(Photo Credit: The Shawn Ryan Show)

Here is one thing President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden agree on: ex-President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a deadly mess.

Hunter Biden called his dad’s 2021 withdrawal from the country an “obvious f*cking failure” during an appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show on Monday.

It was his first example when he said his dad made “mistakes” and had some “real failures” like every president before him.

“The way in which they executed the withdrawal from Afghanistan, I think it was an obvious f*cking failure,” Hunter Biden said. “I think 13 Marines are dead. I think that there was a better way to do it.”

He continued, saying he could blame it on the generals and other military leaders who reported to the commander-in-chief, but that ultimately, the “buck stops” with the president — and that his father would agree.

The August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan has been oft-criticized by Trump. The president said the withdrawal showed “gross incompetence” from Biden, as 13 military members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians were killed in the infamous Abbey Gate bombing during the evacuation.

Footage of the withdrawal showed desperate Afghans clinging to American planes as they escaped the country. Trump has also ripped Biden for losing U.S. military bases in Afghanistan as part of the withdrawal; Trump said that continues to hurt the U.S. from a defense standpoint because the bases were so close to China.

The U.S. allowed about 200,000 Afghans to enter the U.S. following the withdrawal. One of them was charged with first-degree murder for killing one National Guard member and shooting another in Washington, D.C. last month.

Following the attack, Vice President JD Vance said he was vindicated for criticizing the Biden administration for allowing in so many Afghans.

“I remember back in 2021 criticizing the Biden policy of opening the floodgate to unvetted Afghan refugees,” Vance said. “Friends sent me messages calling me a racist. It was a clarifying moment.”

The post ‘Obvious F*cking Failure’: Hunter Biden Shreds His Dad’s Afghanistan Withdrawal first appeared on Mediaite.

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In 2025, I tested a ton of exotic smart glasses, e-bikes, and other gear for Lifehacker, but the tech that upgraded and improved my day-to-day life the most is a more niche product. I'm a (very) amateur musician, and Yamaha's Seqtrak is my favorite thing this year. It's an "ideastation," a music production studio small enough to slip into a backpack. Look at how tiny this thing is:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Yamaha SEQTRAK Mobile Music Ideastation, Black

$299.99 at Amazon

$349.99 Save $50.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$299.99 at Amazon

$349.99 Save $50.00

What the Seqtrak can do

There is so much music junk crammed in here, it's ridiculous: It's a full-on drum machine with eight drum tracks, step-sequencer, synthesizer with three separate tracks and hundreds of pre-set sounds, and a sampler—in other words, everything you need to create any kind of music from scratch, in seconds. It's even battery-powered with an onboard speaker, so it's fully portable.

Even with all those functions, it's crazy easy to use for basic music-making, even if you literally have no musical knowledge. Here's what it takes to create a basic beat from nothing in about 90 seconds:

That’s just the surface. Everything can be customized completely. You can tweak any aspect of the presets and effects, add sequencer steps, mess with the arpeggiator, record or import your own samples, and warp sounds with countless synth parameters.

Going deeper with the companion app

If you want to dig in further, there's a companion app for tablets, phones, and PCs that syncs with the Seqtrak and gives you access to all the on-board controls so you can change whatever. The app is a must for beginners: The Seqtrak has 32 input buttons, 17 dials, and three sliders, but it doesn't have a display screen, so being able to see what you're doing is a must until you're well-versed in the controls.

The screenshot below is only one of dozens of pages of elements you can mess around with to customize sounds and effects:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

It can't do everything, but you can import your project from Seqtrak into another digital workstation for more advanced mastering or effects, and you can control the Seqtrak through an external MIDI device if you want more options than it offers from the box.

The Seqtrak is my new desktop companion

You could use this gear to build detailed beats and even full songs, bring it out to accompany yourself live (although, it's not the most rugged piece of equipment), or integrate it into your larger music set-up with MIDI, but I mostly just keep my Seqtrak next to my desk and play it with a MIDI keyboard—the seven little plastic keys aren't optimal—because it lowers the friction between having an idea and making it happen. It's way simpler and more immediate to fire up this groove box than start a new project in FL Studio or something. Plus, it's so tangible—physical dials and buttons are just better for creativity than sliders on a computer, even if they're controlling digital output.

I don’t use my Seqtrak to finish albums or chase perfect mixes. I use it because it makes messing around with music easy and fun again. It’s a gadget that gives you endless options, but also gets out of your way.

