TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year invented a potential treatment for skin cancer. A mother delivered her baby on the side of a highway in Colorado with help from 911. Scientists developed a new light-absorbing material that can turn everyday objects into solar panels. Thousands of people showed up to an open casting call in New Jersey for Happy Gilmore 2. Plus, the city that has so many street cats, adoring locals have set up a museum dedicated to them.
Krista Bo
00:00:00
Hey there, here's your weekly dose of good stories. You'll hear how a mother gave birth on the side of a highway in Colorado with 911 on the phone.
Connor Blinzler
00:00:10
This is one of the good situations that we get to help out with. Truly is rewarding.
Krista Bo
00:00:15
Plus, a city that loves their street cats so much they've dedicated pretty much a whole museum to them. From CNN, I'm Krista Bo, and this is Five Good Things.
Krista Bo
00:00:29
'There's a saying that you're never too young to make a difference. One high school student in Virginia is proving exactly that. Heman Bekele is just 15-years-old, and when he's not playing basketball or participating in a school's marching band, he's developing a bar of soap that could one day treat skin cancer. No big deal.
Heman Bekele
00:00:50
'Pretty much the way that it works is it uses this drug called imiquimod, and it wraps it around these lipid-based nanoparticles. It's a more affordable and accessible alternative to modern day skin cancer treatment.
Krista Bo
00:01:02
It's this invention called the Skin Cancer Treating Soap, or SCTS for short that's earned him the title of Time Magazine's 2024 Kid of the Year. Heman was inspired to address the condition because of where he grew up.
Heman Bekele
00:01:15
I was born in Ethiopia, and I saw so many people that were working really long hours under the hot sun and kind of realized the damage is in the consequences of UV radiation for such long periods of time. I was really inspired to take action.
Krista Bo
00:01:29
In 2022, the World Health Organization estimated there were more than 1.5 million new cases of skin cancer worldwide, and the Skin Cancer Foundation says more people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year in the U.S. than all the other cancers combined. He's been working with skin cancer experts at Johns Hopkins University and the Melanoma Research Alliance to test the treatment before taking the next steps to bring it to market.
Heman Bekele
00:01:55
My goal is that within the next five years, we can turn SCTS from a simple passion project into more of a nonprofit organization, using that nonprofit to be able to distribute the bar of soap to people that need it the most.
Connor Blinzler
00:02:12
South Metro Fire. What's the address of the emergency?
Krista Bo
00:02:17
Cole Kingsbury was driving his pregnant wife, Caitlin, to the hospital last week in Colorado when he had to call 911.
Cole Kingsbury
00:02:24
We've been on our way to the hospital, and the water just broke in the in the car.
Connor Blinzler
00:02:29
If you pull over somewhere, I can get help to where you pull over at.
Cole Kingsbury
00:02:33
Okay. We are pulling over.
Krista Bo
00:02:35
They were only like six minutes away from the hospital, but they couldn't wait any longer.
Connor Blinzler
00:02:40
I'm sending the paramedics to help you now. Stay on the line and I'll tell you exactly what to do next.
Cole Kingsbury
00:02:44
You got this, babe, you got this.
Connor Blinzler
00:02:46
As the baby delivers, support the baby's head and shoulders.
Cole Kingsbury
00:02:50
Okay.
Krista Bo
00:02:51
And Connor Blinzler from South Metro Fire Rescue walked the couple through the delivery on the side of the highway. With Connor on speakerphone, Caitlin was pushing in the front passenger seat. Cole was right beside her, and her two young sons were in the back seat.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:06
He coming! He's coming! He's coming!
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:08
Okay.
Krista Bo
00:03:09
And baby Cale Payton Kingsbury was born shortly afterwards.
Caitlin Kingsbury
00:03:15
Hey baby. Hi!
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:15
Hi!
Krista Bo
00:03:15
Needless to say, the whole experience was pretty chaotic. But finally, the EMTs arrived to help the Kingsburys with the rest.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:25
Biggest relief was seeing those ambulance and fire trucks show up. It was hard to hear, but Connor did a great job being loud enough for us. It helped a lot.
Krista Bo
00:03:35
And the whole family got to meet Connor in person at the hospital.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:38
Thank you. Nice to meet you guys.
Caitlin Kingsbury
00:03:41
So nice to meet you.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:41
Yes, yes. No better time than now, right?
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:43
We owe, ya.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:46
No. No. It's what I do. It's really what I do.
Krista Bo
00:03:48
Meeting the Kingsbury was a humbling moment for Connor, who has been a 901 operator for ten years.
Cole Kingsbury
00:03:54
A lot of the times we don't, you know, people don't call us on a good day or people call us in distress or have a medical emergency. And this is one of the good situations that we get to help out with. Truly is rewarding.
