Hey there, millennials! Welcome to the “Holy crapoly, I have real-life memories from 20 years ago!” club. It’s a strangely disorienting milestone to reach when you find yourself starting sentences with, “When I was young…” or, “Back in my day…” isn’t it? Your Gen X elders have been here for a while, but even we have moments of incredulously calculating how the heck we’ve arrived at this place. Time is a tricky little jokester, isn’t it? To highlight how much has changed for middle-aged folks since we were young, a user on Reddit asked people born before 1990 what useless skills they possess that nobody has a need for anymore. It’s both a hilarious trip down memory lane and a time capsule of life pre-Y2K. (Do kids these days even know what Y2K was? Gracious.) If you’re down for some good-old-days nostalgia, check out people’s responses: Making brown paper bag book covers “I can cover a textbook with a brown paper bag.” – sourwaterbug Oh goodness yes. And there was always that one girl in class who had the art of the brown paper bag book cover perfected. (They’re probably Pinterest influencers now.) Maps on actual paper “I can re-fold a map correctly.” – JungleZac “Man remember actually using maps…I had an atlas with the road system in my car to navigate other states during road trips. Crazy.” – jagua_haku How did we ever figure out how to get anywhere before GPS and Google Maps? (Two-inch thick road atlases in our car and stopping at gas stations to buy local maps while traveling, that’s how. Positively primitive.) Memorizing phone numbers and answering the house phone For real, though, kids these days don’t even know. “Remembering phone numbers.” – greatmilliondog “Not only that, having to speak to your friend’s parents for a few minutes when you call their house.” – Logical_Area_5552 “How to take a message when the person they want to talk to isn’t there.” – Amoori_A_Splooge How about dialing on a rotary phone, using a pay phone and making (or taking) a collect call? “Using your shoulder to hold a telephone up to your ear while doing multiple other things at once. Now, the phones are so damned small I drop them.” – Regular_Sample_5197 “100 ft phone cords ” – mrch1ck3nn “I got in sooooo much trouble for stretching the phone cord into the bathroom for some privacy. Accidentally clotheslined Grandma She laughed about it but Mom was pissed!” – AffectionateBite3827 Recording songs off the radio was an art form I don’t think kids these days fully grasp how revolutionary Spotify and the like are for those of us who spent hours in front of the radio with our cassette tape recorder queued up at just the right spot waiting for the song we wanted to record to come on. And they will never, ever know the frustration of the DJ yapping right up until the lyrics start. “Record to tape from the radio. Trying to make sure to not get the DJ/presenter talking sh-t or an ad” – Gankstajam “‘Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I’m trying to record my song!!!'” –tearsonurcheek “Having the first side be tempting enough that they’d flip the other side to continue listening. That’s before continual playback machines existed. Had to flip the cassette.” – CrunchyTeaTime “Haha yeah and trying to tell others so they don’t make random noise or knock on the door.” – anonymous “How about making cassette-based mix tapes, trying to figure out to the second, how many and which types of songs in which order, that would still fit perfectly on the length of tape per side.” – anonymous “People who make digital recordings do not have to worry about running out of tape.” – anonymous And there were many more, from rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil to writing in cursive to tearing the sides off of printer paper without tearing the paper itself. (Oh and, of course, the ability to count out change and understand what you’re supposed to do if something costs $9.91 and someone hands you $10.01.) Gotta love it when the things that used to be totally normal now sound like historic artifacts found in a museum. Kind of makes you wonder what normal things from today we’ll be laughing about in another 20 or 30 years. This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated. The post People born before 1990 are sharing their now-useless (but 100% nostalgic) skills appeared first on Upworthy.

