The Erick Erickson Show

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S15 EP169: Hour 2 - Iran Owns the World's Choke Points Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

Oil slips under $100 a barrel on talk of negotiations, but Erick Erickson argues the Iran story is Groundhog Day: the extremist faction now running Tehran has no interest in talking, is rebuilding its missile shield with Chinese technology, and is betting it can outlast Donald Trump until Democratic socialists gut the war. He walks the map of the world's great choke points, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal, explains how the Houthi seizure of Perim Island closes the Red Sea, and makes a blunt proposal: buy drones from Ukraine, which will build over 5 million this year while America builds fewer than 100,000, and finish the job. Then a Cobb County mother named Harper calls with the story of a straight-A middle schooler who drowned in honors classes, and Erick returns to his most radical idea, abolishing public schools altogether.

Iran's extremist faction consolidates power, pushes out its own president, and rebuilds its missile shield with Chinese help while Marco Rubio's warning looks prescient
The choke point map: Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, Perim Island, the Strait of Malacca, the Singapore Strait and the Suez Canal, plus Brad Thor's new book Choke Point
Why the Saudis and Emiratis cannot fight the Houthi themselves, and the Cold War era security guarantee that keeps Gulf militaries small
Buy Ukrainian drones: Ukraine builds over 5 million, all of NATO under 500,000, the United States fewer than 100,000, and the Flamingo missile strikes on Moscow
Harper in East Cobb, the honors class gap, Mississippi outperforming California and New York, and Erick's case for one room schoolhouses, classical Christian education and abolishing public schools

S15 EP169: Hour 3 - A 9/11 Father Confronts Abdul El-Sayed Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson plays a new Great Lakes PAC ad in which David Beamer, father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, confronts Abdul El-Sayed over his refusal to disavow Hassan Piker's claim that America deserved 9/11, and calls it one of the most powerful spots of the cycle. Before that, a full teach-in on vertical and horizontal federalism and the case every American should be watching, Suncor Energy v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, where Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers is fighting a Colorado theory that would let one county regulate emissions produced anywhere on earth. Then Lincoln Public Schools, where the district quietly hired an LGBTQ+ advocate with a Luigi Mangione shirt while only 55 percent of its third graders read at grade level.

Vertical and horizontal federalism explained: Article I Section 8, the plenary police power of the states, why Washington could not lock down your state during COVID, and Erick's case for repealing the Seventeenth Amendment
Suncor Energy v. Boulder County at the Supreme Court: Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, Exxon Mobil, more than 30 climate liability suits from California, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota and New York, and a Colorado dissent warning that Boulder now acts as its own republic
The Michael Bloomberg funded State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at NYU Law shuts down under congressional scrutiny after placing climate fellows inside Democratic attorneys general offices
David Beamer, Todd Beamer and Flight 93 versus Abdul El-Sayed and Hassan Piker in the Great Lakes PAC ad, plus Erick on the week's critics who answered his column with insults instead of rebuttals
Lincoln Public Schools hires an LGBTQ+ advocate alongside a Latinx student advocate while third grade proficiency sits at 55 percent, and Erick's case that indoctrination has replaced instruction

S15 EP168: Hour 1 - The Trans Vibe Shift Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with the Democratic pivot nobody expected: Lindsay James running ads on girls sports in Iowa's second district, James Talarico backing off in Texas, and Democrats all over the map fleeing open borders and defund the police with forty days left before the midterms. Then a caller on the Lindsay Clancy mistrial sets Erick off, and he makes the case that the lone Haitian American juror who refused to be browbeaten is the hero of the whole story. Plus the real driver behind gas prices at the pump, why Ken Paxton still has a path in Texas while Republicans quietly pull money out of Georgia, and Erick's Sunday debut on ABC's This Week with Donna Brazile and Frank Luntz.

The Democratic pivot on 80/20 issues: Lindsay James in Iowa, James Talarico in Texas, and the sleight of hand hiding inside "boys should not be in girls sports"
Why the polling may be wrong again: the "who do you think will win" metric, Sean Trende, and the 2014 Pat Roberts lesson in Kansas
The Lindsay Clancy mistrial: juror anonymity, the harassment of the lone holdout, and jurors who wanted to send a message about postpartum instead of reaching a verdict
Diesel, not crude, is driving gas prices: the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi supply, Brent at 103, and the coming hit to groceries and Northeast heating oil
Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, Mike Collins versus Jon Ossoff in Georgia, and where the national money is quietly going

S15 EP168: Hour 2 - The Lost Years and Broken Brains Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson spends the back half of Open Line Friday on two collapses. Nike, the company named for the Greek goddess of victory, has been dropped from the S&P 100 after almost 18 years, having wiped out more than 200 billion dollars in market value since its 2021 peak, and Kylian Mbappe just walked away to On, the Swiss brand that hired Thierry Henry to run its entry into soccer. Erick argues the Colin Kaepernick lectures and the direct to consumer gamble did the damage the business press will not name, then turns to a New York Times guest essay arguing the University of California should stay away from the SAT, which sets up his case that poor black kids in Mississippi are out reading and out scoring rich kids in California.