Liberal podcaster Angie “Pumps” Sullivan said conservative media star Ben Shapiro is not going to find much support among Republicans by going after Candace Owens and other conspiracy theorists who seem obsessed with Israel.

Why? Because Turning Point USA and President Donald Trump’s base is racist, according to Sullivan.

Sullivan shared her thoughts while discussing Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest with her co-host Jennifer Welch on their I’ve Had It podcast on Monday. The two lefties played a clip of Shapiro’s speech at the event this past weekend in Arizona, where he called out Owens for her myriad of conspiracies about the killing of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. Sullivan said it was a waste of energy.

“They do not want a Jewish man leading Turning Point USA. Ben Shapiro is not the magic Jew,” she said. “They are not going to stop being white supremacists and anti-Semitic over at Turning Point, and in MAGA, they are not going to take down their swastika flags, they’re not going to take off their white supremacy tattoos, because of Ben Shapiro.”

Welch said a minute earlier that Shapiro was not much better than Owens. She pointed out Owens used to work with Shapiro at The Daily Wire, and that Shapiro was “100% on board with any sort of transphobia” and “racism” towards Black Americans.

“He’s on board with every single bit of it until Candace criticizes Israel,” Welch said.

Shapiro ripped a few other well-known conservative figures last week, including Steve Bannon for his ties to dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, and Tucker Carlson. Shapiro branded Carlson  an “anti-American” fake conservative who is “destroying” the conservative movement by routinely lying to his audience

“Tucker Carlson has trafficked in nearly every conspiracy theory under the sun,” Shapiro said at Heritage Foundation headquarters last week. “He has accused the Trump administration of covering up a Mossad-run child sex trafficking ring, run by Jeffrey Epstein, without of course actually mentioning Donald Trump’s name, because Tucker is a coward when it comes to President Trump.”

The infighting among a number of top conservatives — at least nominally — has been a hot topic online recently.

“They’re all fighting with each other because that’s who they are. Hate fills them, it’s what keeps them going, and I think Ben’s probably next on the chopping block,” Sullivan predicted.

Watch above.

The post ‘Ben Shapiro Is Not the Magic Jew’: Liberal Podcaster Says MAGA Will ‘Not Take Down Their Swastikas’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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Who knew that, here in the mid 2020s, a show involving gays in the military (even a relatively pro-army one) would prove its own relevance by drawing a fierce, angry denunciation from the current administration—a response strong enough that it maybe, just maybe, got the show cancelled in spite of high viewership and buzz.

But then again, given the precariousness of the streaming landscape, it's best to treat everything like a miniseries these days. Based on a memoir from Greg Cope White, the Netflix series stars Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a closeted gay teen who follows his bestie into the Army in the era before "Don't ask, don't tell," and well before serving in the open was a possibility.

With no second season coming, it might be tough to figure out what to watch next. I have some suggestions—though given that there aren't a ton of "gay kid joins the army" shows out there, I'm focusing on queer coming-of-age stories in general, not strictly ones that are military-themed. (Growing up queer is kinda like a boot camp all its own.)

We Are Who We Are (2020)

Director Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Queer) created this series about two American teenagers, Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón), living with their families on a U.S. military base in Chioggia, Italy. Fraser's two moms are both in the army (something that would have been impossible in the 1990 of Boots, and may be again before long), but he's new to base life. Caitlin, on the other hand, has lived in Chioggia for years with her conservative father. Over the course of a summer, the two gradually bond over their mutual feelings of isolation, as well as their explorations of gender and sexuality. Stream We Are Who We Are on HBO Max.

We Are Who We Are (2020)

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Overcompensating (2025 – )

Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, sort of, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college while desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's a frequently raunchy college comedy, but it's simultaneously a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel) and, just as impressively, it's a streaming show with queer characters that's actually been renewed. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.

Overcompensating (2025 – )

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Heated Rivalry (2025 – )

Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) are professional ice hockey players who compete on rival teams, the Montreal Metros and the Boston Raiders. Even as their public relationship remains contentious over a period of years, the two develop a casual (at least at first) sexual relationship that grows increasingly sweaty, ice notwithstanding. Not to be outdone, this buzzy show also traces the similarly complicated relationship between an American team captain and a smoothie barista. Tonally, its sex-filled fun isn't much of a match for Boots, but it's of the increasingly few shows with gay lead characters to succeed on streaming. Oh, and it's also been renewed for a second season. Stream Heated Rivalry on HBO Max.

