Sean Ericson
As seen in:
The Minnesota Star Tribune,
The Borgen Project,
Minnesota Daily,
Great Lakes Now,
Bolts,
Racket,
The Wake Magazine,
Barn Raiser
Covers:
I cover a variety of topics, usually centering on the social sciences and public policy. Open to many beats.
Articles by Sean Ericson
Why we don’t bike like the Dutch — yet | Great Lakes Now
July 30, 2025 How did you get to work today? Maybe, like 14% of Americans, you didn’t have to go anywhere because you work from home. But most people do need some form of transportation to earn a living. By far the biggest group is the 69% of people who drive to work alone. In contrast, only one out of 200 Americans bike to work. In Canada, the rate is still small, but it’s twice as high as it is in the US. However, both of these countries are huge, diverse places.
'Arbitrary and Capricious': MN Orgs React to Trump's Federal Grant Gutting
Ever heard of forest tar? According to an advertisement in the May 1, 1876, edition of the Minneapolis Tribune, you can get it in a variety of applications, including a salve, a soap, and even an inhaler. These can treat many ailments, including ulcers, burns, sore throat, and asthma. And you might not know about this miracle cure without the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub, an archive featuring high-resolution images of Minnesota-based periodicals spanning 175 years and several languages.
Buses vs. Trains: The Future of Public Transit in the Great Lakes Region
May 13, 2025 Cities around the Great Lakes region are trying to make transportation cheaper for riders and more environmentally friendly by expanding their public transit networks. Two modes that are often pitted against each other are light rail and bus rapid transit (BRT). While not every BRT line meets the same standards, in general, they have been upgraded for higher capacity and speed, although they have fewer stations.
‘So Much Chaos’: MN Orgs Reeling as Trump and Musk Dismantle Foreign Aid
$71,900,000,000. Seventy-one point nine billion dollars—that’s how much the U.S. government in fiscal year 2023. It’s an incomprehensible amount of money. It would take the median American household more than 890,000 years to make that much. This sum dwarfs the fortunes of mere decabillionaires like Giorgio Armani, the world’s 208th richest man. If Elon Musk, the world’s richest, spent this amount of money every year, he would be broke by 2030.
What would the Great Lakes region be like with bullet trains?
March 26, 2025 A few months ago, I was riding on Amtrak’s new Borealis line from St. Paul, Minn., to Chicago. The train was packed that day, and the new line has proved popular. My coach seat was much nicer than any airline. Plus, I didn’t have to go through security. The ride was pleasant, with a nice view. But it was also slow. This line takes about seven and a half hours to travel between St. Paul and Chicago — an hour and a half longer than driving, and about five times longer than flying.
What the recent tariff news means for the Great Lakes
February 14, 2025 President Donald Trump has made rethinking international trade policy a centerpiece of his second administration. While Congress generally has the authority to regulate international trade, it has also delegated some of this authority to the president. On Feb. 1, Trump announced he would be imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, with a 10% tariff on Canadian energy. Days later, he reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico to pause these tariffs for 30 days.
Why Does a 'Nonpartisan' Right-Wing Think Tank Prominently Sponsor Gophers Athletics?
If you’ve been to a Gophers game during the past couple years, you may have noticed a simple ad on the scoreboard: white text reading AmericanExperiment.org over an American flag background. That’s the website for the conservative Golden Valley-based think tank Center of the American Experiment (CoAE). Founded as a nonprofit in 1990, CoAE takes reliably conservative positions on government spending, education, taxes, labor unions, crime, and other issues. Energy policy is another key area of focus.
Environmentalists, Industry Divided Over Energy Permitting Bill
November 15, 2024 Melting ice. Wildfire smoke. Crop losses. Climate change is already having an impact on the Great Lakes region. According to a 2022 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, humanity would have to reach net-zero emissions by the 2070s. For a more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, we’d have to get to net zero by the 2050s.
‘The Psychic Center of the U.S.’: When Witches Descended on Minneapolis
In the fall of 1973, 73 witches gathered together in Minneapolis. They did not fly in on broomsticks; they did not transmogrify into cats or bats or dogs or wolves. That’s because these were not the figures of folklore and film, but rather ordinary people who practiced Wicca, a religion which forms part of the modern pagan movement.
What Extreme Heat Will Do to Minnesota
Minnesota isn’t known for its hot weather. Nonetheless, we’re deep in the dog days, and stepping outside sometimes feels like a sauna. While other areas have it much worse, hot weather here can still be dangerous. According to the National Weather Service, 19 Minnesotans have died from heat and humidity since 1990, which makes extreme heat Minnesota’s third-deadliest weather phenomenon in that period, after tornadoes and flooding.
