Quote of the Day: “I wake up in the morning torn between the desire to save the world and to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” – E.B White
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A North Carolina courtroom was filled with hugs and tears of happiness after the judge offered up a historic plea deal in a show of “restorative justice”.
One year ago, James Scott Berish accidentally fired a gun through the floor of his apartment, striking 10-year-old Deisy Medina in her sleep. When Berish was told that the bullet had hit a child, he immediately turned himself over to the police before he was even a suspect in the case.
Berish, who is the father of a 2-year-old girl, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a stolen firearm.
While most people might think that the story might end with Berish being thrown in jail, he and the Medina family embarked on a year-long journey of recovery, forgiveness, counseling, and communication through a process called restorative justice.
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Restorative justice is a series of steps used to encourage healing between both affected parties of a court case, rather than simply sentencing and punishment. Though it has been employed in Durham courtrooms before, it has never been used for violent felony.
According to WRAL, Deisy and James met for the first time earlier this week – and the encounter was a positive one.
“There was a really beautiful long embrace between James and Deisy. That let everybody know that healing has come a long way,” said Jon Powell, director of Campbell Law School’s Restorative Justice Clinic, during the court meeting. “If crime creates harm, justice ought to create healing and that’s what we witnessed in this case.”
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Berish pled guilty to all charges and read an apology letter to the courtroom about his love for Deisy and her family. The Medinas responded by openly expressing their affection and forgiveness towards Berish.
Then, instead of being put behind bars, Berish’s prison sentence was suspended and he was placed under 2-year of supervised probation. Not only that, but the young father agreed to never own a weapon, pay the Medina family $1,380 in restitution, and speak at least two gun-safety events.
“This is why I went to law school, this moment,” assistant district attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn told WRAL. “These are the things that we want to do. The criminal justice system is changing and I am so proud to be a part of it.”
Click To Share The Inspiring Story With Your Friends – Photo released via WRAL
Thanks to a Facebook video that was shared across the internet back in December, a grocery store worker will finally have the chance to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional musician.
Gilly Assuncao was asked to do a mic check for Russo’s grocery store in Boston, Massachusetts four months ago.
Assuncao, who used to work as a professional singer in his homeland of Brazil, sang a classic Christmas tune for the soundcheck – and his beautiful voice stunned everyone in the store.
The grocery store’s Facebook page uploaded a video of the song to social media where it has been viewed over 200,000 times.
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“Gilly’s incredible performance during shopping today!” the store wrote in the caption. “Our employee’s talent brought tears to our eyes!”
Assuncao was interviewed by numerous news outlets about how he had always dreamed of being a professional musician in America, but he started working at Russo’s so he could go to school and study computers instead.
As Assuncao continued to make headlines, his video caught the eye of the prestigious Berklee College of Music. The school reached out to the grocery store worker and asked him to apply.
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Earlier this week, Assuncao got his acceptance letter.
“My heart stopped, I didn’t know what to do,” he told WCVB about receiving the letter. “And then the first word was ‘congratulations,’ and I was so happy.”
Though Berklee’s four-year degree comes with a hefty price tag, Assuncao is determined to make it work. In addition to applying for grants and scholarships, his friend Gabriel Martin created a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of tuition.
“I feel that Gilly has been given a gift from God; his voice,” says Martin. “Something tells me that we will be hearing a lot from him. He was blessed with this talent to share with the rest of the world.”
(WATCH the video below)
Serenade Your Friends With This Sweet Story: Click To Share – Photo by Gabriel Martin
Instead of emptying their coffers on commercial advertising, this Texas church decided to spend their money on something much more meaningful.
On Easter Sunday, a pastor at the Covenant Church of Carrollton, Texas announced that they had bought out and forgiven $100,000 worth of medical debt for local families.
The church made the transaction through RIP Medical Debt – an American nonprofit that buys up and abolishes medical debt. Since medical debt can be bought by collection agencies for a fraction of what they’re worth, $100,000 translates to over $10 million in medical debt that has now been lifted off the shoulders of struggling Texas families.
4,229 families and veterans who have been forgiven of the medical debt will be receiving letters in the mail this week notifying them of the donation.
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“I have grandparents who are veterans, too,” one of the congregants told NBC. “So just thinking about the hardship that would cause for someone. It wasn’t their choice. They didn’t go into debt because they ran up the credit card. It’s because something that happened to them. So I just love that we were able to help people where it wasn’t their choice. But we got to choose to help them. I just love that.”
