We all know how crucial it is to keep track of our health. However, all too often we fall into the trap of focusing solely on our weight. Stepping on the scale might tell us if we’ve gained or lost a few pounds, but it barely scratches the surface of what’s really going on. Factors like muscle mass, body fat percentage, and visceral fat also play significant roles in our health, yet these metrics often get overlooked. Fortunately, through technology, it is now possible to get a much deeper understanding of our health. And if you’re someone who likes arming themselves with as much data as possible, a new smart scale called the Oxline Scale X Pro could be a very valuable addition to your wellness toolkit.

What is the Oxline Scale X Pro?

The Oxline Scale X Pro is a smart scale designed to provide a broad overview of factors that impact your health. Unlike traditional scales that only measure weight, the Scale X Pro provides 16 different body metrics, including body fat percentage, muscle mass, bone mass, water weight, visceral fat, and body age. It utilizes something Oxline calls “Echo™ Sensor” technology, which works kind of like radar, sending signals through your body and interprets the data with the help of 12 auto-calibrating sensors. This results in a much more detailed and accurate analysis of your body’s composition.

Oxline has become pretty well-known among health-conscious consumers in recent years for their home diagnostic equipment—we’re talking things like blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, and even pulse oximeters, which are designed to give regular people accurate and reliable tools for health monitoring. Now, with the Scale X Pro, Oxline is trying to take at-home health monitoring and data collection to another level. So let’s dive in and take a closer look.

Why Weight and BMI Aren’t Enough

When it comes to overall health, relying solely on weight and BMI can be a little misleading. While weight is a straightforward metric, it doesn’t differentiate between muscle, fat, and other components of your body. A high weight might be due to muscle mass, which is healthy, or excess fat, which can pose health risks. Simply put, weight alone doesn’t give you the full picture.

Body Mass Index, or BMI, attempts to address this shortcoming by considering height as well as weight. However, it still has significant limitations. BMI doesn’t account for muscle mass, bone density, or fat distribution. For instance, athletes with high muscle mass often fall into the “overweight” category by BMI standards, despite being in excellent health. On the flip side, individuals with a normal BMI might have high levels of visceral fat, posing hidden health risks.

This is where additional metrics become crucial. Knowing your body fat percentage, muscle mass, and visceral fat levels provides a more accurate understanding of your health. By moving beyond weight and BMI, you can gain a comprehensive view of your body’s health, leading to better management and improved outcomes. And this is exactly what devices like the Oxline Scale X Pro are designed to do.

Ordering and Setting Up The Scale X Pro

When I first heard about the Oxline Scale X Pro, I was very curious to see how it works. Given that it measures 16 different things, I was a little bit worried that I would be overwhelmed by data. But in fact, it’s shockingly simple to use and incorporate into your health and fitness routines.

Upon ordering my Scale X Pro, I was pleased to find that shipping was free, and came with a tracking number. And when the scale arrived, I was even more pleased to see that the packaging was minimalist. These days, a lot of products get shipped in gigantic boxes and excessive packing materials, but Oxline does the planet a huge favor by keeping everything sleek and simple.

Right out of the box, the Scale X Pro works as a regular bathroom scale. It comes with batteries, so once you pull the little plastic tab out of the battery compartment, you can step on and weigh yourself. To get the advanced metrics, however, you have to download the Fitdays Health app and create an account. But doing that is very straightforward and took about two minutes. Simply enter some vital stats, take a quick tour, and you’re ready to measure.

Using The Scale X Pro

Using the Scale X Pro for the first time was an informative experience. When you step on the scale, the first reading you will get is your weight. After that, you’ll see some flashing lights, indicating that it is taking additional readings, and after about 10 seconds you get the rest of the metrics.

While the scale itself measures 16 different things, what you actually get are 22 different metrics for understanding your body composition. On the scale’s digital display you get readouts for weight, heart rate, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, body water percentage, muscle rate, and bone mass. Then, on the app, you get readings for fat mass, fat-free body weight, cardiac index, muscle mass, skeletal muscle, protein mass, protein percentage, water weight, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, BMR, body age, ideal body weight, obesity level, and body type.

Seeing all of this data was pretty eye opening. I have never had these types of insights into my health all in one place, so seeing it all gets you thinking about all sorts of new possibilities. Of course, I cannot say from my personal experience how accurate the Scale X Pro readings are. But I can say the readings I got were more or less in line with what I expected, and I did see them change over time. So at the very least, the scale gave me a baseline against which I could track my progress.