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Blood & Water (2020 – )

This top-tier teen drama stars Ama Qamata as Puleng Khumalo, a teenage girl who’s lived her entire life in the shadow of a sister that was taken as a baby by human traffickers; Puleng’s parents even hold a birthday celebration for the sister each year. When invited to a party by popular Fikile Bhele (Khosi Ngema), a student at an elite school in Cape Town, Puleng can’t help noticing their similarities. Steeped in the story of her sister, Puleng transfers to the school to get to the bottom of things. There’s plenty of juicy high school drama and family secrets, but the show is elevated by its unexpected dramatic heft and a multitude of queer characters and storylines. Stream Blood & Water on Netflix.

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Young Royals (2021 – 2024)

Steamy soap Young Royals follows Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding), the fictional prince of Sweden, as he embarks on a romance with another student, Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg), at their elite boarding school (it's not exactly boot camp, but it's all relative). While possessed of all the addictive qualities of the teen drama genre, Young Royals takes itself a bit more seriously than some, and feels remarkably fresh in its commitment to casting age-appropriate actors in all the key roles. Stream Young Royals on Netflix.

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Fellow Travelers (2023)

Though it's about middle-aged men (Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey) in the 1950s, I'm comfortable calling this one a loose match since, like Boots, it's a period piece set a against a backdrop of era-specific brands of queer existence, beginning amid the McCarthy-inspired Lavender Panic and runs through to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Bomer and Bailey generate real sparks (and offer up intense, if not particularly graphic, sex scenes) as they portray decades in the lives of a closeted couple—one a State Department official and the other an idealistic congressional staffer. Stream Fellow Travelers on Paramount+.

Fellow Travelers (2023)

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Elite (2018 – 2024)

Elite follows a group of working-class friends who wind up with scholarships to Las Encinas, a fictional private school that is, in the show’s universe, the most exclusive in Spain (again, not exactly boot camp, but here we are). What they find there is snobbery, for sure, but also mystery, murder, and lots and lots of sex (among character of various sexual orientations and numerical groupings). The smart but wonderfully trashy show ran for an impressive eight seasons, with Indian and South African variations (Class and Blood & Water, mentioned above) also streaming. Stream Elite on Netflix.

Elite (2018 – 2024)

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Heartstopper (2022 – )

The repressed, closeted yearning of Boots is all well and good, but Heartstopper is the affirming coming-of-age/queer teen love story that we all kinda need right about now. While it never soft-peddles the dangers of homophobia, it likewise doesn’t wallow in tragedy. Kit Connor and Joe Locke deliver sensitive (and often very funny) performances in a show that’s nearly all smiles without feeling treacly. Stream Heartstopper on Netflix.

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First Day (2020 – 2022)

This Australian import stars Evie Macdonald as Hannah Bradford, a generally confident 12-year-old whose interests include school politics and taekwondo. She's also, as the series begins, getting a fresh start at a new school while transitioning, presenting herself as female for the first time. She immediately makes new friends, but also faces a bully from her old school who holds her secret over her head just as Hannah is starting to come into her own identity. And if that doesn't sound like a boot camp of its own. First Day skews quite a bit younger than other shows on this list, but it's nevertheless a solid coming-of-age drama about finding meaning and identity. Stream First Day on Hulu.

First Day (2020 – 2022)

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It's a Sin (2021)

Another period drama set within relatively recent memory, Russell T. Davies' It's a Sin revisits the 1980s through the story of a group of friends living in London during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The miniseries brings an impressive cast to bear on a story that tracks them through the early days of queer liberation through the developing menace of a disease that no one in the broader world was willing to talk about, much less do anything about. Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who) has told queer stories before, but none quite so powerful or affecting. Stream It's a Sin.

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Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) trashed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the way her office has handled the release of the Epstein files while appearing on CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday.

Their criticism comes after the files were required by law to be made public on Friday; thousands of files were released then, but it was not the full scope of the documents.

Massie and Khanna co-sponsored the Epstein Transparency Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump and gave the Justice Department 30 days to produce the files.

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked if the thousands of files the administration did post to the DoJ website was good enough for now.

“In the past 48 hours, we’ve seen the Justice Department acknowledge it’s an incomplete release, but they have put out more than 13,000 files,” Brennan said. “They say more will come. This isn’t everything you asked for just yet, but would you acknowledge they are complying with the spirit, if not the intent, of your law?”

“No,” Massie answered. “They’re flouting the spirit and the letter of the law. It’s very troubling, the posture that they’ve taken, and I won’t be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied.”

