5 Good Things: A Hit Show That is Making ‘Zillennials’ Nostalgic

Hey there, welcome! I've got some extra pep in my step this week, now that spring has sprung.

And if you're not there yet, don't worry, these stories will help you get there.

I'm Cristobo Palanco, and this is CNN 5 Good Things.

Not only are cherry blossoms in bloom, a critical pollinator that's been in decline for decades is making a comeback.

Nature is telling us, give me space, give me opportunity, and I will bounce back.

And later on...

By all science, I shouldn't be here.

By all medical personnel, I should not be here. That's what every one of them has told me.

It was a miracle.

Meet the first patient in the world to receive a treatment that could change trauma care.

And in Philadelphia, what started as an idea behind bars is now making a difference for people in need.

Plus, you get the best of both worlds.

The millennials like me had a blast this week looking back at a show that meant so much to so many.

When we come back...

We've always been here. We've always been playing.

It's just now we're finally being seen.

The new pro league stepping up to the plate.

It's not just something you made. It's the privilege that you get to work with your hands.

It's building something that serves a purpose.

Proof that you have the grit to keep going.

At Timberland, we understand you take your craft seriously, and we do too.

Which is why our products are built to the highest quality.

We put in the work so you can perfect yours with purpose in every detail and crafted with intention.

Timberland, built on craft, visit Timberland.com to shop.

While Major League Baseball season starts this week,

a league seven decades in the making is finally taking the field.

The women's professional baseball league just wrapped spring training last week in Fort Myers, Florida.

Being out there also was such a blessing, especially when you're so used to being the only female in your team, right?

Kelsey Whitmore, the league's number one overall draft pick by San Francisco,

says it's a moment the pitcher and out builder has been dreaming about ever since she was six years old.

It's one of those things that you're like, wow, like everything in the past, the adversity, the struggles, the rejections, the redirections.

It was all worth it in the end because now I don't have to worry about trying to be someone I'm not in order to feel worthy enough to play this game.

The league will have 60 players across four teams, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.

The eight week season officially starts August 1st in Springfield, Illinois.

And it's arriving at a moment when women's sports are seeing some major dividends.

This week, the WNBA's players agreed to a landmark seven year collective bargaining deal.

Yes, Pian reports the average player's salary is around four times higher than last year's.

And for the first time ever, they get a share of the league's revenue.

So Kelsey says the WPBL couldn't have come at a better time.

We've always been here. We've always been playing.

It's just now we're finally being seen.

There's going to be so many young girls who now can see us and they can now believe in themselves that they can be a professional baseball player.

Spring has sprung. In fact, in southern parts of the US, you might start spotting some monarch butterflies flying by.

This year, after decades of decline, the orange and black beauties are making a major comeback.

We're very happy to share that the population this year showed an increase of 64% from last year.

An important step forward in conservation of monarch butterflies.

Let's marry a Josevian widow with the World Wildlife Fund Mexico.

Every winter, millions of monarchs travel nearly 3,000 miles to a forest mountain range about 60 miles north of Mexico City.

The conservation group has tracked how many make that remarkable journey for decades.

They don't count each butterfly one by one. Instead, they measure the area they cover on trees.

And the amount of coverage went from nearly four and a half acres last year to more than seven this year.

That's the equivalent of just over seven football fields.

Nature is telling us, give me space, give me opportunity and I will bounce back.

So what's behind the rebound? Two things. The humid climate helped milkweed the only plant monarchs lay their eggs on grow more widely,

giving the next generation a better chance at survival.

And secondly, Mexico's been protecting the forest where butterflies spend the winter from deforestation.

Now monarch populations are still down sharply from the 1990s and they still remain vulnerable to climate change,

pesticide use and habitat loss across North America.

So Maria says the crucial work to protect them continues.

Monarch butterflies are pollinators, 75% of the food that we eat come from pollinators.

And I always do this analogy, humans are playing jenga.

Each species, each process that we make more vulnerable or loose,

that is making more unstable our structure.

We should be rejoiceful that the population is bouncing back.

Doc, how are you doing?

Good to see you.

Good to see you too.

You look great, man.

Thank you.

Oh.

By all science, I shouldn't be here.

By all medical personnel, I should not be here.

That's what every one of them have told me.

It was a miracle.

CNN exclusively spoke to Ronald Farms, the first person in the world to get a life-saving treatment for internal bleeding called rescue foam.

From car crashes to gunshot wounds, the futuristic foam is meant to give patients a better chance of surviving major trauma cases when minutes matter most.

So rescue foam is like a human fix a flat.

Fix a flat is designed to fill the tire and seal the hole so that you can get to a gas station to repair it.

The rescue foam is designed to fill the abdomen and stop bleeding temporarily until you can get to an operating room.

Dr. Preston Huckley was the trauma surgeon who treated Ron last August after he suffered severe internal bleeding from a really bad car crash.

When Ron arrived at the hospital, Dr. Huckley said that then 34-year-old was in and out of consciousness and time was of the essence.

Doctors immediately knew he could be a candidate for rescue foam.

When a patient comes into the hospital in shock from intra-dominal bleeding,

the only way we can treat that is to rush them to the operating room as fast as possible and perform surgery.

And rescue foam is designed to just give us a little extra time.

