For more than two decades, we’ve tuned in to Dancing with the Stars to watch our favorite celebrities compete for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy. Dozens of professional athletes, singers, actors, and other talented performers have appeared during the show’s 34 seasons. Beloved actor John Stamos claims he’s been asked to appear on DWTS numerous times, but the show isn’t for him. During a recent episode of Bobby Bones’ podcast, Bobbycast, he explained why.   “What makes that show good is people suffering and looking like fools,” John said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bobby Bones (@mrbobbybones) John Stamos Wants Nothing to Do with ‘DWTS’ Unfortunately, John Stamos said he will never appear on DWTS, no matter how badly his fans want to see him. “They’re breaking their feet, calluses,” he told Bobby. “I don’t want that.” John Stamos claimed DWTS invites him to be on the show every year and he always declines. “I said, ‘Don’t ever ask me again,'” he explained. “I’m never gonna do that show.” Bobby Bones won the show’s 27th season in 2018 with his partner Sharna Burgess. “Only season I’ve watched all the way through and voted every week. You won because you were the favorite and danced like regular people dance. No one wants the best to win, but the one who put in their all!” A fan shared. Fans loved hearing John Stamos and Bobby Bones talking about DWTS. “This was THE BEST interview by far I have heard on almost any podcast! Maybe it’s just the nostalgia setting in it loved it!!” A fan wrote. This person agreed, writing, “I can’t stop laughing over this episode! So many epic quotes! Fantastic interview. This part was one of the funniest.” This story’s featured image is by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Netflix

Sometimes we take for granted that our homes are built on land that belongs to animals. Their natural habitats are frequently disturbed by humans seeking the perfect place to live. Looking out the window and seeing a beautiful yard filled with trees is something many people dream of. They create an outdoor oasis that might include places for children to play. But if they’re not careful, that playground might also attract a wild animal or two. A Connecticut family caught a black bear playing on a zipline in their yard, and instead of scaring it off, they made sure to grab a video first. View this post on Instagram A post shared by NBC Connecticut (@nbcconnecticut) The Black Bear Looked Totally Happy on the Zipline This black bear didn’t seem to care if it was their turn on the zipline or not. It grabbed a hold and swung a few times before heading back into the woods. While it may have been fun to watch from the window, imagine going outside to play, and the bear decided to return for some fun. “The bears have more fun in CT than I do,” someone joked on Instagram. This person agreed. They apparently don’t get to zipline or do other fun things like this black bear did. “It’s have more fun than us in CT I want to join the fun but in this economy I can’t afford dear  have fun for both of us,” they wreto. “‘I feel like you’re just here for the zip line,'” another person wrote. This person felt like the poor black bear was lonely playing on the zipline by itself. “The bears like it’s not fun if nobody out to push me,” they wrote. No word on whether the bear showed up for the Fourth of July BBQ or brought anymore friends to play. This story’s featured image can be found here

Walt Disney World cast members take their jobs and park guests’ experiences seriously. They understand that a Disney vacation is costly and people come to the parks ready for magic. Guests expect attractions to wow, and when things go wrong, cast members swoop in to save the day. Recently, Magic Kingdom guests got a bit more than they bargained for when a fire erupted on the “It’s a Small World” ride. Video footage posted online shows smoke billowing from the ride’s loading area and guests quickly exiting. Fire breaks out at It's a Small World at Magic Kingdomhttps://t.co/IqrE9QLO0l pic.twitter.com/kiC7akQ1aA— Mattlegostar (@Mattlegostar2) July 1, 2026 Everyone Got Off of “It’s a Small World” Safely Apparently, a guest’s phone charger sparked the fire on “It’s a Small World,” and Disney cast members cleared the area to put it out and keep guests safe. Video of the incident circulated online, and many people couldn’t help but make jokes. “It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears. There was smoke on the ride, that will last for years. There is much to explore when you’re evacuated through a door. It’s a small world after all,” someone wrote on Facebook. This person also wrote a little ditty. “‘The world’s a hot mess after all! The world’s a hot mess after all! The world’s a hot mess after all! It’s a hot, hot mess!'” “We didn’t start the fire, but the world’s been burning and the doll’s still turning,” another person laughed. One person claimed to be on “It’s a Small World” when the fire occurred and reaped the benefits. “I was there! They evacuated us from the boats and we got to see the backside of the buildings then they gave us two lighting lanes! And I didn’t even have to finish the ride,” someone wrote. This story’s featured image can be found here