Massie continued, “You know, I said in the hours leading up to this release that we will know if they are complying if they implicate any of the other criminals that are involved, and the suspects that are involved. The witnesses, the victims themselves, have given to the FBI and they’ve never been mentioned.”

Brennan confronted Massie with his “very specific benchmark of success.”

“You said you know of at least 20 men who are accused of sex crimes known to the FBI. How do you know that number and do you know those names?” She asked.

Massie answered, “The survivors’ lawyers have told me those numbers and they’ve described their professions in general. But they’ve only given me one of the names, and I mentioned that in the congressional hearing, Jes Staley. So, I searched these documents; I didn’t see Jes Staley, nor did I see 19 other names.”

Staley is a former JP Morgan and Barclays executive who admitted in court that he had consensual sex with Epstein’s assistant.

Watch the clip above via CBS’s Face The Nation.

The post Reps. Massie and Khanna Trash Pam Bondi and Trump DOJ On Epstein Files: They’re ‘Flouting’ the ‘Letter of the Law’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie absolutely wrecked President Donald Trump over a variety of controversies in what the ex-governor dubbed an “awful week.”

Kicking off a roundtable segment Sunday on ABC’s This Week, Jonathan Karl threw to Christie for his take on the plan to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump, the president’s widely-criticized reaction to the killing of Rob Reiner, a primetime address which failed to move the needle, and more.

“Even by Trump standards, this was an erratic, chaotic week,” Karl said. “Renaming the Kennedy Center, the stuff he did at the White House, the prime-time speech. What’s going on?”

“Merry Christmas to you, too, Mr. President,” Christie said, tongue-in-cheek. “Look, this is a pretty strange week. Just think about it. He sends out that disgraceful post on the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. Then he puts his name on the building named after an assassinated president. Then he gives a frenetic national TV speech filled with inaccuracies, and really sounded like he was yelling at the American people that they don’t get how great he’s done so far. And then he puts these plaques out underneath the presidential pictures he’s put on the colonnade, filled with things that you could tell just from reading that he wrote them himself.”

“Read like Truth Social posts,” Karl said.

“It did,” Christie concurred.

The former governor made clear that if the president continues along the current trajectory, he and his party will soon pay the price.

“Look, he does all of this, Jon, in a week where 60 percent of the people in the country say the economy is no better under him than it was under Joe Biden,” Christie said. “The war continues to rage on in Ukraine that he said he was going to settle in 24 hours. And [Vladimir] Putin continues to manipulate him to deteriorate the 80-year NATO alliance. And twice now, in the past month, you’ve seen Republicans break from him on Capitol Hill, on both the Epstein files and ACA subsidies, to sign discharge petitions to repute both the speaker and the president.

“It’s not a strange week, Jon, it’s an awful week!” Christie added “And the president better wake up to the fact that going to Rocky Mount, North Carolina [to deliver a speech], is not going to solve his problems, and that he better start solving the American peoples’ problems or our party is going to have a big problem come November.”

Watch above, via ABC.

The post ‘Awful Week!’ Chris Christie Absolutely Wrecks Trump Over Primetime Speech, Kennedy Center Renaming, Rob Reiner Reaction and More first appeared on Mediaite.

The panel for CNN’s Saturday Table For Five exploded over Vice President J.D. Vance’s assertion that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies led to “deliberate” discrimination against white men.

Host Sarah Sidner played video of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair encouraging white men to sue their employers if they feel they’ve been wronged.

Sidner said that not only did Vance repost the EEOC’s message, he took “many steps further by claiming that DEI isn’t just, quote, ‘lame diversity seminars or racial slogans. It was a deliberate program of discrimination primarily,’ he said, ‘against white men.‘”

“Did some white men get screwed over because of DEI? Probably,” said panelist and comedian Paul Mecurio. “Did everybody to the point where you do — that was like a shyster personal injury law firm commercial, wasn’t it?”

He continued, “So this isn’t correcting a systemic inequity. It’s treating discrimination as symmetrical. And it’s not because what you’re doing is you’re ignoring the imbalance of power that led to the civil rights legislation. And so do I think that some white men have unfairly been treated as a result of DEI? Yeah. Life’s kind of sloppy that way. But it’s not perfect. But I don’t think you go so far as to tell everybody to start suing the government and start suing your work.”

“Wait, hold on,” Republican politician Joe Borelli interjected. “Why shouldn’t a white person who has been discriminated, which you just admitted is real and it has happened? Why wouldn’t a white person who has been discriminated and can prove a case, or at least can bring a case? Why wouldn’t they be able to sue for that?”

