The Wake Up America Show with Austin Petersen

New SNAP restrictions put soda, candy, energy drinks, and the government's definition of junk food at the center of a grocery-store fight. Austin opens with JD Vance's $120,000 chicken coop and America's backyard-hen boom. John Tamny of RealClearMarkets argues that Social Security is not the cause of the national debt and challenges the conventional case for entitlement reform. Then Joseph Wargo of the John Birch Society examines Greg Bovino's claim that 100 million illegal immigrants are in the United States, the assumptions behind that number, birthright citizenship, public safety, and economic pressure. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Donald Trump says communities that reject data centers risk becoming 'backwards and poor.' Austin examines the fight over power demand, local consent, tax revenue, China, and whether America can build the infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence. Camellia Peterson joins the conversation on parenting culture, TikTok mothers, public shaming, and local politics. Then Russ Greene explains why libertarians and MAGA voters are turning against data centers, how surveillance fears get mixed into the debate, and why opposition to energy and industrial growth could leave the country behind. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Homeland Security says Milo Yiannopoulos entered the United States legally, missed an immigration hearing, received a final removal order, and was sent back to Britain. Austin traces the political provocateur's rise through Gamergate, Breitbart, and Berkeley, then asks Tennessee Star reporter Tom Pappert whether the fast removal was routine enforcement, political revenge, or both. The episode also examines Hollywood's expensive culture-war hangover, including Disney's Snow White losses and whether audiences—not studios—get the final vote. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Gen Z has a list of Millennial habits it wants retired, from skinny jeans and side parts to LOL, Facebook Messenger, statement jewelry, and dial-up nostalgia. Austin and his cohost decide which critiques land and which can be ignored. The show also remembers Dolly Parton's humor, Appalachian roots, philanthropy, and Imagination Library legacy. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Bill Gates has issued a 5,784-word warning about artificial intelligence, and Austin examines Gates's proposals on employment, safety, regulation, and global coordination alongside the disturbing rise of autonomous AI agents. Missouri attorney Jennifer Bukowsky joins to challenge Boone County's attempt to regulate a grandmother's free community breakfasts. Jon Harris breaks down the right-wing backlash over interracial adoption and explains how Christianity, masculinity, family identity, virtue, and liberty fit together. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Austin examines the property-rights fight over a West Virginia city's attempt to outlaw backyard bees, then asks how Target's blackface-adjacent Halloween costume survived an entire corporate approval chain. Judge Andrew Napolitano joins to break down Texas classroom Ten Commandments mandates, Supreme Court precedent, religious liberty, and government-compelled displays. Daniel McCarthy explains Hasan Piker's mockery of Charlie Kirk, the Democratic candidates who use Piker's platform, and what political streaming reveals about the American left. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Artificial intelligence is moving software creation out of the gatekeepers' hands and into everyday life. Austin shows how vibe coding can build websites, automate work, create images, and even turn an idea into a physical object. Camellia Peterson joins to debate marijuana smoke, neighbors, nuisance rules, and where one person's freedom collides with another person's property rights. Jon Miltimore examines J.D. Vance's invocation of Huey Long, the rise of economic populism, wealth redistribution, inflation, federal spending, and Washington's shrinking appetite for reform. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Cambridge professor Jason Arday's sudden death followed a rapid unraveling of plagiarism allegations, institutional loyalty, and a university DEI success story. Austin examines what Cambridge knew, how critics were treated, and the dispute over race, merit, and academic standards. Jon Miltimore joins to explain why J.D. Vance invoked Huey Long and to debate wealth caps, UBI, work, and opportunity. Dylan Allman takes up Anna Faris, Christian conversion, whether atheism is a luxury belief, and his book The Windowless Room. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Wake Up America turns personal on Freedom Family Friday. Austin and Stephanie Petersen share their baby's gender reveal and the name they chose, then take on the Lindsay Clancy case through Stephanie's perspective as a social worker and mother. They debate postpartum depression and psychosis, medication, personal responsibility, how life changes for both mothers and fathers after childbirth, and why class and social media shape public sympathy. Justin Petersen joins the family conversation in the second half. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new audio episode lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

GLP-1 drugs are doing more than shrinking waistlines. Austin Petersen examines Ozempic pricing, possible side effects, and how food manufacturers are redesigning portions, protein, and marketing for smaller appetites. He also follows the money behind Disney Adults and what the craze says about debt, nostalgia, and delayed adulthood. Camellia Peterson joins live from the Missouri State Fair for a look at state politics and the Lindsay Clancy case, including postpartum psychosis, treatment failures, and personal responsibility. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new audio edition lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Barry Goldwater is often reduced to a caricature. Austin Petersen revisits Goldwater's record on desegregation, civil rights, constitutional limits, and the case for reviving his strain of Republicanism. Judge Andrew Napolitano joins to discuss meeting Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, then explains how ICE uses administrative subpoenas to identify online critics and where the legal limits stand. Tom Pappert of The Tennessee Star details the three-year court fight over the Covenant School records and the institutional failures those files may expose. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new audio edition lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

