Podcast
The Wake Up America show with Austin Petersen
Hosted by Austin Petersen · EN
Wake Up America with Austin Petersen
If you’re tired of being gaslit by corporate media, sick of shallow hot takes, and ready for fearless truth delivered with wit, fire, and facts, Wake Up America is your daily briefing for the battle of ideas.
Hosted by Austin Petersen — former presidential candidate, media entrepreneur, and unapologetic defender of liberty — this high-energy political talk show cuts through the noise with bold analysis, sharp humor, and evidence-driven commentary.
Every episode delivers:
• Hard-hitting breakdowns of the day’s biggest political headlines
• Libertarian-leaning, America-First perspective grounded in facts
• Deep dives into economics, culture, foreign policy, and constitutional principles
• Interviews with lawmakers, policy experts, journalists, and rising voices
• Rapid-fire solo segments that blend history, philosophy, and modern politics
This isn’t performative outrage. It’s strategic thinking for people who care about Western civilization, individual liberty, and limited government.
Austin brings a unique mix of nationalist instinct and libertarian economics — defending free markets, calling out corruption on the right and left, challenging reckless foreign policy, exposing government overreach, and defending American values without apology.
Expect:
🔥 Breaking news analysis
📊 Real data and receipts
🎙 Smart, pointed interviews
⚔ Culture war clarity
📚 Historical context that actually matters
Whether the topic is Congress, the Supreme Court, Big Tech censorship, immigration, economic chaos, global conflicts, or the internal battles within the conservative movement — Wake Up America gives you the tools to understand what’s happening and why it matters.
If you value:
Freedom
Free speech
Free markets
Strong borders
Limited government
Personal responsibility
You’re in the right place.
New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe now and join thousands of Americans who refuse to sleepwalk through history.
It’s time to wake up.
65episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Will DEI Ruin The Odyssey? Freedom Family Friday
3w ago01:02:14Tap to summarizeSEVEN 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. 🏛️ THE ODYSSEY CASTING -- A quarter-billion-dollar budget, the first feature ever shot on new IMAX 70mm cameras, a trailer past seven hundred thousand dislikes, and IMAX seats that sold out a full year early. Nolan waved off the backlash. Tracking says opening weekend clears a hundred million. We ask which one of those is the real vote. ⚖️ THE QUOTE THAT ISN'T -- Clarence Thomas told Orrin Hatch in 1991 he'd rather die than withdraw. Barrett supposedly said she's scared for her life. One of those is in the transcript and one of them somebody made up. We go through what was actually said on July 14 and why the fake one is doing all the work. 📻 WHAT WE MISS ABOUT THE 80s -- Being unreachable used to be the default state of a normal day. A repair used to be a fourteen-dollar part and twenty minutes with a screwdriver. Six things that came free and now have to be fought for. 🏡 PRIME TIME -- The median first-time home buyer in America is now forty years old. The Journal files that under milestones pushed later. We file it somewhere else. 🌿 THE TEST NOBODY'S GIVING -- Citigroup dropped it. Amazon dropped it. Home Depot dropped it. Employers quit screening for marijuana without a single federal mandate, and one lawyer says his clients would have no applicants left if they kept testing. 💪 GLUTES AND LONGEVITY -- Equinox says male bookings for its "Best Butt Ever" class are up seventeen percent. One executive spends sixteen hundred a month on peptides. Somewhere under all of it is a real point about aging. 🛒 4LibertyShop.com 🔗 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #FreedomFamilyFriday #TheOdyssey #ChristopherNolan #Hollywood #AmyConeyBarrett #SupremeCourt #ClarenceThomas #GenX #Nostalgia #Housing #DrugTesting #Longevity #Libertarian #AustinPetersen #Liberty
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Socialism is Simple: Black Don’t Support It Like White People Do
3w ago01:52:21Tap to summarizeSOCIALISM 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. 🏛️ SOCIALISM IS SIMPLE: BLACK AND WHITE — The Detroit News poll broke 67-21 for the moderate among Black Democrats and 51-39 for Abdul El-Sayed among white Democrats. We get into Hastings Street, Black Bottom, the Chrysler Freeway, and what James Baldwin actually said after the famous line. Plus the DSA's own membership survey, the Detroit bankruptcy, and why the most churched bloc in the coalition will not vote for a creed that promises heaven through a budget. 