On March 8, 2023, a keeper at World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis County, Missouri, noticed something odd. A male bald eagle named Murphy was guarding what appeared to be a large depression in the ground. “The spot was sparsely but carefully decorated with leaves and branches, and featured a simple rock right in the center,” the nature preserve shared on its Facebook page. Murphy began sitting on the rock, nudging it and becoming fiercely protective of it, as if it were an egg. People visiting the sanctuary would inquire about the bald eagle just sitting there, wondering if he was okay. The keepers finally put up a sign that read: “If you see an eagle lying down in the back left corner under a perch, that’s Murphy! Murphy is not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress. He has built a nest on the ground, and is very carefully incubating a rock! We wish him the best of luck!” Murphy took his rock duties very seriously In case you’re wondering if this is unusual behavior for a 31-year-old male bald eagle, the answer is “not really, but….” Male bald eagles do share equally in nesting and baby-raising, so the paternal instinct part is normal. Murphy’s channeling of that instinct onto a rock…maybe not so much. And at 31, he’s more like a great-granddad than dad, as bald eagles usually live 20 to 30 years in the wild (though they do live longer in captivity). Murphy takes fatherhood seriously, though. Soon he began screaming and charging at the four other eagles in the aviary if they came anywhere near RockBaby. (That’s the official name the keepers gave Murphy’s…well, rock baby.) Naturally, the screaming and charging caused a fair amount of stress for all involved, so Murphy and RockBaby were moved to their own enclosure for everyone’s protection. People who saw this unfold started suggesting sanctuary staff replace Murphy’s rock with a real egg or get him a mate, but 1) Eagle eggs aren’t just lying around waiting to be given to wanna-be dads, 2) hatching a different kind of bird’s egg would be potentially dangerous for it, and 3) Murphy had two females right there in the aviary, and none of them were interested in each other. Alas, the heart cannot be forced. Then a real eaglet needed a dad However, a different opportunity presented itself in late March when an aerie with two chicks in it was blown down by high winds. One chick didn’t survive the fall, but the other was brought to World Bird Sanctuary’s Wildlife Hospital. A bit bruised, but otherwise healthy, the chick was given a good prognosis. Staff began feeding it while wearing a camouflage suit and holding an eagle stuffy to prevent the eaglet from imprinting on humans. What the baby really needed was a foster parent: an adult eagle who would feed and care for it. “Murphy’s dad instincts were already in high gear,” the sanctuary wrote on April 11, “but at 31 years old, he had never raised a chick before. It’s definitely a gamble, but also the chick’s best chance.” Introducing an eaglet to an adult eagle isn’t as simple as dropping it in the enclosure. First, the eaglet is put into what the sanctuary refers to as a “baby jail,” which is a heated, comfy cage made of wood and wire that protects the eaglet but still allows some interaction between the birds so they can get used to one another. Once the desired bonding behavior is observed, then they try out some direct one-on-one interaction without the cage. On April 12, World Bird Sanctuary announced, “IT’S HAPPENING!!!!” The eaglet (referred to as Bald Eaglet 23-126, they don’t name foster babies at the sanctuary for superstitious reasons) was released from baby jail, and after an hour or so Murphy approached it with curiosity. Was he wondering if his RockBaby had hatched? Maybe. Would he be the nurturing dad everyone hoped he would be? It appears so. As the sanctuary shared: “This morning, Murphy got his chance to be a full parent as 23-126 left the nest to go be closer to Murphy. The food is being dropped through a blind drop tube into the nest and baby appears unable to be able to get over the lip to get back into the nest to get the chopped food. When we checked back, we found that baby was still out of the nest and all the chopped food was still in the nest. However, Murphy’s whole fish had been removed from the nest and baby had a full crop. 23-126 is not yet old enough to tear food which means MURPHY FED THE BABY!!!!” Murphy’s second eaglet, 24-159, was successfully released into the wild on January 31, 2026, at Audubon Center at Riverlands in West Alton, Missouri: a fitting final chapter to Murphy’s legacy. The comments on the update, of course, were pure gold as people became fully invested in this story and even gave the eaglet a real name—Dwayne, as in The Rock: “I can’t believe I’m crying over eagles!” “Murphy’s going to be giving a TedTalk: Manifest The Eaglet You Need In Your Life.” “So happy for Murphy & eaglet Dwayne (the rock Johnson).” “‘Rock, I am your Father.'” “Omg I’m crying! Murphy never gave up on his rock and now has a baby of his very own The wonders of nature never cease. Ty, WBS, for making this possible. These two are saving each other .” Many people lamented that there is not a live cam at the facility so people could watch this pair as their relationship developed, but staff reminded everyone that the sanctuary is out in the middle of the woods and they don’t have a strong enough signal for a live stream. But WBS staff posted regular updates on social media on how Papa Murphy and “Dwayne” were doing. Murphy was honored on Father’s Day for his stellar fostering skills as he returned to the aviary:   “We’d like to thank Murphy for his service and applaud his outstanding job in raising 23-126,” the sanctuary wrote. “Murphy may have had a few moments in his parenting duties where he regretted choosing to sit on that rock, but we believe that the overall experience has been very enriching for him. We know that Murphy has enriched 126’s life. Thanks to Murphy, 23-126 has grown up knowing that he is a Bald Eagle! 