“Because I think the federal government, in that kind of announcement is emboldening people that maybe don’t have a claim, but feel the government is telling me to do it, I’m going to go do it. That’s why,” Mecurio shot back.

“Maybe the bigger question is, why is the vice president putting this out there, telling people to sue?” Sidner asked.

SIDNER: Because there’s a big question here. There is an entire community that feels discriminated against by the —

BRIANNA LYMAN: Yeah, white men.

SIDNER: — president. The Somali community feels discriminated against by the president. He called them garbage.

LYMAN: American white — Joe Biden called us garbage — white American men are being discriminated on the basis of their race and gender.

In October 2024, then-President Joe Biden said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” after a Trump rally comedian referred to Puerto Rico as an “island of garbage.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post CNN Panel Explodes Over JD Vance Assertion DEI Is ‘Deliberate’ Discrimination Against White Men first appeared on Mediaite.

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Police in Columbus, Ohio responded to “noise complaints” when protesters in freezing temperatures blared music for hours outside a hotel hosting ICE officers — but they were there to support the demonstrators, not to stop them.

The social media account of political commentator @rooster_ohio posted video of the cacophony that included people banging on metal drums, writing, “Columbus, Ohio said no sleep for ICE at the Embassy Suites hotel.”

Brandon Baker, who posted video to Facebook, wrote, “This is just wild!! People are blaring music and sounding alarms to keep ICE from sleeping!”

Baker told The Columbus Dispatch, that the “mostly electronic dance music with heavy beats” began around 9 p.m. “and didn’t cease for hours.”

On the video, a woman can be heard exclaiming, “This is crazy! This is amazing!” adding, “There’s a guy playing a trombone!”

“It’s important to recognize that Columbus is a melting pot and we’re not going to tolerate this kind of intolerance,” Baker told The Dispatch.

“It was a good symbol and a good thing to see Columbus kind of fighting back against this group of individuals who have pretty much taken it upon themselves to terrorize people,” he continued. “If we’re so anti-terrorism in the United States, why are we allowing something like this to even happen?”

The video panned to Columbus police milling around outside the hotel, but they didn’t attempt to stop the protesters.

On Friday, Mayor Andrew Ginther (D) and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said, “no city resources would be used to help federal agents in immigration enforcement operations,” The Dispatch reported.

A hotel employee told The Dispatch that they refunded “a few guests” who happened to be staying there along with ICE.

ICE confirmed two arrests in Columbus after city leaders warned citizens of a possible increase in ICE activity throughout the city.

“These enforcement actions are part of ongoing efforts to uphold public safety and enforce federal immigration laws,” an ICE spokesperson said.

ICE described those arrested as the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” according to ABC6.

One of those arrested had multiple prior charges, including criminal trespassing and drug-related offenses. In a separate court document, the man was charged with aggravated robbery for allegedly stealing sandwiches from a local store.

The other detainee had “a traffic citation for failure to control a vehicle and not wearing a seat belt,” according to ABC6.

The post ‘Just Wild!’ Ohio Protesters Blare Music Outside Hotel Hosting ICE Officers As Police Look On first appeared on Mediaite.

Evangelical preacher Franklin Graham told participants at the Pentagon ‘s “Christmas Worship Service” that the “God of love” they’re familiar with “also hates.”

Graham addressed troops and Pentagon employees Thursday at the event hosted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Hegseth.

“You know, we think about, God is a God of love,” Graham said before reciting Bible verse John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that he whoever believeth in him shouldn’t perish, but have everlasting life.”

Graham continued, “We know that God loves, but did you know that God also hates? Do you know that God also is a God of war? And many people don’t want to think about that, or forget that.”

Graham read a Bible passage where Saul was called on to attack Israel’s enemies, saying, “Utterly destroy all that they have. Don’t spare them….but kill them, both men, women, infant, nursing child, oxen, sheep, camel, and donkey.”

“Now, people will say, ‘Franklin, that is so hard. That’s not the God I believe in.’ Well, you’d better believe in him!” Graham said.

Graham then talked about “the sins of our country.”

“I pray that God will forgive the sins of our country,” he said. “When you think of all the things we do, and the mistakes we make, pray that God will heal our land, and that America will once again turn to the God of our fathers and serve him.”

Pete Hegseth closed the event by remembering the American soldiers and interpreter who were killed in Syria last week.

“I just got back from Dover for a dignified transfer for three great Americans,” Hegseth said.

