50% Facts with Silent Mike & Jim McD

50% Facts with Silent Mike & Jim McD

Mike "Silent Mike" Farr and Jim McDonald are entrepreneurs (lifestyle apparel company and a barbell gym) and veteran podcasters. In every episode, they try to answer a single question. Any question is fair game, but most involve health, fitness, nutrition, mental health, culture…even sex. They examine common misconceptions and then try to get to the correct answer -- often with the help of subject matter experts. They walk away with a better sense of the facts…and so do you. Full episodes every Wednesday. Shorter episodes every Friday, dedicated to answering a question from listeners. Business inquiries: Jim@thejimmcd.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.

Episodes

Why don’t lifters share a bar anymore? Guest: Jacob Ross

June 11, 2025 • 62 mins
Jacob Ross joins Jim to take on the question, “Why do so many lifters resist training in groups in the current age of powerlifting?”  

We also cover Jacob’s time working with the South Sudanese Olympic Basketball team in Paris for the Olympics last year. We also share stories of gym ownership (Jacob owns Be Better Barbell with Tom Kallas outside Chicago). You can find him at @jacob.w.ross on Instagram.

Join our Discord for free at go...
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Josh Hajar: Staying positive, beating cancer, and losing over 100 lbs

June 4, 2025 • 56 mins
Mike is out of town, so Jim brought in one of Third Street Barbell’s most consistent and inspirational members, Josh Hajar.

Josh is an emergency department nurse who faced a harrowing fight with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and then suffered an injury that set back his recovery and fitness goals. When he arrived at Third Street, he was finally ready to execute a winning game plan for losing weight and getting stronger. Building on the ad...
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Netflix’s How to Change Your Mind (2022) | Review

May 28, 2025 • 50 mins
Psychedelics in psychotherapy. That’s the theme of this four-part documentary from Netflix. Can psychedelics break damaging thought patterns and allow people to heal from depression and trauma? This doc series would like to prove that they at least hold promise to do that. We cover episodes #1 (LSD) and #3 (MDMA).

(Interesting, very recent twist: researchers have altered LSD to make it helpful to the brain but unable to cause psyche...
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Netflix’s Untold: The Liver King | Review

May 21, 2025 • 57 mins
Netflix’s Untold documentary series takes a look at the phenomenon of The Liver King. Purportedly already a multi-millionaire, Brian Johnson launched a muscular social media and YouTube presence as a “primal” influencer who used raw organ meats, including testicles, rather than steroids to build his crazy physique. He amassed a huge following and reaped more revenue for his supplement company, but was he telling the truth about bei...
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The IPF reverses on stiff knee sleeves plus World’s Strongest Man quiz

May 14, 2025 • 54 mins
Under pressure from, well, pretty much everyone, it appears the IPF will allow stiff knee sleeves through the end of 2026.  

World’s Strongest Man is back in Sacramento this week, just about a mile from our gym. We take a look at the history of WSM and take an online trivia quiz.

Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!

Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/ a...
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The Way Down rewind | Examining media about cults

May 8, 2025 • 61 mins
We’ve been talking about cults and how they’re covered in the media. Back in 2021, we looked at the HBO documentary series “The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin” on a couple of episodes. It is about a crazy, scary religious cult. This week, Mike’s under the weather, and we haven’t had a chance to record, so this seems like a good time to present these episodes again as one.

As a refresher, here’s the description of...
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How YouTubers covered the downfall of a Scientologist’s skateboard channel | Examining media about cults

April 30, 2025 • 52 mins
The founder of the biggest YouTube skateboarding channel is a Scientologist. Has that fact become public, explaining the channel's drop in popularity over the past few years? Was it the money he spent climbing the rungs of this cult (and not on his skaters and staff)? Or was it just the normal life cycle of a YouTube channel?

Rather than reviewing a documentary, this time we’re examining the handling of this story through several Yo...
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Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)| Review | Examining media about cults

April 23, 2025 • 49 mins
We’re taking a closer look at a topic that we’ve touched on briefly before: Media covering the effects and inner workings of cults. The HBO documentary Going Clear is one of the most recognizable documentaries about the Church of Scientology. Celebrities like Tom Cruise have deep ties to this cult that was founded by prolific author L. Ron Hubbard.  

Some interesting aspects of this belief system are the need to pay huge sums of mon...
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Getting stiffed by knee sleeves : The politics of IPF approval

April 16, 2025 • 33 mins
A couple of episodes ago, we talked about a dramatic change in leadership at the International Powerlifting Federation. The latest wrinkle is that the federation has recently notified the manufacturers of “stiff” knee sleeves that their products are banned from use in competition – immediately. Is the IPF being fair to manufacturers or its members? What prompted this sudden change?  