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a specific kind of “off” that’s difficult to capture or express in words. No, you’re not feeling sick or sad. You’re not stressed exactly. Just… off. A little irritable, a little flat, carrying something you can’t quite put your finger on. You’ve cleaned the kitchen, gone for a walk, scrolled past a hundred wellness tips, and none of it has helped bring you back into balance. Sound familiar? Another workout or productivity hack probably isn’t what this is asking for. What tends to help is a reset: something slow and deliberate that gives your nervous system a chance to catch up. Spiritual and cultural traditions around the world have built rituals around exactly this. Most of them take less than ten minutes. Pause before you try to fix anything When something feels off, the instinct is to solve it: scroll, distract, push through, add something to the list. But pushing through what you haven’t acknowledged usually just buries it a little deeper. “When my energy feels unsettled, I try not to immediately fix it,” says Misun Delmon, a wellness practitioner and ritual designer. “My first ritual is usually creating stillness. I dim the lights, open a window if possible, and burn either incense or something grounding. Then I sit quietly for a few minutes without my phone or distractions.” It’s easy to miss how much you’re carrying when you’re always in motion. A few quiet minutes can be enough to notice what’s weighing on you, and sometimes noticing is most of the work. Use scent and smoke with intention Burning sage, incense, or palo santo has become popular in wellness spaces, but these practices go back centuries across many cultures. What made them meaningful was never the smoke itself. It was the intention behind lighting it. “A lot of people treat palo santo or sage like a quick room fragrance,” says Delmon. “But traditionally these materials were used much more intentionally. Before lighting anything, I always recommend slowing down for a moment and asking yourself: What am I trying to release? What energy do I want to invite in?” Open a window, move through your space a little more slowly, and let the ritual be about the question rather than the scent. Whether you’re processing a hard week or a low feeling you can’t explain, approaching it with intention changes the experience. Try a ten-minute reset ritual “One of the simplest rituals is what I call a reset ritual,” says Delmon. “Open a window. Light incense or a candle. Slowly tidy one small area around you, even just your desk or bedside table. Take a few deep breaths and consciously release tension from your body.” Then: “Sit quietly for two minutes without consuming anything. No scrolling, no music, no stimulation.” Fresh air, something familiar to smell, one tidied surface, two minutes of not taking anything in. Small things, but in a day that never stops, that’s a real interruption. Clear something physical When things pile up around us, they tend to feel heavier inside too. That connection between environment and inner state is why sweeping, cleaning, and organizing show up in renewal rituals in cultures around the world and throughout history. You don’t need to overhaul anything. Pick one small thing: change your sheets, clear a cluttered surface, throw out any dead flowers, wipe down a mirror, sort out your entryway. The goal isn’t a perfect space. It’s movement where something felt stuck. Create a space that belongs to you Most people have one spot in the house where they naturally feel calmer. If you don’t have one yet, it’s worth making one. It doesn’t need to be elaborate: a candle you love, a few books, a plant, a journal, one object that means something to you. What matters is that going there is a reason to slow down. Over time your body learns what that corner means. It starts to associate it with rest before you’ve even settled in. That’s not a small thing. Let go of what you’ve been holding onto Not all the heaviness we carry comes from what’s happening right now. Some of it comes from what we’re still holding long after a situation has ended: an unresolved conversation, a relationship that’s shifted, expectations that no longer fit where we are. Even good changes can leave behind a kind of residue that takes up space. Symbolic rituals have persisted across so many traditions partly because they help create closure when life doesn’t offer it on its own. Writing down what’s circling in your mind, journaling about what you’re ready to release, or naming what you’ve been carrying can be enough to start moving through it. The ritual itself matters less than the act of asking: what am I still holding that doesn’t need to come with me? Build a nighttime ritual that signals the end of the day For a lot of people, the day doesn’t end when work does. One screen becomes another, and sleep happens but real rest doesn’t. Something as small as reading for a few minutes, stretching, or lighting a candle in a quieter room can signal to your nervous system that the doing part is over, not as another wellness box to check, but as a real transition between one day and the next. “I always say ritual does not need to be complicated,” says Delmon. “Even lighting one candle with intention can become a meaningful act of emotional closure.” Not perfection, not an elaborate practice. Just a few deliberate minutes to put down what’s heavy before tomorrow starts.    