The Erick Erickson Show

Latest Episodes:

S15 EP149: Hour 2 - Common Sense Economics Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson turns the second law of thermodynamics into an economics lesson and lands it on Seattle: Starbucks is cutting 224 corporate jobs, including 120 employees who refused to move to Nashville, and between Brian Niccol's restructuring and Amazon's exodus, Washington State's progressives have taxed and regulated their own economy cold while Nashville takes 1,500 to 2,000 new residents a week. Then he refuses to let the tariff argument go, noting that President Trump just suspended the 25 percent tariff on imported beef and guaranteed the beef will now sell 25 percent below market, which is exactly the number his own listeners insisted had nothing to do with prices. The hour ends with Oreo Gate, the viral elementary school mom group chat that another mother ran through AI and turned into gospel music, and Erick is fully emotionally invested.

Starbucks lays off 224 in Seattle, 120 of them for refusing Nashville, as Brian Niccol chases $2 billion in cuts and the "Back to Starbucks" plan while Amazon and The Daily Wire also head for Tennessee
Economic thermodynamics: heat moves to cold, but capital moves cold to hot, and Erick's warning to the Tennessee legislature that Nashville is becoming Austin
Trump drops the 25 percent beef tariff on 300,000 metric tons for 90 days and promises 25 percent lower prices, and Erick collects on being right about tariffs, mercantilism, and lobbyist carve outs for electronics while grocery stores got none
Caller Marty on who actually holds the $40 trillion national debt, why it is Americans and not foreign governments, the 2032 Social Security cliff, and George W. Bush's 2005 reform that everyone scoffed at
Oreo Gate: Michelle, Ava, Charlotte, Isla, and the mom who searched a five year old's lunchbox for contraband Oreos, plus Erick's own four Oreo lunchroom scandal
Caller Dave on the Strait of Hormuz, the vetoed Security Council resolutions, and why Erick would walk away from the United Nations and sell the real estate

S15 EP149: Hour 3 - Weirdos, Normies, Fracking, and AI Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the cleanest explanation yet of why Americans hate data centers: it is not the water, the power bills, or the fake claim that vibrations cause miscarriages, it is that the arguments against fracking failed while the arguments against data centers are landing, and the only difference is the messengers. The oil men who fracked lived in the community, went to the local church, sent kids to the local schools, and fixed what their neighbors complained about. The AI CEOs are coastal creeps who tell you on camera that the machines will take your job and you will love it, with Dario Amodei's wife and Jeffrey Epstein and The Economist's "labradors for the machines" piece as exhibits. He also takes callers on seniors getting crushed on fixed incomes, Social Security reform and the George W. Bush plan Republicans were too scared to pass, and the Justice Department's new rule restoring gun rights to rehabilitated nonviolent felons.

Topics:

Fracking versus data centers: the same earthquake and flaming tap water playbook, why the fracking industry beat it, and why Meta is the only AI company that understands communities
Dario Amodei of Anthropic, the reported Jeffrey Epstein investment pitch, The Economist arguing humans could become pets to superintelligent AI, and Erick's answer that AI is iterative, not creative, because it has no soul
Nuclear power in the 1970s as the cautionary tale: engineers made terrible spokesmen, the fear won, and other countries passed us
Caller Ron in Tulsa on the senior squeeze: 2.5 and 2.8 percent Social Security increases, gutted Medicare dental, a $5,000 dental bill, and why Erick cannot insure three full time employees after Obamacare
Caller David in Jacksonville on the Social Security trust fund's 2.6 percent return, and Erick on George W. Bush's 2001 and 2005 reform plans that would have doubled benefits if Republicans had not lost their nerve
Angie Nixon says for profit prisons are modern day slavery, and Simone Sanders tries to hand her an exit ramp on the Democratic Socialists of America that she refuses to take
The GOP wipeout warning: Patrick Ruffini on the five point Democratic bias in pre Labor Day polling, Ken Paxton losing the money race to James Talarico, and why the DSCC abandoning Florida is bad news for Texas Republicans
Caller George on the Justice Department final rule restoring Second Amendment rights to nonviolent felons, and why the left wants your vote restored but not your rifle
Scott Bessent on 6.5 percent nominal growth, Atlanta Fed GDPNow at 4 percent, tankers running dark through the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffs coming off beef and probably Canada
Penn State's fraternity cocaine ring, the pledges assigned to bag it, the ringleader they call Pablo Pledgescobar, and what the whiteout is going to look like this year

S15 EP148: Hour 1 - The Debt Spiral Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

The national debt just crossed $40 trillion, and it took only 95 days to add the last trillion, so Erick Erickson opens with the math nobody in Washington wants: our debt now exceeds our GDP, Social Security and Medicare are the engine, and neither party will touch it. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC defending the bond buybacks, promising fiscal consolidation with Russ Vought, and laying out what he calls the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world against Iran, with the strait under American control and Iranian oil exports at zero for 72 hours straight. Then a blunt message to President Trump: get off the White House lawn, stop showing off the new helicopter pad and the gold leaf, kill every tariff today, and go make the case against Abdul El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists before the midterms.