📹 DEMONIZING MEN'S SEXUALITY — The European Broadcasting Union and European Athletics dropped "Raising the Bar" this week: twenty-three pages, thirteen camera angles you're urged not to use, green checks and red X's. The same institutional class wrote the ten-centimeter bikini rule, fined the Norwegians for covering up, defended "the ideal presentation of the sport" in writing, and has now identified the villain. It's the guy holding the camera. ⏰ THE CLOCK IS FEDERAL PROPERTY — Camellia Peterson joins us on the Sunshine Protection Act. Nineteen state legislatures have already voted on this and every one of them is sitting in a hallway waiting on a hall pass from Washington. Missouri's House passed it 107 to 31 in April and then just had to wait. GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🌺 Camellia Peterson — Americans for Prosperity Missouri — @RareCamellia Kelley Dennison - Colorado Republican Candidate for congress - AKA Goth Baddie 4LibertyShop.com expatmoney.com/AUSTIN 4libertynetwork.com wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #AustinPetersen #Socialism #Detroit #BlackVoters #ElSayed #Michigan #DemocratPrimary #DSA #WomensSports #EBU #TrackAndField #DaylightSavingTime #SunshineProtectionAct #Federalism #Missouri #AFP #Liberty #LibertarianNationalism #Rumble
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Marco Rubio Sets the Record Straight for the ICC: America is the World’s Police
4w ago02:01:48Tap to summarizeMARCO 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. 🎬 We roll the tape on Hollywood's fidelity fight, from Serkis refusing to tick boxes on "The Hunt for Gollum" to Nolan spending a quarter of a billion dollars race-swapping Helen of Troy and calling the backlash "frightening," and we ask what the dislike counter is really measuring. 🧠 Nick Cooper joins us to strip the language of "human rights" off the ICC and follow the incentives, who benefits from the court existing, who picks up the tab, and whether the whole project was ever built to do what it claims. GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🎙️ Nick Cooper @realNickCooper 🛒 Gear up at 4LibertyShop.com 🤝 Join the community at 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ Support the show at wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #MarcoRubio #ICC #TheHague #AmericanSovereignty #TheOdyssey #AndySerkis #ChristopherNolan #Hollywood #AustinPetersen #Liberty #America250
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Ro Khanna’s Israel Palestine LARP. This is Who is Running Democrat in 2028?
4w ago01:52:29Tap to summarizeRO 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. 🐉 We dig into the New York Times report on China, Russia, and Iran pouring gasoline on America's data center fights, and follow the money from a Shanghai communist's family straight into a socialist super PAC bankrolled by ex-AppLovin executives. 🎬 We roll the actual tape on Ro Khanna's West Bank "hostage" story, from the closed military zone to the machine gun that was actually a rifle, and ask how much of it was staged for a 2028 launch. 🗣️ Tom Pappert joins us to break down Khanna's account line by line against what the IDF, the Israeli police, and the ambassador are saying on camera. 🗳️ Camellia walks us through Missouri Amendments 4 and 5, the income tax phaseout and the initiative petition overhaul, and what fifteen million dollars in ad money doesn't want you reading in the fine print. GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🎙️ Camellia @RareCamellia 🎙️ Tom Pappert @realTomPappert 🛒 Gear up at 4LibertyShop.com 🤝 Join the community at 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ Support the show at wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #RoKhanna #WestBank #MissouriAmendments #Amendment4 #Amendment5 #China #DataCenters #AustinPetersen #Liberty #America250
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Did Lindsey Graham Win?
4w ago01:57:06Tap to summarizeRIP 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. 🏛️ We trace Lindsey Graham's record from the Kavanaugh eruption to the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation and ask why the establishment feared an insider who took ground more than it's ever feared a movement that just names the swamp. ⚖️ We head into the other courtroom around Charlie Kirk's murder, where the preliminary hearing wrapped with prosecutors calling the case devastating, and we find the loudest doubt coming from inside Kirk's own movement. 🎪 We hand the mic to Joseph Wargo to give us the real story from four days on the FreedomFest floor, the 250th anniversary, the panels that mattered, and whether Gen Z actually showed up. 🔍 We sit down with Austin Padgett to settle the libertarian movement's twenty-year grudge against Lindsey Graham, from the NSA fight to the vaccine spat to the ironic ending nobody saw coming. GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🎙️ Joseph Wargo @Y_SWargo 🎙️ Austin Padgett @LudwigNverMises 🛒 Gear up at 4LibertyShop.com 🌎 Protect your future with expat strategies at expatmoney.com/austin 🤝 Join the community at 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ Support the show at wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #LindseyGraham #CharlieKirk #TylerRobinson #FreedomFest2026 #Libertarian #LibertarianNationalism #AustinPetersen #Liberty #America250
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Boomers Vs. Zoomers: Who’s Really Suffering More?