The post 7 simple rituals that help you feel like yourself again first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

There’s something almost absurd about how we’ve always measured wildlife. Two trained ecologists visit the same river, spend days cataloguing what they can see, and come back with completely different species lists. Neither is wrong. The data just can’t be compared, which means it can’t really be used. “If you and I went to the same river, we would not produce the same species list,” says Dimple Patel, CEO of NatureMetrics. “This makes it very difficult to bring together data sets that people are actually able to reconcile as well as standardise on a global basis.” Instead, her company began building with just a simple bottle of water. Every living thing leaves a genetic trace Everything that lives near water sheds DNA into it: skin cells, saliva, traces that linger for days to weeks. That’s environmental DNA, or eDNA. One liter of river water contains enough to identify every species that passed through recently. “Every living organism will shed DNA into its environment,” Patel says. “From that litre of river water, we will then be able to map back each of those traces of DNA back to the fish, the amphibians, the mammals, the insects that they started from.” NatureMetrics ships sampling kits anywhere in the world. No specialist training. Patel’s team wanted to test just how simple the process could be, so they handed a kit to a five-year-old. “She got excellent results.” The filter goes back to a lab, where DNA sequencing technology, the same used in forensic science, identifies every species in the sample. No trapping, no netting. The ecosystem isn’t touched. “It takes a fraction of the time, a fraction of the cost, but gives you an incredibly accurate and rich data set,” Patel says. The significance of this moment Freshwater species populations have fallen 84 percent since 1970. More than half of global GDP depends on nature in some form. Degraded soil threatens food supply chains, and losing natural flood barriers puts communities at real risk. Measuring all of that, at scale, in a way that holds up across sites and researchers, wasn’t really possible before now. NatureMetrics has processed samples in 116 countries, working with more than 600 organizations. This year it hit a milestone: 10 percent of Earth’s surface surveyed using eDNA. The platform maps species detections, tracks change over time, and can show whether restoration work in a degraded area is doing anything. The clients include WWF and conservation groups, but also mining companies, energy producers, and agricultural supply chains. Consumer goods companies have been using the data to understand the bacteria and fungi that make food production possible at all. “How can we on a biological level help nurture the soil that is going to continue to give us food for the next 50 years?” Patel asks. Nature on the balance sheet NatureMetrics was recognized as an Earthshot Prize finalist a couple years ago. The prize, founded by the Prince of Wales, has given Patel something useful when talking to industries that are slow to change: proof the science has been reviewed by someone other than the company selling it. “Having someone like the Earthshot Prize, where you know they have done due diligence — being able to say we’re supported by them, they trust our technology — it really opens a lot of doors,” she says. The doors she wants open are in corporate boardrooms. Patel wants biodiversity to move out of field science and into finance, to show up on the same documents where companies account for what they own and what they owe. “We want nature to be on balance sheets,” she says. “We want organisations and companies to be actually valuing the impact they’re having on nature and accounting for that in the way that they operate their businesses and make their decisions.” The data to make that possible already exists. The harder part is getting the people who run large companies to treat it as something worth looking at. “We’re looking to give nature a spot in the boardroom,” Patel says.The post How environmental DNA turned river water into a global wildlife census first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.