A Former Nike Executive Barricaded Himself In a Pig Farm to Keep From Hearing About President Trump

Unless you're living in a hole—or in a self-imposed media blackout on a pig farm in Ohio—you've probably noticed the story of Erik Hagerman, a distressed liberal who in November 2016 formed an invisible barrier between his life and the outside world of American politics.

One detail that caught our eye: Hagerman is a former Nike executive who recently worked at the company's Beaverton headquarters.

The New York Times profile of Hagerman explains how the 53-year-old man has barricaded himself in an Ohio pig farm, cutting out newspapers, TV, and conversations with friends and strangers that make reference to the 45th president or the state of the outside world. He calls the artificial forcefield against troubling news "The Blockade."

"It was draconian and complete," he told the Times. "It's not like I wanted to just steer away from Trump or shift the conversation. It was like I was a vampire and any photon of Trump would turn me to dust."

Hagerman lived in Oregon as senior director of global digital commerce at Nike. In 2015, he moved back to rural Ohio, where he grew up.

After Trump became president, he told his friends to stop discussing politics with him—even one friend from his days at Nike who recently got her U.S. citizenship.

Hagerman says eventually, his friends learned to play along.

He admits that his lifestyle is both a luxury and an abdication of his civil duties.

"It makes me a crappy citizen," he said. "It's the ostrich head-in-the-sand approach to political outcomes you disagree with."