The Lindsay Clancy murder case raises a difficult divide: how should the law weigh psychiatric warnings, postpartum psychosis, treatment failures, and personal responsibility? Austin Petersen walks through the case and the competing arguments. Camellia Peterson then examines the McKenna West surrogacy dispute after West refused an abortion request and traveled to Texas. Finally, Reason contributing editor J.D. Tuccille explains a Texas court ruling that could upend federal suppressor registration—and the important limits on what the decision changes today. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new audio edition lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Alberta voters are headed toward an October 19 ballot that could begin the legal path to a binding independence referendum. Austin Petersen breaks down the verified petition signatures, Alberta's economic leverage, and the argument for becoming a new country—or even joining the United States. Economist Phil Magness then challenges JD Vance's case against the dollar's reserve-currency status and explains why federal spending, not King Dollar, is the deeper problem. Finally, Sam Brown explains how assassination conspiracy claims pushed him to reexamine his anti-Israel views, visit Israel, and publicly call himself a Zionist. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so every new audio edition lands in your feed. Watch the full video.

Austin Petersen and Steffi Petersen open with a blunt debate over parenting, public shame, and modesty before turning to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's decision to freeze her eggs and what it says about relationships, ambition, and family planning. Then they unpack fast-food workers' confessions about the menu items they would never order themselves—from kitchen shortcuts and nightmare customers to the McRib, buffets, and Golden Corral. This focused Wake Up America audio edition removes the livestream ad break, visual-only material, shop demonstration, member pitch, and closing housekeeping. Listen now and tap Follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting in your feed. Watch the complete video.

Austin Petersen breaks down the WNBA fight that followed DiJonai Carrington's flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham—including the ‘white privilege' accusation, Caitlin Clark's impact, player safety, and a league struggling to turn attention into growth. Camellia Peterson then joins Austin for a pointed debate over Massachusetts' new abortion law after Dobbs. New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming closes the edition with her analysis of Cunningham, Carrington, Caitlin Clark, and the WNBA's activist culture. This focused Wake Up America audio edition removes livestream setup, commercials, visual-only material, and post-show housekeeping. Listen now and tap Follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so tomorrow's edition is waiting in your feed. Watch the complete video.

Austin Petersen confronts his own 2016 presidential-debate positions on Donald Trump, immigration, government, education, and foreign policy—and explains what changed. Judge Andrew Napolitano then breaks down how Flock license-plate cameras enable warrantless mass surveillance and why the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent it. Erika Donalds closes the edition with a practical argument for rebuilding patriotism, civic education, parental rights, and school choice. This commute-friendly Wake Up America audio edition removes livestream setup, commercials, shop pitches, visual-only material, and repeated filler. Listen now and tap Follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so tomorrow's edition is waiting in your feed. Watch the complete video.

Canada now records roughly one in twenty deaths through medical assistance in dying, and Austin argues that a program sold for the terminally ill has expanded toward disability, poverty, loneliness, and mental illness. Camellia Peterson of Americans for Prosperity-Missouri joins the show on America's reading decline, whole books disappearing from classrooms, literature for boys, and why reading and handwriting still matter. Then Tim Golding of Michigan AFP explains Abdul El-Sayed's socialist agenda, why Republicans lost their edge on the economy, and the case for education, energy, and regulatory reform. This commute-friendly Wake Up America audio edition removes livestream setup, commercials, visual-only material, donation mechanics, and repeated filler. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting for you. Watch the complete video.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filmed herself taking an egg-freezing injection and called it resistance. Austin examines what the spectacle says about delayed family formation and demographic politics. Tom Pappert of The Tennessee Star joins the conversation on AOC, Abdul El-Sayed, socialism, and the Democratic Party's hard-left turn. Then Jeremy Kauffman debates the twenty-dollar burrito, food affordability, inflation, welfare, and whether the right still believes in free markets. This commute-friendly Wake Up America audio edition removes livestream setup, commercials, donation mechanics, and repeated filler. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting for you. Watch the complete video.

Austin opens with the story of a woman detained by ICE while trying to renew her immigration status, then turns to the day's most combustible question: when does fear of a dog breed become an unfair stereotype? Joe Trotter joins the discussion on immigration, citizenship, household surveillance, robot vacuums, and AI. The audio edition also gets into pregnancy energy gels, supply chains, and why seemingly ordinary products become part of larger political arguments. This is the commute-friendly audio edition of Wake Up America: the strongest parts of the live show, with stream setup, visual-only breaks, donation mechanics, trivia, and repeated filler removed. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting for you.