Crucially, I found the Fitdays app experience to be incredibly smooth. Users will definitely want to research these body metrics in greater detail, but the app gives you a nice snapshot of what they could potentially mean for your overall health. And a really nice bonus is that you can sync the data the Scale X Pro collects with other health platforms like Apple Health, Samsung Health, Google Health, and Fitbit Tracker, so all your health data is in one place.

Go Beyond Weight

The Scale X Pro was surprisingly easy to incorporate into my daily routine. Each morning, I step on the scale and get instant feedback on my progress, and the data has motivated me to adjust my diet and exercise habits. Over several weeks, I’ve seen slight changes in my body composition that correspond with my activity level and diet. And in the app, you can view all the data in easy-to-read graph form.

All in all, the Oxline Scale X Pro is a pretty impressive device. If you want to actually understand your weight and get a more complete picture of your health, this smart scale is a good place to start. And with free shipping, a lifetime warranty, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, there’s very little risk.

If you’re looking for a tool that can help you make better decisions about your fitness and wellness, you should definitely check out the Oxline Scale X Pro.

American-born TikTok user Kayleigh Donahue is going viral on the platform because of her unflinching take on why it was a mistake for her to move back to the U.S. after spending 4 years in Ireland.

She now lives in the Boston area.

Kayleigh moved back to the U.S. from Ireland to make more money, but that didn’t go as planned. Even though she got paid more, the cost of living was so much higher that she saved less money than she did in Ireland. She also missed the generous number of vacation days she got in Europe as compared to America.

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@kayshaynee

popping off always #americanabroad #usavseurope #movingabroad #livingabroad #europevsamerica #fyp

“Basically, I really got sucked into the American Dream way of living when I was abroad, which is funny because I loved living abroad,” Kayleigh said. “But you know, making more money, that’s enticing. Good job, that’s enticing. It’s not true. It used to be. It definitely used to be. You could come here and make a ton of money, make a great life for yourself. But the younger generation today, in this country — screwed. It’s literally all a lie that is sold to you. It’s such a struggle, and the older generation doesn’t seem to see how much of a struggle it is for the younger generation here.”

In the end, who wants to work harder for a lower quality of life?

“Needless to say, I will most likely be moving back to Europe where 20-plus days of paid vacation a year is literally the law, and I will make less money, but somehow, you know, the cost of living is lower there and I can save more,” Kayleigh concluded the video.

This article originally appeared on 1.17.24

Roger Federer will go down in history as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but his popularity extends far beyond the tennis court. With a reputation as a kind and classy sportsman, a generous philanthropist and and all around “good guy,” Federer has gained fans of all ages, even outside of his sport, making him an ideal commencement speaker for one of America’s top universities.

Dartmouth’ College’s class of 2024 got to listen to the tennis great share the three biggest lessons he learned from the sport at their commencement ceremony, and people have been sharing snippets from it on social media.

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Federer told the graduates that he left school at 16 to play tennis and “graduated” from tennis in 2022. He said he wanted to share with the students three “tennis lessons” he learned during his career that has helped him transition to life after it, in the hopes that they might help them transition to life out in the world as well.

Lesson 1: Nothing is ‘effortless’

“‘Effortless’ is a myth,” he began. “I mean it. I say that as someone who has heard that word a lot. The truth is, I had to work very hard to make it look easy. I spent years whining, swearing (sorry), throwing my racket before I learned to keep my cool.”

He shared a story of how an opponent early in his career helped him understand that anyone can excel in the early part of the game, but it takes significant, sustained effort to reach a level where you can play well throughout an entire tournament.

“I didn’t get where I got on pure talent alone,” he said. “I got there by trying to outwork my opponents. I believed in myself. But belief in yourself has to be earned…From this day forward, some people are going to assume that because you graduated from Dartmouth, it all comes easy for you. And you know what? Let them believe that, as long as you don’t.”

Lesson 2: “It’s only a point.”

“Let me explain. You can work harder than you thought possible and still lose,” he said. “I have.”

Federer explained that he always tried not to lose, of course, but sometimes he did. Everyone does, even those at the very top.

He told a story about how he had started to doubt himself after an opponent scored a point against him early in a match, and he had to learn not to let a single lost point get under his skin. Then he used statistics to illustrate his point.

“In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches,” he said. “Now, I have a question for all of you. What percentage of the points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.”