TOPICS

Nike drops out of the S&P 100 after 18 years: more than 200 billion dollars in market cap gone since November 2021, Greater China sales down 17 percent, and CEO Elliott Hill trying to rebuild the wholesale relationships the company burned
Kylian Mbappe leaves Nike for On, the Swiss sportswear brand that brought in Thierry Henry as director of football, and what Colin Kaepernick, the ad strategy and the direct to consumer pivot cost the brand
The New York Times guest essay by Miriam Pawel on why the University of California should not bring back the SAT, and the sentence Erick cannot get past: students who struggle with basic math but graduate at record rates
Why Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana are beating California on reading and math scores: phonics, accountability, and the teachers unions that pushed whole word curriculum instead
Open Line Friday callers on oil and impeachment: why America pumps more crude than anybody on earth but refines heavy crude instead of sweet crude, and why we cannot decouple from the global price

S15 EP168: Hour 3 - The Racists Trying to Take Over Both Parties Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the fight that earned him death threats this week. He plays Hassan Piker telling Axios the Middle East would be more stable with an Iranian nuclear weapon, watches Jake Tapper and Abby Phillip try to make Tucker Carlson the right wing mirror image of a man Tucker just endorsed in Michigan, and then walks through Charles Haywood, the shampoo millionaire whose foundationalist manifesto, praise for Francisco Franco and whites only Society of American Civic Renewal are quietly buying their way into conservative boards and church bodies. Then breaking news from the Department of Justice: the federal ban on handgun sales to 18 to 20 year olds is unconstitutional and will no longer be enforced. Plus F-35 stealth components that disappeared into Hong Kong, and callers on assimilation, refineries and six dollar diesel.

Hassan Piker on Axios saying Iran has a right to nuclear weapons and citing John Mearsheimer, why Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers make Michigan the test case, and Jason Crow refusing to say whether he would campaign with him
Abby Phillip and Scott Jennings on CNN, and why calling Tucker Carlson the right wing Hassan Piker misses that Carlson has endorsed El-Sayed and wants Donald Trump impeached
Charles Haywood, American Reformer, the Center for Baptist Leadership and the Society of American Civic Renewal: the foundationalist manifesto, the praise for Thomas Rousseau and the Patriot Front, and Chris Rufo's "no enemies to the right" debate
Breaking: the Office of Legal Counsel finds 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) inconsistent with Heller and New York State Rifle and Pistol Association versus Bruen, so DOJ will stop enforcing the handgun ban on 18 to 20 year olds
F-35 canopy and stealth components bound for repair were rerouted from Australia to Hong Kong, Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon briefed Capitol Hill in June, and the parts have never been found
Callers on the melting pot versus the salad bowl, Lee Zeldin at EPA unwinding refinery regulations, sweet crude versus sour crude, and diesel at $6.25 against an inflation adjusted $3.59 at the peak of the 1979 crisis

S15 EP167: Hour 1 - The Left's Hatred of America Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson opens on the Axios interview in which Twitch streamer Hasan Piker says the United States is worse than Al Qaeda pound for pound, and traces how Democrats built Piker into their answer to Joe Rogan before trying to walk it back. He ties Piker to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who deflects criticism of Sharia law as white supremacy and argues breast cancer research is overfunded because of white privilege, and to Michigan congressional nominee William Lawrence, who wants to abolish single family homes and heterosexual marriage. Then Erick turns the same spotlight on his own side, calling for the Republican Party to purge the white nationalists and Nazi sympathizers before independent voters decide both parties are crazy.

Hasan Piker tells Axios that America has caused more terror than Al Qaeda, while the Democrats who elevated him into fawning New York Times and Vanity Fair profiles now claim he is just a live streamer
Abdul El-Sayed on Sharia law, white privilege and breast cancer research, with Senator John Kennedy calling him a socialist and Mark Short pushing back on Karen Finney's racism defense
William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in Michigan 7, wants to abolish single family homes and heterosexual marriage to break what he calls the heteronormative patriarchy
Maria Elvira Salazar runs a Spanish language ad in a Trump plus 15 Florida district breaking with the president on immigration enforcement, the real red flag for the GOP midterms
Harry Enten's polling math on a two to four point Republican polling miss, JD Vance's "the other party is consumed by craziness" message, and Erick's call to purge the Charles Haywood white nationalists from the right

S15 EP167: Hour 2 - The Crisis Arrives Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson devotes the hour to Greta Gerwig's new Chronicles of Narnia, beginning with The Magician's Nephew, and the decision to have Meryl Streep voice Aslan. He walks through why Aslan is C.S. Lewis's Christ figure, from the stone table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, and argues that one small change guts the entire Christian allegory even if the movie sells tickets. He also defends Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey against critics on the right, and closes with a personal tribute to Dauvey Eisner.