A growing number of young workers are bringing parents into job interviews, salary talks, workplace conflicts, and even calls to the boss. Austin Petersen digs into helicopter parenting, Gen Z's struggle with independence, and what employers say is happening in the workplace. He also examines a major campus free-speech survey and the widening tolerance gap between students. Camilia Peterson joins the show to explain why Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected an income-tax phaseout, how unions and ballot language shaped the result, and whether reformers will try again. This commute-friendly audio edition removes stream setup, visual-only material, sales pitches, bonus-content mechanics, and breaks. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting for you.

Judge Andrew Napolitano joins Austin Petersen for a sharp disagreement over President Trump's war in Iran, constitutional war powers, Israel, and how both parties change their principles when control of the White House changes. Austin also examines proposed restrictions on high-caffeine energy drinks and the Democratic Party's effort to win back religious voters. Megan Novak of Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin closes the edition with a look at Francesca Hong, the governor's race, taxes, energy policy, and the stakes for Wisconsin families. This commute-friendly audio edition removes stream setup, visual-only material, sales pitches, bonus-content mechanics, breaks, and trivia. Follow Wake Up America on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next edition is waiting for you.

ARE YOU RACIST FOR NOT LIKING PIT BULLS? Actor Jon Bernthal says being afraid of pit bulls is “dog racism”—the same as judging someone by race or sexual orientation. Austin breaks down why that comparison collapses, what the attack data shows and why parents should not be shamed for recognizing breed-specific risk. Then we examine a quieter national crisis: Americans are speaking thousands fewer words than they did two decades ago as smartphones, self-checkout lanes, remote work and app-based life replace ordinary human contact. Camellia Peterson joins us ahead of Missouri's August 4 vote on Amendment Five, a proposal to phase out the state income tax and prevent future lawmakers from restoring it. We debate the “everything tax” argument, its impact on seniors and working families, and what voters need to know before heading to the polls. Finally, United States Cattlemen's Association President Justin Tupper explains why the American cattle herd has fallen to its lowest level since 1951 and what that means for ranchers and beef prices.

THE PROBLEM WITH MISS RACHEL There is a difference between a free people and a managed people, and this week handed us four proof points. We start with the children's entertainer who spent her nursery trust on a democratic socialist slate three days before a Missouri primary. We get into the retirement promise being canceled in slow motion while the next generation walks into a job market the machines are already hollowing out. We walk you through the New York tax that turned into a searchable list of nearly a million homes, and the progressive professor who cheered it right up until his own name showed up on it. And we bring in a philosopher who has watched Europe forget how to defend a sentence and a border in the same week. A free people own what they earn, speak without asking permission, guard their own doorstep, and leave their children a country. We spend the hour making that case.

PSYCHO-THERAPISTS WANT YOUR KIDS TO CUT YOU OFF This week we walk through a culture that keeps handing the most intimate parts of life to somebody else. We start with the "CEO parents" spending a quarter million a year on nannies, chefs, and potty-training consultants so they never have to clip a toenail, then jump to the Big Law partner whose ten-second park-bench kiss with a younger associate cost him tens of millions after a stranger's phone did the rest. We dig into the therapists coaching grown adults to go no-contact with their parents and the researchers calling it a family-wrecking racket, we meet the burned-out singles letting a spreadsheet decide whether their date went well, and then we clear the palate with an Australian mom who beat one-in-fifteen-million odds to deliver healthy identical quadruplets. We close in our own backyard, where the Bloodstained Men brought their anti-circumcision protest to a Jefferson City street corner, and we lay out the whole fight — consent, medicine, religious liberty, and where persuasion ends and the state has no business going.

⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open: Fauci Pleads the Fifth 0:30 Good Morning, Rise & Freedom — Today's Rundown 5:29 X Money: Elon Musk's FDIC-Insured Card Arrives 8:55 The Airline Card Racket: Delta's $9 Billion Amex Deal 11:41 Chase Sapphire's 100,000-Point Bonus & the $5,000 Leash 13:27 $895 Annual Fees: When a Premium Card Actually Pays 15:34 Shrinking Sky Club Access & the Pay-In-Full Rule 16:31 Who Really Pays for the Points? $1.25 Trillion in Card Debt 18:01 Swipe Fees & Harvard's $9 Billion Rewards Transfer 22:05 Break — Made in America 3D-Printed Gear 30:08 The Day the Smithsonian Told Austin to Put His Flag Away 34:14 Trump's Executive Order: Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian 35:58 Anthea Hartig & "History as a Prime Tool of Social Justice" 38:17 Clinton Alum William Galston: "Trump Has a Point" 39:27 Whoever Holds the Pen — A Libertarian Warning 41:35 From Nixon-Maxing to Goldwater-Maxing 42:33 The Goldwater Revival Starts Now + Ayn Rand's "Hippies of the Right" 44:48 Conscience of a Conservative: Where to Start With Goldwater 46:45 Break 55:09 GUEST: Camellia Peterson, Americans for Prosperity 55:55 Daniel Boone Regional Library Story Time & the Funding Threat 1:03:45 Missouri Amendments 4 & 5: Undoing the 2022 Sales Tax Freeze 1:17:53 Camellia's Goldwater Quote & Goodbye 1:23:14 Welcome Back — Six Live Shows on the For Liberty Network 1:23:52 GUEST: Tom Pappert, Tennessee Star — Month Five of the Iran War 1:25:25 Rockets on the Strait of Hormuz & Gas Prices 1:27:34 Caskets, Squeamish Voters & War Powers in Congress 1:29:29 Marjorie Taylor Greene's "MIGA" — Is America First Still America First? 1:34:31 The Strait Reopens: What Iran Actually Lost 1:41:07 Wrap-Up — 4LibertyNetwork.com & the Goldwater Revival TRUMP TAKES A SHOT AT THE WOKE SMITHSONIAN President Trump is taking aim at the Smithsonian—and Austin has firsthand experience with the institution's ideological capture. Last year, a security guard inside the National Museum of American History told Austin to lower a handheld American flag because “some people find it offensive.” Now Trump is ordering warning signs outside that same museum, and even a former Clinton White House official admits the president has a point. We break down how activism replaced history inside America's taxpayer-funded museums and whether a government warning label is the right solution. Then we expose the billion-dollar credit-card rewards machine, the spending traps hiding behind massive sign-up bonuses and why “free” airline perks are never actually free. Camellia Peterson joins us to debate Missouri officials threatening to withhold funding from the Daniel Boone Regional Library over a controversial story time. And journalist Tom Pappert confronts the widening divide inside the America First movement over the unauthorized war with Iran.

⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open: "No Justice, No Peace" 0:28 Welcome to Wake Up America — Five Years After "Trust the Science" 2:25 Today's Rundown: Ed Sheeran, the Fauci Files & Flock Cameras 4:55 Ed Sheeran Tells America to Relax About Six Pints 9:19 What the WHO Numbers Actually Say About Drinking 11:55 Industry Pamphlet vs. Government Chart — Who Do You Trust? 15:55 Whiskey, Cruise Ships & a Bottle Through Customs 17:55 Top Shelf vs. Bottom Shelf: Who's Still Buying Booze 21:55 Break — Coming Up: The Trial of Anthony Fauci 29:25 Rand Paul's Opening Statement: The Fauci Files 33:55 1,100 Pages: Private Doubt, Public Certainty 35:55 The DEFUSE Proposal & the Furin Cleavage Site 37:55 Did NIH Supervise the Research? "The Answer Is No" 39:55 "The Refusal to Admit Error Destroys Trust" 41:55 Austin Reacts: The "Fauci 5" & Fauci on Trump 43:55 Gain-of-Function & Wuhan: Where the Evidence Stands 49:55 Fauci's Own Statement: 38 Years Running NIAID 51:55 Fauci Invokes the Fifth Amendment 53:55 Section 192: The Contempt of Congress Warning 59:02 GUEST: Judge Andrew Napolitano, Judging Freedom 59:55 Can You Reject a Pardon? Pardons vs. the Fifth 1:01:55 Presidents Telling the DOJ Who to Prosecute 1:11:55 Todd Blanche's Confirmation & Prosecutorial Independence 1:13:55 "Take a Chainsaw to It" — The Flock Camera Clip 1:15:55 Congress, the Strikes & Who Owes Accountability 1:19:55 VAERS: 1.7 Million Adverse Events on the Record 1:21:46 Mini-Documentary: Nathan Hale 1:29:02 GUEST: Jack Codiga, Congressional Candidate From Charlotte 1:30:59 North Carolina Made Flock Get a License — Why That Matters 1:33:58 Guns, Principle & Filming the Camera on His Own Street 1:35:55 Charlotte Housing Prices & What Broke for Young Americans 1:42:36 Assimilation, Inherent Value & Closing Questions 1:47:59 Wrap-Up & New Sponsor Disclosure 1:52:11 Mini-Documentary: Nathan Hale (Full) THE FAUCI FILES JUST DROPPED Rand Paul just released more than 1,100 pages of Anthony Fauci's pandemic diary—and the man who told America to trust the science apparently spent plenty of time documenting his own fame. We break down the “Fauci 5,” the celebrity encounters, the private warnings about a possible engineered virus, and the questions Fauci now faces under subpoena. Then we get into Ed Sheeran's viral defense of British drinking culture, the federal government quietly abandoning its old drink limits, and why the real difference between a Friday night and a drinking problem cannot be calculated on a government chart. Judge Andrew Napolitano joins us to explain why Donald Trump's former personal attorney should not be placed in charge of the entire Justice Department. And congressional candidate Jack Codiga exposes the Flock cameras quietly recording where innocent Americans drive.

⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open: Trump on Jobs + RFK Jr.'s "Real Food" 0:54 Good Morning — Today's Rundown 6:00 Tour of the New 4LibertyNetwork.com 8:20 The Central Park Kissing Video & the Internet Manhunt 9:38 What the Comment Section Got Wrong About Two Strangers 12:38 Is Filming Strangers Legal? Reasonable Expectation of Privacy 13:34 Why This Isn't the Coldplay Concert Story 16:09 Making Out in Central Park: A New York Tradition 17:58 The Record-Low 1.6 Fertility Rate Connection 19:09 Bars, Nightclubs & the Death of the Third Place 21:33 If Every Bench Is a Broadcast, What Happens to Public Life? 25:02 Break — Up Next: The Civilian Marksmanship Program 33:07 Half a Million M14s Fed Into the Shredder 33:34 The CMP Announcement: M14s Finally Come Home 34:44 What the M14 Actually Is (Standard Issue, 1957) 36:26 The Same Statute That Governs the Garand & 1903 Springfield 37:59 Why Supply Will Be Tight: 5 Million Garands vs. Scarce M14s 40:28 M14 vs. Springfield M1A: The Receiver Difference 41:47 Not a Functional Gap — a Provenance Gap 42:04 Price Talk: $4,000-$6,000 and a Likely Lottery 43:25 The Maryland & Rhode Island Federalism Wrinkle 44:34 How to Qualify: Gun Clubs, the VFW, the Legion & the FOP 49:18 CMP History: From Teddy Roosevelt to Today 52:20 Up Next: Kansas City's Bid Preference Program 59:26 GUEST: Camellia Peterson, Americans for Prosperity-Missouri 1:00:31 Kansas City Paid for the Study, Then Buried It 1:02:32 Race & Gender Preferences in City Contracts 1:04:42 The Baker Who Says the Program Is All She Has 1:07:20 Countdown to the Missouri Primary 1:08:53 Amendment 4 Explained 1:12:04 Staying Grounded Without Getting Blackpilled 1:23:28 Welcome Back — Rise & Freedom 1:24:49 GUEST: Maggie Modas on What Gen Z Saw in That Video 1:28:00 Why Nobody Can Get a Date Anymore 1:30:00 Alcohol, Risk & Learning to Talk to Strangers 1:34:00 Raising Kids in NYC & School Indoctrination 1:36:00 The Cato Survey: Gen Z Can't Name Why We Left Britain 1:38:00 Public School in Louisiana: What She Walked Into 1:42:00 Teachers as Untouchables — Should Republicans Fight? 1:44:00 America's 250th: Did We Do It Justice? 1:48:05 Starship Troopers: Satire That Became a Recruitment Ad 1:51:45 Mini-Documentary: Mercy Otis Warren THE CMP IS SELLING M14's Today we're celebrating a real win for gun owners. The Civilian Marksmanship Program is bringing the M14 home, and we walk through what kept these American service rifles locked away for thirty years, why that barrier was never actually a law, and what it took to break it. Then we get into the Central Park video that turned two strangers kissing on a bench into a nationwide manhunt, and what it tells us about the surveillance state that showed up in your neighbor's pocket instead of on a government streetlight. Camellia Peterson of Americans for Prosperity joins us on Kansas City's race-and-sex contracting quotas and the lawsuit that could end them, including the part where the city paid for a study telling them to stop and buried it. And fan favorite Maggie Modas breaks down a new Cato Institute survey that found most young Americans can't say what the Fourth of July even celebrates. One more thing: our brand new website is officially live, so come see what we built at https://4libertynetwork.com/.

FLOCK CAMERAS: SAFETY MEASURE OR SURVEILLANCE STATE? This morning we walk into the two rooms nobody voted to build, one a bathroom designed to kill your grandmother and one a hundred thousand camera network watching every road in America, and we ask how both of them got assembled while everybody was looking somewhere else. We break down why forty-three thousand seniors died from falls last year in houses the code book says are perfectly safe, then we follow Flock Safety from a solar panel on a pole in your subdivision to a server in Atlanta that five thousand police agencies can search without a warrant. Then Camellia Peterson walks us through the August 4 ballot and the strangest primary season in modern memory, and voice actress Mary McDonald-Lewis tells us what happened when she declined to say things she does not believe.

