The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: S15 EP158: Hour 1 - Believing So Much That Is Not So

   Erick opens with a hot dog stand anecdote from New Way Weiners in Macon that matches the polling data: a Trump voter who is not angry, just disappointed, with diesel over six dollars a gallon. He walks through Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal warning that a Trump rally a day in October and an ad blitz built on the president himself will sink Republicans at 39.6 percent approval, then takes apart Joe Rogan's claim that ending poverty would end crime. Also: Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville summit, the vitamin K shot panic, and the death of Gloria Steinem. Karl Rove's midterm warning: make 2026 about the Democrats, not Donald Trump Trump at 39.6 percent approval, the "they/them" ad, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas Joe Rogan's poverty and crime take, and why the data does not back it Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville statement on light touch AI regulation The algorithm versus AI: vitamin K shots, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Gloria Steinem's death

   September 03, 2026·37min
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   Number 2: S15 EP160: Hour 2 - The Diet Coke of Socialists

   Erick Erickson takes apart the Trump administration's draft rule, championed by JD Vance, that would let married couples with a stay at home spouse collect roughly $9,000 per child from a Health and Human Services child care fund built in the 1990s to move single working mothers off welfare. His verdict: it is the Diet Coke of socialism, and you cannot beat the real thing. He walks the $75,000 income cliff, the promotions dad will never take, the marketable skills mom will never rebuild, and offers his own alternative: a $15,000 per child tax deduction with no cap, plus deducting local school property taxes for homeschool and private school families. The New York Times report on the JD Vance child care subsidy, the 870,000 families now on the program, and why redirecting money from single working mothers guts the whole point of 1996 welfare reform Congress never voted on it: Article I Section 8, the Necessary and Proper Clause, US v. Butler, and why judges will probably stop the end run around the legislature The $75,000 hard cap trap: two kids, $18,000 a year, a 10 percent raise dad cannot accept, and a couple stranded at 50 with no promotions and no marketable skills Erick's alternative to turning parents into welfare queens: a $15,000 per child tax deduction through age 18 (21 in college), no cap, plus deducting school property taxes for private and homeschool families Kevin Roberts and the post liberal Heritage Foundation, Lawrence Jones on Fox and Friends, the EBT card nanny state hypocrisy, and Reagan's "a choice, not an echo" Plus the Rams and 49ers flying 15,000 miles for a 10:35 a.m. Friday game in Melbourne, and the NFL's bet on supersonic travel

   September 08, 2026·37min
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   Number 3: S15 EP156: Hour 1 - Amy Coney Barrett Did It Again

   Erick Erickson opens by answering Laura Ingraham's Twitter attack over his Ken Paxton column, then defends Amy Coney Barrett for siding with Clarence Thomas and Donald Trump in the 5 to 4 White House ballroom ruling while tearing apart John Roberts and his "aesthetic injury" dissent. The hour closes on the deadlocked Lindsay Clancy jury in Massachusetts, with Erick and attorney Chad from Montgomery arguing the prosecution overcharged the case and that jurors, not social media, should decide it. Ken Paxton trails James Talarico in Texas, outraised 10 to 1, and Erick answers Laura Ingraham's "never Trumper" attack with the 2020 Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani text messages Amy Coney Barrett sides with Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to let White House ballroom construction continue in National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation John Roberts dissents on "aesthetic injury" standing, and Erick argues the Chief Justice keeps making the Supreme Court more political every time he tries to keep it out of politics Every president since World War II wanted a ballroom: Erick calls it overbuilt and gaudy, but says it is the president's house and the historic preservation crowd has no standing to stop it Lindsay Clancy jury deadlocks after 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits, and Erick refuses to attack the nine women and three men, defending American juries and the insanity and manslaughter questions in play

   September 01, 2026·37min
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4. 4
   Number 4: S15 EP160: Hour 1 - The Cavalry Arrives

   The post Labor Day panic has arrived, and Erick Erickson says the bad news is actually good news. He walks through the Real Clear Politics generic ballot average, Donald Trump's 36 to 39 percent approval, the two point Democratic polling bias, and the Senate map from Ken Paxton in Texas to Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Mike Collins in Georgia. His verdict: Republicans probably lose seats, but there is no blue tsunami coming, and the billion dollars Trump is finally spending changes the math. Why Democrats always peak in summer polling, and why the averages settle after Labor Day Trump approval at 36 percent, the Iran war drag, and the AI worry numbers from Steve Kornacki Ken Paxton, the $10 million Texas rescue ad, and the Republican convention nobody may watch Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and national money pulling out of Georgia over Mike Collins The DSA conference, "the Democrats must be destroyed," and the GOP's 9/11 twenty fifth anniversary messaging opportunity

   September 08, 2026·37min
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   Number 5: S15 EP154: Hour 1 - Trump Renames Lake Ontario to Lake America, Plus Howard Lutnick's Canada Deal Sabotage

   Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday on President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" and asks the obvious question: who exactly is switching their midterm vote over a lake? He then reports the real story behind the Canada trade war, that Jamieson Greer negotiated a deal both sides liked before Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sabotaged it over French language packaging, and warns it could cost Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan. Plus Trump's Arthur Schlesinger presidential rankings blunder, the data center backlash to the backlash, and 200,000 Chinese accounts shut down on Twitter. Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, why no president should have that power, and the Iroquoian history of the name Jamieson Greer's Canada deal, Howard Lutnick's last minute sabotage, and the House and Senate races the trade war could sink Inside the White House: worry about a lame duck president, a Congress with no reconciliation message, and life after the midterms Trump's Truth Social presidential rankings, actually a 1940s Arthur Schlesinger Sr. list, with Woodrow Wilson "great" and Ulysses S. Grant a "failure" Data centers, unions like Steamfitters Local 602 breaking with Democrats over jobs, Greg Abbott's new ad, and China's 200,000 fake Twitter accounts Personal: Erick's daughter Evelyn turns 21, born the night Hurricane Katrina hit, and his AJC column on bringing back mental institutions

   August 28, 2026·37min
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