Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova

By: Pushkin Industries
  • Summary

  • Risky Business is a weekly podcast about making better decisions. The hosts, Maria Konnikova and Nate Silver, are both journalists who moonlight as high-stakes poker players. On Risky Business, they bring their analytical framework to everything from politics to poker to personal decisions.

    Maria has a PhD in psychology and is the author of several books including, most recently, The Biggest Bluff. While researching the book, she inadvertently became a professional poker player, with over $500,000 in tournament winnings. She is a PokerStars Team Pro.

    Nate is the founder and former editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, and one of the country’s leading election forecasters. He has over $800,000 in lifetime poker tournament winnings and his forthcoming book, On the Edge, is about gambling and risk.

    Risky Business is a co-production of iHeart Media and Pushkin Industries.

    2025 Pushkin Industries & iHeartMedia, Inc. 2024
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Episodes
  • Trump’s Strategy: Distraction and Executive Action
    Jan 23 2025

    What do the decisions Trump has made so far tell us about his strategy for his second term? And what strategic options do the Democrats have? Nate and Maria talk birthright citizenship, tech CEOs, memecoins, and pardons.

    And, Nate and Maria answer a listener question about the status of their driver’s licenses.

    For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    48 mins
  • Wildfires, Insurance, and Planning for Disaster
    Jan 16 2025

    Nate and Maria discuss the California wildfires. How do incentives in insurance markets drive decisions by homeowners – and by insurers? What’s the best way to make rational decisions about the disaster risks we all face?

    And they discuss a question from listener JM who asks what happens when the River and the Village mix it up in Washington?

    Further Reading:

    Colm Toíbin on the loss of Gary Indiana’s personal library in the Palisades fire

    An overview of California’s insurance issues from the WSJ

    For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    48 mins
  • Nate and Maria’s 2025 Predictions
    Jan 9 2025

    Nate and Maria share their predictions for the year to come, covering everything from the price of Bitcoin, to the fate of President Trump’s cabinet picks, to whether Nate will wear skinny jeans.

    For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    40 mins

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