The dictator Hasan Piker wore to a Democrat convention — and the tip screen America is finally revolting against | Wake Up America Hasan Piker put on Mao Zedong's uniform this weekend and a room full of College Democrats cheered. So today we tell you what that costume actually means: the largest famine in human history, the war on sparrows, the trap called "let a hundred flowers bloom," and the Red Guards who beat Xi Jinping's own father in a stadium. Plus — America is in open revolt against the guilt-trip tip screen, and the real history of tipping is more American than you think. Then: Camellia Peterson (Americans for Prosperity–Missouri) on the Missouri Republicans who killed school choice the second it hit their own backyard, and Tom Pappert (The Tennessee Star) on JD Vance declaring war on Milton Friedman — and squaring off with Marco Rubio for 2028. ⏱️ SEGMENTS 00:00 Cold open A1 — The war on the tip screen A2 — The dictator they cheered: the crimes of Mao B1 — Camellia Peterson: Missouri's school-choice collapse B2 — Tom Pappert: Vance vs. Friedman, Vance vs. Rubio

WHOSE AI SHOULD FRIGHTEN YOU MORE? A Beijing startup gave away an AI for free last week and knocked the American chip market into a bear market before lunch, and the two biggest names in American tech ran to Washington calling a free download a threat to your safety. We're also on the flag an HOA won't let a family fly, and the war power Congress hasn't used since 1942.

SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE CLICKED DISLIKE AND THE TICKETS SOLD OUT ANYWAY Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opens tonight, and we're asking what it actually proves when the audience objects for eighteen months and Hollywood gets paid regardless. Then we walk through the Supreme Court quote everybody shared this week that Amy Coney Barrett never said, and what it costs us when we're the ones who stopped checking. We get into a Gen X psychiatrist's list of six things people miss about the eighties that reads like an inventory of liberties somebody took, the Wall Street Journal's push to rebrand middle age as "prime time" while the median first-time home buyer hits forty, employers quietly dropping marijuana screening because they can't find enough applicants, and the two-hundred-dollar-an-hour trainers selling American men longevity one hip thrust at a time.

SOCIALISM IS BLACK AND WHITE A poll came out of Michigan this week showing the socialist winning white Democrats and getting destroyed by Black Democrats in the same primary, and the explanation the internet landed on within the hour was that Black voters secretly agree but have been beaten into silence by a wicked country. We take that apart with a street in Detroit that no longer exists. Then we head to Europe, where a committee of publicly funded broadcasters just published twenty-three pages of cartoon diagrams instructing camera operators how to point a lens at a woman running, five years after that same continent fined a team of women a hundred and fifty euros apiece for putting shorts on. And the U.S. House voted 308 to 117 this week on what time it is, so we brought in Camellia Peterson to explain why the clock in Jefferson City is federal property.

MARCO RUBIO VS. THE HAGUE: AMERICA IS THE WORLD'S POLICE This morning we walk into the two rooms trying to run your life without a single vote from you, one in a Dutch office park and one in a Hollywood suite, and we ask why an unelected court and an unelected casting department both got told no in the same week. We break down Marco Rubio's whole-of-government campaign to take the International Criminal Court apart brick by brick, then we roll through Hollywood's casting war from Andy Serkis to Christopher Nolan and let the box office start settling it. Then economist Nick Cooper sits down to follow the money and the incentives running the Hague before you ever hear another word about "international justice." ⚖️ We dig into Rubio's July 13 announcement and the ICC's own record, a court that burned through two billion dollars and twenty-three years to convict barely a dozen people, every last one of them African, while its chief prosecutor sits suspended over a sexual misconduct investigation of his own.

RO KHANNA OR RO COMMIE? THIS IS WHO'S RUNNING IN 2028 This morning we follow the money and the lies straight from Beijing to the West Bank to Jefferson City, and we ask why a communist's family, a congressman's campaign trip, and a tax overhaul all landed on the same weekend. We break down the new reporting on China, Russia, and Iran weaponizing America's data center backlash, then we roll the tape on Ro Khanna's West Bank stunt and let Tom Pappert help us separate what happened from what Khanna wants you to believe. Then Camellia sits down to walk you through the two Missouri amendments on your August ballot before you ever pick up the pen.

RIP TO THE MAN LIBERTARIANS FEARED THE MOST This morning we dig into the death of the senator the left tried to bury with insults before his body was even cold, and we ask why an operator they call a swamp creature scared them more than any purist we've ever run. We follow that story straight into the parallel trial happening online around Charlie Kirk's murder, where a preliminary hearing calls the evidence overwhelming and a conspiracy machine keeps running anyway. Then we bring in two voices who were on the ground for it all, Joseph Wargo fresh off the FreedomFest floor in Vegas, and Austin Padgett to give us the libertarian movement's real receipts on the man we just lost.