Pastor Stephen Hayes was especially pleased to make the announcement because of his own struggles with medical debt in the past. As a 17-year-old, Hayes had been struck by a car, putting him in the ICU for 12 days. His parents were then swamped with medical bills which they were eventually able to pay off with the help of their own church congregation.
“If you can imagine what those people this week will be feeling when they receive the letter that you sent them saying their debt is paid,” Hayes preached to the congregation. “I pray 100-fold that that [is how] you would feel in reading the letter He wrote to you in the book of John 19:30. ‘Hey, your debt of sin is paid. You are covered.’”
Click To Share The Inspiring Story With Your Friends – Photo by Covenant Church
It has been 18 years since Nick Burchill was banned from the Empress Hotel. As a means of begging for forgiveness, Burchill wrote to the establishment and recounted the exact events that led to his lifetime ban – and it is a hilarious tale.
Back in 2001, Burchill was a proud member of the Canadian Naval Reserve. He had also become the employee of a respectable company that invited him to a customer conference at the hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.
Upon mentioning to his Navy buddies that he would be traveling west, they asked him if he could bring them some “Brother’s Pepperoni” from Halifax, which is considered to be a local delicacy.
Burchill wrote: “Because this was the Navy we were talking about, I brought enough for a ship. In a hurry, I had completely filled a suitcase with pepperoni for my friends. Some of it was wrapped in plastic, some in brown paper. I took whatever Brothers would sell me.
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Unfortunately, the airline misplaced the suitcase and it was not returned to Burchill until the next day at the hotel.
“I knew that the pepperoni would still be ‘good’. It had only been at room temperature for a short time. It would, however, be quite some time before I could turn it over to my friends,” says Burchill. “Just to be safe, I decided that I should keep it cool.
“My room was a nice, big, front-facing room on the fourth floor. It was well appointed, but it did not have a refrigerator. It was April, the air was chilly. An easy way to keep all of this food cool would be just to keep it next to an open window. I lifted one of the sashes and spread the packages of pepperoni out on the table and window sill. Then, I went for a walk… for about 4 or 5 hours.”
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By the time Burchill returned to his room, he walked in on a gruesome scene: over 40 seagulls had flown in through the window and started eating the pepperoni.
“In case you were wondering, Brothers’ Pepperoni does NASTY things to a seagull’s digestive system,” says Burchill. “As you would expect, the room was covered in seagull crap. What I did not realize until then was that seagulls also drool. Especially when they eat pepperoni.
“I’m sure you have an image in your head. Now remember that I have just walked into the room and startled all of these birds. They immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room through the small opening by which they had entered.
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“Less composed seagulls are attempting to leave through the other CLOSED windows. The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting.
“I waded through the birds and opened the remaining windows. Most of the gulls left immediately. One tried to re-enter the room to grab another piece of pepperoni and in my agitated state, I took off one of my shoes and threw it at him.
“Both the gull and the shoe went out the window.”
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As Burchill attempted to assess the damage, he noticed that there was one hulking seagull that was still in the room – and it refused to leave.
The Navy man chased the bird around the room to no avail. He finally used a towel to trap the bird and throw it out the window.
“I had forgotten that seagulls cannot fly when they are wrapped in a towel,” says Burchill. “This is all happening fairly quickly and this is mid-afternoon. The Empress hosts a very famous and very popular ‘High Tea’. I suspect this is where the large group of tourists was heading when they were struck by first my shoe, then a bound-up seagull (the seagull was unharmed, by the way).”
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With the room in shambles, Burchill remembered that he was still invited to attend a fancy dinner with his new company at any minute. He then retrieved his shoe from a stretch of mud in the garden and brought it back to his destroyed room.
“I went into the washroom and rinsed the mud off of my shoe. It cleaned-up nicely, but now I had one wet, dark shoe, and one dry, light colored shoe.
“In retrospect, I should have just wet the dry shoe. Instead, I chose to dry the wet shoe using the little hairdryer. It was actually doing quite well. I had the hairdryer jammed in there and the shoe was drying quite nicely. Then, the phone rang.”
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As Burchill went to go answer the phone, the power suddenly turned off. He returned to the bathroom to find that the hairdryer had vibrated free of the shoe and fallen into the wet sink.
“I don’t know how much of the hotel’s power I knocked-out, but at that point I decided I needed help,” says Burchill. “I called the front desk and asked for someone to come help me clean-up a mess. I can still remember the look on the lady’s face when she opened the door. I had absolutely no idea what to tell her, so I just said ‘I’m sorry’ and I went to dinner. When I came back, my things had been moved to a much smaller room.”
