Krista Bo (host)
00:00:00
'Hey there, I'm Krista Bo with your weekly dose of feel-good stories. You'll hear about new research that could revolutionize how Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed and treated, and how to prevent future dementia cases by a staggering amount.
Plus USA all the way! Yeah, boy!
Krista Bo (host)
00:00:19
How a rapper became the biggest hype man for a U.S. women's sports team at the Paris Olympics. From CNN, this is 5 Good Things.
Grace Kerber and Ben Bushen are digital branding creators at Mohawk Chevrolet, a car dealership in Saratoga County, New York. But you can also add to their titles: TikTok stars. Their videos, modeled after the mockumentary sitcom The Office, have earned Mohawk Chevrolet millions of views and more than 130,000 followers.
People are used to car dealerships, you know, very flashy advertising, pushing out the deals. It's refreshing, in a way, for someone to see a local car dealership take such a different approach.
Krista Bo (host)
00:01:02
Their first video that really blew up was their fifth episode, "Lemme Drive the 'Rado."
Ben Bushen (TikTok)
00:01:07
You got like, a lot of room.
Grace Kerber (TikTok)
00:01:09
I don't know, I think I'm gonna hit that truck.
Ben Bushen (TikTok)
00:01:11
'So every time we have to film cars for the commercials, Grace calls dibs on the trucks. That's awesome, I thought at first, but after the 38-point turn, I had to help her through, I was thinking maybe we should switch it up.
Krista Bo (host)
00:01:25
Of the two, Ben is the bigger Office fan. He shoots and edits the videos and appears in some of them. But Grace is the star, joined by a cast of their coworkers.
It's not hard to get anybody to be in our videos.
It's just an awesome culture here and everyone has a lot of fun all the time anyways, so it's just kind of an extension of that.
Krista Bo (host)
00:01:44
Their account has been flooded with positive comments from people saying Netflix should pick them up, and that Grace and Ben deserve Emmys.
A lot of them, I'd say, would be like, oh, I live in California, but I'm driving to Mohawk Chevrolet to get a car.
Krista Bo (host)
00:01:57
Grace said seeing the videos' popularity translates to car sales is probably more of a long game, but their bosses are very proud of their viral success.
My brain can't grasp that like all these comments, these are real, individual people loving this video that we made. It's just crazy.
Krista Bo (host)
00:02:20
The progress being made lately in preventing, diagnosing, and treating dementia and Alzheimer's disease is pretty remarkable.
Dr. Maria Carrillo
00:02:27
These are absolutely transformational times.
Krista Bo (host)
00:02:29
Doctor Maria Carillo is the chief science officer at the Alzheimer's Association. She's praising a promising study published this week in JAMA Neurology that found a combined blood test that measures certain biomarkers in the brain can catch 90% of early dementia cases. The study says the test does a better job of diagnosing than neurologists and primary care doctors do. Doctor Carrillo told CNN she hopes blood tests like this could be as routine as a physical someday.
Dr. Maria Carrillo
00:02:57
We love them to be able to be used in a primary care physician's office so that they can turn into the cholesterol test for Alzheimer's.
Krista Bo (host)
00:03:04
And the earlier doctors can diagnose, the faster people can seek treatment. While more research is needed, Doctor Carrillo says this paves the way to get more trials done for the next new medication to treat a disease that impacts tens of millions of people worldwide. Some more new research is showing us ways to prevent or delay dementia. A new report from The Lancet Commission highlights that addressing 14 risk factors from childhood onward could prevent or delay nearly half of all dementia cases. Factors to tackle and treat include high cholesterol and vision loss – which are new – and less education, physical inactivity, hypertension and infrequent social contact. So research suggests you can significantly reduce your risk with regular exercise, maintaining healthy weight, managing blood pressure, and staying socially engaged.
Mayor Eric Adams
00:03:58
Everyone that knows me, they know one thing: I hate rats.
Krista Bo (host)
00:04:02
So, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is on a crusade to rid the five boroughs of rats. And no matter how you feel about it, you gotta admit it's kind of funny. So is this clip of a city sanitation official that went viral a while ago.
The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement. But the rats don't run the city. We do.
Krista Bo (host)
00:04:23
Well, they might hate this one, too. WCBS reports the mayor's calling on New Yorkers to join the new Rat Pack in town. That's also the name of my friend group. But we don't have to get into that.
