The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

1. 1
   Number 1: S15 EP151: Hour 1 - El-Sayed's Crash Out

   Erick Erickson takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's disastrous Jesse Watters interview on Fox News, the Hassan Piker problem now swallowing his Michigan Senate campaign, and why the overwhelmingly white Democratic Socialists of America keep recruiting non-white candidates who cannot stop talking. Then the breaking story of the day: CIA Director John Ratcliffe lands unannounced in Moscow after flying in from Riga, and Erick explains why the most pro-Ukraine official in the Trump administration was the one sent to tell Vladimir Putin that NATO is not going anywhere. Plus Target's Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten shutting the door on NFL washouts. Abdul El-Sayed vs. Jesse Watters: circumcision, reparations, ICE, and a Democratic strategist admitting the party likes its odds in Texas better than Michigan The Hassan Piker problem: Politico's playbook lead, El-Sayed's statement on Jewish safety, and his refusal to condemn Piker by name Inside the Democratic Socialists of America: college educated, white, downwardly mobile, and coveting, with intersectionality and allyship as the recruiting tool John Ratcliffe's unannounced Moscow trip, the pause in Ukrainian strikes, and Russia touching the wires like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park across Poland, the Baltics, and Scandinavia Why Putin covets Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus Target's blackface-looking Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten banning NFL players from returning to college

   August 25, 2026·37min
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   Number 2: S15 EP153: Hour 1 - Ratcliffe's Moscow Warning, Latvia Border Emergency, Plus Mike Collins Implodes in Georgia

   CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow to warn Vladimir Putin off any attack on NATO, and hours later Latvia declared a border emergency and sent troops to its frontier with Russia and Belarus. Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal exclusive, the near extinction of America's Patriot missile batteries, and why the Pentagon never told Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to ramp up production. Then a blistering segment on Mike Collins, the Georgia Senate race, and a Republican campaign staffed by white nationalists and Holocaust deniers while John Ossoff cruises. John Ratcliffe in Moscow, the Wall Street Journal exclusive, Steve Witkoff, Dmitry Peskov, and the NATO warning to Vladimir Putin Latvia declares a border emergency as Russia probes the Baltics, with Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden all watching The missile shortfall: Patriot batteries nearly gone, the defense primes never told to ramp up, and Ukraine outproducing all of NATO on drones five million to under one hundred thousand Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea learning how to learn from each other, with Ukraine as the axis test bed Mike Collins, the Nazi twink consultant, the Holocaust denier group chat, and why Erick says the GOP handed John Ossoff a second term Ben Domenech on GOP infighting, plus Ken Paxton, James Talarico, Rick Jackson, and Keisha Lance Bottoms

   August 27, 2026·37min
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   Number 3: S15 EP149: Hour 1 - Newton's Third Law in Society

   Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with Isaac Newton's laws of motion and argues that American politics now runs on the third one: every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, and nothing is left to slow either side down. He reads The Economist's warning that superintelligent AI with legal rights could turn humans into "labradors for the machines," calls it nonsense from Silicon Valley weirdos who do not believe in God and think they can build one, and tells the story of ChatGPT refusing to help him cut a lock off his own office door while Claude just told him where to saw. Then the backlash roll call: the Toronto Tempo's non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot, Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins resigning after 11 years over spiked columns featuring female athletes, the European hunt for everyone who exposed Jason Arday, Flock cameras being chopped down, and the data center revolt. The hour closes with the fiscal argument of the day: with a guaranteed five to six percent return in the government bucket, nobody has a reason to put a dollar in the private sector bucket, which is exactly why Scott Bessent is wrong that we can grow our way out of the debt. Topics: Newton's three laws applied to politics: the AI backlash, the transgender backlash, and why no intervening force exists when both parties profit from the crisis The Economist on giving AI legal rights, humans as pets, and Erick's rebuttal that a large language model is a random probability machine, not a sentient one The Toronto Tempo's Des and Dot, a Borealis blue non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot for a women's league that cannot define a woman Matt Calkins quits the Seattle Times over female student athletes, and the European campaign to fire everyone who exposed Cambridge plagiarist Jason Arday The government bucket versus the private sector bucket: guaranteed returns, bond issuance crowding out private investment, and why Scott Bessent's growth answer does not work Confiscating every American billionaire's $8.3 trillion would fund one year of a $7.4 trillion government, and San Francisco Democrats now oppose California's wealth tax The Republican turn to "the common good," Rush Limbaugh on why you cannot beat the real thing, and the case for shrinking Washington instead Trump's Education Department moves to strip the American Bar Association of law school accreditation power Congress still forces the Federal Reserve to file an annual report on a presidential dollar coin that stopped being minted in 2011

   August 21, 2026·38min
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4. 4
   Number 4: S15 EP146: Hour 1 - Judgment Day in Florida; Iran Rearms

   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

   August 18, 2026·37min
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5. 5
   Number 5: S15 EP149: Hour 2 - Common Sense Economics

   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

   August 21, 2026·38min
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