Mike offers some insights from his past experienc...
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Hungry for Change (2012) | A 50% Facts Review

April 9, 2025 • 55 mins
A stroll back 13 years in time takes us to a very “well-reviewed” nutrition documentary that ultimately only delivers a laundry list of fear appeals, misinformation, and pro-vegan propaganda. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a vegan, but getting there because you’ve been told that every other way of eating is somehow dangerous is kind of a cheap way to do it. Sugar is the poison, but so are artificial sweeteners. High-fru...
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IPF drama at the top, AI stealing jobs at the bottom?

April 2, 2025 • 40 mins
We take a stab at which jobs AI might eliminate (do you want your drive-through order taken by a bot?). Plus, the long-time IPF president resigned suddenly a few weeks ago. Is there any situation where a quick exit from a top position like that doesn’t mean really bad things have happened?  

Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!  

Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstree...
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Court of Gold | Netflix Documentary | Olympic Basketball (2025) | A 50% Facts Review

March 26, 2025 • 80 mins
The 5-part Netflix Documentary Court of Gold chronicles the 2024 Olympic Basketball tournament in Paris. It’s obviously a love letter to the gold medalist US team, but more specifically, Kevin Durrant, Steph Curry, and to a lesser extent, LeBron James. The episodes follow the tournament's progression and highlight a few of the other national teams along the way. The series features several insightful and down-to-earth interviews of...
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Generation Iron: Natty 4 Life (2020) | A 50% Facts Review

March 19, 2025 • 81 mins
The third sequel to the bodybuilding documentary Generation Iron is all about the natties. It follows a group of competitors during the countdown to the Natural Olympia of 2019. Will natural bodybuilding ever gain the kind of traction that its “enhanced” counterpart does? And are the competitors really drug-free? Several commentators in the film cast doubt on that.  

Dean Saddoris  @deansaddoris.ck chops it up with us again.  

Join o...
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Would you rather live under the ocean or on the moon?| One Good Question

March 12, 2025 • 6 mins
We’re pulling from our backlog of short, unreleased One Good Question episodes to fill this week’s gap in scheduling due to travel. This time, we tackle a listener question that’s pretty philosophical in nature: Would you rather live under the ocean or on the moon. After a bit of detour into stupid moon landing conspiracies, we finally offer up our answers.  

Back to regular programming next week!   Dean Saddoris  @deansaddoris.ck c...
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CT Fletcher: My Magnificent Obsession (2015) | A 50% Facts Review

March 5, 2025 • 42 mins
The “Superman from Compton” took YouTube in the 20-teens by way of a video called “The Strongest Man You’ve Never Heard Of.” Who was this man who “commanded” his arms to grow and reminded us over and over that it was indeed still our set?

This documentary sketches a portrait of a man whose great personal warmth can’t be obscured by his sometimes rough and compromising demeanor. A man who took a difficult, often demeaning upbringing ...
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Generation Iron (2013) | A 50% Facts Review

February 26, 2025 • 51 mins
This documentary, the first from Generation Iron, covers the runup to the 2012 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest. Phil Heath is a repeat winner, but Kai Greene is pushing him hard. A number of other well-known competitors are also hoping to dominate the Olympia stage. Do any of them have a chance against “The Gift?”  

Dean Saddoris  @deansaddoris.ck chops it up with us again.  

Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!  

Che...
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Is powerlifting in a slump?

February 19, 2025 • 52 mins
Have you noticed that powerlifting is experiencing a bit of a dip in popularity? We have. What might be the cause?  

We kick around some possibilities. Is the last wave of lifters starting to age out and move on to other hobbies? Is it turmoil among the federations? How do other hobby sports maintain their popularity?  

Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!  

Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbel...
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Ronnie Coleman: The King (2018) | A 50% Facts Review

February 12, 2025 • 58 mins
This documentary from Generation Iron recaps the career of 8-time Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, as he prepares for yet another back surgery. While we don’t gain a lot new information, it’s a nostalgic look at some of the most iconic training footage from his long Olympia run, along with a painful chronical of his current, painful condition and his love of family.  

Dean Saddoris  @deansaddoris.ck chops it up with us again.   Join our...
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Generation Flex | A 50% Facts Review

February 5, 2025 • 53 mins
This documentary from Men’s Health tells us that body dysmorphia is running rampant among teenage boys in America. It follows four teens who take “extreme” measures to try to match the body images they see on social media (sorta). Then, the video takes a turn into a “debate” about supplements for some reason.  

This doc is pretty aimless and pointless, but we had fun tearing it apart.  

Dean Saddoris  @deansaddoris.ck chops it up wit...
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Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever |A 50% Facts Review

January 29, 2025 • 61 mins
Bryan Johnson, former head of the firm that owned Venmo (and sold it to Paypal), is obsessed with slowing down his aging process. Is there anything he won’t try toward that end? Dozens of daily vitamins, nearly religious workouts, red laser masks, and even experimental gene splicing are all in play. This Netflix documentary attempts to explain his motivations and the sharp contrast between the man we see now and the person he used ...
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