Jul 602:02:32Tap to summarizeBOOMERS 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. 🎓 We take the Gen Z stare seriously and trace the anger back to its real source, the Federal Reserve policy that inflated houses out of reach on purpose while cable calls a broke generation entitled. 🏖️ We follow the great American vacation as it gets priced clean out for the bottom and metered for the top, and we find the cheaper road waiting at the trailhead. 🎤 We hand the mic to Young Voices Commentator Maggie Anders to tell us whether we got the sneer right or whether the boomers are still missing the point. ⚖️ We head to Jefferson City with Camellia Peterson to break down the single judge who struck forty Missouri abortion laws in one ruling and what it means for the rest of the country. 🇺🇸 GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🇺🇸 🎙️ Maggie Anders, Young Voices Commentator @maggiemoda 🎙️ Camellia Peterson, Americans for Prosperity Missouri @RareCamellia 🛒 Gear up at 4LibertyShop.com 🌎 Protect your future with expat strategies at expatmoney.com/austin 🤝 Join the community at 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ Support the show at wakeupamericashow.com/support
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Trump vs. the Commie Caucus: Mamdani, Socialism & America’s 250th ft @Miltimore79 @danieljmitchell
Jul 602:01:27Tap to summarizeAmerica 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
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4th of July Lands on 250 Years of Greatness: Freedom Family Friday
Jul 400:58:57Tap to summarizeThis 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 Empire State Building proposal that ended with “she said yes” and “you’re under arrest” ⚖️ Tim Walz’s pardon board gives a clean slate to a convicted child rapist facing deportation 😴 Gen Z rest clubs and the generation that forgot how to stop 🖥️ Palantir, NVIDIA, and the new fight over who owns your data in the AI age 💿 Sony’s digital-only PlayStation future and the slow death of actually owning games 🎬 The Fourth of July movie list every family should argue over before the fireworks 👨👩👧 Joining this morning: @SteffiP4Liberty and @JustinJPetersen 🛒 4LibertyShop.com ✈️ expatmoney.com/worldwar3 🌐 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ wakeupamericashow.com/support
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Commies Keep Winning Elections: Is It Too Late To Stop Them? ft @RareCamellia @RealTomPappert
Jul 302:02:27Tap to summarizeTHE 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. 🚩 THE DSA COMMIE TAKEOVER — Kiros beats DeGette, the wave that started in New York, and the survivors and scholars who lived through this and are begging us not to repeat it. 🥊 HAMILTON VS. FRIEDMAN — Vance picks Hamilton over Friedman, so we run the tale of the tape: the central bank versus the pencil, the tariff versus the consumer, the empire versus the free country. 🏛️ AMENDMENT 4 — Camellia on who really gets to rewrite Missouri's constitution, the out-of-state cash, and the August 4th vote. 🎙️ TOM PAPPERT — how the socialist wave got built, who's funding it, and why the press keeps scrubbing the word out of the headline. ✍️ SIGN THE PETITION — the Democrats wrote the Communist Control Act. Tell them to enforce it: CommunistControlAct.com 🌹 GUESTS THIS EPISODE 🌹 📰 Tom Pappert (@realTomPappert) — award-winning lead reporter, The Tennessee Star 🌷 Camellia Peterson (@RareCamellia) — Americans for Prosperity, Missouri 🔗 LINKS 🛒 4LibertyShop.com 🌎 expatmoney.com/austin 🦅 4libertynetwork.com ❤️ wakeupamericashow.com/support
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China Wins Again After SCOTUS Decision on Birthright Citizenship
Jul 202:10:32Tap to summarizeSCOTUS 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. 🗽 The DAR fight — the transgender membership vote, the undefined word “woman,” the Biden-era legal memo, and the restoration push from inside the organization ⚖️ Birthright citizenship — the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, Thomas and Gorsuch’s dissent, birth tourism, and the congressional path after Trump’s executive order failed 🔥 Nick Cooper on MAGA and libertarians — why MAGA has the political engine, why libertarians have the intellectual rudder, and what it would take to actually win GUESTS THIS EPISODE Rick Brattin @RickBrattin Nick Cooper @realNickCooper 4LibertyShop.com expatmoney.com/austin 4libertynetwork.com wakeupamericashow.com/support #WakeUpAmerica #Liberty #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #Trump #DAR #SupremeCourt #JudgeNapolitano #MAGA #Libertarian #NickCooper #AustinPetersen
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