The $40 trillion debt, 95 days per trillion, and why JD Vance's "common good conservatives" want to stop talking about GDP
Scott Bessent on CNBC: Treasury buybacks, the 10 year yield and your mortgage rate, poor liquidity at the 30 year, and the fiscal consolidation plan coming with Russ Vought
Bessent on Iran: maximum economic pressure, the blockade, the toughest sanctions in history, the Venezuela precedent, and zero Iranian oil exported in 72 hours squeezing China
Mandatory spending, the 2032 Social Security trust fund cliff, and why confiscating every American billionaire's wealth would not fund the government for a year
Tariffs are a tax: Trump waiving steel, aluminum and car tariffs, Walmart's billions in tariff refunds, and Erick's pitch to drop all of them right now and put them back after the election
Trump's Sikorsky Marine One helicopter pad, the gold leaf renovations, and Republicans begging him to get back on message while people cannot afford groceries
Federal agents seize Eric Swalwell's devices, Max Miller stays in the race, and the DNC snubs Atlanta for Boston, Philadelphia or Denver in 2028
Charitable giving maps to church attendance: the South and Utah give the most, DeKalb County and the coasts give the least
Abdul El-Sayed says he is African too, plus American oil production now beating the rest of the world combined and new evidence China is lying about its economy

S15 EP148: Hour 2 - The Pampered DSA Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson plays the moment CNN's Boris Sanchez confronts Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Ashik Siddiqui over the DSA celebrating Fidel Castro, telling him on live television that his own grandfather fought in the Cuban revolution and was then locked up by Castro for 20 years for speaking his mind. He stacks it with Abdul El-Sayed answering black voters by saying he is African too, Hasan Piker promising to be Angie Nixon's loyal soldier while she insists she has no idea who he is, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quietly writing off Florida to move money into Texas, where Republicans are panicking that Ken Paxton is a lazy, corrupt candidate who could hand the seat to James Talarico. Then the heart of the hour: a Ben Domenech speech on the earned collapse of trust in American elites, and Erick's argument that the Flock camera fight, the data center backlash, and local governments signing secret non disclosure agreements are all the same trust problem.

Boris Sanchez versus DSA co-chair Ashik Siddiqui on Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, and the grandfather Castro jailed for 20 years for wanting democracy
Abdul El-Sayed's "I am African too" answer to black voters, and the Democratic Socialists of America as pampered rich kids, including the Brooklyn co-chair in a $1.5 million townhome who owes his union money
Angie Nixon, Hasan Piker's "loyal soldiers" pledge, his threatened lawsuit against Scott Jennings, and the DSCC telling donors Florida is gone
Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Republican alarm over a lazy, corrupt nominee, Talarico's Karmelo Anthony jury pander, and why Erick Erickson is rooting for injuries in that race
Ben Domenech on Donald Trump as a beta test for a cure, single digit trust in Congress, the media and big business, and Erick's fix for Flock cameras and data centers: transparency, mandatory minimums for officers who abuse the data, and the ShotSpotter repeal that cost Xavier Batista his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts

S15 EP148: Hour 3 - Why We Live in Brave New World Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

Breaking news lands mid hour: Jessica Bowie, 35, arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol in Albany, and Erick Erickson walks through the federal complaint, the FBI confidential source posing as an ISIS facilitator, and why progressives who instantly guessed MAGA guessed wrong. The heart of the hour is Erick's argument that everyone quoting George Orwell has the wrong book: we are not living in 1984, we are living in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, sedated by soma and screens and manufactured anxiety, which is why he changed his mind on Flock cameras once he noticed the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America are their loudest opponents. Then Iran, with David Rohde on MS Now conceding Trump's economic pressure campaign could actually work, Trey Yingst on the UAE cutting off all trade with Iran, and satellite evidence that the Iranians are dumping oil into the desert because their tanks are full.