The foam has to be extracted through the same type of surgery we would use to treat intra-dominal bleeding.

So we only want to use it and someone we know is going to go to surgery.

And it worked?

Dr. Huckley and them had told my family that I would possibly, even if I made it through the surgeries, I would never walk again.

But lo and behold, here I am walking.

More research is needed to learn more about potential side effects.

But Dr. Huckley believes the benefits outweigh the risks.

He believes rescue foam could be a game changer.

The side effects that we see from rescue foam usage are manageable compared to intra-dominal hemorrhage, which is oftentimes fatal.

I just think the Lord that he gave the knowledge, the gifts, the talents to these people helps save my life.

If I see somebody in need and I have a service that I'm offering, you know, why not offer it to them?

Joe Richardson Dunston knows what it's like to fall on hard times.

And now he's using that experience to lift others up.

He's the owner of Spinning Go, a mobile laundry service bringing clean clothes directly to people in need across Philadelphia.

Whether you have money or don't have money, it's just an opportunity to have clean clothes.

It's kind of like going to the barber shop or getting nails done, it's therapeutic for people that are struggling, you know, going through hard times.

Twice a week you can find him parked near City Hall or Love Park, washing clothes for people experiencing homelessness, families and shelters, single mothers, anyone who needs it.

Joe charges clients a dollar a pound, but he won't turn anyone away if they can't cover the cost.

He even gets some financial support from his local church.

It's his way of helping people in need with basic necessities.

This idea was created in my mind in 2010 when I was actually incarcerated.

I realized that it was time for a change and to do better things with my life.

In September 2024, he launched his laundry business with one washer and one dryer, and today he has four of each.

He says he's able to help about 50 people a day.

So what started as an idea during his lowest moments is now helping others get through some of theirs.

I just wanted to help people one load at a time.

Up next, why one show is still resonating with a generation 20 years later.

My day kicks off with a refreshing sociocenergy drink, then straight to the gym.

Pre-get pick up, back home to meal prep, time for my fire session shift.

One more Celsius gotta keep the lights on.

When the three alarm hits, I'm ready.

Celsius, live, fit, go.

Grab a cold refreshing sociocenerate local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com.

Not sure how to tackle your taxes.

Are you sweating the small print?

You may be experiencing FOMO, the fear of messing up.

The answer?

Using turbo tax on into a credit karma.

They help you get your biggest refund, and then we help you do more with it,

with a personalized plan designed to help you hit your money goals.

It's time to take your taxes to the max.

Start filing today in the Credit Karma app.

If any of the millennials in your life are feeling particularly nostalgic this week,

it may be because Disney icon Hannah Montana is celebrating her 20th anniversary this week.

The series ran from 2006 to 2011, and followed a middle schooler living a double life as a famous pop star.

So even if you've never seen the series, the energy around it was hard to miss.

This is Hannah Montana Week, everybody.

Like this is?

You just finished the Hannah Montana special, and I'm sick with nostalgia,

but me and my friend have been talking about your car, and I even be a rock star.

I'm dressing up like its star, Miley Cyrus, to posting tributes online.

Fans and even new viewers tuned into a special that reunited some of the cast on Disney Plus and Hulu.

The teaser amassed over a hundred million views alone.

It's home sweet home.

Home sweet home.

CNN Sophia Sanchez spoke with fans at a Hannah Montana lookalike contest in New York City.

And for them, the character meant more than just a TV role.

I was a tomboy growing up, so she made me feel more comfortable in my femininity.

And just seeing how she can be two things at once.

I was just drawn to the whole plot, the concept, and her as a person.

I also love the confidence she displayed.

I think that was a good example for young girls as well.

Miley to me was just such a bright, bubbly person that I wanted to be.

And she was the it girl of that time.

Lauren D'Souza grew up in France and says he started watching the show with subtitles when he was six years old.

When I fell in love with this character, I also fell in love with the person behind it.

She was sassy, she knew what she wanted and that was like inspiring to me because I was always like a little shy.

Now at 25, he runs the viral Instagram account out of context Hannah Montana.

The clothes, the dub alive, the wig, and the music, of course, and the iconic references.

The memes, whenever she does something, my mom is going to talk to me about it.

Like, she's like a member of the overall family at this point.

For a deeper look at the fans and why the show still resonates, check out SofiaStory on CNN.com.

The link is also in our show notes.

All right, that's all for now.

Thank you so much for listening.

There's more goodness for 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 CNN One Thing, all about the landmark verdict in a trial that could reshape social media as we know it.

Have a good day, till next time.

I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy.

This week on the podcast, Terms of Service.

There's a growing category of products aimed specifically at addressing women's unique health needs.

These tools and services are sometimes known as FEM tech.

And they can provide big opportunities and benefits, but they can also come with some risks.

To walk us through all of this, I spoke with Bethany Corbin.

Bethany is an attorney and CEO of FEM Innovation, where she advises startups, clinicians, and healthcare organizations.

In my opinion, what it really does is gives us a collective language to talk about women's healthcare innovation and the tools that are out there

so that we can take control of our healthcare experiences and know how to advocate for ourselves in a system that's probably not been designed to advocate for us.

Listen to CNN's Terms of Service, wherever you get your podcasts.