126 has learned so much from Murphy and, thanks to his efforts, will have a much greater chance of thriving in the wild after he is released. Happy Father’s Day Murphy, and thank you, we couldn’t have done this without you.” Rest in peace, Papa Murphy Sadly, Murphy passed away at age 33 on March 15, 2025, after suffering head trauma during a severe storm, having fostered two eaglets in his final years. He lived a long life for a bald eagle and the World Bird Sanctuary offered a beautiful tribute to this extraordinary bird. “His resilience, spirit, and dedication as a foster dad touched the hearts of millions of people throughout the world, leaving an especially profound impact on those fortunate enough to have worked with him. While Murphy has delighted guests along Avian Avenue for years with his distinct vocalizations and charismatic personality, it wasn’t until 2023 when he decided to incubate a rock that he gained an international following. Murphy’s transition from rock incubating to rockstar foster dad of an injured eaglet brought daily joy to thousands as we watched their journey together. As Murphy’s eaglet grew so did our love of him. Their journey together taught thousands about eagle growth and development, the bonds between eagle parents and their young, and the critical work that goes into wildlife rehabilitation. Murphy’s eaglet continued to grow strong under his watchful gaze and went on to be released back to the wild. The following year, Murphy fostered a second eaglet in need with the same dedication he gave the first. His second eaglet is still in our care, but is making good progress toward release and we expect he will be ready by mid summer. We could not have asked for a better ambassador and role model. We are incredibly grateful for the community that came together as a result of his heartwarming story. We are devastated by this loss and know that the community mourns with us. Murphy’s foster eaglets were the first ones our hospital received in over a decade and we learned a lot about their care and space needs from observing Murphy with them. With what we learned from this, we’ve designed a series of special aviaries to serve the specific needs of injured and orphaned raptors, including an aviary specialized for eaglets. In honor of Murphy’s legacy, we plan to name the eventual eagle fostering aviary Murphy’s Manor, so that we can continue to remember him for decades to come. Murphy will be deeply missed, but his legacy will live on in the memories of those who loved him.” Murphy’s second eaglet, 24-159, was successfully released into the wild on January 31, 2026, at Audubon Center at Riverlands in West Alton, Missouri: a fitting final chapter to Murphy’s legacy. This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated. The post An old male bald eagle who adopted a rock as an egg finally got his own real foster baby appeared first on Upworthy.

Millennials trying to buy homes in today’s economy are up against a rock and a hard place. Unlike for their Boomer parents, the dream of buying a home continues to feel further away. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Millennials “continue to be fenced out of homeownership.” The organization reported that in 2025, the average age of first-time homeownership rose to 40 years old, up from 38 just the year before, with the share of first-time buyers falling to a record low of 21%. “The historically low share of first-time buyers underscores the real-world consequences of a housing market starved for affordable inventory,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research. Millennials are venting on Reddit Millennials are airing their frustrations amongst each other in the Reddit thread r/Millennials, sharing their stories and experiences with their Boomer parents, with many calling Boomers “out of touch.” @thejennifink The disconnect with reality is real but I can’t stop bringing it up. #housingmarket #zillow #realestate #boomers #millennials #millennialsoftiktok #home ♬ original sound – Jenni Fink One Millennial wrote, “This topic is like hitting a dead horse, but I just needed to rant. Back story, I work out at a gym with people who are our parents age, and of the boomer generation. I overheard them saying, ‘we bought our first home for $65,000. I’m sure kids these days are only paying $125,000 for that same house’. When they said that, I burst out laughing. How are they so out of touch? It drives me nuts.” Another Millennial replied, “Willful ignorance. Takes four seconds to go on Zillow and find out that’s bullsh*t .” And another shared, “I’m not kidding… when I showed my dad actual data on itemized COL inflation, he