“Here’s why I am telling you this,” he continued. “When you’re playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world, and it is. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that with intensity, clarity and focus.”

He shared that whatever games the students play in life, sometimes they’re going to lose, and to him, the sign of a champion is learning to master hard moments.

“The best in the world are not the best because they win every point,” he said. “It’s because they know they’ll lose, again and again, and have learned how to deal with it.”

Lesson 3: Life is bigger than the court.

“Even when I was just starting out, I knew that tennis could show me the world… but tennis could never be the world,” he said. “I knew that if I was lucky, maybe I could play competitively until my late 30s—maybe even 41! But even when I was in the top five, it was important to me to have a life, a rewarding life full of travel, culture, friendships, and especially family. I never abandoned my roots, and I never forgot where I came from, but I also never lost my appetite to see this very big world.”

Federer shared what it has been like for him to serve the children of South Africa, his mother’s homeland, through his foundation that focuses on the education of children across Southern Africa.

“It’s been an honor… and it’s been humbling,” he said. “An honor to help tackle this challenge, and humbling to see how complex it is.”

He shared that he was only 22 when he started his philanthropy work.

“I was not ready for anything other than tennis. But sometimes you’ve got to take a chance and then figure it out,” he said. “Philanthropy can mean a lot of things. It can mean starting a nonprofit, or donating money. But it can also mean contributing your ideas, your time and your energy to a mission that is larger than yourself. All of you have so much to give, and I hope you will find your own, unique ways to make a difference, because life really is much bigger than the court.”

Wise words from a wise man. You can find the full transcript of Federer’s speech here.

Parents, not kids, are the ones making sure that deadlines are met, that everyone gets to important appointments on time, and that things generally run smoothly for the family.

At least…that’s how it’s supposed to work. But many kids find themselves in the precarious situation of having a bit more savviness than their parents. This can be particularly frustrating for young adults when their parents refuse to see them as anything more than a know-nothing child.

For one recent high school grad, that dilemma happened during a cruise to the Caribbean Islands with his punctually challenged mom and dad.

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According to his viral Reddit story, the vacation was meant to celebrate his 18th birthday. This would be the family’s first cruise together, and the teenager warned his parents that it would be different than the all inclusive resorts they’re used to going to. That if they went on excursion, they’d have to “follow the schedule no matter what.”

Apparently mom and dad didn’t take the warning to heart, and got “busy shopping and bargaining with the locals.”At a loss, the son said he was heading back to the ship, and his mother waved him off.

AITA for abandoning my parents at an island in the Caribbean so I could get back to our cruise in time?
byu/ProfessionalTax7753 inAmItheAsshole

A good 45 minutes after the departure, the boy’s parents messaged him on WhatsApp, upset that he didn’t get the ship to somehow wait for them.

“I wanted to scream that they were not going to inconvenience 3,998 people because two could not understand what a schedule was,” he lamented in his post.

The parents ended up taking an expensive flight to the next port, and the rest of the trip they took their anger out on the son.

Looking to Reddit for answers, the teens concluded, “I don’t know what I was supposed to do. They literally told me that they knew what they were doing.I wish I had never asked for this. They are making me miserable because I left without them.”

Hopefully the overwhelming response in support of the son’s decision made him feel better.

“Do they think if they arrive late to the airport the plane will wait around for a couple hours? This is not rocket science. It’s a mode of transport, you get there on time,” one person commented.

Meanwhile, another reasoned, “This is the bit that baffles me – even if OP had tried/asked, I highly doubt the staff would have even considered delaying departure. Did OP’s parents expect him to kick down the door to the bridge and commandeer the ship until they finished shopping?”

“And if op gave up and stayed behind with them that would have been an extra plane ticket, so even more money down the drain. They should be relieved that their kid has a good head on their shoulders but no, they’d Rather blame them,” another person wrote.

One astutely suspected that the boy’s parents were simply projecting their own shame about the situation onto their son, writing “I expect they are just very embarrassed that an 18 year old was smarter than them and are taking it out on them.”

Another person agreed, “Yep, projection is a major defense mechanism for people who never learned emotional regulation skills as children. ‘I messed up and can’t handle/process these feelings of anxiety, so it’s actually all YOUR fault.’”

Seems like the role of adults and child got reversed here, but hopefully this kid can take solace in knowing he made the right decision. And hopefully his parents won’t miss the boat to apologize.