BOOMERS VS ZOOMERS This morning we dig into the economy nobody in the comfortable seats wants to name. We follow the money from a Gen Z generation that watched the foreclosure crisis from the back seat and decided the deal was a lie, all the way to the vanishing American family vacation now sorted by class, and we ask who actually rigged the table. Then we bring in two voices who live it, Young Voices Commentator Maggie Anders on the Gen Z sneer, and Camellia Peterson of Americans for Prosperity on the Missouri abortion ruling that just rewrote the map.

America just turned 250 — and a card-carrying socialist is running its biggest city. On today's Wake Up America, Austin and Steffi Petersen break down the rise of the "Commie Caucus" after President Trump's 250th-anniversary war on communism — then bring you two rare pieces of GOOD news: America's nuclear reactors roaring back to life for the first time in 40 years, and EV batteries shattering every expectation. Plus, economist Jon Miltimore (@Miltimore79) joins to discuss why nearly half of young Americans are living with their parents, and economist Dan Mitchell (@danieljmitchell) joins to discuss JD Vance's claim that the GOP is now "more Alexander Hamilton than Milton Friedman." ▶ SUPPORT THE SHOW Join Petersens Patriots — $17.76/mo — 20% off the shop + exclusive in-person events: wakeupamericashow.com/support ▶ SHOP Merch, Founding Flavors Coffee, and the Richard Nixon Ringer Tee: 4LibertyShop.com ▶ JOIN THE COMMUNITY Discord: 4LibertyNetwork.com ▶ WATCH LIVE rumble.com/ap4liberty — Monday through Friday, 7–9 AM Central ▶ UNLOCK BONUS CONTENT $100 in Rants/gift subs/merch unlocks a 5-minute mini-doc on an American Revolution hero. $150 unlocks the Great Grift Off Liberty Loot game show, played live on your phone for real prizes. #WakeUpAmerica #AustinPetersen #Mamdani #JDVance #America250

This week on Freedom Family Friday, America turns 250 and somehow the stories are already insane. We get into the daredevil couple who climbed the Empire State Building antenna for a sky-high proposal and caught felony charges, Tim Walz's pardon board wiping the record of a convicted child rapist right before deportation, Gen Z rest clubs where young people need permission to lie down in the park, Alex Karp and Palantir selling “own your data” sovereignty for the AI age, Sony pushing PlayStation toward a future where you buy games but don't really own them, and the classic American movies that built the country's self-image before the fireworks start. Pull up a chair, this one's for the whole family.

THE COMMUNIST TAKEOVER BEGINS A democratic socialist just torched a thirty-year incumbent in Denver, and she's only the latest. Today we trace the socialist takeover of the Democratic Party one quiet primary at a time, from Mamdani's New York to Melat Kiros in Colorado, and we show you the 1954 law the Democrats themselves passed to stop exactly this — the one we're asking them to enforce. Then we step into the oldest economic fight in America as JD Vance crowns Alexander Hamilton over Milton Friedman, and we put both men in the ring to ask which one the right should actually be following. Camellia joins us to make the case for Missouri's Amendment 4, and investigative reporter Tom Pappert breaks down how a fringe ideology captured a major party in plain sight.

SCOTUS FUMBLED BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP This morning we start with the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization founded because women were once shut out by the Sons of the American Revolution, now refusing to define the word woman inside its own rulebook. We break down the 1,481 to 984 vote, the leadership warnings about D.C. law, the Biden-era legal memo behind the fear campaign, and the women inside the DAR who say this fight is not over. Then we go straight to the Supreme Court, where a 6-3 ruling against Trump's birthright citizenship order left conservatives furious, Thomas and Gorsuch dissenting, and Congress holding the next real move. We explain the “subject to the jurisdiction” fight, the birth tourism loophole, and the bills already sitting in Washington that could force the clean test case the Court refused to give Trump. In hour two, Nick Cooper joins to talk about the future of libertarians, MAGA, and the right: one movement has the engine, the other has the rudder, and the next decade may come down to whether libertarians want to steer or keep yelling from the sidelines.

Walter Block was ejected from the Mises Institute after he wrote a Classical liberal defense of Israel after the October 7th terror attacks by Hamas. Austin Petersen interviews block about the incident, the controversy surrounding Hans Hermann Hoppe, and the moral views of Argentina's president Javier Milei in a wide ranging interview. More interviews like these can be found on the Wake Up America show streaming live on rumble at Rumble.com/ap4liberty

This week we open at the Nixon Library, where JD Vance told a cheering room that the deep state took down Richard Nixon and that the same machine later came for Donald Trump. We trace who actually leaked Nixon to the press, why a younger right has turned him into a folk hero, and the part nobody in that building wanted to admit. Then we head to Kansas City, where Dutch World Cup fans fell in love with American abundance the same week Democrats confessed they had been hoping the tournament would fail. We close with a man the movement tried to erase. Walter Block joins us on getting purged by the Mises Institute over Israel, his defense of Javier Milei, and where the liberty movement actually lives now.