said that ‘the data just says that but that doesn’t mean it’s real’…. This is a guy that I would normally consider smart and with it. When it comes to these kinds of topics of societal degradation, he can’t accept it. He is willfully ignorant to things being worse now for me than they were for him at my age.” @mel_owens & invent a time machine. #boomer #homeowner #housingmarket #homebuying #comedy ♬ original sound – Melanie Owens The Zillow experiment that actually worked Others explained how they attempted to explain to their Boomer parents how expensive homes currently are. Another shared, “Last Christmas, the sibs and I collectively managed to remember all the addresses we had lived in in our childhoods and Zillowed all of them to show our parents. All are still standing. All were built in the 70s. All are rural or suburban/small towns. Parents were astounded at what these 50+ year houses are going for today, especially compared to what they paid for them 30-40 years ago.” Millennials added their conversations with parents who got defensive. One wrote, “I legit just had this same conversation! They say ‘complain when it’s 14% interest’ excuse me, your house was 60k and dad was making 40, don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining. That fancy 250k house is now like 600k…get a grip, average house is 438k.” Another shared, “My dad still gives me a hard time about renting, constantly tells me how I should invest in a house. I sat him down one day and opened up a mortgage calculator, showed him how with the current interest rates it just wasn’t gonna happen- he seemed to get it. For a little bit anyways haha. I saw him last month and he told me again how rent is wasted money yadda yadda.” How to talk to your Boomer parents about housing Millennials can have healthy and productive conversations with their Boomer parents when discussions about buying a home become tense or uncomfortable, Aly Bullock, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist with Paired, tells Upworthy. Here are three things Millennials can say to their parents during these tough talks: Phrase #1: “I understand that we have different views on this, and that’s okay with me.” Bullock explains, “This acknowledges that you understand their POV and you are still willing to stick with your own opinion. It is a very gentle way of setting a boundary and letting them know you are comfortable having different opinions.” Phrase #2: “I would love to hear you out, and my request is that in return you respect my right to make a personal decision even if it does not align with what you’ve shared.” “Even when their kids are grown, parents still love the chance to influence their children,” says Bullock. “This phrase lets your parents know that you would love to hear their opinion, you welcome it, AND reminds them gently that you are grown and they should offer you similar respect.” Phrase #3: “This conversation seems to keep causing tension between us, and I’d rather focus on something we have in common right now. Can we set it aside for a bit?” According to Bullock, “This acknowledges the tension without placing blame. It gives the adult child an opportunity to stop the conversation before it deteriorates further, while emphasizing the positive pieces of the relationship.” Finally, she notes that it may take placing boundaries around these conversations. “Remember that you don’t have to tell your parents everything. Some things are better left unsaid,” says Bullock. “The truth is that parents change as they age and may or may not be able to cope well with generational differences or unmet expectations. Try to have compassion for them as you decide which things to keep to yourself in order to protect your own mental health.” This article originally appeared one year ago. It has been updated. The post Millennials struggling to buy a home want ‘out of touch’ Boomer parents to get their reality appeared first on Upworthy.

Babies are really adaptable, and the same can be said for baby animals. It’s likely because they just don’t know any other way of life, so they just go with what they’re given and, miraculously, make it work. Even knowing that, however, it’s still hard to imagine a kitten getting around without their front legs. Cats essentially use everything from their whiskers to their tails to balance, so how would one walk without two of it’s four legs? The answer is, carefully at first. Duck is a rescued kitten who, unfortunately, had to have both of her front legs completely amputated. While she was wobbly at first, she quickly adapted. Meet Duck, the wonder cat Duck’s human, Cody, shares her daily shenanigans on his Instagram page aptly named Purrasic Duck, which has amassed over half a million followers. In 2020, he told Duck’s story to The Dodo, revealing how she was rescued and how, against all odds, she developed her agile moves. If you’re having a hard time picturing a two-legged cat on the run, it looks a lot like a furry velociraptor chasing a laser pointer. “I ended up naming her Duck because she kinda waddled. She’d kinda take it slow, she waddled trying to figure out her balance,” Cody told The Dodo. Before long, Duck was off to play with her much larger dog brothers. Her pug brother even offers her a little assistance in the face cleaning area since Duck doesn’t have paws to do it herself. She