“There’s no way to manage what to say when you’re in that room with those families,” he continued. “But almost to a man and a woman, you see them find hope, that there is something bigger. A place where they know where their loved-ones are. Yes, they served our nation, the put on the cloth of our uniform, served all of us, on behalf of all of us. But they serve a bigger and greater God. And we know where they are.”

The post Franklin Graham Says ‘God Also Hates’ and ‘Is a God of War’ at Pentagon’s ‘Christmas Worship Service’ first appeared on Mediaite.

As you get stronger, you become able to lift heavier and heavier weights. That's the idea at the heart of an often-misunderstood fitness concept: progressive overload. Unfortuantely, there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about this principle, so here's how to use it to plan your own workouts or judge whether a program you're following will keep you on track.

What is progressive overload?

Progressive overload is the increase, over time, in the amount of work or stress you ask your body to handle. The term is used two different ways: as a principle of how the human body works, and as a description of how a workout program changes over time. If you want to know how to "do progressive overload," you're thinking of the second one—how to design a workout program.

The simplest way to implement this is to just do a little more each time you're in the gym. More weight, or more reps, or making the workout harder in some other way. You can still take some easier "deload" workouts (or weeks) from time to time, but over the long term you want to see a trend of the workouts getting harder. They won't necessarily feel harder, because you'll be getting stronger. It's more like the workouts are keeping up with you.

In other words, progressive overload is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. As you get stronger, your workouts need to get harder to keep up. But in a sense you are also becoming stronger because you're challenging yourself with harder workouts.

What does progressive overload look like in real life?

If you’re bummed out by the idea of working harder and harder forever, don’t panic. You’ll work harder in absolute terms—by lifting heavier weights, let’s say—but the challenge stays about the same in relative terms. Your workouts will fall into an effort level you might call “hard, but doable,” and you’ll notice progress because your numbers are going up. (A similar approach applies to endurance sports. As cyclist Greg Lemond reportedly said: “It never gets any easier, you just go faster.”)

When I started lifting weights many years ago, 65 pounds was a decently challenging bench press for me. I remember being proud of myself for being able to squeeze out a rep or two at 85 pounds. Now, if I’m going to do a bench workout, I don’t even bother loading those amounts onto the bar. My warmup sets start at 95 pounds, and a heavy single might be around 135. That 135 feels just as hard as 85 used to, but it’s undeniably more weight.

How did I make that progress? Well, I kept lifting the weights that felt heavy for me. Over time, the same weights that used to be challenging started to feel easy, and I needed to add more and more weight to the bar to get something that actually felt heavy. (I have a guide here to figuring out whether you’re lifting “heavy.”)

Most of the time, I either followed a program that told me how many pounds to lift, increasing that amount slowly over time, or one that told me what effort level to lift at (a concept called RPE), which allowed me to choose an appropriate weight each day. Following a program will usually net you better progress than just winging it, but as long as you’re using the overload principle and the progression principle, you will get stronger.

Workout routines that use progressive overload

Here are some examples of workout routines that use progressive overload:

Double progression. Let's say you're aiming for three sets of eight to 12 reps of dumbbell shoulder press. You choose a weight that you can handle for 3 sets of 8 reps. The next time you do shoulder press, try to add at least one rep. If you can't, that's fine—just do your three sets of eight. One day maybe you'll get 10 reps on the first set, then only eight on the next two. Another time maybe you get 12, 10, and eight. After a few weeks you manage three full sets of 12. That means it's time to increase the weight! The next time you do the exercise, you'll use a heavier set of dumbbells and start again at three sets of eight. It's called "double" progression because first you increase the reps, and then you increase the weight.

Linear progression. This is a common progression for barbell exercises for beginners. You do the same number of reps every time (say, five sets of five reps) but add a small amount of weight every workout. Often the program will have instructions for what to do if you can't complete the five sets of five reps at the new weight. These workouts aren't usually realistic for experienced lifters, since you can't keep increasing the weight forever, but they're great for people who are learning an exercise for the first time or returning to the gym after a break.

Set progression. This may be used along with double progression, or may be its own thing. You start with just a few sets of an exercise per workout, say two or three, and then add a set each week. Once you're doing, say, five sets, you'll start over with heavier weight. If you're using it with double progression, you'll increase sets, and then reps, and then weight.

