Good Vibes: 5 Stories That Made Us Believe This Week

In this first Good Vibes episode, Delaney and Jake each bring three feel-good stories they already love and then react to each other’s picks in real time.

Some are inspiring. Some are wholesome. Some are just the kind of good news that hits when you didn’t know you needed it.

No doom scrolling. No debates. Just real reactions, off-the-cuff commentary, and a reminder that good things are still happening, even when the world feels loud.

If you’re looking for a reset, a smile, or a reason to believe this week might be okay… this one’s for you.

🎙️Barker Vibes
Good vibes. Spooky vibes. Real reactions.

Listen on your favorite podcast app or visit:
https://barkervibes.buzzsprout.com/

Transcript

Welcome To Barker Vibes

Jake 0:00

Hey, good morning, everybody. Or good evening. Good afternoon. I guess whenever you're listening. Whenever you're listening to this, it's the Barkers, Jake.

Delaney 0:11

And Delaney.

Jake 0:12

And this is Barker Vibes. And but this episode is going to be a little bit different.

Why Share Only Good News

Jake 0:16

We're going to talk about the good shit that happened this past week. So uh it's going to be a kind of a collection of different stories. Probably the number of stories, depending on who reads what, is going to change each week. But regardless, should come away from this episode feeling a little bit lighter and a little bit happier about the shit world that we live in. Alright. Okay. So the first one, I'm going to go first. So, let me put my coffee down. I don't wanna I don't wanna mess up your diamond painting.

Toy Store Donates Inventory

Jake 0:47

So, first story title is Arizona Toy Store Donates All Remaining Toys to the Salvation Army before closure. And that's it. That's it, ladies and gentlemen. We are officially done with that story. That is over and done with. Thanks for coming along. Okay, next story. No, I'm just kidding. I'll talk a little bit on it. Uh, long story short, the this Arizona store, you scroll down a little bit. For me, please. I'm trying to think of dang, I don't have the name on it. I'm sorry, Astro. Astro Toys. Astro Toys, sorry. Astro Toys in Arizona. They unfortunately had to make the hard decision, as many business owners do, on closing the doors. And the nice thing is they decided to, I guess, go out with an awesome kind of bang here at the Christmas time. And they so they sold obviously whatever they could, and then the remaining inventory that they had inside their toy store, they donated to a local Salvation Army branch. And so obviously, if you don't know anything about Salvation Army, they do a toy drive every year, and they give obviously families in need that don't necessarily have the funds to be able to put 30,000 fucking presents under the tree. Jesus. And so they help out with sorry if your name is Deborah. I apologize. Yeah, that's that's my bad. I'm sorry, that just came to mind. But uh, as those that you know, you're not able to stuff it under, and and as many of us know, shit is expensive nowadays. So it's really cool to see that happen. So very, very small, very uh I guess small gesture, but definitely went a long, long way.

Breaking Down Forever Chemicals

Jake 2:25

Next, next story is about an eco-friendly tech that eliminates what they call forever chemicals. And so this is in your fantastic tupleware and all the basically things that are meant to last through a nuclear bomb. Yeah, these are the things they're talking about. So basically the they're called PF PFAS, and they're synthetic chemicals. They were made in the 1940s. Oh, shocker. So a lot of things were made. Yeah, a lot of things. So like Teflon pans to waterproof clothing and food packaging with their ability to resist heat, grease, and water, which is obviously what made them valuable. And so their resistance has made them non-degradable, basically. So, like I said, they can last through a fucking nuke. And so a lot of efforts have been trying have been used to try to clean up these chemicals because they cause all kinds of health issues, liver damage, reproductive disorders, immune system disruptions, and all kinds of different cancers have been linked to these types of chemicals.

Delaney 3:29

And that's just by lingering residues in water.

Jake 3:33

Yeah. Yeah, just just lingering residues. So nothing that's been like broken down. Right. Make sure you clean your shit. And so, long story short, there is South Korea and Texas students have put together what's called a they layered a double hydroxide LDH material, which is made for cop from made from copper and aluminum. And it was discovered by South Korean professor Keon Ham Kim. I hope I said that right. Probably not. I'm sorry.

Delaney 4:06

While he was a grad student.

Jake 4:07

Yeah, while he was a grad student in Korea. This was back in 2021. And so linked up with a student at Rice, Young Kun Chung, and they discovered that the nitrate could absorb these small particles with record-breaking efficiency. And the crazy thing about this is that it absorbs and takes care of these small particles a thousand times better than any other materials. And the fascinating thing about this shit is that it will absorb all this stuff, break it down, and then all the byproduct that's released from it is non-non-toxic. So it's able to sustain itself. And then the even crazier thing is that after it does all this, it regenerates itself. So you can constantly keep using it and just cleaning up waterways. And so that's the that was the second article I had. They're trying to trying to clean up all the water and all the bullshit. So that's linked to all these health health issues. And so, yeah, as a grad student putting aluminum and copper together. That's crazy. And it regenerates itself. Fucking wild.