When someone possesses a unique talent, people react in two ways: They either encourage them to turn it into a career, while others caution that commercializing their hobby might strip away the joy they find in it.

Understandably, someone with a knack for arts and crafts would probably want to make money selling their wares. Because, as the saying goes, when you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Plus, setting up an Etsy shop and social media accounts and starting a small business is easy.

Further, in a world dominated by hustle culture, it’s almost expected that someone will try to monetize their hobby instead of doing it for the pure joy of doing it.

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However, when your hobby becomes your job —whether that’s weaving blankets, making pizza, or creating a podcast—you now become pressured to do what you used to enjoy in your leisure time. That blanket becomes a product. Your pizza becomes foodstuff and your podcasts are now content.

Now, instead of baking that white pie because you like the taste, you add sausage and Canadian bacon to satisfy the market. The blankets you once made with high-end yarn are now being woven with the cheaper stuff to increase your margin.

Instead of taking a week off of your podcast because you don’t have an intriguing guest or topic, you’re forcing yourself to produce 45 minutes of content you would never listen to.

The topic has been a hot-button issue on Reddit, and many warn against turning one’s passion into a product. “I turned my hobby into a side hustle for a while. I realized it wasn’t worth it when my husband reminded me that the whole reason I started the hobby was to relieve stress from my job, but somehow, my stress relief had morphed into a second job. Haven’t done an art market since then,” SquishySquishy333 wrote.

“Turning a hobby into a business is a great way to turn something you love to do into something you hate,” Slumminwhitey added.

It’s easy to see why people would love a hobby to be their job because it seems a lot more fulfilling than working one that you’re not passionate about. But Robin Moriarty, a global business executive and former Forbes contributor, asks why people feel they need to be fulfilled by their career. Why not work for money and find fulfillment when you’re off the clock?

“In the U.S., our culture is very focused on achieving and accomplishing. Our identities are often wrapped up in our job, our title, our salary, and our promotions. Just go to any cocktail party and the first question is, ‘What do you do?’ which implies that what you do is an indicator of who you are,” Moriarty writes in Forbes. Work can be something you do to pay your bills so that you can go get your fulfillment elsewhere — from family, from spirituality, from friends, from volunteering, from hobbies, from taking classes, from sports. Where you choose to seek fulfillment is your choice.”

Ultimately, people should be able to follow their passions and use their talents as they see fit. But they should be aware that if they turn their hobby into a job, it’s going to be a lot less fun than doing it for pleasure. Plus, in a world where everything seems to be motivated by economic forces, doing something for the pure joy of it seems like a revolutionary act.

The fight against body-shaming starts with language.

So much of our hidden biases and internalized struggles with body image can be found lurking within the words used to describe ourselves and others—even the well-intentioned ones. It’s one of the reasons why the “body positivity” movement has been reevaluated over the years, since it tends to still place an emphasis on how our body’s physical appearance vs. how it simply helps with daily life.

It’s also why the phrase “you’re so brave” has come under scrutiny. Many celebrities, like Lena Dunham and Lizzo, have called out publications for routinely attributing the word “brave” to larger women who might show their skin. The compliment might come from a sincere place, but since you likely wouldn’t call a thin, able bodied person “brave” for doing the same thing.

Recently during a Q&A in Dublin, “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan (who is no stranger to shielding herself from comments about her body) was met with this not-so-complimentary compliment, and her hilarious response was just so delightful in every way.

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In case you’ve been living on a deserted island for the past few years, “Bridgerton” is a steamy show, many of which Coughlan’s character, Penelope Featherington, take part in. So, perhaps when a journalist commended Coughlan for being “brave,” he was noting the sheer level of intimacy involved, and might have said that to any of the cast members. But considering how often that word is specifically used for plus sized women who dare to be seen as sexual beings, it feels fairly safe to assume that wasn’t the case.

Regardless, Coughlan didn’t miss a beat as she quipped:

“You know, it is hard because I think women with my body type—women with perfect breasts—we don’t get to see ourselves onscreen enough.”

As the crowd erupted in laughter, she continued. “And I’m very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community. I hope you enjoy seeing them.”

So unbothered. So witty. So perfect.