returns the favor by cleaning his face too. It’s an adorable relationship, but if you want to see a furry velociraptor chase after cat toys, you’ll need to watch the video below. @purrasicduck A great surprise #animals #foryou #mememaker #fitness #girls ♬ Sunroof – Nicky Youre & dazy How Duck and Cody found each other Cody met Duck when she was found and brought into his sister’s animal clinic. “She was probably chilling in a car engine and her legs got caught up, and she survived that!” Cody can be heard saying as a voice over in the video. At first, Cody’s sister brought her over as a potential foster, but after just one day, Cody decided to keep her for himself. “When I met her, I just fell in love immediately,” he said. Duck has no shortage of friends to play with at home, either. In addition to her dog brothers, Cody rescues and either keeps or fosters plenty of baby animals, from chickens, turtles, and opossums to a raccoon, a squirrel, and of course, more dogs and cats. Duck also has a sister named Goose, who’s an adorable gray kitty with just one eye. Here they are hanging out together: @purrasicduck Alllllll the animals #CapCut #pets #rescue #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Duck Duck is thriving, and so is her family Today, Duck is no longer a baby and has gotten this two-legged life down pat. She’s living happily with dad Cody and her many, many, many animal siblings and friends. On her social media pages, Cody includes a useful link for other pet parents, rescuers, and fosterers with recommended products to help make the rescue and rehoming process easy for everyone. Check it out here. Cody has got quite the rescue menagerie going and it’s so inspiring. This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated. The post Kitten named Duck learns to run on two legs and she looks like an adorable velociraptor appeared first on Upworthy.

Episode Description: Europe’s first stadium built exclusively for women’s football is going up in Brighton! And the most interesting design decision wasn’t the pitch. It was the size. Arielle and Karissa cover ten solutions this week, including a single injection that gave a child her hearing, two teenage sisters in Gaza who are up for a global environmental prize, and what China just crossed in green hydrogen capacity. If you have questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hi, send a message to podcast@optimistdaily.com. Want to be part of the Optimism Movement? Become an Emissary. Subscribe to our FREE Daily or Weekly Newsletter and follow us on Instagram, X, and Blue Sky. The Optimist Daily is a project of the World Business Academy. Donate link: https://www.optimistdaily.com/donate-to-support-the-optimist-daily/?gift=Y%20http:// Theme and all original music by Marvin Lanes Transcript: Karissa  Hi everyone, I’m Karissa.  Arielle  I’m Arielle, and welcome back to the Optimist Daily Weekly Roundup.  Karissa  Woohoo, we’re excited to be back and share all the solutions from The Optimist Daily this week. We had some good ones, as always, really got me feeling. a little more positive.  Arielle  If you’re enjoying the show, then the single best thing you can do is rate and review us wherever you’re listening and hit subscribe if you haven’t already. It will definitely help more people find us.  Karissa  And if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, you can always e-mail us at podcast@optimistdaily.com.  Arielle  Apologies in advance. I’m sounding a little bit nasally because I’m sick this week. Still pushing through it. It’s just the sinuses.  Karissa  Well, I feel that; I feel like I’m in an endless battle with my sinuses from spring allergies. But you have to get better because you’ll be going on a trip pretty soon.  Arielle  Yes, that’s right. So that means that we’re actually going to be taking a break from the podcast next week. But you do have a guest interview. to look forward to, which will be coming out the following week. So yeah, that will be with a few people from Swim Sista Swim, which is a program that we featured on our Local Changemakers series that happens around Thanksgiving every year. So yeah, I’m really excited to put that one out.  Karissa  And in the meantime, we have a new weekly newsletter where you can just get all intent solutions straight to your inbox on Fridays. So, if you want that weekly digest, you can sign up on our website. And if you want the solutions every day, along with some bonus features that we feature in the daily newsletter, including a positive quote, some solutions from our archive, and other fun things, then that’s an option as well.  Arielle  All right. Should we get into the solutions from the week?  Karissa  Yeah, I think so.   “The gene behind congenital deafness and how a single shot is fixing it.”   A seven-year-old girl born without hearing was having conversations with her mother four months after a single injection into her inner ear. There was no device involved, no implants, just a gene she had been missing her whole life. This trial treated 10 people, and every single one showed measurable improvement. So, with this shot, a synthetic virus, AAV, delivers a working copy of the OTOF gene directly into the cochlea through one injection at the round window membrane. And in this trial, average sound detection shifted from 106 decibels, which is jackhammer level, to 52 decibels, which is normal conversation level, over six months. Younger children aged 5 to 8 responded most dramatically. But in this trial, there were participants from one year old to 24 years old. So pretty cool. And there were no serious adverse reactions with this trial. So, I think it could be a great path forward.  