5 Good Things: A Rhode Island Community’s ‘Miracle on Ice’

0:00Hey there, welcome, we've got some great stories lined up for you today. Triumph, amid tragedy, a breakthrough treatment, and a adorable baby monkey update. I'm Cristobal Palanco, and this is CNN 5Git Things. Connection and human relationships are the bedrock of happiness. We'll tell you how two of the loneliest generations are fine to enjoy, even though they're thousands of miles apart. Then, Time Magazine called this treatment for Parkinson's disease one of the best inventions of 2025. Being able to personalize the treatments through this technology is just an incredible advancement. And later on, I told them before the season started that this was a special team. A Rhode Island community experienced their own miracle on ice. We got to take a quick break, but when we come back, they won't remember how perfect the hair was, but they will hopefully remember the conversation. How a group of dads are stepping out of their comfort zones to show up for their daughters. So, 35 dads walk into a pub in London.

1:00Now I know that sounds like the start of a joke, but what they're doing is anything but. These proud pops have come together to learn how to brush, braid, and style their daughter's hair. Video of the event called Paints and Pony Tales has gotten over 30 million views combined on Instagram and TikTok so far, and has charmed people from around the globe. On the surface, it looks like quite a cute video on Instagram, but it is more than that. It is a safe space where dads can go to learn a skill that honors their daughters whilst breaking old stereotypes around outdated ideas around masculinity. And what's beautiful as well is that everybody in that room has the very different experience of fatherhood, and they're able to come together and discuss and end doing so. They could help another dad on their journey. Matt Lewis Carter and Lawrence Price are dads that have been friends for a decade. They co-host the Secret Life of Dad's podcast about the realities of fatherhood. They started Paints and Pony Tales to bring those conversations offline.

2:04With beers in hand, many of them alcohol-free, by the way. The fathers learn how to tackle common hairdos like ponytails, buns, and French braids on mannequin heads. The next day you see dads posting photos of the girl's hair and look what I've done here. It doesn't matter if the plates or the braids aren't perfect. They won't remember how perfect the hair was, but they will hopefully remember the conversation. They've had two events so far this year and the next one is next week. They say tickets sold out in five minutes. They're now cooking up some events for boy dads. Modern fatherhood is an opportunity for dads to really open up their range and their heart of what's possible and to show up in a new, beautiful way. And that's something that we've been witnessing with Paints and Pony Tales. If you want to get involved, Matt Morons can help you get started. Their Instagram is linked in the show notes. Hello. Hello. Hello. On Boston University's campus, one payphone says call a boomer. The other, at a senior living complex, almost 3,000 miles away in Reno, Nevada, says call

3:04a zoomer. So when you pick up the phone and Boston, it automatically calls the phone and redone and if someone's in the gamer and picks up, you can have a conversation and if not, you can need a voicemail. Hi. My name is Jennifer. I give it for our Brendan. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Brendan. Where are you? I'm in Boston right now. Madder Neuroscience, a startup dedicated to training your brain to be happier is behind the project. The idea is simple. Connect baby boomers in Gen Z, which research shows are the loneliest generations. Kayla Kessler is the company's social strategist. We want to bridge those inner generational gaps and show that friendship doesn't have age constraints. Do you have any advice for me? I think that everybody should just kind of get off their phones and get out and do things by themselves and meet other people that are doing things by themselves. That's what I like to do. They're halfway through the month-long experiment and so far they say it's proving the reason they started this in the first place. Connection and human relationships are the bedrock of happiness.

4:07Having relationships with your friends, family and community is what is going to activate those good neurotransmitters more frequently and with more intensity than if you're going through life by yourself. More than a million Americans are living with Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder that affects movement, balance and coordination. But a breakthrough device is changing patients' lives by giving them a more personalized way to manage the disease. It's called adaptive deep brain stimulation or ADBS. It's like a pacemaker for the brain, that it's detecting when these abnormal signals are particularly active and then trying to listen and respond, just like a hard pacemaker does. Stanford University's Garov Chatri has been treating Parkinson's patients for seven years. And he says that while deep brain stimulation has been around since the 1990s, the adaptive component of this new device is a game changer. Normal deep brain stimulation gives this continuous electrical stimulation throughout the day.