ARMED STONERS ARE NOW LEGALIZED THANKS TO THE SUPREME COURT This morning we break down the 9-0 Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Hemani, which says the government cannot automatically strip gun rights from Americans who use marijuana, with Donald Trump's own Justice Department ending up on the losing side. We get into Major League Baseball warning three Giants pitchers for writing Bible verses on their Pride Night caps, and the letters Senator Josh Hawley and Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway fired right back at the league. We cover the crude line UFC fighter Josh Hokit dropped after his win at the White House card and the backlash that came from his own side. We talk about the Alabama dad who got the police called on him for taking his daughters into an empty women's restroom, the Florida couple who chose to raise the daughter an IVF clinic mixed up at birth, and the more than one million foreign fans who came for the World Cup and fell in love with America. ⚖️ ARMED STONERS WIN AT SCOTUS: The Supreme Court rules 9-0 that Washington cannot automatically disarm marijuana users, and Trump's own DOJ is the side that lost. ⚾ MLB VS. THE BIBLE: The league warns Giants pitchers for writing Genesis on their Pride Night caps while Josh Hawley and Missouri's AG demand answers.

BRITAIN TRIED COVERING UP ITS PAKISTANI RAPE GANG PROBLEM Today we walk through the Rupert Lowe Rape Gang Inquiry report and the decades of institutional cowardice it documents, then we head to the ballpark where Major League Baseball warned three San Francisco Giants pitchers for writing a single Bible verse on their Pride Night caps while Missouri's attorney general fired back. We bring on Missouri liberty advocate Camellia Peterson to break down the religious liberty fight running through her home state, and comedian Lou Perez joins us on the first trillionaire in human history, FreedomFest, and the comedy line nobody else wants to touch.

A FEDERAL GRAND JURY JUST INDICTED THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER FOR ALLEGEDLY PAYING NEO-NAZIS TO STAY NAZIS. Today we walk through the New York Post bombshell on the SPLC indictment, the alleged $3 million pipeline through shell companies to violent extremists, and the wider pattern of manufactured hate stories that have shaped American media for forty years. Then we head to California, where Arnold Schwarzenegger just blew the whistle on Sacramento's gas price racket, and Adam Smith's 250-year-old playbook explains exactly why Californians are paying nearly six bucks a gallon. Judge Andrew Napolitano joins us with his sharp new column asking whether America at 250 is still a republic or already an empire. Then we simulcast with Chris Salcedo on the future of the liberty movement, the collapse of the LP, and whether there's still room for a liberty wing inside conservatism.

JUSTIN GAETHJE TOOK THE UNDISPUTED LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE ON THE SOUTH LAWN OF THE WHITE HOUSE, AND HALF OF WASHINGTON CALLED IT THE END OF CIVILIZATION. We start on the South Lawn, where a fighter nobody believed in won a world title on the Army's birthday, and we get into why the managerial class fears an open gate. Then we cross to Starmer's Britain, where speech is policed and a teenager dies in handcuffs while police chase a slur instead of a killer. We close with two guests on the fights closer to home.

THE LEFT JUST TOLD A MILLIONAIRE WELDER NOT TO CELEBRATE -- AND THE SUPREME COURT PUT THE FOUNDING FATHERS ON TRIAL FOR DRINKING This Friday SpaceX pulled off the biggest IPO in Wall Street history, made Elon Musk the first trillionaire on record, and turned roughly 4,400 blue collar workers into millionaires in a single morning. We dig into the welder who got handed stock he didn't understand a decade ago and woke up a millionaire, the parade of politicians who looked at that and demanded their cut, and why the Ayn Rand split between producers and looters explains the whole circus. We trace the word "robber baron" back to the medieval lords who chained the Rhine and taxed everyone who passed, and back to Vanderbilt, the man who cut fares for the working class and got branded a villain for it. Then we head to the Supreme Court, where the Justice Department is arguing that men like James Madison were habitual drunkards who'd lose their guns under their own Second Amendment. We close on the open ocean with a man who looked at every failed libertarian utopia and decided to build the plumbing first.

THE LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT HAS A CHOICE -- FOLLOW MILEI BACK TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION OR KEEP MAKING EXCUSES FOR PEOPLE WHO FILM THEIR OWN WAR CRIMES. We make the libertarian case for Israel, trace how the liberty movement went from auditing the Fed to flying Russian flags at antiwar rallies, and ask what it means that the Mises Institute purged Walter Block for defending massacre victims. Plus -- Seattle spent $465,000 on four talking toilets ahead of the World Cup, got the window smashed in fourteen days, and called it a promising start. Judge Napolitano on Section 702 expiring this month and why it barely matters. Tom Pappert on Massie, the USS Liberty, and how to honor dead American sailors without losing your mind.