Expecting smoke to be a more frequent part of seasonal planning
June 26, 2024 I was taking out the trash one evening this May when I noticed it. The sky had a reddish tint, and the air smelled faintly of smoke. Like many people across the Great Lakes region, I learned last summer to recognize the telltale signs of wildfire smoke. Amid a big year for wildfires in Canada, many of us got used to outbreaks of pollution caused by smoke from up north. Last month’s smoky air got me wondering: are we in for more summers like 2023?
Soon You Can Repair Your Computer in MN Without Apple's Permission
When a machine doesn’t work, most of us get frustrated. But for Howard Freeman, a broken machine presents an opportunity. “I used to fix things when I was little,” he says. “Got in trouble for taking stuff apart once in a while and putting it back together.” Freeman is a longtime volunteer at Fix-It Clinics around the Twin Cities, where anyone can bring almost any kind of broken stuff to these free events, and volunteers will try to repair it.
Is Minnesota Forever Doomed to Smoky Summer Skies?
We have to deal with a lot of B.S. in Minnesota when it comes to weather. Sometimes it feels like for every beautiful June sunset, there’s an April blizzard. This summer, though, we have a new entrant in the pantheon of phenomena for Minnesotans to gripe about. The state has endured a record 23 air quality alerts this year, many of them stemming from wildfire smoke.
No more red tape for green energy
If you had to guess, which state would you say produces the most renewable energy? It's California, right? With its vast size, sunny weather and crunchy attitude, you wouldn't be far off. The Golden State falls second. Number one is none other than Texas. How is it possible that the Lone Star State, a stronghold of both conservative politics and oil interests, makes twice as much wind and solar energy as California? Part of the answer is the weather: Texas is big, sunny and windy.
No more cab drivers with doctorates
Imagine studying for years - staying up late, missing out on other parts of your life - to get a degree. Maybe it's in medicine, law or engineering. When you finally graduate, you're excited to put your skills to work, to help people, to make money to support your family. Maybe you even get a chance to do that for years or even decades. Then, something happens. Maybe the local economy dries up. Maybe war breaks out, and you're forced to flee. Either way, you move to another country.
The strength of weak ties
Think about all of the people you know. Which of them might be the most likely to help you get a job? You might be tempted to think of a close friend or family member who knows you well and cares about you deeply. In the study of social networks, these relationships are called "strong ties." However, according to consistent findings in the social sciences, it is actually your "weak ties," the people you know less well, who are more likely to help you get a job.
Red tape stands in the way of fighting poverty
Think about the last time you went to the DMV. You know you're eligible for an ID or driver's license, but you may have put it off because let's be honest - it's a hassle. Even though you're eligible, you still have to prove you're eligible by bringing relevant documents, standing in line, filling out forms and so on.
How to make cities green
Close your eyes. Picture an environmentally friendly home. What do you see? Maybe you see a remote cabin in the woods, totally off-grid, plastered with solar panels. But, what if there was another way? According to some experts, dense, urban living can actually be good for the planet - as long as you do it correctly. "Density and climate are related in quite simple ways," said Shlomo Angel, professor of city planning and leader of the New York University Urban Expansion Program.
Cultivate an Ecological Conscience
The following is an excerpt from “The Ecological Conscience,” an article published in the the June 1947 issue of Bulletin of the Garden Club of America.
Wisconsin's Forests: Destroyed, Now Reborn
Over the past five decades, I have driven from central Wisconsin to the northwestern part of the state hundreds of times. I made the trip first as a small boy when my family relocated from rural Marathon County to Moose Lake in Sawyer County. And later, as a college student, I made the trek from my family’s home to University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.
Olaf Ericson's Barn Raising
On the day of Olaf Ericson’s barn-raising, his wife, for once in a way, rose early. Johanna Vavrika had been baking cakes and frying and boiling and spicing meats for a week beforehand, but it was not until the day before the party was to take place that Clara showed any interest in it. Then she was seized with one of her fitful spasms of energy, and took the wagon and little Eric and spent the day on Plum Creek, gathering vines and swamp goldenrod to decorate the barn.
A Retired Dairy Farmer Reflects on the Wisconsin Midterms
The big winner in the Wisconsin Midterms was Gerry Mander, a.k.a. gerrymandering. As planned and put into law by Wisconsin’s Republican legislature in 2011, it has worked exactly as intended. Republicans won six of the eight U.S. House seats, thanks to maps that corral the bulk of Democratic voters into two districts, one in Madison and the other Milwaukee.
The Election was a Relief, but We’re Not Out of the Woods Yet
I cannot remember a time when my general level of anxiety was higher than it was this past election season. Like the rest of the country, so much was at stake in our heavily gerrymandered state, and things were looking bleak. I was not able to knock on many doors this election, so to alleviate my rising dread I donated to several state and national campaigns, only to be bombarded by desperate calls, texts, and emails requesting more money. As a result, my stress level worsened.