5:11But in reality, patients' symptoms can fluctuate quite a bit from day to day. So instead of delivering constant stimulation, the device listens to brain activity in response in real time, dialing stimulation up or down to help control symptoms like tremors throughout the day. Each patient has a remote with them that they can use to control their device and so they can do things like change different programs, which we can optimize for certain symptoms. So I set this one to speech today because my speech can get a little slurred sometimes. People think I'm drinking. I'm not. Hi, my name is John Lipp. I am 60 years old and I was diagnosed in 2015, a month before my 50th birthday. It was a shock, but it was also what I called one of the best days of my life that I know that sounds really weird, but it's really hard to diagnose. So when they finally told me I've got Parkinson's, it was like, yes, I can put a name to this

6:12disease that's been hijacking my body. And if you can name it, you can fight it. As the disease progressed, it took its toll on John. He says walking became harder. He was tripping more and cramping a lot. At one point, he says he was taking up to 16 pills a day. So John signed up for a clinical trial, becoming one of the first patients to receive the adaptive device back in 2021. That study led to the FDA approval of the device in February 2025. I was able to work four more years at a job I loved, and then I ran two more marathons in 24 and 25 before that. I think I could have ever done that again. So this is not a cure. It's just a treatment, but if it makes other people's lives better, it is worth it. There's a lot of work to be done to really push this technology to its true maximum potential. And so this is a great, you know, promising first step. When tragedy struck a high school boys hockey team in Rhode Island last month, no one would

7:14have blamed them for walking away, but they didn't. They want to stay championship instead. Wednesday's triumph comes a month after an unimaginable horror unfolded during one of Blackstone Valley co-ops games. The team captain, Colin Dorgon lost his mother, brother, and grandfather in a shooting carried out by his father, who also died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After the team took a few days to process what happened, they decided to continue the season with grief counseling sessions and team dinners to bond. But the head coach, Chris LeBrizzy, told CNN, Colin understandably took a little longer to grieve. When I met with Colin, I said, listen, if you decide that you don't want to come back to the team, I'll be right here by your side, always supporting you. However, if you decide not to come back, and I allow that to happen, Colin, your mom would kick my ass. About two weeks after the shooting, the high school senior decided to return to the ice. When I came back from the break, these kids made me feel right at home.

8:16They made me feel like really one of their brothers, and it truly means a lot to me. We wouldn't be here right now if Colin Dorey didn't come back to our team. There's no doubt in my mind. In the States and my finals earlier this month, Colin stamped the team's ticket to the State Championship by scoring the game winning goal in double over time. In the final on Wednesday, he tied the game with just 30 seconds left in the third period. The team later clinched the title in quadruple over time. When the game was over, Coach LeBrizzy and Colin shared a big long bear hug on the ice. I think it was the longest I've ever hugged anybody in my life. And I said, Colin, I am so proud of you. I said, what you did coming back to this team and overcoming adversity is just second to none. It was just a really special moment. I'll carry that for a lifetime. Colin told CNN affiliate WJAR he couldn't have done it without Angels on his shoulder. They're with me every step of the way. And I could just threw out all of the playoffs even in this game in the over times.

9:19I think I truly felt it in my heart and my soul that they're still with me. I love them so much and they're still here and I know it. Up next, millions of people have been rooting for this little monkey and now there's good news to share. Stick around. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink, then straight to the gym. Pre-K pick up, back home to meal prep, time for my fire session shift. One more Celsius kind of keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius, live, fit, go. Grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com. All right, we'll leave you with the heartwarming update on the world's favorite monkey. Punch, the abandoned baby macaque, finally made some friends at a zoo in Japan. And if you don't know who punches, he's the internet's latest star with the global fanbase. And this message is for a punch, the monkey, and punched a monkey only.

10:21I don't know about you guys, but I'm totally obsessed with that little Japanese monkey that was abandoned by his mom. Oh my gosh, he's the cutest thing ever. We love him so much. The pint-sized primate was abandoned by his mother shortly after he was born last July. To fill that maternal void, the zookeepers gave him an orangutang stuffed animal, clinging onto for emotional support. At first, the seven-month-old struggled to fit in with the other monkeys in his enclosure, often getting shunned or scolded by older ones. Videos of punch dragging the stuffed toy around or getting bullied by bigger monkeys have tugged at the hard strings of millions of people online. Zookeeper Shin Pei Miyakashi told CNN's Hanako Montgomery that punch is now finally fitting in and relying less on the toy. He still uses it to go to sleep or calm himself down though. He's been doing his best to grow, learning from those early experiences. Now he's communicating with other monkeys, and it's great to see him reaching those milestones. Fans from around the world travel to see him in person.

11:24I think he all could relate to some sense being in an unfamiliar environment, not knowing the people around you and then just trying to fit in as much as we can. If you want to see videos of punch, click the link in our description and subscribe to the CNN 5 Good Things newsletter for some extra cuteness. All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed the show, and if you did, send it to a friend so they can too. And join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing. Host David Ryan speaks to Wired Senior Writer Kate Knives about why the Trump administration is not trying to rein in online prediction markets. Have a good day. Take care. Till next time.