Arielle  Must be like… I’m just trying to put myself in the shoes of a parent who has been communicating with their deaf child in a completely different way. And then suddenly they can just have conversations with them with their voice. And that must be such a shift. And I’m assuming a very joyful one, but there is probably going to be some debate within the deaf community about whether genetic deafness should be treated at all. So, there’s just a lot of complex feelings about whether something needs to be, quote unquote, cured. I’m interested to see what kind of conversations this type of treatment will bring up.  Karissa  Yeah, absolutely. But nonetheless, a very cool scientific and medical advancement.   All right, well I’m going to move on to the next solution, and it is called, “8 sky events all stargazers should catch this month.”   Yeah, so if you missed it, this past weekend was the flower moon. I actually caught a glimpse of it, and it was super bright and beautiful. Very nice. Did you catch it, Arielle?  Arielle  Yeah, it was extremely full and illuminating.  Karissa  Yeah, exactly. I was admiring it in the parking lot of a frozen yogurt shop and enjoying my frozen yogurt dessert over the weekend. So, a very nice memory of the flower moon. But if you missed it or if you want to catch some other night sky events, there are plenty to look forward to in the month of May. So, this weekend, the Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks, and that’s just the opening act of everything that May has to offer. And if you want to get the full lineup and some tips on how to catch all these spectacles, then check it out on The Optimist Daily.  Arielle  Yeah, stargazing is having its moment in recent years, along with forest bathing and all the nature-focused pastimes people are investing in. There’s also all these apps that you can use to identify constellations and everything.  Karissa  We’re looking forward to the blue moon later this month, which is a very rare event and significant even though they’re not supernatural.   Moving on to the next solution, “Brighton is building Europe’s first stadium designed entirely for women’s football.” And I have to say, this solution was presented to me by my boyfriend, who is a huge Brighton & Hove Albion fan. And I’m glad that The Optimist Daily decided to feature it.   Europe’s first stadium, designed exclusively for women’s football, is on the way. And it’s only one of three in the entire world so far. And the thinking behind the size is actually the most interesting part because these large stadiums that are designed for men’s sports are way too big for what women’s sports attract at the current moment. And that really brings down morale when women are playing.  Arielle  Yeah, I think that it’s really thoughtful to have… I think it’s just a 10,000 capacity stadium, which is still a lot. But when those… what are they, bleachers? When the seats are filled, it really creates a more motivating atmosphere. But I also liked that the stadium is built with breastfeeding rooms, baby changing areas, buggy parks, and social concourse spaces.  Karissa  And I like that they, you know, leave on the table that as women’s sports grow bigger, then perhaps they would just move into the bigger Amex stadium next door. Then yeah, the fact that this is only going to be the third stadium in the world dedicated to a woman’s soccer team, football team, sorry, I’m American (laughs), is just… it’s a great step forward in my opinion.   All right, so moving on, we had a solution this week that talks about what doctors want you to know about GLP-1s and bone loss. A study came out earlier this year linking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy to increased risk of bone conditions, and it got a lot of coverage. These weight loss drugs are obviously a huge topic right now, and there’s still a lot being figured out about them.   The study discussed in this article was presented at the 2026 American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons meeting, and it focused on nearly 147,000 adults with type 2 diabetes and obesity. GLP-1 use was associated with higher rates of osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and gout. Some of the key limitations here include the fact that it was not peer-reviewed, it was observational, and correlation does not equal causation. It didn’t account for exercise, diet, endocrine conditions, alcohol use, or family history. And it assumed that everyone prescribed was actually taking the drug, which might not always be the case. So, the actual mechanism is likely rapid weight loss, not the drug itself behind bone loss. Bones respond to load, and less body weight means less load on the skeleton, which can reduce bone density over time. This solution just goes more into the rationale behind two experts and what they have to say about the bone loss.  Arielle  These have not really been publicly or widely available for a long time. So, I think it’s just important to keep talking about this. in the media and in our homes. We just need to keep educating ourselves.  