Self-Regenerating PFAS Filter

Jake 5:15

The next story I had was it's about a dog that got lost. And the obviously scary part about this, obviously losing your dog losing your dog in and of itself is scary. But when the weather outside is not the most ideal, frigid temperatures, and it's been over 24 hours, you definitely start to get really concerned. And so there's a group up in his name's Michael Parzel. Parzil. He found USAR in honor of his father, who is a World War II veteran. They're a drone company, but they assist in water rescues and they're able to drop like life preservatives to people out at sea that are trapped until they're able to get obviously rescued. And so they they help field numerous calls to obviously help with people and everything, but they also help out with parents or parents, tease pets.

Thermal Drone Rescues Lost Puppy

Jake 6:15

Parents of the pets. And so what they got called out because they, you know, obviously the dog had been missing, and they had tried other efforts and knows it all failed. And they tried putting clothes out on the on the porch to get the dog to come, and nothing was working. And so they called in this team and they suited up the drone, set up a thermal cam on it. If you don't know anything about basically optics and stuff, a thermal cam is exactly that. It's thermal, it's it's gonna pick up pick up any kind of heat signature. And so obviously, being in the frigid, it's going to stand out significantly easier. And so they strapped up the drone and sent it out in 41 minutes. They found the dog, and the dog was reunited with the family. They had checked different, they saw, because I guess the the family lived out near woods and everything, and so they they saw all kinds of different animals for the first 20 minutes, and then they were able to to see the the dog's resemblance and go and I guess the a family member went over and and yelled. It was two blocks away, and the dog came running.

Delaney 7:21

Wow.

Jake 7:22

And so, yeah, in 41 minutes they were able to find this dog and and bring it home. Fucking wild. Something so simple. A thermal camera and a and a a drone to get out and away from all the stuff. Wild. But yeah, no, definitely. I don't know if they mentioned the dog's name, but yeah, they they mentioned the the family.

Delaney 7:43

Mentioned it was five months old.

Jake 7:44

Yeah, five months old. That's right. It was a puppy. It was a it was a young dog. But yeah, that was evidently shade. That's kind of fitting.

Delaney 7:53

Yeah.

Jake 7:54

But yeah, that was a a record for the the company as well. We're finding. But yeah. So that's mine. What what you got?

Delaney 8:02

I mean, my biggest one, which is probably gonna take a lot of time, I thought was really cool.

Microbes And Early Brain Development

Delaney 8:07

Michigan State University have realized that tiny microbes can help shape brain development even before like you're born, and before you reach out into the world and have that, like, you know, nature versus nurture type thing. And they've realized that like even in the womb, these microbes can help shape how a person like how their brain functions and how they react to things. And so they used a mouse model, of course, because a mouse shares significant biological and behavioral similarities with humans. Yeah. And there's really no other alternatives to study the role of microbes on brain development unless you use actual humans and they didn't know what that was gonna do. Yeah. To honor sacrifice. So it's of significance because modern obstetric practices there's a lot of big words. But that's the easy one. Um like parapartum, antibiotic use, and cesarean delivery disrupt maternal microbes. So in the United States alone, 40% of women receive antibiotics around childbirth, and a third of all births occur via cesarean section. So at birth, a newborn baby is colonial. Oh my gosh, I cannot read words there so well.

Jake 9:29

It's okay.

Delaney 9:30

Colonized by microbes as it travels through the birth canal. Birth also coincides with important developmental events that shape the brain. We wanted to further explore how the arrival of these microbes may affect brain development. And this was the assistant professor at MSU Department of Psychology. So, like they're they're trying to study how these microbes affect like psychological and how that's Damn, that's gangster. Yeah.

Jake 10:00

Before the human even starts.

Delaney 10:02

Right. While it's in the womb still. And so the research team, they focus on a specific brain region called paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus.

Jake 10:13

Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah. Or the PVN. Yeah, it was like seventh-grade science.

Delaney 10:17

It plays a central role in regulating stress, blood pressure, water balance, and even social behavior.

Jake 10:24

Come on.

Delaney 10:24

Their previous work had shown that mice raised without microbes or germ-free mice had more dying neurons in the PVN during early development. The new studies set out to determine whether this increased cell death translated to changes in neuron number in the long run. And if any effects could be caused by the arrival of microbes at birth or if they began in the womb via signals from maternal microbes. So they were trying to see if, like, okay, well, if you have these microbes through the birth canal, is that just enough? Or like after the fact. And so to find out the researchers, they used a cross-fostering approach. So germ-free newborn mice were placed with mothers that had microbes and compared them to control groups. When the brains of these mice were examined just three days after birth, results were striking. All mice just stated by germ-free mothers had fewer neurons in the PVN, regardless of whether they received microbes after birth. They also found that germ-free adult mice had fewer neurons in the PVN. Our study shows that microbes play an important role in sculpting a brain region that is paramount for body functions and social behavior. In addition, our study indicates that microbial effects start in the womb via signaling from maternal microbes. That makes sense. So rather than shunning our microbes, we should recognize them as partners in early life development. They're helping build our brains from the very beginning. So, like you being born cesarean, they're noticing does have an effect versus somebody being born via the birth canal, via naturally, via vaginally. So cesarean is So the Caesarean's when they cut open your stomach and pull the baby out.