Burchill’s company later received a letter that he had been given a lifetime ban from the Empress Hotel.
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In his open letter to the hotel, Burchill writes: “I have matured and I admit responsibility for my actions. I come to you, hat-in-hand to apologize for the damage I had indirectly come to cause and to ask you to reconsider my lifetime ban from the property.
“I hope that you will see fit to either grant me a pardon, or consider my 18 year away from The Empress as ‘time served’.”
Burchill published a copy of the letter on Facebook last week. The next day, he wrote an update for the post saying: “After reviewing my application for a pardon with the Empress staff; Ryan, the manager has notified me verbally that I will once again be welcome as a guest. I bet it was the pound of Brothers Pepperoni that I gave them as a peace offering that did the trick.”
Click To Share The Hysterical Story With Your Friends (Photo by Nick Burchill)
Quote of the Day: “Circumstance does not make the man. Circumstance reveals man to himself.” – Epictetus
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Tanner Waters has desperately been looking for a date to take to his senior prom – and while he may not have found one yet, he will soon, thanks to his affectionate coworkers.
The teen, who is a student at Winter Springs High School in Winter Springs, Florida, works part-time at the local Chick-Fil-A. When he realized that he may be going to prom by himself, he approached his manager Billy McClarnon about how he couldn’t find a date.
Though McClarnon rejected Tanner’s invitation to the high school event, he did offer to advertise the date on the restaurant’s marquee.
“I’m like ‘No, I’m not going to prom with you,’” McClarnon told WKMG. “But if you need some help, I’ll put it on the reader board for you.”
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The 17-year-old agreed, saying: “That would be awesome. That would help me out a lot. It takes all the work out of finding a date.
“I think it’s funny. You don’t usually see your name on something like that.”
So if you know any fun young teens in the Winter Springs area, send them to Chick-Fil-A for a date with a good-natured student.
“I’m a great person,” Tanner exclaimed. “I have a great personality. You’re going to have a great time with me. You get free dinner — someone is buying us dinner — it’s going to be a great night!”
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The Amusing Story With Your Friends – Photo by WKMG
A Sesame Street-themed amusement park is the first in the world to receive a certification for autism accommodation.
Sesame Place, which is based in Philadelphia, features quiet rooms and sensory guides so parents can plan their visits. Additionally, all the staff members have become certified in autism sensitivity training.
The accreditation was awarded in honor of Autism Awareness Month – and it is just in time for the park to reopen for its new season at the end of April.
Sesame Place received the accreditation through the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards, an international organization that provides autism certification and training to businesses and service groups.
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This is not the first time that Sesame Street has made an effort to connect with autistic youth – just last year, the franchise introduced an autistic character named Julia. The character is part of Sesame Street’s online autism project, “See Amazing in All Children,” which features a free downloadable app with videos and stories to help kids understand autism.
Sesame Street also just received $100 million in funding for their educational program that targets young, disadvantaged Syrian refugee children.
Click To Share The Good News With Your Friends
A high school student is being hailed for discovering an incredibly simple way to help save bees – and he is already contacting local farms about implementing his solution.
Derek Woo is a senior student at Greenwich High School in Connecticut. The 17-year-old became inspired to help honeybees when he heard a story on the radio about “colony collapse disorder” – a phenomenon that happens when worker bees leave the hive, leaving the queen and her young to fend for themselves.
While this event can be caused by infections and parasites, the most consistent trigger for the collapse is due to insecticides. If ingested, a bee can die from the poison.
A very common method of ingesting the water is when bees drink the water that collects at the end of leaves. The water – which travels up from the soil, through the stem, and onto the leaves – collects glucose on its way through the plant. Unfortunately, the water also absorbs insecticides. Not only that, but the insecticide becomes four times more concentrated once it collects on the leaves.
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When bees are drawn to the glucose in the water, they also end up ingesting the insecticide.
Derek’s simple solution? Mix four parts soil with one part charcoal, or “biochar”.
Biochar is an environmentally-friendly type of charcoal that is used by farmers to absorb harmful chemicals and help soil retain its moisture. When mixed with plant soil that has been sprayed with insecticides, the water that is collected on the leaves only contains a tiny fraction of poison, which makes it safer for bees to drink.
According to Eureka! Lab, Derek has already started contacting local farmers about adding biochar to their soil.