Density progression. This is commonly used in timed sets, like Crossfit WODs ("workout of the day") or for accessory lifts. Set a timer for several minutes and do as many reps as possible in the given time, resting as needed. The next time you do the workout, try to do more reps in the same amount of time. Once you can do the lifts with little to no rest, you'll either add weight or find another way to make the exercises harder (for example, doing dips instead of pushups).

As you can see, weight isn't the only variable that progresses. You can increase reps, or sets, or increase the amount of work you do in a given time by decreasing rest. You can increase the difficulty by choosing a harder exercise (like progressing from dips to pushups). As long as things get harder over time, you're doing progressive overload.

How to use progressive overload even if you can't add more weight

Adding weight is part of most progressive overload schemes, but you don’t have to add weight to the bar literally every time you lift. There’s a wide range of weights and rep ranges that can be effective for building strength and muscle. For example, if I did a bench workout today, I might do sets of 10 at 100 pounds, or sets of five at 120, or some heavy singles at 140, or any combination of these. If I’m really tired or stressed, I might decide to do the sets of 10 at just 90 pounds. If I’m feeling great, I might be able to do them at 105. This is what I mean by a wide range: All of these are hard enough work to spur my muscles to adapt and get stronger. (There are reasons you might choose one of these workouts over the others, but we don’t need to get into those details at the moment.)

What wouldn’t be progressive overload? Well, if I did sets of 10 with just the bar, that wouldn’t help me get stronger. If I had a mini barbell set, and it maxed out at 85 pounds, my strength would stagnate once I got to the point where 85 pounds isn’t a challenging weight anymore.

Even as your strength improves, you don’t have to do more every single workout, as long as you’re getting stronger in the long term, and your workouts are still in the range that is challenging to you.

So let’s say you’re doing bicep curls with a 10-pound dumbbell. You can do eight or 10 reps with it. Perfect. But the only way to add weight, at your gym, might be to pick up a 15-pound dumbbell. If that weight is too heavy for you, that’s okay. Keep working with the 10-pounder, and in time you’ll be ready for the 15.

You can progress on more than one metric

While you’re probably itching to lift heavier weights, weight on the bar is not the only way to progress. Sometimes you can’t add weight because of equipment issues, or just because your strength is improving slowly. (Even if your beginner gains were meteoric, everybody’s progress slows down at some point.)

But if you’re smart, you probably don’t want to only get better at one specific thing. A lot of beginners start off doing squat, bench, and deadlift in sets of five reps, and trying to add weight each workout. But you’ll be a more well-rounded lifter if you also know how to lift heavy singles and sets of 10 or 15. Depending on your goals you might consider front squats in addition to back squats, and reverse hypers or kettlebell swings in addition to deadlifts. There are ways to improve at all of these things, and it’s normal for a lifter to be simultaneously increasing their reps in accessory lifts, increasing their weight on the bar for heavy singles, and increasing the amount of time they spend on conditioning workouts.

How to spot workouts that don't use progressive overload

Not every workout or routine will have progressive overload built in. For example, if you have a favorite workout that you do every day, but you never make it any harder (say, it's always three sets of ten pushups), you won't make progress over time. That's OK if you enjoy the workout for another reason, like if you're just trying to get the mental health benefits of a little exercise boost in the morning. But if you want to get better at pushups, you need to find a way to do more of them over time, or make them harder in some way (like elevating your feet, or doing them with a backpack on).

Workouts with progressive overload tend to be personalized to you. If the workout tells you exactly what to do, down to the exact weight of dumbbell to pick up, it's not giving you room to choose the weight that matches your current strength level. The 12-3-30 treadmill workout, for example, is the same for everyone every time. If it's one-size-fits-all, there's no way to progress.

That said, some workouts have a sneaky progression built in. If you jog for 30 minutes each day, chances are you'll get a little faster over time even if you don't realize it, and then you're doing more work within the same amount of time. Or if you do "three sets of 10" of an exercise, but each day you pick up whatever dumbbells feel appropriate for that level, you'll probably end up using heavier ones over time. Just make sure you don't get stuck doing the exact same thing month in and month out.

The limits of progressive overload

One last thing, now that we’ve discussed what progressive overload looks like. It’s important to remember that progression happens in the long term. Some competitive lifters might not test their one-rep max outside of competition, which means they’ll only find out once or twice a year how much their deadlift has gone up. That doesn’t mean they haven’t progressed in the meantime. If they’re doing an effective program, consistently challenging themselves, they’re still working.

Plateaus are a fact of life when you’re a lifter. Sometimes it takes a while to get stronger. Sometimes you need to work on your technique to be able to express your newfound strength. Sometimes factors like stress or weight loss or changes in your training can make you weaker in the short term, but if you keep training in a way that challenges you, you’ll set new PRs soon enough.