Dinner with Hitler
There are certain lines that we don't expect anyone in American public life to cross. Even the most radical, extreme and erratic personalities that inhabit our media sphere will avoid endorsing some ideas, out of a sense of self-preservation if nothing else. One of those ideas is support for Adolf Hitler. But Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is used to crossing lines.
Ineffective altruism?
On Nov. 1, I pitched a column about effective altruism. I had no idea what was going to happen next. One of effective altruism (EA)'s most prominent adherents is Sam Bankman-Fried. Last week, his net worth went from $16 billion to zero, and he stepped down as CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. FTX and Bankman-Fried are under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as authorities in the Bahamas, where his companies are based. It's a disaster.
Ericson: Conspiracy soup
An assailant entered a home in the San Francisco Bay Area on Oct. 28 and beat an elderly man with a hammer. The victim was Paul Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's husband. The attacker, David DePape, shouted, "Where's Nancy?" according to reports. He told police he saw Nancy as the "'leader of the pack' of lies told by the Democratic Party," according to an affidavit. But not everyone believed politics played a role in the attack.
Ericson: Buyer beware
"Do these people actually think they're getting any money?" On Oct. 12, Alex Jones was defiant. He had just been found liable for nearly a billion dollars in damages in a default judgment after being sued by families of mass shooting victims for falsely claiming the massacre in which their loved ones died was a hoax. Jones is probably right that he doesn't have a billion dollars. But he's got quite a bit. According to testimony from a financial expert, he and his company are worth $135-270 million.
More and more of "none of the above"
This summer, headlines blared with shocking news: Americans' belief in God had hit a "new low!" Surely, the atheist hordes will overrun God-fearing Christians any day now. If you had actually clicked on the article instead of just reading the headline (a rarity these days), you would've found out that the "new low" was: 81%. According to polling company Gallup, four out of five Americans believe in God.
Ericson: Fewer kids are poor
Editor's Note: Sean Ericson was formerly employed by AmeriCorps and worked at Pillsbury United Communities (PUC) under Ethan Neal's supervision as part of his AmeriCorps service. How has our country's social safety net changed since 1993? Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would've told you that, while it may have increased since then, "welfare reform" decimated benefit programs in the 1990s. But, a recent report from the New York Times and Child Trends called my assumptions into question.
Turn on the money hose
Editor's Note: In 2019, Ericson worked as an intern for the Borgen Project, an organization that advocates to increase the U.S. foreign aid budget. In 1977, the residents of Kinney, Minnesota, faced a big problem. The small town's water system was old and mineral deposits were building up in the pipes. Unable to acquire funding to fix the problem, the Iron Range town decided to declare independence.
In case of abortion emergency, break glass
On June 24, the pro-life movement secured a long-awaited triumph: The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Center opened the door for far more restrictive abortion laws than had previously been permitted by the courts. This is the culmination of a long battle. Opponents of abortion have spent decades building a social movement and engaging in legal strategizing.
Our friend, the murderer
I agree with Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the crown prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. In October 2018, Saudi expat and Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents, according to a U.N. investigation. Later that month, MBS called Jared Kushner, the then-U.S. president's son-in-law and senior adviser, to voice his confusion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The next insurrection
This isn't going away. This week, the congressional committee investigating last year's Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol will continue to present its findings to the nation. But the forces that created the riot, and the associated legal maneuverings, will go on for much longer. I don't think an actual coup is particularly likely. But that doesn't mean there's no risk of future violence or political brinkmanship. It's true that there have been some consequences.
What does the price of rent mean to you?
The amount you pay for rent determines a number of things: whether you have a roof over your head, how much money you have left over at the end of the month, the list goes on. But what does the price of rent mean for your values? It turns out, in addition to being vital in itself, housing affordability has wide-ranging implications for many of the most important issues we face as a community and as a country.
The toll of I-94, 35W and their futures
SEAN ERICSON: Hi, everyone. My name is Sean Ericson and you're listening to In The Know, a podcast by the Minnesota Daily. Together, we'll be exploring the University of Minnesota's students and communities with each episode. In this episode, we'll be discussing Interstate 94, specifically connections from downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul. We'll learn about the history of its construction, and how it and other highways harmed BIPOC communities.
The real welfare queens
Do you think former Vikings quarterback Brett Favre's family is "needy"? Apparently, John Davis does. Last year, Davis, the former executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federal program where states get annual grants to spend on, well, assisting needy families.
Instead of climate anxiety, try climate empathy
Over the past couple of years, a new term has come into vogue: "climate anxiety." Many media outlets have covered a rising phenomenon of mental distress caused by climate change. It's not like this is surprising. As the authors of one study put it, "climate anxiety is rational." Faced with terrifying impacts like hurricanes, wildfires and droughts, it's understandable that people are worried.