Watch a clip of this iconic moment, which has already racked up thousands of views on X (formerly Twitter), along with the overwhelming amount of positive response from viewers, below:

OH WHAT A QUEEN, WHAT A QUEEN pic.twitter.com/e1tbQfS7rW

— Tanisha 🔭 POLIN ERAAA 💚 (@tanishaahahaha) June 6, 2024

I LOVE HER . That’s why she is the queen . 👏👏👏👏👏

— R.T_W (@FunXR_LoL) June 6, 2024

GOD I LOVE HER😭 pic.twitter.com/ASVfmLJHG1

— es! (@95bwl) June 7, 2024

I LOVE HER SO MUCH AHAHHA

— Daniele Thomaselli (@danithomaselliv) June 6, 2024

Coughlan has on more than one occasion used her “Bridgerton” fame to shift the way pop culture portrays plus-sized women. In an interview with Stylist, she shared how she “specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included” in subsequent seasons of the show, particularly one scene where she was “very naked on camera.”

“It just felt like the biggest ‘fuck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering,” she told the outlet.

Honestly, it’s no wonder she’s a fan favorite, both on and offscreen.

People switch to sugar free things for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s to be more health conscious by reducing their sugar intake and other times it’s because they have a form of diabetes that requires very limited sugar. If you’re a person that likes sweets who is embarking on cutting back, you might turn to a childhood favorite–gummy bears.

In case you haven’t seen the adorable commercial where adults turn into kids after eating the sweet treat, Haribo makes gummy bears. The Haribo company also makes a sugar-free version of the squishy little bears but be warned: do not eat more than a few at a time.

Daniel Ferguson decided to read the “unhinged Amazon reviews” for the sugar-free gummy bears and he did not disappoint. Each review gets more uncomfortably hilarious as he shuffles through his index of character voices to share the details. Apparently there are some disagreements down below that happen should you eat them like a regular pack of gummy bears.

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First up is his impression of Iago from “Aladdin” where he reads off a descriptive review about someone feeling like someone was trying to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw. Commenters could not get enough of of his impressions, the reviews or their own horror stories from the sugar-free treat.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Daniel Ferguson (@danieljferguson)

“Ate an entire bag of these without knowing the side effects. My sister could hear my stomach churning in another room. After a few hours I just stayed within feet of the bathroom. They are like drano for your own intestines if drano violently unclogged drains,” one person writes.

“Kronk always going last is not a coincidence. The rest of the impressions are exceptional, but we’re all here for the Kronk,” someone says.

“This is so unhinged, but I love every second of it,” another laughs.

If you’ve learned nothing else from his delightfully unhinged reading of reviews, you’ve learned to never over do it on the sugar-free gummy bears.

Hockey fan Charles Barkley was out in full force on Monday night. With the NBA Finals on a break and TNT’s obligations for the year all wrapped up, Barkley made his way Sunrise to watch the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers play in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, where the Panthers hold a 1-0 series lead.

Barkley made an appearance on ESPN’s intermission report and Charles Barkley’d it up, which is to say he had a good time and made fun of Shaquille O’Neal. A little later, Barkley made his way onto Canadian television, as he gave some time to Sportsnet to talk hockey. At one point, he got asked about Game 1 of the series and forgot he was on live television.

“Well, [the Oilers] played great in Game 1, but they didn’t win,” Barkley said. “[Panthers goalie Sergei] Bobrovsky was f*ck … oops, sorry. I’m sorry. He was freaking amazing. I apologize to y’all kids at home. No, he was freakin’ amazing.”

In fairness to Chuck, Bobrovsky was pretty f*cking amazing during Game 1, as he saved all 32 shots he faced to pitch a shutout as the Panthers picked up a 3-0 win. His performance marked the seventh time that a goalie did not allow a goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Longtime fans of Inside the NBA know that Charles Barkley really loves hockey. Barkley has never been shy about how much he enjoys the sport, and when TNT wants him to read an ad for a game they’re broadcasting later in the week, he lights up and gets the job done.

Well, ESPN is broadcasting the NHL and the NBA right now, as both leagues are trying to determine a champion. As such, Barkley has nothing to do, so he went onto ABC between Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. Right away, the tenuous future of Inside the NBA came up when ESPN’s Steve Levy called Barkley “the newest member of ESPN’s NBA coverage.” Instead of diving in, though, Chuck told a terrific story about how Mark Messier owes him $5,000.

The segment went on, and in classic Chuck fashion, he took an opportunity to make fun of Shaq and ran with it.

