50% Facts

Challenging times right now. How retain your sense of self well enough to meet them head on? We turned to Dr. Reef Karim, a leading expert in human behavior, to help us understand how we as humans react to prolonged stress and how to survive or even thrive these crazy times. Dr Karim is a double board-certified psychiatrist, addiction medicine physician, and relationship expert. He’s also a writer...

The world is packing a lot of fear and anxiety into every day right now. That can complicate anyone’s emotions (and diet). It's especially for those of us who tend to be emotional eaters. Is staying away from the foods we love most the only answer? Why do we connect certain activities with food? Can we uncover the underlying reasons for our emotional eating? We asked Adrienne Ngai, RD, CDE, MSc to...

We invited our old friend and training partner, Fat Dan, into the studio to talk about his private security business, and the disruptions were all facing in the wake of the Coronavirus. Why do people continue to put themselves in unsafe, crowded situations right now? Should you quit your full-time job to work for yourself? What (or who) is Diet Caramel and how do you get into that? You can find Da...

While waiting around for a guest who we couldn’t quite reach on the phone, we talked ended up talking about some things that people strive for that are hard…or even impossible to reach. Similar to a recent episode of the podcast “Reply All,” we’re trying to identify a children’s horror movie or TV show from the 90s. Can you help? Check the episode for some familiar, oddly specific, and hopefully m...

A few weeks ago, our good friend Jacob Ross was very sick but he didn’t know it. What he thought was a pinched nerve turned out to be a dangerous, and potentially lethal, accumulation of fluid around his heart. He’s much better now, so we can ask: how could this have happened to a young, healthy guy? What were the symptoms and why did he pass them off as simply an injury? How did he manage to squa...

We’re not runners, so we’re definitely not racers. We followed up last week’s episode on starting to run with a conversation about setting a goal to compete on one of a couple of popular types of races. Both of these have large, supportive communities and are considered to be a lot of fun. Is the prep the same for both races? Can you do it alone? Do you have to be able to run the whole distance be...

A lot of people grew up running for sports, but plenty of people stop just as soon as they can and never do it again. We ask runners James Van Prooyen & Rich Nicholes to tell us how to get started (or started again). Once you get your ass off the couch, what does the first day of running look like? What should your initial goals look like? What’s a really good way to get and stay motivated? If you...

We finally connect with Kalle Beck, the man behind StartingStrongman.com. If you saw the Facebook commercial during the Super Bowl, the Oscars, etc., you’ve seen Kalle and some of the members of the online strongman community he started years ago. How did he get interested in strongman in the first place? Did he really quit his job so he could compete in China? What’s it like to be in a huge TV co...

Our good friend Omar Isuf is in town, so he joined us for a conversation in which we actually talk quite a bit about celebrity, fitness, and how Omar accomplished his recent transformation? So much of the coverage of celebrities who get jacked revolves around their training, but does anyone believe they don’t use PEDs? Was Kobe Bryant’s death come about because people have a hard time saying no to...

In a “just us” episode, we take a look at a couple articles claiming to track the top fitness trends for 2020 – notably one from Men’s Health. Will personal trainers really be like rock stars in 2020? Are you really working out hard enough to need an extensive recovery plan, or is a regular good night’s sleep enough? Is mental/emotional health really, finally, going to be on par with physical heal...

Some programs claim to have been written for beginning lifters. Others for intermediates, etc. How do you when you’re past the beginner stage, and how much does it really matter? We asked Greg Nuckols to break it down for us. Here are some of our thoughts befgre we talked to Gret: Do you stop being a beginner when you stop having PRs every week? Or is it just when they are a little less frequent?...

Does women’s training really need an entirely different approach or just a couple tweaks? We asked Greg Nuckols, someone who recently wrote an article on this topic, to break it down for us. Here are some of our thoughts: Do women actually have great stamina for reps than men? Can women actually lift heavier on a percentage of max basis more frequently than men? The headcount of strong women is gr...

New Year. New avalanche of fitness and nutrition-related studies to confuse the resolutionistas (and the rest of us). How are we supposed to decide which ones to believe? We asked Greg Nuckols, someone who spends a lot of time evaluating research, to break it down for us. Here are some of our thoughts: Are there some sources we should listen over others? Should you read the entire study or is the...