Mayor Eric Adams
00:04:33
You don't have to be Frank Sinatra and the crew. It's just a different type of leader to fight the rats. And we want you to join up and become a member of our Rat Pack.
Krista Bo (host)
00:04:45
'Inspired by the group name of iconic performers in the 50s, the New York City Rat Pack is a group of volunteers helping the city take on its long-standing rodent problem. And those who join and complete the training get some flashy swag like a t-shirt and a hat. Reaction from residents about the Rat Pack has been kind of mixed, but I think we can all agree cleaner communities where rats and humans can co-exist peacefully would be nice.
'It's a pretty great feeling to score a good deal at a thrift store, isn't it? But history buff Richard Moore, who goes by Dana, had that feeling, times about 1000, after he bought a rare piece of American history from Goodwill. Dana was scrolling Goodwill's online listings in 2022 when he came across something unusual. It was a framed piece of cream-colored fabric with red trim and a note that identified it as a piece of one of George Washington's tents.
Richard Dana Moore
00:05:40
I peered at it for about five minutes. I opened the screen up closer to bring it closer to my eyes. I thought, this looks real.
Krista Bo (host)
00:05:50
But he was still skeptical and decided to hold off. But eventually, he took a chance, and after a bid of about $1,700, the artifact was his. He was still worried he'd been duped, though, and hadn't told his wife, Susan, yet.
He didn't tell me about it for a while, because it was a lot of money, and there was no way to tell if it was real.
Krista Bo (host)
00:06:07
But then they wondered if there was a way to find out. Dana reached out to the Museum of American Revolution in Philadelphia to help. And then one day at work, Dana got a phone call that he says he'll never forget.
Richard Dana Moore
00:06:18
He said, Mr. Moore, we are very interested in having this. I really, truly believe this is the real deal. And I went, oh, boy. He must have asked me at least twice. He said, now where did you acquire this? He said, at a flea market or an auction? I said, no Goodwill. And he went, excuse me, Goodwill?
Krista Bo (host)
00:06:38
Museum experts determined Dana's fragment came from the first U.S. president's dining tent. The Smithsonian owns the full tent. Dana loaned the fragment to the Museum of American Revolution for a special exhibit that's on display through early 2025. Dana is the only known private person who owns that particular piece of history.
Richard Dana Moore
00:06:57
You know, when you're before this relic, this fragment of history, American history breaking away from British rule is it's our infancy as a country.
It's just kind of overwhelming to own something like that.
Richard Dana Moore
00:07:10
Unbelievable.
Krista Bo (host)
00:07:17
Coming up, why a rapper became the biggest fan of a U.S. women's sports team at the Olympics.
It's hard to boil down all the goodness that came out of the Paris Olympics. But what a week for Team USA!
Go USA, USA all the way! Yeah, boy!
Krista Bo (host)
00:07:40
Flavor Flav is the official hype man and sponsor for the U.S. water polo teams. Making ends meet in niche sports like water polo can be difficult. So that's why Flavor Flav is helping the U.S. women's team out financially on their quest to clinch their fourth gold medal.
When they're not in the water, they're home, you know, living actual working lives. You know, I'm saying one, two and three jobs and they're you out here busting their butts to make United States look good. You know what I'm saying? So I say, why not help give these girls a boost.
Krista Bo (host)
00:08:11
The U.S. women's rugby team saw Flavor Flav's fandom and thought, where's our celeb superfan? Star rugby player Ilona Maher recruited recently retired NFL player Jason Kelce in a video she posted on her social media accounts.
I am officially a fan of women's rugby Olympics.
Krista Bo (host)
00:08:30
The team won a bronze medal on Tuesday after pulling off a major upset against Australia. It's the first ever Olympic medal for Americans in the sport's history, men or women.
It just shows our value, our worth, that we're worthy of funding, worthy of money and of attention.
Krista Bo (host)
00:08:46
Ilona told CNN she hopes the win inspires more athletes to get into the sport.
We have girls on our team who started rugby three years ago and here they are at the Olympics, you know? So there's a place for you and there's a spot for you possibly on the LA 2028 team.
Krista Bo (host)
00:09:04
All right, that's all for now. Join us tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing. CNN's Kyung Lah breaks down her investigative reporting on a group called True the Vote, an election monitoring organization that has long peddled debunked voter fraud theories. 5 Good Things is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Emily Williams, Chloe Stein, 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 CNN Sports, Sandee LaMotte, and Katie Hinman. And thank you for listening. Take care. 'Til next time.