Jake 12:04

That's the C-section.

Delaney 12:05

Yeah. That's the C section. Got it. Okay, yeah.

Jake 12:08

Got it. Caesarean.

Delaney 12:10

Stance versus Caesarean.

Jake 12:11

Caesarean. Yeah.

Delaney 12:12

So they're noticing that, like, if a baby is cut out of the belly versus traveling through the vaginal canal, birth canal, they're noticing there's a brain developmental difference between the two. So like what this could end up doing is showing, I I would think this can then go into, well, if these people have less neurons in the PV and then they're more susceptible to maybe these types of mental health disorders.

Jake 12:38

Yeah.

Delaney 12:39

That's what I see this going towards is them trying to figure out like, do they have a connection with certain mental health disorders or not?

Jake 12:47

Right.

Delaney 12:47

And if yeah, if somebody has Because they're already showing that they are important in development with your brain and life in general. Okay, so it starts in the womb.

Jake 12:59

So ideally, whether you have a C-section or you do the birth canal, as long as they're getting them the microbes inside the womb, you should ideally be able to.

Delaney 13:09

But if they don't go through the birth canal, they don't get as many microbes as a baby that would go through the birth canal, is what I take. So if you go through if you go through the birth canal, you have more microbes. Yeah. They give you all the last, like, all right, bro, get hit you on the ass, get out there, go make something. Welcome to the world. Yeah, welcome to it. Welcome to the shit show. But I thought that was really really cool. I feel like this will show a lot of basically what there's still left to discover in the psychological world, in the mental health realm.

Jake 13:46

Yeah. Well, it's a data point, right? So, like, I mean, you have another data point, you can start finding correlations to that and from there figure out if there's any impact.

Delaney 13:55

And it has to do with our brain development at that, and your brain is so complex as it is that like one little thing can cause this other thing to just deter. Yeah. Yeah. Damn. Yeah.

Jake 14:11

That's wild.

Delaney 14:13

That was the one you got. I mean, I have another one, but it's not I mean, this one is more so there's a so it's called Idaho Secret Santa is giving a million dollars to local residents dealing with chaos. So basically, this dude in Idaho or person or female or whatever, nobody really knows who they are. They're called the Secret Santa of the gym state. And basically they started a couple months ago by spreading the joy, and one of the earliest gifts, they gifted a 2025 minivan and a thousand dollars for a family that has conjoined twins, and that's a very rare thing in general. So these the thing about these conjoined twins is they're conjoined twins are don't have a very high life expectancy. So they were only expected to live maybe maybe 24 hours. Well, these conjoined twins are now eight. Damn. And so they're defying the odds on a daily basis.

Jake 15:18

Damn, that is gangsters.

Delaney 15:20

And so their medical condition requires a non-collapsible wheelchair and frequent three-hour trips from their home in a town in Idaho to Salt Lake City. Damn. And so that just kind of helped them a lot. And then another one was to a new mom who lost her house in a freak accident. A month after her baby was born, a truck ran a stop sign and crashed into her house, and her living room was destroyed. Yeah, a wall collapsed, windows were shattered, water lines were ruptured, flooded the entire first floor in the basement.

Jake 15:57

And that should be a truck commercial.

Delaney 15:59

Thankfully, she's thankfully her and her baby were safe, but the family has been displaced since that happened. And so the Secret Santa gave them a thousand dollar gift card for gas and a five thousand dollar gift card for a houseware store. Wow. Damn. And so to them, the mother was saying how hopefully they'll be home before Christmas so they can actually have Yeah, have an actual Christmas. And then the last person that they have helped is a well, there's some after this, but the the big thing, one other one. Yeah, another big one. They awarded to a teacher at a middle school in Idaho an attic fire ignited in her house earlier this month, and her home was rendered uninhabitable. Her family have been rotating through hotel rooms and rentals ever since, and they'll be displaced for six to eight months. So they gave a $5,000 check to help make things easier. And then another thing says Christmas spirit has surged throughout Idaho with the Secret Santa also delivering cash and presents to a family that adopted four kids after having five of their own. So after after they had five kids of their own, they then decided they were gonna adopt four more.

Jake 17:21

Let's just double overnight. Holy shit.

Delaney 17:24

They also helped a man who was paralyzed following a spinal stroke, a woman who was dealing with a brain injury following a car accident, and many others. Wow. So I thought that was a good thing. That's cool as shit. With like catastrophic events and hoping to help them survive, especially around the holidays. Yeah.

Jake 17:52

Yeah, that's crazy. Nice. Oh, cool. Huh? Is that it? That's all that's all we got. All right, everybody. Well, hopefully this helps uh bring a smile to your face, and we're pretty much smacking you on the ass. Get out there this week. Enjoy it. Have a good one.

Delaney 18:10

Happy New Year.

Jake 18:11

Yeah, happy fucking new year. Coming into 2026. Alright, y'all. Y'all have a good week. We'll catch you on the next one. See ya.