Hey there, welcome to CNN 5 Good Things.
I'm Christabel Polanco, and let's get the good vibes rolling.
You're all so confused because you're like, no way this is real.
Like, this can't be real.
This graduating class got a very generous gift.
Plus, hear about a major conservation success story decades in the making for our closest relatives.
Later on, just 12% of children's books feature Asian characters.
Meet an author and an illustrator working to tell more of these stories.
Then meet a traveler who quit his finance job to see the world in a very unique way.
There's a lot more good in the world than one would think.
We gotta take a quick break, but when we come back, a TV star is lacing up his boots in real life.
Spring just hits different.
One day, cold mud.
The next, warm sunshine.
But the hardworking men and women in Carhartt don't wait for the forecast to get to work.
Hatching roads, clearing trails, planting crops.
Their hands turn this season's uncertainty into possibility.
So get out there.
Spring into action.
We've got you covered for whatever the season throws your way.
Carhartt.
Made possible.
If you're a fan of the Apple TV show Ted Lasso, you know that that was the motto of Mexican soccer star Danny Rojas from the show.
And it seems that life has indeed imitated art for the actor who plays Danny, Christo Fernandez.
The 35-year-old from Guadalajara Mexico, is officially a pro soccer player after he signed a deal this week with US club El Paso Locomotive in the USL Championship.
The move comes after he completed a two-month trial with the team.
Since I was a kid, football was my life.
It's part of my culture.
I started playing professionally when I was 15 years old.
And I was this close to my debut.
But a couple of injuries cut my cream.
That was a video he posted on his Instagram back in March, when rumors were swirling that he was trying to go pro again.
This week Fernandez wrote about the career switch, saying as my amigo Ted Lasso once said when you believe, life finds a way.
We were all so confused because we were like, no way this is real.
Like, this can't be real.
The class of 2026 at North Carolina State University's Wilson College of Textiles got the surprise of a lifetime, thanks to this year's commencement speaker, Anil Koshar.
It is my privilege to announce today that, in honor of my father, my wife Marilyn and I are providing a graduation gift to cover all the final year educational loans incurred by the Wilson College graduates during the 25-26 academic year.
The gift was inspired by Anil's late father, who came from India to study textile manufacturing at NC State nearly 80 years ago.
While it's unclear how many of the 176 students in the graduating class had taken out loans this school year, the school says they're going to see a substantial amount of debt reduced.
So my wife and I hope we have unshackled some of that so that you can go out with greater freedom to pursue your goals.
Take risks, build lives.
For Alyssa DaCosta, the generosity didn't feel real at first.
She graduated last Friday with a degree in fashion and textile management.
It was just honestly truly amazing that I get to be a part of this college.
I got to have an amazing college experience and now I get some loan forgiveness out of it and I don't have to stress about my loans as much.
And luckily, not only does it benefit me, but a bunch of other families as well.
The unexpected surprise lifts some financial burden for Alyssa as she prepares to start her master's degree this fall at NC State.
The 21-year-old is a first-generation college graduate.
She says her parents immigrated from Bangladesh in the 80s and worked hard for decades to pay for all five of their kids' college tuitions.
My dad was a taxi driver and my mother was a preschool teacher.
We didn't have the funds, so we didn't have to take loans out.
And so not only does it help my parents, it helps me a lot too.
I wouldn't be able to do anything without any of them.
There's some hopeful news for some of our closest relatives.
Mountain gorillas, once on the brink of extinction, are making a rare comeback due to decades' worth of conservation efforts in the mountains of Rwanda.
A new Netflix documentary, narrated by David Attenborough, is now giving people a closer look at the animals behind that remarkable recovery.
One of the things that's fun about the movie is that it highlights how much they're so like us.
We share a common humanity and they really need us.
They need our help, but also we need them.
And that's because they care for the second largest tropical rainforest left on the planet.
They keep these forests healthy through their natural behaviors.
Tara Stowinski is the CEO of the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund, an organization focused on protecting gorillas and their habitats.
They also collaborated on the documentary.
In the 1980s, the mountain gorilla population in the Virunga region had dropped to around 250.
Today, that number has climbed to roughly 600.
They are the only non-human great ape on the planet that's increasing.
We've been able to show that it is the direct protection on the ground.
It is having people with them every single day, 365 days a year, that has really contributed to their increase.
So it's an amazing conservation success story.
From anti-poaching efforts to veterinary care and long-term health monitoring.
That hands-on protection helped turn the tide for a species once thought to be disappearing.
Last year alone, Tara said, conservation teams removed more than 4000 snares from forests in Rwanda and Congo.