Karissa  Right, exactly. The last solution I’m going to talk about today is how China’s renewable hydrogen capacity crosses 1,000,000 tons. So, this is a huge advancement in hydrogen energy. China just crossed 1,000,000 metric tons of green hydrogen energy capacity. The projects currently under construction are three times the size of everything operating today. And there’s a clever workaround for hydrogen’s biggest problem built into the strategy. So, I mean, total renewable hydrogen capacity built or under construction passed 1 million metric tons per year in March 2026 per China’s National Energy Administration. But the operational capacity now exceeds 250,000 metric tons per year, which is more than double what existed at the end of 2024. So, hydrogen energy is really just expanding so rapidly. And actually another 900,000 plus metric tons per year is actively under construction.  Arielle  This article was really technical for me, but I think the main message is that green hydrogen is expanding and we are here for any kind of renewable, clean, safe energy. Thank you so much, Karissa, for sharing the first five solutions from this week. I’m going to go ahead and jump into the 6th one, which is titled “Gaza sisters turn rubble into bricks to rebuild their community.”   There’s no way I can sugarcoat this. Tala and Farah Mousa’s house was bombed, just like many other Palestinian families’ houses and homes were bombed. And these two sisters looked at the rubble and they started asking what it could become. What they came up with was a no machinery, no supply chain, just what’s on the ground solution. And it’s been recognized as one of the top environmental projects in the world for under 19s.   Tala and Farah Moussa created Build Hope Palestine, a method for turning rubble from damaged buildings into reusable blocks. The process includes crushed and sieved rubble mixed with clay, ash, or glass powder that’s then molded and dried. So, there’s no machinery involved. There’s no imported materials. The end product is a block that is non-load-bearing, which makes them practical. They can be used to create garden beds, pavements, partitions, the everyday infrastructure a neighborhood needs.   I think this is just a really inspiring solution for young people who are going through so much. They are able to look around them at all the destruction and the sadness and the loss, and they use that as motivation to make their community better. Build Hope was selected as one of the top 35 teams in the Earth Prize 2026 competition. That’s the world’s largest environmental competition for 13- to 19-year-olds run by a Geneva nonprofit that has reached 21,000 and more students across 169 countries.  Karissa  Yeah, I think this is so awesome. And kind of like what you were saying, Arielle, I do like the fact that young people in conflict zones are increasingly being recognized for environmental and community solutions and not just as victims. This is just a super inspiring story from these two sisters.  Arielle  There may be a chance that we will get to interview them on the Optimist Daily’s weekly roundup guest interview episodes. So, keep an eye out for that.   Karissa  Yeah.   Arielle  The seventh solution is titled “Pro-parenting tips to spark your children’s lifelong love for the great outdoors.” So, this is a reprint, I believe, but more applicable than ever. Kids are spending more time indoors, and the pull of screens is very real. But a child development expert says the case for getting outside goes much deeper than just fresh air. And the way you start doesn’t have to be a hiking trail. It can just be a window.   Carlene Fider, core faculty at Pacific Oaks College, focuses on why outdoor time matters for children’s overall development, whether that’s physical, mental, and emotional. We’ve already run so many solutions on why being outdoors and in nature is good for your overall health. But what this article is getting at is that we have to model, or we —I’m not a parent, but parents and guardians and just role models in children’s lives have to demonstrate the behavior, interacting and engaging with nature, whether that’s gardening or stargazing, which you can do by checking out the guide that we put out this week. or caring for a plant, that really matters for children. They need to see that we are also engaging with nature. And then it has ideas for you to make it fun and age-appropriate, like coming up with games or scavenger hunts. And yeah, you can just talk about nature, even from a car window or inside a classroom. You can point at clouds, you can be in awe of the rain or a rainbow or a sunset. So, conversation itself builds connection.  Karissa  I think this is so important, and I do feel lucky that I was kind of raised in a way to appreciate nature and get out in nature. My parents took me camping a lot or just on hikes on the weekends and walks around the parks and would always encourage my love to spend time out in the backyard and build mud pies and castles. And so, they really encourage that and never, were like, it’s too dirty or anything. But I think in the digital age where screen time causes a lot of parental anxiety, this conversation is more important than ever.  