Topics:

Breaking: Jessica Bowie, 35, charged over an ISIS inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany, the FBI confidential source, her conversion five years ago, and the standing Islamist threat Erick ties to Abdul El-Sayed's bookshelf and family connections
Brave New World versus 1984: Aldous Huxley, soma, Henry Ford and the alpha to epsilon caste system, and why the phone in your pocket tracks you better than any Flock camera ever could
Tucker Carlson claiming nuclear weapons were made by entities rather than men, the demon that supposedly attacked him, and Erick's Dorian Gray line about how fast he has aged
Callers Jim and Craig on Ozzie Guillen praising Fidel Castro in Miami in 2012, the Cuban and Venezuelan communities pushing Florida right, and the grandfather's rule to vote for the guy who angers both sides
The postpartum depression case: women in pink rallying outside a courthouse for a mother who strangled her three children, Erick's break with Matt Walsh on whether postpartum depression is real, and his position that it is real and she still deserves the death penalty
Iran under economic siege: David Rohde on MS Now, Trey Yingst on Iranian missiles hitting the UAE, the Emirates cutting off trade and closing the dirham and Dubai crypto laundering route, China rationing gasoline and diesel, and Kharg Island backing up
Tomahawk production, Raytheon in Tucson and 3,000 new jobs, the Pentagon acquisitions push to rebuild the defense industrial base, and the $40 trillion debt problem Erick illustrates with a Butts County speed trap
Median Strategies and the fake poll: Karen Bass and Fox 11 Los Angeles took the bait, the New York Times, RealClearPolitics and 50 plus one all refused it, and why RealClearPolitics averages are still the ones to trust

S15 EP147: Hour 1 - Florida Last Night Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Florida's primary blew up both parties overnight: Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon beat impeachment hero Alexander Vindman for the Senate nomination while spending 13 times less, and Republicans took out the trash, dumping Cory Mills in Florida 7 and burying anti-Israel candidates James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian in single digits. Erick Erickson breaks down what the DSA surge means for Texas, Ohio and Alaska money, plays Darlene Graham telling a South Carolina debate audience she is "not that informed on national security," and exposes the trust fund hypocrisy of Democratic Socialist leaders in New York and the terror ties trailing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Angie Nixon, the Democratic Socialists of America, and how Alexander Vindman lost Florida's Senate primary 13 to 1 on money
Republicans purge their own: Cory Mills loses Florida 7, James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian rejected, Jared Moskowitz and Randy Fine hold on
South Carolina Senate runoff: Ralph Norman versus Darlene Graham on Taiwan, China, and peace through strength, with Greta Van Susteren asking
Harry Enten's CNN map of DSA primary wins from New York and Michigan to Colorado, Pennsylvania and now Florida
Trust fund commies exposed: Grace Ryan's noblesse oblige tweet, Gustavo Gordillo's $1.5 million Brooklyn row home, and Abdul El-Sayed's family ties to the Islamic American Relief Agency
David Jolly rejects socialism, Vernon Jones forces a Georgia runoff against Tim Fleming, and the demons of Mark 5 explain Twitter

S15 EP147: Hour 2 - The Data Center Backlash Grows Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

The AI data center revolt is now a live midterm threat, and Erick Erickson argues the real problem is not the data centers, it is that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and the rest of the AI CEOs are their own worst salesmen, the charming movie villains you were warned about, while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are the only ones who figured out how to sell a community on jobs, tax relief, and skills training. He reads the Axios scoop on the NRSC's private memo warning that Senator Jon Husted is losing Ohio to Sherrod Brown over data centers, walks through Vivek Ramaswamy's property tax plan and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer ad, then turns to Ukraine, where drone crews are burning Wildberries distribution centers outside Moscow to make the Russian public finally feel the war while JD Vance begs Kyiv to pull its punches. He closes on the fuel crisis behind it all: a record diesel crack spread, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on why American fracking is the only thing keeping this from being a catastrophe.

TOPICS

Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and why Erick Erickson says the AI CEOs are the evil villains from the movies, with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as the lone exception that knows how to work with a community
The Axios and NRSC memo: data centers polling as popular as nuclear waste, Jon Husted versus Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Shapiro and other Democrats racing to crack down
Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to make data centers pay the community's property taxes, Jason Kelce's Garage Beer water ad, and the Google data center near Erick that is lowering local property taxes
Ukraine's 413th unmanned systems regiment, 600 drones, and the Wildberries warehouse fires meant to make Moscow feel the war, plus JD Vance asking Ukraine to hold its fire and the Middle East allies who took Kyiv's help
Record diesel crack spreads over $100, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, Chris Wright on the Permian Basin, and the fracking fights that look exactly like today's data center fights
Notus on Cory Mills' downfall: Mike Haridopolos quietly recruiting Ryan Elijah while House Republican leadership backed Mills in public

S15 EP147: Hour 3 - Big Pharma is Good Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Moderna and Merck just posted the first successful late stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran paired with Keytruda, cutting the return and spread of high risk melanoma, and Erick Erickson spends the hour singing the praises of Big Pharma and taking apart the conspiracy that drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer. He talks about his wife's stage 4 lung cancer, why a lung transplant was never an option for her, and why the people most certain a cure is being suppressed are the loneliest and most isolated people in America. Then a full turn to the loneliness data: Brad Wilcox on unmarried young men outnumbering married men two to one, Rosaria Butterfield on why your messy house is an excuse and not a reason, and why going to church is the cheapest mental health treatment in the country even if you do not believe.

