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50% Facts with Silent Mike & Jim McD

Life’s too short to be half right! Veteran podcasters Mike "Silent Mike" Farr and Jim McDonald 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.

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Recent Episodes

June 11, 2025

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

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 ...
June 4, 2025

Josh Hajar: Staying positive, beating cancer, and losing over 100 lbs

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 th...
May 28, 2025

Netflix’s How to Change Your Mind (2022) | Review

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 p...
May 21, 2025

Netflix’s Untold: The Liver King | Review

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 u...
May 14, 2025

The IPF reverses on stiff knee sleeves plus World’s Strongest Man quiz

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 ...
May 7, 2025

The Way Down rewind | Examining media about cults

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....

About the Hosts

Mike Farr Profile Photo

Mike Farr

Co-host

Mike Farr, aka Silent Mike, has dedicated his life to supporting others in their goals and to building community. After spending over 15 years playing and coaching basketball he switched gears into the weight room. Over the last decade, he focused on helping thousands of athletes around the world with their strength and fitness goals. Powerlifting is considered an individual sport but Mike has found his role in helping others through education and entertainment using the barbell as his vessel.

Jim McDonald Profile Photo

Jim McDonald

Creator and Co-host

Jim left the corporate world behind a couple of decades ago and became a consultant in IT and healthcare marketing. In the early 2000s, he discovered powerlifting and began to document its training and some of its greatest performances as an early YouTube fitness creator. He focused on visuals that helped the audience understand not only the technical aspects of powerlifting but also the emotions that drive lifters to lift. Eventually, he created a chart-topping podcast along with Mike Farr… just before the worldwide explosion in podcast listenership. His role at 3SB is both administrative and creative, and he’s finding the balance between those a day at a time.