Risky Business Preview

Joe Weisenthal (0:01)

Hey, Joe and Tracy here. We're stopping by to share with you another podcast we think you'll really enjoy and find to be insightful, sharp, and entertaining. From Pushkin Industries, it's called Risky Business, and it's hosted by our friends, Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova.

Maria Konnikova (0:15)

Right.

Tracy Alloway (0:15)

You might remember Nate and Maria from when they joined us last year to talk about political prediction markets. We were talking about how they work, how accurate they actually are, and what they can tell us about election campaigns and their outcomes.

Joe Weisenthal (0:28)

Or you might be familiar with their work. Nate's the founder of FiveThirtyEight and a esteemed journalist and a political analyst. Maria has a PhD in psychology and is a New York Times bestselling author, and they're both high stakes poker players, so they know a thing or two about taking risks, making bets and calling out bluffs.

Tracy Alloway (0:44)

On Risky Business, they look at how decisions are made and they break down the odds, incentives and risks behind the headlines to understand who's making moves and why. So they look at everything from politics to sports to personal decisions, AI hype, electoral races and of course, reality TV.

Joe Weisenthal (1:03)

Enjoy this preview of Risky Business. And if you like it, find Risky Business wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes released twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Maria Konnikova (1:19)

Hey, everyone, I'm Maria Konnikova.

Nate Silver (1:21)

I'm Nate Silver. And this is-

Maria Konnikova (1:23)

And this is-

Nate Silver (1:24)

It's really-

Maria Konnikova (1:27)

Wait, what? I'm Maria Konnikova.

Nate Silver (1:32)

I'm Nate Silver. And this is Risky Business.

Maria Konnikova (1:36)

A show about making good decisions. We did it, we're so good, we're so smart. This podcast is gonna be amazing. So, Nate, I'm really excited to be hosting this show with you, because you're a statistician, you're someone who comes at the world from a very rigorous, logical, mathematical perspective. And I think that this is just such a beautiful perspective to look at risk and risky decision-making.

Nate Silver (2:03)

And Maria, I'm excited to be hosting with you. I mean, we're great friends, but you're also a PhD in psychology, you've written multiple best-selling books, you have worked for The New Yorker. You're a little bit more even-keeled than I am too, which sometimes is a great influence on me.

Maria Konnikova (2:16)

Plus, obviously, we're both poker players and we've both won and, as you always point out, lost. Yeah, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the world of poker tournaments. And so that's a lens that we're going to be using to approach this entire show, because poker isn't just about playing cards, it's about making good decisions. It's about a framework for thinking about the world. And in Risky Business, that's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be helping our listeners understand decision making using this framework. So what exactly are we going to be talking about? Well, obviously, we're going to be talking about poker and the world of gambling.

Nate Silver (2:59)

We'll be talking about politics in the news as well. Look, we'll talk about the probabilities there as well as tactics and strategy around politics and current events. How do things like expected value or game theory affect decisions that affect all of our lives?

Maria Konnikova (3:14)

And obviously, we'll also be talking about kind of the more personal elements of psychology, philosophy and the decisions that we make in our daily lives that don't have anything to do with the news, but have everything to do with living well.

Nate Silver (3:27)

The show is a co-production of Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia and it's available wherever you want to listen.