The next regular episode will drop on Jan 8, but we thought we’d have some fun and throw in this holiday bonus episode. We both saw “The Rise of Skywalker” so we talked through our thoughts and opinions. We also used the Business Insider’s ranking to discuss our thoughts on all the Star Wars films. There are tons of spoilers, so beware if you haven’t seen the movie yet! Hosted by Mike Farr (@silen...

We take a look back at all of this year’s happenings and episodes. We talk about our favorite episodes of the year, our favorite answers from experts, and the answers we got the MOST wrong. Thanks to everyone who listened and special thanks to all our experts! We kick off the show talking about outsourcing, and “feeding the beast” of content creation. Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) and Jim McD...

We were frankly confused. What are people talking about when they refer to Intuitive Eating? Is it a weight loss strategy or something else? We asked Miguel Blacutt to explain the role of intuitive eating. He’s a Masters student in Applied Physiology at Columbia University, works as research assistant to Jeff Nippard, and is currently collaborating with Dr. Andy Galpin. Here are some of our though...

We’ve always heard that muscle grows when you break it down through exercise, lifting weights, etc. In fact, we’ve always been told that it was the ONLY way, but is that really true? We asked Miguel Blacutt , someone who has been intensely interested in this subject, to catch us up on the latest research. He’s a Masters student in Applied Physiology at Columbia University, works as research assist...

Ever since Michael Phelps won Olympic gold medals for swimming looking like his back had been attacked by a giant octopus, athletes have been having suction cups stuck to their bodies. Long before that people had tiny needles stuck all over them. Do these “treatment” actually do anything? If they help, are they a short-term fix or do the results linger? We asked Dr. Teddy Willsey DPT for his insig...

Way back in episode 15, we talked to Dr. Jordan Shallow – a chiropractor – about this question. This time we pose it to a physical therapist. We asked Dr. Teddy Willsey DPT for his insight. Dr. Willsey, is a co-founder of Citizen Athletics, a doctor of physical therapy, a strength and conditioning coach, movement enthusiast, and operator of Healthy Baller Physical Therapy in Washington, D.C. He ha...

Stretching is one of those topics that seems to get a major revision every few years. What’s the current thinking? We asked Dr. Teddy Willsey DPT for his insight. Dr. Willsey, is a co-founder of Citizen Athletics, a doctor of physical therapy, a strength and conditioning coach, movement enthusiast, and operator of Healthy Baller Physical Therapy in Washington, D.C. He has extensive experience in w...

How many times have you felt twinge in your back while lifting – or even doing something that’s not strenuous at all – and thought, “What the hell did I just do to myself?” Since chronic back pain costs the American economy over $100 million a year, we wanted to look at the practical question of how to keep moving and avoid long-term pain. William Richards, of Fitness4backpain.com, joined us to wa...

We’re breaking format to offer this bonus conversation with a trans rights ally about the USAPL and its posture on transgender lifters. If you google “USAPL transgender policy” you’ll get pages of results from tons of mainstream media sites. How did this situation arise, and how are trans lifters pushing back? We asked Maria Rodriguez, CEO of Fear Her Fight Athletics and a trans ally, to give us h...

It seems like one of these diet documentaries pops up on streaming platforms every couple of years. Why do people get so upset when they disagree with the basic premise of docs like these? Many of our fitness industry friends are up in arms over claims in the vegetarian/vegan-themed documentary, “The Game Changers.” What’s the real danger if otherwise uninformed consumers actually believe these cl...

We kick things off talking about the WPO on ESPN and USAPL Raw Nationals. Would some kind of automated system could improve refereeing/judging in sports…or would that take the fun out of it? Here are some of your questions that we tackled: Why powerlifting? Is a well-developed back more important than well-developed legs? How do you train if you have no goals? What percentage should your last warm...

A couple weeks ago, Eliud Kipchoge ran a sub-two-hour marathon. The first time a human has ever done that. That got us thinking…what is powerlifting’s nearly unbreakable record? Kipchoge had a number of advantages: running with others who were pacing him rather than running against him; vehicles with lasers discovering the best path to run in; and some special shoes not yet available to the public...