And while mountain gorillas remain endangered, researchers say their recovery is proof that long-term conservation can make a huge difference.
Diane Fossey thought they'd be extinct before the year 2000 and instead they're increasing.
So it's pretty amazing.
And I'm super proud of all the science.
I love seeing that we're still learning about gorillas after 60 years and we still have so much to learn.
They're teaching us all the time.
A tall tale is something that's kind of really exaggerated.
You know, you might have a tall guy, but he's not just tall, he's really, really tall and it's kind of magical.
That's author Livia Blackburn.
So how about this?
Once upon a time, there was a cat.
She and illustrator Julia Kuo have been reading to kids from their new children's book Bing's Cherries around the West Coast at events celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
There's a fruit that we might talk about today.
Cherries!
Cherries!
It turns out that the Bing cherry, famous for its deep red color and heart shape, is named after a Chinese immigrant.
And now Livia, who is Chinese American, and Julia, who is Taiwanese American, are making sure a new generation knows his story.
Bing's Cherries is a folktale inspired by the real-life horticulturist who helped cultivate one of America's most popular cherries, which are coming into season now.
It's believed that Ah Bing came to Milwaukee, Oregon from China in the 1850s.
After working on a farm there for more than 30 years, all while sending money to his family back in China.
His employer named a dark crossbred cherry after him.
And since then, he's been credited with changing the international food market.
The first time I heard the name bean cherry I was talking about growing grocery shopping with my mom and she said oh, we want bean cherries.
Those are the good ones.
And even then, I remember thinking, oh, that's a funny name.
It almost sounds Chinese.
And it was years later when I found out that there's a good reason why it sounds Chinese.
And you know this whole time like growing up in America.
You grow up with your Johnny Appleseeds, your Paul Bunyans.
And to imagine that there was this Chinese immigrant man this whole time, who is equally important and like left a legacy that was like equally delicious.
It was mind-blowing.
The authors believe there's an opportunity for children's literature to feature more Asian American stories.
According to the Cooperative Children's Book Center, which reviews the majority of children's books published in the US, only about 12 of the children's books feature Asian characters.
When I heard about Bing's story at first, it really made me proud to be Asian American, because it reminded me that Chinese Americans have been here, they have been contributing for a long time and we are American.
And I hope that kids will be able to have that realization as well.
For Livia, the story is much more than a tall tale about a sweet treat.
It's also the story of America.
I think it's important to have positive stories of immigration out there to remind people that you know we are a country of immigrants and immigrants have made big contributions to the country.
And I think every kid deserves to see themselves Up next.
It occurred to me this style of travel allows you to see more.
So you're not just going from point A to point B, From camel rides to cargo boats, this man is taking the scenic route around the planet.
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Most people see the world by booking flights.
But Omar Nook left home in Egypt with a very different goal.
Circle the globe without ever stepping foot on an airplane.
It occurred to me this style of travel allows you to see more.
So you're not just going from point A to point B. You also want to see everything in between.
So it allows me to see more of the world.
He quit his job as a financial analyst for Amazon in 2022 to travel the world full-time something that was out of reach growing up.
CNN spoke to him from his latest stop in Honduras.
Travel is not a big thing in our family.
And if someone travels outside of Egypt, it's like the event of the year.
But traveling outside of Egypt, exploring the world, it just brings some tears to my eyes sometimes because it's just so different and so unexpected of how I thought my life would turn out.
And this isn't his first no-fly adventure.
Two years ago, he made a shorter trip from Egypt to Japan over the span of nine months.
But this time around.
He estimates this trip could take one to four years to hit all seven continents.
So I'm hitchhiking, I'm on buses trains, small boats, sometimes a camel before, a horse before two horses before.
I camp a lot also, which is awesome because you're in nature and stay in hostels.
So definitely not a luxury type of trip.
Well, on day 228 of the journey, he's almost a quarter of the way through.
He told us he planned to cross into Mexico from Belize as he continues heading north through Central America.
Some of the highlights he says he's done so far hitchhiking with Venezuelan immigrants through South America, attending an ayahuasca ceremony in the Amazon rainforest and accidentally joining a pilgrimage in India.
I had no idea what I was getting into and then I found myself inside.
And they thought I converted into Hinduism and everyone was so excited.
And while the journey is about seeing the world, it's also changed how he sees people.
I learned that I can never truly know a place until I go there.
And especially also the people.
There's a lot more good in the world than one would think.
All right, that's all for now.
Thank you so much for listening.
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Be sure to join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing, wherever you get your podcasts.
Take care.
Until 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.
The 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.
