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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.
A New View of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’
CNN 5 Good Things
Sep 28, 2024
Some new research might convince you to try dabbling in arts and crafts. Scientists have learned that the swirls in Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night” painting don't appear to be random. A pet cat wandered almost 1,000 miles back home. Why conservationists brought huge elephant sculptures to New York City. Plus, school is back in session, we’re revisiting why some parents of elementary school kids in upstate New York like getting calls from the principal’s office.
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo
00:00:00
Hey there, here's your weekly dose of feel good stories.
Dr. Adam Frank
00:00:04
Art and science are both ways to understand the truth. There's different kinds of truths, but in the end, they come back to the same source. And that's what's really extraordinary about these results.
Krista Bo
00:00:15
Hear about new research that suggests one of the most recognizable paintings was more scientifically accurate than we previously thought. Plus, why a herd of life sized elephants are stampeding the concrete jungle. From CNN, I'm Krista Bo and this is Five Good Things.
Principal Katy Lumb (on the phone)
00:00:38
Hi, can I please speak with Karen? Hi, can I please speak with Jenny? Can I please speak with Brianna or Kenneth? Hi, it's Mrs. Lumb...
Krista Bo
00:00:45
'So all my parents out there, imagine getting a call from the principal's office and feeling excited instead of anxious. Each week at Richard Mann Elementary School in Walworth, New York, a handful of well-behaved and studious kids get nominated by teachers, bus drivers and other staff members. And they get to call home from Principal Katy Lumb's office to share and celebrate their achievements and good deeds. If you're an OG Five Good Things listener, you might remember this from our very first episode. It's called the Proud Calls Program.
Principal Katy Lumb
00:01:18
I think it's important that every child comes to school every day and feels like they belong and that they matter and that they're seen for big things and little things.
Krista Bo
00:01:29
Students have been back to school for three weeks now, and already around 40 kids and counting have done something to be proud about.
Kid 1
00:01:36
I've been helping someone out not be scared.
Kid 2
00:01:40
I have earned a Proud Call because I was a role model for my classmates by spreading kindness.
Kid 3
00:01:46
I was focused and driven about my math.
Principal Katy Lumb
00:01:52
We're so proud of them.
Parent
00:01:54
Yeah.
Principal Katy Lumb
00:01:53
Are you kind to your friends?
Kid 1
00:01:55
Yeah.
Principal Katy Lumb
00:01:55
Yeah.
Parent
00:01:56
I'm so proud of you, baby.
Kid 1
00:01:57
Thank you.
Principal Katy Lumb
00:01:59
I want kids to know that it doesn't take winning a gigantic award or acing a test for us to feel proud of who they are at school.
Krista Bo
00:02:12
One of my favorite arts and crafts activities to do lately is making colorful, beaded bracelets with fun phrases on them. The Swifties call these friendship bracelets. The electronic dance music community calls them Kandi bracelets. But whatever you call them. I found making them is just as fun as trading them with people. It's also a nice way for me to unwind after a stressful day. Dr. Helen Keyes says I'm not alone in that feeling.
Dr. Helen Keyes
00:02:38
So there is this sense of kind of mindfulness when you're engaging in crafting. It's a really good way of switching off, engaging your mind and something else entirely and stop your mind from racing in that way.
Krista Bo
00:02:49
She's a psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK. She led a study that found engaging and creative activities is an affordable way to significantly boost wellbeing by providing meaningful space for expression and achievement. They used a sample of data from a major national survey in the UK to investigate how creative activities could impact life satisfaction among the general population ages 16 and over.
Dr. Helen Keyes
00:03:15
'People who engaged in crafting - so things like knitting and drawing, photography were more satisfied with their lives. They were happier, and they had more of a sense that their lives were worthwhile compared to those who didn't engage with crafting.
Krista Bo
00:03:30
Dr. Keith said they were surprised to learn that crafting can be just as satisfying for some people as having a job.
Dr. Helen Keyes
00:03:37
Your employment should give you a sense of mastery, a sense of control, and a sense of progress. Not everybody's employment really does give that to them. It doesn't fulfill you in all those ways.
Krista Bo
00:03:48
So if you're feeling unfulfilled at work, she says crafting can tick boxes that your job doesn't.
Dr. Helen Keyes
00:03:54
That sense of progress, a sense of achievement, being able to get into a flow state, a sense of mastery, all these beautiful things. So it's a really easy route, really into a kind of good wellbeing and a sense of achievement and self satisfaction.
Krista Bo
00:04:11
Speaking of art, one of the most iconic paintings ever to exist is Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night." He painted it back in 1889, and many people think the blue and white swirly skies could have been a reflection of the stormy state of his mind at the time. But some new research suggests these famous swirls are actually pretty scientifically accurate. Scientists analyzed the brushstrokes in "Starry Night" and found they mirror the chaotic but mathematical behavior of turbulence.