(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

You’ve heard of the reverse Jim Cramer, but in the Kalshi Era, perhaps it’s Fox News host-turned-House Hunters: Qatar star Tucker Carlson whose intuitions shrewd bettors should short.

The first year of the second Trump administration has seen Carlson whiff on both of the two major predictions he’s offered. In March, Carlson mused that “a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East, and cost the United States tens of billions of dollars.”

“A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war, and it will be America’s war. Don’t let the propagandists lie to you,” he added for good measure.

A few months later, Chicken Little reared his head again.

“The first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans. It could also collapse our economy, as surging oil prices trigger unmanageable inflation. Consider the effects of $30 gasoline,” warned Carlson in June. “But the second week of the war could be even worse. Iran isn’t Iraq or Libya, or even North Korea. While it’s often described as a rogue state, Iran has powerful allies. It’s now part of a global bloc called BRICS, which represents the majority of the world’s landmass, population, economy and military power. Iran has extensive military ties with Russia. It sells the overwhelming majority of its oil exports to China. Iran isn’t alone. An attack on Iran could very easily become a world war. We’d lose.”

By the end of the month, President Donald Trump had not only disregarded Carlson’s faulty advice and crippled the Iranian nuclear program, but bestowed an apt new nickname upon him: “kooky Tucker Carlson.”

The Iranians’ retaliatory strike on the United States’ Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar — which came complete with a forewarning to the U.S. and Qatar and resulted in zero casualties — was pitiful. Still, self-professed America Firster Tucker Carlson reacted to the news not by expressing his concern for American lives, but by nearly shedding tears on behalf of the Qataris, whom he argued only host the base “to be nice.”

Wednesday night’s address from the president resulted in yet another swing-and-a-miss from the cable news flameout.

Carlson previewed Trump’s speech by declaring that “members of Congress were briefed yesterday that a war [with Venezuela] is coming and it’ll be announced in the address to the nation tonight at 9 o’clock by the president.”

“Who knows, by the way, if that will actually happen,” he added. “I don’t know, and I never want to overstate what I know, which is pretty limited in general, but a member of Congress told me that this morning.”

Well, he was right on at least one count; what Tucker Carlson knows is, indeed, limited.

Any cursory review of the headlines summarizing Trump’s speech will reveal that he did not, in fact, plunge the nation into war on Wednesday. But it gets worse for Carlson — the president did not so much as mention Venezuela.

And that congressional briefing to which he referred? That didn’t happen either, per Axios’s Marc Caputo.

Of course, Carlson is no stranger to lies and is long past feeling shame. That he was, yet again, wrong, yet again, is likely of no consequence to him. But this particular misfire betrays something much more devastating: Carlson is out of the loop.

Such a falling out probably seemed impossible last summer, when he delivered a speech and sat beside both Trump and JD Vance — the man Carlson had helped talk the nominee into picking as his running mate — at the Republican National Convention. Yet Carlson’s conspiracy theories, grumbling over Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments, and promotion of outright anti-Semitism have isolated him.

To be sure, Carlson still has friends — Vance most prominent among them — in the administration. But then again, Carlson must now be wondering why the vice president failed to save his longtime ally from the embarrassment of crying wolf. Again.

The bad news for Carlson doesn’t end there, either. On Tuesday, Trump hosted one of his nemeses, Fox’s Mark Levin, at the White House for a Hanukkah reception at which the commander-in-chief asked the longtime conservative commentator to “say a couple of words,” and he obliged by deeming Trump “the first Jewish president.” One can only imagine how that went over in Carlson’s bunker.

The hits keep coming. Another foe, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, visited the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday to deliver a withering takedown of Carlson. That’s right, the same institution that came rushing to his defense after his chummy conversation with professional bigot Nick Fuentes this fall is now inviting his sworn enemies to excoriate him.

Perhaps none of this matters to Carlson, who can continue to print money while spreading hatred and misinformation in equal measure for the rest of his life should he choose to do so. But his abhorrent behavior has apparently destroyed his relationship with the Trump White House.  And that leaves him in the same class as Alex Jones — a clown performing tricks for an immature audience, albeit with a pedigree that renders his descent all the more degrading.

The post ‘Kooky’ Tucker Carlson’s Embarrassing Misfire Shows Trump Has Kicked Him Out of the MAGA Club first appeared on Mediaite.