Is it frustrating to watch a fun show involving an NBA player on ESPN during a lengthy break in a championship game and for it to not happen during the NBA Finals? A little, but ultimately, we got some good Charles Barkley content after TNT’s obligations for the season came to an end, so we’ll take it.

Stephen A. Smith and First Take have spent a lot more time this season discussing the WNBA than usual, especially in June when the NBA playoffs are still going on. That’s due to the sharp increase in interest in the league, fueled by the arrival of Caitlin Clark, who is rapidly entering the LeBron James and Tim Tebow realm where everything that they do or is tangentially related to them becomes fodder for debate on sports television.

The issue is, the WNBA is not a league that Smith is intimately familiar with in the way that he is the NBA and NFL. While Smith certainly isn’t always right when he talks about those leagues, he is extremely well-connected in the NBA and NFL worlds and does have some genuine insight, on top of the pontificating that makes for excellent television. With the WNBA, he clearly does not and, as such, when he attempts to speak as an authority on things, he can find himself wading into some deep waters and receiving pushback from those who are, in fact, authorities on the league.

We saw this a week ago when, after the Chennedy Carter-Caitlin Clark incident, Monica McNutt called out Stephen A. on air for not using his platform to talk about the WNBA to this extent until this year. Most recently, Stephen A. went off about USA Basketball’s decision to not include Clark on the roster, calling it a marketing disaster. He also got preachy to Andraya Carter when she pushed back about not everything needing to be a marketing decision.

This interaction perfectly illustrated the disconnect between Smith’s approach to sports and the way most everyone that covers the WNBA approaches them. For Smith, everything is about seeking out the most eyeballs to drive his value to the company so he can have more leverage in his next contract negotiation. That has always driven what he talks about on First Take, as he religiously pours over the viewership numbers, tracking what topics engage the audience the most — if you listen to an interview with him, there’s a good chance he’ll bring up how the show has been “number one” for a very long time. He will hammer those topics until the actual audience (not just annoyed people on social media) starts to tune out. Everything is a business decision, with the bottom line in mind.

In this instance, Smith cannot understand how anyone wouldn’t be thinking about the ratings when it comes to putting together the USA Basketball roster. He simply cannot wrap his head around not being able to bend one’s long-term principles for a short-term boost of engagement that could lead to more eyeballs (and, therefore, more money) coming in down the road. Is a roster for a basketball tournament put together with that in mind? Of course not! The goal is to win a gold medal with the best possible collection of talent. But Smith is not looking at this through that lens, he’s looking at it as someone whose life has been about the relentless pursuit of television ratings.

That runs almost entirely contrary to how anyone that covers women’s basketball has had to operate for their entire career, and it’s partially why they are less like to play Smith’s game on First Take. Women’s sports have long been viewed as a stepping stone for those in the media, and those that have chosen to make it their career to cover women’s basketball care deeply about the sport and bristle at the notion it can’t be the pinnacle. They also want to cover it with a certain level of respect that isn’t always the case in the sports media. Those that cover the sport on a day-to-day basis are some of the best in the business at making sure they’re approaching their subject matter with a certain degree of professionalism and with a deep, nuanced understanding of every element of the league. This goes beyond just the players and the Xs and Os, and includes things like the cultural and societal issues that women in sports must navigate.

As such, distilling things down to classic tropes and the narratives that have dictated how many men’s sports get discussed on a national scale isn’t appealing, which runs entirely contrary to the essence of Stephen A. and his show. The result has been some tense moments on First Take, and the occasional shock and dismay on Smith’s part that he’d receive measured, pointed pushback to what he’s saying, rather than someone yelling at him on the other end. Smith has always determined the terms of engagement on his show, but with the WNBA, he’s running into the one thing that he’s never been able to handle: calm, collected dismissal.

In other sports, even the smartest analysts will often play the game with Stephen A., understanding that they’ll have an opportunity somewhere else to dive into more nuanced takes. But those who cover women’s basketball don’t seem keen to do the same, and understandably so. They’ve fought for years to have a chance to talk about the sport they love on a major platform, and as Carter notes, they aren’t willing to sacrifice their expertise in the name of making for better TV drama.

That doesn’t work on First Take, a television show that is built around the idea that everything can and should be debated, with things taken to the extreme time and time again. And yet for how frustrated Smith clearly is that his tried and true formula keeps backfiring when the W pops up, it’s nowhere near as frustrating as his attempt at presenting himself as an authority on the sport, when he’s simply dipping a toe in for the moment while the audience is hot.