Click To Share The Buzz With Your Friends (Photo by JMK, CC)
When a 10-year-old boy was being bullied for adoring his glittery cat-themed lunchbox, his older cousin decided to take a stand.
David Pendragon of Charlotte, North Carolina recently posted a photo of himself on social media proudly carrying the cool lunchbox into his “conservative, corporate workplace”.
In the caption, he explains how his little cousin Ryker had been super excited to bring the same lunchbox into school – but because of the bright colors and the cat-themed pattern, some of the other kids started picking on the youngster.
“He even wanted to stop taking his lunch [to school] so he wouldn’t be teased about it any longer,” says David. “I have decided, however, to stand with my little cousin and show him that a man can love whatever he wants and not be afraid to express that love.
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“So I have ordered the same lunchbox for myself and proudly carried it to work today at my large, conservative, corporate workplace. I’ve told anyone who asked the story behind my lunchbox and to a person, they all stand with Ryker too.
“There’s no one way to be a man. Men can be colorful. Men can be expressive. Men can be emotional and silly and gleeful.
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“I love my new lunchbox and I hope Ryker and all the other boys out there can see that their passion and self-expression is never something to be ashamed of.”
Judging by the thousands of comments and shares of support that David’s post has generated since it was published earlier this week, it’s fair to say that the rest of the world stands with Ryker too.
Click To Share The Sweet Story With Your Friends (Photo by David Pendragon)
Quote of the Day: “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.” – Booker T. Washington
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Lesson: With such an excess of unnecessary plastic packaging and non-recyclable materials, it can be easy to feel guilty about the amount of trash we contribute to landfills – but this college grad insists that anyone can be zero-waste. Not only that, but she believes that the attitude can greatly simplify your entire life.
Notable Excerpt: “When I learned about zero waste, [this woman in California] was the only person writing about it at the time and the only person talking about it, and so I later started my blog, Trash is for Tossers, to document my journey of reducing waste and opening the conversation in a way that felt safe and non-confrontational, because … so much of the conversation in environmentalism is, ‘You’re not doing this,’ or, ‘You’re screwing this up,’ and it’s [just a big] blame game.
“To me, I realized that by just taking everything on myself and being, like, ‘Okay, I’m a part of the problem. What can I do to change this and share my experience through taking control of my waste and talking about my experience from my perspective, that it made people feel comfortable to have a discussion around waste.’”
The Guest: Lauren Singer is an environmental activist who is the mastermind behind Trash is for Tossers – a blog dedicated to educating readers on how they can live a cost-effective, zero-waste lifestyle, no matter their social or economic status. In addition to graduating from NYU with an environmental sciences degree, she went on to work as a sustainability analyst for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.
The Host: After spending years of his young life and athletic career struggling with his own emotional wellbeing, a crippling injury left Lewis Howes without an identity and without any work. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, however, Howes recreated himself as a multi-million dollar media producer, motivational speaker, bestselling author, and podcast host. The ex-football player now spends his days chatting with the most inspirational icons of this generation on his School of Greatness podcast.
Podcast: The School of Greatness podcast is available for download on Soundcloud and iTunes. You can also watch footage of the interviews on Howes’s YouTube channel.
Books: Howes is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “The School of Greatness”: an in-depth collection of lessons and wisdom that he has gathered from interviewing hundreds of the world’s greatest role models and thinkers. Howes’s latest book, “The Mask of Masculinity”, is based on his experience with the dangerous stereotypes and expectations that are placed on men in modern society.
(LISTEN to the inspiring talk below or read the transcript here)
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Earlier this year, doctors told 92-year-old Jean Roper that she only had weeks to live. Months later, the senior has undergone an astonishing transformation – and it is all thanks to a little baby girl.
The senior had originally been diagnosed with extreme kidney damage. In addition to being hooked up to an oxygen tank, she could barely get out of bed without assistance, let alone move around the house.
As her family prepared to say goodbye to Roper, her great-granddaughter mentioned that she was going to give birth to a girl – and she wanted to name her after the ailing senior.
Despite Roper having plenty of great-great-grandchildren, none of them are girls; so upon hearing that she would not only be welcoming a baby girl into the family, but also a baby girl who would be her namesake, Roper vowed to live long enough to meet the infant.
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On January 31st, Roper’s great-great-granddaughter Magnolia Jean was born. When they were finally introduced, the woman could barely contain her excitement.
Kayla Tracy, who is an aunt to the newborn, told TODAY: “[Roper] shot right up out of her rocking chair — and she hadn’t been walking at all! She had a walker and could barely get out of bed. But the day that baby came, she walked from her bedroom all the way down to the hall to her front door to greet them, which was outrageous.”