Moderna, Merck, intismeran and Keytruda: the first late stage win for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, a $50 billion market cap swing, and Merck's Jane Healy on a whole new field of medicine
Why the "Big Pharma is hiding the cure" conspiracy is really about envy, covetousness and isolation, with Erick's account of his wife's incurable lung cancer and the genetic protein behind it
Caller Allen, an oncology pharmacist who worked with Emory, on why cures do not sit on a shelf, how small companies and private equity bring niche drugs to market, and the new mRNA flu vaccine approved under RFK's FDA
Modern monetary theory, grocery prices, Publix milk and beef, and why the answer to a bad economy is not the vice president's plan to dump the dollar as the world's reserve currency
Brad Wilcox, the Institute for Family Studies and "Get Married": unmarried men 20 to 39 up 47 percent, Gen Z and Gen Alpha social trust at record lows, and the COVID isolation hangover
Rosaria Butterfield on hospitality, what Christians could learn from their gay and lesbian neighbors, and the atheist who goes to church every Sunday for the friends
Personal color: Alan Ritchson and season four of Reacher, a kitchen renovation, Sunday nights on the porch, a camera crew coming to film the cinnamon roll recipe, and two hours in the orthodontist chair

S15 EP146: Hour 1 - Judgment Day in Florida; Iran Rearms Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Florida goes to the polls and Erick Erickson makes the case that Republicans should fire Cory Mills in Florida's 7th, where former Orlando news anchor Ryan Elijah is polling ahead of a congressman under investigation for steering contracts plus revenge porn and abuse allegations. He coins "Podcastistan" for the circle of podcasters (Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie, James Fishback) who interview each other about hating the Jews, and asks whether Dan Bilzerian's anti Israel campaign against Randy Fine gets any traction. Then the story almost nobody is covering: the diesel crack has hit a record $102 as Iran hammers refineries and the Strait of Hormuz, Russia is shipping TNT and drone parts across the Caspian, and NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera all report Iran now believes war is inevitable and is weighing a first strike.

Cory Mills versus Ryan Elijah in Florida 7, and why Erick Erickson says the GOP loses the seat in November if Mills survives the primary
Podcastistan: Dan Bilzerian versus Randy Fine, James Fishback for governor, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space lasers and her claim Trump will nuke Iran, plus Byron Donalds cruising
The double standard: Democrats forced out Eric Swalwell (the Fang Fang confession) and Graham Platner, while Trump wrapped his arms around Max Miller in Ohio
Troy Jackson's Maine problem, Donna Brazile calling it salacious gossip, and the fake Dan Sullivan ballot trick in Alaska
The Atlanta Dream, the national anthem, and a mother and daughter in XX XY shirts forced to change while a trans fan got the jumbotron, plus Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and the WNBA subsidy
The diesel crack at a record $102, distillate stockpiles at 1996 lows, Russia rearming Iran across the Caspian, the UAE missile alert, Dana Perino on a communications reset, and Erick's case for striking Iran first and fomenting a civil war there

S15 EP146: Hour 2 - Mississippi's Miracle Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Jon Ossoff dragged Natalie Harp, a bone cancer survivor who lives because Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act, into a campaign speech to imply an affair with the president, and Erick Erickson takes apart the smear and the hyper online staff behind it. He also answers Matt Walsh's claim that postpartum depression is not real, celebrates the Mississippi Miracle that has Mississippi fourth graders number one in the nation in reading and math, and defends Flock license plate cameras while calling for hard prison time for cops who abuse them.

Jon Ossoff, Natalie Harp, the Right to Try Act, and the damage control interview with Jen Psaki on MS Now
Matt Walsh, postpartum depression, Carl Schmitt, JD Vance, and how social media works like the portrait of Dorian Gray
The Mississippi Miracle: phonics, retention, and why Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are copying it
Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and a campaign manager comparing a 1947 Ford F100 at the Woodward Dream Cruise to a Klan rally
Fake polls from Median Strategies on Karen Bass, Bill de Blasio on Medicare for All, and why the Affordable Care Act priced out small business
Flock cameras, the Conyers hit and run arrest, and mandatory minimums for police who abuse the data

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