Dr. Adam Frank
00:04:43
So turbulence is this fundamental process that happens all around us. It is a fluid dynamical process. So it could be the air or it could be water. It is these roiling, tumbling motions that fluids can do where you get like lots of big swirls and you also get lots of little swirls all happening at the same time.
Krista Bo
00:05:02
That's Dr. Adam Frank. He's an astrophysicist and a professor at the University of Rochester. He wasn't involved in the study, but was absolutely fascinated by its results that make it seem like Van Gogh didn't just paint those swirls willy nilly.
Dr. Adam Frank
00:05:16
He was watching the sky and was moved deeply by it. And in his brushstrokes in his painting, he was sort of finding the same pattern that mathematically physicists would find 50 years later.
Krista Bo
00:05:29
He told me this finding is a beautiful example of how the arts and sciences aren't that different after all.
Dr. Adam Frank
00:05:36
Art and science are both ways to understand the truth. There's different kinds of truths, but in the end they come back to the same source. And that's what's really extraordinary about these results. They're both expressions of what it means to be human, the best parts of what it means to be human.
Krista Bo
00:05:59
Susanne and Benny Anguiano's summer camping trip to Yellowstone National Park quickly turned stressful when their beloved cat Rayne Beau wandered off one day on the trip. Suzanne told CNN affiliate KSBW that her husband searched tirelessly for Rayne Beau.
Susanne Anguiano
00:06:16
He went every day into the forest for hours looking for him.
Krista Bo
00:06:20
But the two and a half year old fluffy gray Siamese kitty was nowhere to be found.
Susanne Anguiano
00:06:25
We had to leave without him. That was the hardest day because I felt like I was abandoning him.
Krista Bo
00:06:30
Susanne and Benny were back home in Salinas, California for two months when they received a message that stunned them.
Dr. Adam Frank
00:06:37
There up pops this message from Pet Watch. Rayne Beau with identifier, microchip number 12 digits long, has been identified.
Krista Bo
00:06:47
Rayne Beau had been found and brought to a local shelter in a California community about 190 miles from Salinas. That means he'd traveled more than 900 miles from Wyoming.
Susanne Anguiano
00:06:59
He was really depleted. He probably didn't have a lot of energy to maybe even go further.
Krista Bo
00:07:04
The couple says they have no idea how their pet cat made that epic journey by himself, but they are so grateful to be reunited.
Krista Bo
00:07:17
Coming up, who doesn't love elephants? We'll tell you why some artists brought 100 of them to New York City.
Krista Bo
00:07:28
Don't be surprised if you see a herd of elephants in the concrete jungle. 100 life size elephant sculptures have been scattered around New York City's famous Meatpacking District.
Ruth Ganesh
00:07:39
Nothing like 100 elephants to communicate a message. Certainly better than anything kind of that you could capture in a PowerPoint.
Krista Bo
00:07:45
'That's Ruth Ganesh, who is a co-founder of the Coexistence Collective. The Meatpacking District Management Association says the elephants are part of one of the largest public installations the city has ever seen. And it's called the Great Elephant Migration. The Collective has helped create the installation along with the international nonprofit, Elephant Family USA. Together, they're hoping visitors will be inspired to protect these and other animals. Ruth runs the Coexistence Collective with Tarsh Thakaekara. He's a wildlife researcher and a conservationist.
Tarsh Thakaekara
00:08:18
The idea is that if people are able to live with elephants, hopefully people, other places can live with other forms of life.
Krista Bo
00:08:24
He says they worked with nearly 200 artisans from indigenous communities in South India to build the elephants, which are all unique and based on real life elephants in the region.
Tarsh Thakaekara
00:08:33
They're made out of a plant called Lantana Camara. It's the second most widely distributed invasive plant in the world. It contains toxins, so nothing can eat it, really. And it completely takes over forests. So the idea is that in trying to use the plant, we provide a livelihood for people. We benefit the forests and create global awareness around these issues.
Krista Bo
00:08:53
The elephants are for sale and all proceeds will go towards funding nature and animal conservation projects like this one. But the herd will be on the move soon. It stays in New York City until October 20th and then continues its journey across the country. The next stop is Miami.
Krista Bo
00:09:14
'All right, that's all for now. But before you go, we'd love to hear from you. Do you have any feel good stories to share? Did you help a neighbor? Raise awareness about a cause? Start a company or build something that will help people and or the planet? Call us and let us know. The number is 404-981-2293. Don't forget to tell us your name and how we can reach you. Your voicemail could be featured in an upcoming episode of the podcast. And we hope you'll join us again tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing.
Krista Bo
00:09:46
Five Good Things is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Eryn Mathewson, Emily Williams and me, Krista Bo. Our senior producers are Felicia Patinkin and Faiz Jamil. Matt Dempsey as 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 Katie Hinman. And thank you for listening. I will be on my honeymoon for the next two weeks, but you'll be in good hands. Take care. Till next time.