Since meeting Magnolia Jean, Roper has continued to recover. The nurses, who recently removed her oxygen tanks, are stunned by her sudden change in health.
Additionally, Tracy posted photos of Roper’s meeting with Magnolia Jean to social media – and the responses have been overwhelmingly encouraging.
“They all think it’s such a miracle, because she was going very soon, and then all of a sudden …” Tracy said. “She cannot believe how many people have seen her story and cared to look at it. It’s been an incredible reaction. Everybody’s been super positive.”
Click To Share The Sweet Story With Your Friends – Photos by Kayla Tracy Photography
A potential treatment for the most common form of autism is on its way to human trials after it was proven successful in mice.
Drug developer Tetra Discovery Partners has received clearance from the FDA to begin phase two of their testing for a treatment called BPN14770.
The therapeutic agent could be used to treat Fragile X syndrome: a genetic form of autism that reportedly affects 1 in 4,000 to 5,000 males and one in 6,000 to 8,000 females. There is currently no treatment for the condition.
BPN14770, which could also be used to treat Alzheimer’s and other forms of autism, showed a number of benefits during the initial tests. Mice that were given the drug experienced reduced stress and improved mental development, memory function, and social behavior. Elderly human study participants who were given the drug during phase one also experienced “excellent safety” with the medication and improved cognitive performance.
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If testing continues to show positive results, the drug could become available to the public in less than four years.
“We’re hoping that this drug will have significant impact on the quality of patients’ lives,” said Tetra Chairman and CEO Mark Gurney, according to Wood TV.
Pass On The Positive News To Your Friends
While some kids may be spending their spring break partying on the beach or enjoying the warm weather, this eighth-grader is hard at work making sure that everyone in her community has clean laundry.
Jayera Griffin – who is an honor roll student at Washington Junior High School in Riverdale, Illinois – first became inspired to give back when she noticed that some of the children she tutored did not always have clean clothes to wear.
The 14-year-old was heartbroken by the fact that some families could not afford to do laundry, let alone have their own washer and dryer.
So for the last year, then teen has been saving and fundraising so she could have a free laundry day at her local laundromat over spring break.
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Jayera was collectively able to raise over $1,000 for the event on Tuesday – and the participants were extremely grateful for the help.
The 14-year-old plans on having another free laundry day closer to when she goes back to school in August.
(WATCH the video below – or, international viewers can watch the video at the CBS News website)
Clean Up Negativity: Click To Share With Your Friends – Photo by CBS News
This dad’s display of skill is as staggeringly impressive as the tower he used to do it.
In a video that was published by Pat McAfee, the host of The Pat McAfee Show YouTube channel and podcast, his father Tim is engaged in an intense game of Giant Jenga on Easter Sunday.
Not only is Tim at the part of the game where all the easily accessible pieces are gone, but it is his first time ever playing Jenga.
Even though the odds are against him, Tim is fearless. With one hand casually tucked into the pocket of his jeans, he delivers some quick punches to one of the middle blocks that is holding up the entire tower.
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He then walks to the other side of the tower, grips the precarious block, and with a concentrated cry of a martial arts master, he pulls the block from the tower so that the top half of the stack falls neatly onto the blocks below.
And the crowd goes wild.
(WATCH the astounding video below)
AN ABSOLUTELY ELECTRIC EASTER MOMENT FROM TIM MCAFEE ⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/M3nqZkSgAC
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 1, 2018
We’re Not Playing Around: Click To Share The Video With Your Friends (Photo by Pat McAfee)
Quote of the Day: “Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. (From his final speech)
Photo: Tom Hall, CC
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Lesson: If someone were to ask you to hike Mount Everest in nothing but your summer beach clothes, you would probably scoff – but this extreme athlete has proven that everything we know about physical limitations is wrong; and in this interview, he explains exactly how he came to achieve such feats of endurance and why he believes that others can do the same.
Notable Excerpt: “There is more than meets the eye– I felt it [and] I did not know [why]. If that feeling is nagging you from the inside, you become a soul searcher. It brought me into all kinds of disciplines, esotericism, religions, traditions, cultures, many countries and travelings. But I couldn’t really match up with that feeling until I met the ice cold water just in my backyard in wintertime. That was in Amsterdam when I was 17, which was 40 years ago. I went in, and then I knew. The soul search was really on track there. I felt a connection, a deep connection. From there, because it made me feel so good inside, mind-body, I came back and did it again and again and it became a regular practice.”