Arielle  The next solution is titled “How Paraguay cut its poverty rate from over 50 to 16% in two decades.”   20 years ago, more than half of Paraguay’s population lived in poverty. Today, it’s 16%. A third of the entire country crossed the poverty line in just two decades, and 300,000 more did so in just the last two years. So, what did they actually do to make this happen? That’s what the article goes into, and I’m not going to go through everything, but the primary driver of 2025 poverty reduction was labor income growth and the biggest gains at the bottom of the income scale. So basically, people just got better, more stable jobs, and there were obviously structural changes that the government made to facilitate that change. and to make sure that there were jobs that were available for people. I think that this is a really good example of how other countries can maybe tackle their poverty issues, because it is systemic. And we, I mean, I personally think that we do need the governments to step up and care for the people, because that’s why we have governments.  Karissa  Yeah, the social contract, of course. But I mean, just on the surface, the fact that this happened in two decades is very impressive and we can definitely learn some lessons from the way they went about this.  Arielle  One really cool thing is that they made their first poverty map in over 20 years. It covers all 263 districts. And it’s now being used to direct investments and target programs for the regions that are the most vulnerable.  Karissa  Yeah, that’s great news.  Arielle  All right, so on a slightly smaller scale, the next solution is about your lawn. “Four reasons your lawn looks thin this spring and how to fix it.”  So if you’ve ever seeded a lawn and watched it come in patchy and slow, a lawn pro says you’re probably focusing on the wrong thing entirely. This article features the expertise of Tony Burris from the company Killingsworth Environmental. And he says that lawn care is far more about treating the soil than treating the grass. And that kind of reframe changes everything. The 4 most common causes of slow growth are soil nutrient deficiency, wrong sun… sun/shade balance for the grass type, improper watering, and uneven terrain. So, if this sounds like a relatable problem, check out this article and Tom Burris got your back. The last solution of the week is called, “The Big Catch-Up vaccinated 18 million children in two years.” The campaign just wrapped up after two years, 36 countries, and over 100 million doses. The agencies behind it are already saying the real challenge hasn’t started yet, but hey, it’s still a really big win. What is the Big Catch-Up? You’re probably all wondering. The Big Catch-Up is a program that was created in collaboration with these three organizations, UNICEF, Gavi, and the World Health Organization. And their goal was to deliver 100 million plus doses to 18.3 million children in 36 countries over 2 years, ending in March of this year. The program, which is still collecting all its data, is on track to reach its target of 21 million children once, everything has been compiled and counted properly. So yeah, this is a huge world health victory.  Karissa  Yeah, definitely. I thought it was interesting that 12.3 million of the children that got doses from this program were zero -dose so they had never received any vaccine at all. And I mean, 15 million had never had a measles vaccine, which is a huge topic all over the world right now. So, this is really great that they were able to make these advancements.  Arielle  It’s really encouraging news.   So that’s all from us this week. But before we close out, we want to say thank you. If you’re an emissary, someone who’s choosing to financially support this show, thank you, because it genuinely makes a difference. You guys keep the lights on here at The Optimist Daily. And this takes real time to put together. Karissa and I are trying to work hard, do our best to get these solutions out there for you all.  Karissa  And as a reminder, if you are an Emissary of the Optimist Daily, you get the perk of being able to shout out anyone or anything that makes you optimistic and is, you know, putting solutions out there into the world. So, keep an eye out for that in your e-mail if you haven’t already. If you need that link, feel free to e-mail us again at podcast@optimistdaily.com if it’s lost somewhere. And we’ll send that over. And yeah, if you want to become an Emissary, that link is in the show notes.   But of course, thank you to everyone, all of our optimists for listening, sharing this good news, because we need more of it. And to leave you off for this episode, we have a positive quote as always. And if it’s the theme so perfectly: “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” And that is THICH NHAT HANH.  Arielle  Karissa and I will be back next week. Oh, no, wait. We won’t be back next week because I’m off. But if you haven’t rated and reviewed us yet, please do. Every star helps. And please subscribe if you’re not already subscribed so you never miss an episode. All right! And we will be back in a couple weeks with more solutions. Have a great weekend, everyone!  Karissa  Bye everyone!   The post Podcast Transcript May 8, 2026— Gene therapy restores hearing, Gaza teens win a global prize, and eight more wins first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.