Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova Podcast By Pushkin Industries cover art

Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova

Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova

By: Pushkin Industries
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About this listen

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 Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Why ChatGPT Sucks at Poker

    Why ChatGPT Sucks at Poker
    May 29 2025

    ChatGPT is amazing at many things…but it can’t seem to figure out poker. Nate and Maria explain why, and talk about the implications for artificial general intelligence. Plus, they discuss Trump vs. Harvard, round two.

    Further Reading:

    Silver Bulletin: ChatGPT Is Shockingly Bad at Poker

    Harvard Derangement Syndrome, by Steven Pinker

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

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    Get ad-free episodes, and get your questions answered in an exclusive weekly bonus episode, of Risky Business by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.

    Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
    Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    51 mins
  • Motivated Reasoning in the Biden Campaign, Silicon Valley, and Beyond

    Motivated Reasoning in the Biden Campaign, Silicon Valley, and Beyond
    May 21 2025

    We tend to use logic to reach conclusions that agree with our biases. Psychologists call this motivated reasoning. Today, Nate and Maria talk about motivated reasoning in the Biden campaign and Silicon Valley. Also: Conspiracy theories and the NBA draft.

    Further Reading:

    Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House

    Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

    Elizabeth Holmes’ Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Startup

    The Mavs’ Cooper Flagg lottery miracle fuels conspiracy theories – and hope

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

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    Get ad-free episodes, and get your questions answered in an exclusive weekly bonus episode, of Risky Business by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.

    Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
    Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    45 mins
  • What Should Colleges Do about ChatGPT?

    What Should Colleges Do about ChatGPT?
    May 15 2025

    Nate and Maria revisit their conclave predictions, and discuss Maria’s recent win in Monte Carlo. Then the talk about college students’ rampant use of ChatGPT to cheat on assignments, and how colleges and professors might be able to catch up.

    Further Reading:

    From New York Magazine: Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

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

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    Get ad-free episodes, and get your questions answered in an exclusive weekly bonus episode, of Risky Business by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.

    Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
    Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    47 mins
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