalist, Carrie Champion, says Kobe Bryant is a contender and that the conversation continues because it's deeply personal.
It helps us remember what we love about sports.
It helps us remember about times when we were young.
It narrates moments in our lives.
It helps us understand why we're so passionate about the game, why we're so passionate about sports, why we're so passionate about what we love.
Sports sociologist, Jay Coakley, has been studying how sports influence society and culture for decades.
He says the debate taps into something deeper than stats.
Because it's fun.
People get involved in those kinds of debates because it reaffirms their identities as fans.
It's one of those things that brings people together.
And that in itself is worth a great deal.
All right, that's all for now.
Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you're feeling the good vibes.
And if you are, send this episode to a friend so they can too.
There's more goodness where that came from if you sign up for the CNN 5 Good Things newsletter.
The link to subscribe is in our show notes.
And join us tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing.
CNN's David Rind speaks to climate scientist Kate Marvel about why she resigned from NASA amid the Trump administration's funding cuts and why she isn't giving up hope in the fight against climate change.
Have a good day.
Till next time.
I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy.
This week on the podcast, Terms of Service.
What do we know about how much AI is contributing to energy consumption, energy demand right now?
And how does that compare with other industries?
The best resource for that is the International Energy Agency, which is sort of the global energy think tank that collects data on all of this.
And what they predict is that about 8 of the additional electricity that we're going to need by 2030 that will be for data centers.
Other 92% is for other things, industry electrification, electric vehicles.
And AI is really only driving part of that increase in demand.
Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.