The Guest: Wim Hof is a Dutch athlete who has endured the most extreme feats of strength and durability so he could prove that anyone can overcome their physical limitations. In addition to holding over 26 world records, Hof –who is also known around the world as “The Iceman”– once led a group of eighteen people without any previous mountaineering experience to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The oldest was sixty-five, and some of them had conditions such as asthma, Crohn’s, and rheumatoid arthritis. After only four days of training his climbers, the goal was to reach the nearly 20,000-foot summit in three days, wearing nothing but shorts and shoes… they got there in two.
The Host: Dave Asprey, the CEO and Founder of Bulletproof, is a biohacker (changing his environment from the inside-out to have full control of his biology). For nearly two decades, he’s been questioning the status quo of nutrition and medicine so he could feel better—and have more energy in his 40s than he had in his 20s. Join more than 1 million biohackers who follow Bulletproof for leading-edge information on how to supercharge your body and upgrade your brain.
Books: Asprey is the author of “The Bulletproof Diet” – a guide on how to feel more energized and lose weight – and “Head Strong: The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster-in Just Two Weeks”.
Podcast: The Bulletproof podcast is available on PodcastOne, iTunes, Stitcher, and YouTube.
(LISTEN to the incredible interview below or read the transcript here)
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Hollywood’s biggest comedians are getting together to raise money for Alzheimer’s charities by doing what they do best: making people laugh.
The Hilarity for Charity Netflix variety, which is hosted by Seth Rogen, will be released on April 6th.
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It’s not just Rogen who will be taking the stage, either – the impressively star-studded roster features such names as Michael Che, John Mulaney, Jeff Goldblum, Sarah Silverman, the Muppets, Sacha Baron Cohen, Nick Kroll, Kumail Nanjiani, Craig Robinson, and Alison Brie.
The Hilarity For Charity nonprofit movement was first created by Rogen and his wife Lauren in 2012. Since its inception, the campaign has raised over $7 million for Alzheimer’s research and care programs.
(Watch the video below) – WARNING: trailer contains mildly mature content.
Laughter Is Contagious: Click To Share The News With Your Friends
7-year-old Madden Humphreys is not the same as most boys.
In addition to being born with a cleft lip, the youngster has heterochromia iridum: a rare condition that means that both of his irises are different colors. Since only about 1% of the population is diagnosed with the condition, Madden’s eyes and lip makes him an exceptionally unique boy indeed.
Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way – Madden is often bullied by other kids at his school in Oklahoma. In fact, the youngster made internet headlines last year for the anti-bullying video that he published with his mom Christina.
“Don’t be mean to other people that are different,” he said in the video. “We’ve already been through a lot of hard stuff. Show everybody kindness! You’re missing out on a lot of awesome people if you’re being a poophead to them. Don’t be a poophead! … cause the most unlovable people need love the most.”
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Thanks to some internet magic, however, Madden now has a friend who deserves the same love that he does.
Christina told Love What Matters earlier this week that someone published a photo of a rescue cat to a Facebook group of moms with cleft lip kids. Not only did the cat have a cleft lip, but it also had the same eye condition as Madden.
“We knew immediately that this kitty was meant to be part of our family,” says Christina. “They were destined to be best friends.”
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Some family friends helped fund the Humphreys’ road trip from Oklahoma to Minnesota so they could adopt Moon the cleft lip cat.
“We’re usually not spontaneous people, but we knew that we were meant to love this kitty. Moon, the kitty, and Madden are the perfect companions for each other,” said Christina. “In a world full of bullies and hateful words, we will choose to chase love. I think it’s safe to say that this kitty is love, and was certainly meant to be part of our journey and Madden’s journey.”
Since adopting the feline, Moon and Madden have become the best of friends. They even have an Instagram page for posting photos of their shenanigans.
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Christina told Love What Matters: “I’m stunned at how this all played out. It sounds silly, but fate willed these two together. There’s no other explanation. This kitty was so far away from us. I’m amazed that we found out about him, and even more amazed by the friends and strangers that helped us get to him, and adopt him.
“Everyone needs a friend, and everyone needs to feel understood. I’m so thankful Madden has Moon. Not only so that both he and the kitty have a relatable and sweet companion, but also, I hope Moon helps Madden realize that being born unique in an incredible thing; that he is magic. These two handsome guys truly are a wonder.
Click To Share The Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photo by Christina Humphreys)