Now we're cooking with gas
"Now we're cooking with gas." It's an ubiquitous expression. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to "be cooking with gas" means "to be making very good progress or doing something very well." And it's true there are many advantages to cooking with a gas stove. According to former journalist and current cooking YouTuber Adam Ragusea, a big advantage of gas stoves is their responsiveness. "You ignite them, and they're instantly hot.
Reddit Sucks, Which is Why I Love It — The Wake
The same things that make it great sometimes make it awful By: Sean Ericson Is Reddit a good website? That depends on what you mean by “good.” Is it fun to use? For me, definitely. But does it harm people? That’s a more complex question. I can’t remember when I started using Reddit, but over the course of my adolescence, it became one of my favorite places on the internet. Reddit (mostly) doesn’t let you post without selecting a specific community.
The persistence of a conspiracy cult
"To say that Lyndon was slightly paranoid would be like saying the Titanic had a bit of a leak." This is what disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker wrote about the man with whom he shared a cell in a Minnesota federal prison. Both Bakker and the conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche had been convicted of defrauding their followers. Bakker is somehow still broadcasting, but LaRouche died in 2019. Before his death, LaRouche, who ran for president 8 times, earned an image as a consummate conspiracy-monger.
Do I know it when I see it?
What is religion? There are certain entities that obviously seem like religions. Christianity or Islam, for example. But we don't need to leave the pantheon of major world religions before things start getting controversial. Buddhism, for instance, is sometimes said to not be a religion at all. And what about secular things that inspire quasi-religious devotion? Like college football teams or political candidates.
Knocking down the ivory tower
Sean Guillory remembers when he realized the true nature of academic publishing. It was a "formative moment" early in his time in graduate school, he said. "I asked my professor, who was the audience for his book? And he said, 'Well, maybe about, like, 12 specialists.'" Guillory was shocked. "Why the f*** do you want to write a book for 12 people?" he told me.
War crimes are bad, actually
March 30 was the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A couple of weeks before that, on March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes committed during the invasion of Ukraine. One would think the U.S. government would be doing everything it could to help the ICC prosecute Putin.
Ericson: It's about states' rights
The abolition of slavery. Women's right to vote. Desegregation of schools. The Civil and Voting Rights acts. Same-sex marriage. All of these victories for progress have one thing in common: they involve the imposition of federal power over the states. Indeed, the old neo-Confederate line on the Civil War is that it was about "states' rights." But I think it's worthwhile to consider a classic reply to that. A state's right to what?
Abolish the Senate
One person, one vote. That's the foundation of our democracy. Right? But that's not how it works in the U.S. Senate. In what some might call, " the world's greatest deliberative body," the 29 million people who live in Texas have the same number of votes as the 600,000 people who live in Vermont. Since the beginning, the idea that the interests of small states need special protection has been at the heart of the Senate.
Letter to the Editor: We can change how police operate to increase accountability for violence and mistreatment
The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar has proposed creating an elected civilian oversight board with significant powers, and the organization Campaign Zero has a list of eight key policies that have been proven to reduce police violence. This letter to the editor was written in response to a previously published column and OpEd. I was encouraged to read Emily Eaton’s nuanced discussion of policing reform.
Letter to the Editor: Confronting housing affordability requires innovative research
Building more dense housing is a vital task for reducing housing prices, and as Jonathan Ababiy points out, zoning laws present an impediment to this goal. As Jonathan Ababiy describes in his informative article, zoning laws regulate what kinds of buildings people are allowed to build on their property. Building more dense housing is a vital task for reducing housing prices, and as Ababiy points out, zoning laws present an impediment to this goal.
The rise of zombie journalism
Imagine you come across an article. Maybe a friend or family member posted it on social media, or maybe you came across it in a Google search. You don't recognize the website it's posted on, but it looks trustworthy. The name sounds like it could be a small local publication: St. Paul Reporter or North Hennepin News. These sites offer articles on local events, but also some more controversial topics, like critical race theory in schools. Both of these sites are part of the Metric Media network.
Preparing for the next pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people around the world. Work, school, politics and the rest of our lives have been upended. Most horrifyingly, 6.5 million people died. All, or at least most of us, can agree that this has been a catastrophe of world-historical proportions. COVID-19 has also served as a stress test of our country's, and the world's, capacity to respond to pandemics. And we can't rest on our laurels, either.
How big is too big?
Free market competition has many benefits. In a competitive economy, businesses compete for customers, employees and partners. The firm that sells the best product at the best price, or offers the best working conditions and wages, will win out. At least in theory. What happens when competition is subverted? It's possible for the free market to eat itself. When companies grow extremely large, it can undermine competition.
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