Krista Bo
00:04:13
Imagine a world where your jacket charges your phone or the roof of your car powers your ride. That's the kind of solar power technology that's on the horizon.
Henry Snaith
00:04:22
It could be a very much better place when we're producing all our power from clean, renewable sources and using surfaces we can use to produce our energy.
Krista Bo
00:04:34
Henry Snaith is a professor of renewable energy in the physics department at Oxford University. He and his team have developed a super thin solar coating that can be applied to everyday objects. How thin are we talking? The new technology is made from a material called perovskite, which is 100 times thinner than a strand of hair.
Henry Snaith
00:04:54
With these perovskite materials, they absorb sunlight so strongly, they can be extremely thin. So really, really thin. Means they can be really lightweight. So you could have it in on your backpack, even a jacket made out of this stuff. That's producing even more power from the sunlight.
Krista Bo
00:05:10
Traditional solar panels convert about 20% of sunlight into power. This new material has the potential to capture 45%. With solar technology as versatile as this, one day, there may not be as much of a need for solar farms that take up huge amounts of land. And he says power grids won't be as overworked. As climate change continues to impact our lives, scientists like Snaith are eager to take on the challenge to scale up this technology for everyday use.
Henry Snaith
00:05:38
The potential to actually transition the world into a much, much better place is super exciting. We've got to have a vision as a utopic and not a dystopic future, and really try and do everything we can to get there.
Adam Sandler
00:05:58
Oh man, that was so much easier than putting. I should just try to get the ball in one shot every time.
Adam Sandler
00:06:03
'An almost 30-year-old comedy classic is getting a sequel, and an open casting call had fans lined up for hours for the chance to be an extra on Adam Sandler's, "Happy Gilmore 2." Thousands of aspiring actors and fans showed up to the audition in Morristown, New Jersey on Tuesday, where the line was crazy.
Christine
00:06:24
It's all the way around the building. Yeah, we were at least, we made three turns. I think at this point.
Adam Sandler
00:06:29
CNN affiliate News 12 new Jersey spoke to some of them, including Christine.
Christine
00:06:34
I have been out here for now, probably a little over an hour, 20 minutes.
Adam Sandler
00:06:38
If you haven't seen the movie, Adam Sandler plays Happy Gilmore, a hockey player who learns to play golf to save his grandmother's house. Some people went all out to try to stand out. We're talking Happy Gilmore jerseys, hockey sticks, and full sets of clubs. The whole nine. So many people showed up. They closed auditions three hours earlier than they were supposed to. Tyquan Griffin wore a shirt featuring one of the film's characters to his audition.
Tyquan Griffin
00:07:02
Adam Sandler to me, he's in my top three. I watched every movie. I just enjoy his humor. I decided to audition because I love to act, so "Happy Gilmore 2" was unquestionable because I love "Happy Gilmore" 1.
Krista Bo
00:07:19
We don't know much about the new movie except that NFL star Travis Kelce will be in it. Filming starts in a few weeks. Good luck to all the hopeful extras.
Krista Bo
00:07:33
Up next, can you guess which city is a kitty Paradise? Hint it's not in the US.
Krista Bo
00:07:45
My fiance and I got a pandemic pet. His name is Podcat. Cheesy, I know, and he's a street cat. I thought my town had a lot of street cats, but Turkey's biggest city Istanbul is apparently on another level. The city loves them so much, Fatih Dagli opened a museum almost entirely dedicated to them.
Fatih Dagli
00:08:08
How many cats in Istanbul? Currently, it's difficult to know, but I believe there are more than 300,000.
Krista Bo
00:08:17
Istanbul's cat culture runs deep. They're lounging in cafes. They're hitching rides on motorbikes. These felines are everywhere, and the community pitches in to take care of them.
Fatih Dagli
00:08:28
So this city actually just pushes you to be a cat person.
Krista Bo
00:08:33
There's even a statue of one of the city's most beloved cats striking his signature pose. His name was Tombili, which is chubby in Turkish, and he was known for lounging and leaning on ledges. Look it up. It's pretty cute, actually. Fatih says half of all the museum's ticket and merch sales will go to food and health care for Istanbul's street cats.
Krista Bo
00:09:01
All right, that's all for now. Join us tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing. CNN's Samantha Delouya joins host David Rind to explain how new rules are changing how homes are bought and sold in the U.S..
Krista Bo
00:09:14
Five Good Things is a production of CNN audio. This episode was produced by Eryn Mathewson and me, Krista Bo. Our senior producers are Felicia Patinkin and Faiz Jamil. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director. And Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We got support from Joey Salvia, Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, Jon Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Jamus Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to South Metro Fire Rescue for the 911 call and Katie Hinman. Thanks for listening. Till next time.
© 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Audio's transcripts are made available as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling and may be revised in the future. The audio record represents the final version of CNN Audio.