Greta Gerwig's Chronicles of Narnia reboot starts with The Magician's Nephew, and Meryl Streep voices a female Aslan, which Erick calls missing the point out of the gate
Why Aslan cannot be female: the stone table, the resurrection at sunrise, the torn temple curtain parallel, and the line where Aslan tells the Pevensie children he has another name in their world
C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Oxford pub, Mere Christianity, and how Tolkien brought Lewis to Christianity but only as far as Anglicanism
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey defended: not a feminist translation, not an immigration parable, but Christian allegory about the West abandoning the golden rule
A tribute to Dauvey Eisner, the Jewish convert to Catholicism who championed the poor, the disabled and the pressured to accept euthanasia, and who encouraged Erick for years before Erick ever knew he used a wheelchair and a ventilator

S15 EP167: Hour 3 - Massie Calls Gaza a Genocide Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson turns his equal opportunity offending on the left, taking apart Congressman Thomas Massie's House floor claim that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, and arguing that what happened was a war Hamas started on October 7th, not a genocide. He walks through the New York Times piece on Israel viewing itself as a victim, the Macklemore antisemitism fight that got the rapper booted from Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium and left Ed Sheeran's tour in limbo, and the Ms. Rachel YouTube backlash, then makes the theological argument that antisemitism comes from the devil and that no Christian can hate the Jews. He closes the hour on Constitution Day with a defense of compromise, federalism and gridlock, plus breaking news on a proposed U.S. Army base in Poland and Marco Rubio's new round of Cuba sanctions.

Thomas Massie's genocide claim on the House floor, and Erick's argument that Massie let his critics radicalize him into contrarianism and antisemitism after 2016
Why there was no genocide in Gaza: October 7th, the murder and torture of Israelis, Israel's warnings before entering Hamas strongholds, and the Hamas leadership that stole food from its own people
Macklemore dropped by Gillette Stadium and Robert Kraft over antisemitic stage material, performers walking out on Ed Sheeran, and the Ms. Rachel indoctrination backlash
Antisemitism as sin: Christ was a Jew, not a Palestinian, and Erick's Calvinist framing that to hate any race is to be of the world and not of God, aimed at the Nazis on the right as much as the progressives on the left
Constitution Day, September 17, 1787: the three fifths compromise, the great compromise, Article I and the power of the purse, Yuval Levin's American Covenant and Casey Mattox on Federalist 10, the Lindsey Graham Russia sanctions bill, the Loper Bright ruling on Chevron, and why gridlock is a feature and not a bug
Breaking news: a forward operating U.S. Army base in Poland with President Karol Nawrocki, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioning 11 more Cuban entities over nickel and military capability under Executive Order 14404

S15 EP166: Hour 1 - The Midwest Fuhrerbunker Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Erick names the names. He walks through his newsletter on Charles Haywood, the shampoo magnate turned self described would be warlord whose money runs through the Claremont Institute, the Society for American Civic Renewal, American Reformer, New Founding and American Moment, and who is funding a push into the Southern Baptist Convention, the PCA and the Global Methodist Church. Then the economy turns ugly: oil over $100 a barrel, diesel near $6.22 a gallon, and a Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh widely expected to raise interest rates.

Charles Haywood, the "foundationalist manifesto," and the call for an American Caesar
Claremont Institute money, the Society for American Civic Renewal, Nate Fisher, American Reformer, William Wolfe and the Center for Baptist Leadership
Carl Schmitt's friend and enemy politics, the twisting of "love your enemies," and the "no enemies to the right" doctrine
Bo French, Jack Posobiec and Benny Johnson attacking Indian American kids in Texas, and why it is racism
Oil over $100, diesel near $6.22, the Strait of Hormuz, Patriot and THAAD interceptor burn rates, and an expected Fed rate hike
A caller on energy independence: why America exports record oil but cannot refine its own sweet crude

S15 EP166: Hour 2 - Rick Jackson's Ad Campaign Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Erick breaks down the numbers in the Georgia governor race, where Republican Rick Jackson has reserved $40.5 million in ad time against Keisha Lance Bottoms and her $42,000, and calls Jackson's foster care and Atlanta riot spots the best political ads of the cycle. Then to Michigan, where Mike Rogers is sitting on opposition research that has Abdul El-Sayed in his own words saying the government overfunds breast cancer research, and to Texas and Florida, where James Talarico and Angie Nixon are handing Republicans the tape. Plus callers on Iran's enriched uranium buried under Pickaxe Mountain, why America cannot refine its own sweet crude, and Saudi Arabia firing a Chinese made Dongfeng missile in Yemen.

Rick Jackson's $40.5 million ad reservation versus Keisha Lance Bottoms' $42,000, and why the Georgia governor race is not close on money
Why Jackson's positive foster care ads let his negative Atlanta riot ads land without raising his own negatives
Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and the coming breast cancer research attack aimed at Michigan's white women voters
James Talarico's AI generated attack ads in Texas versus Florida Republicans simply rolling tape on Angie Nixon and David Jolly's money problem
Iran's enriched uranium under Pickaxe Mountain, Kharg Island, the Bab al-Mandab choke point, and Brad Thor's "Choke Point"
Sports betting's spread through ESPN and golf, the 59 percent checking account gap, and Sydney Sweeney's newest ad controversy

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