Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, and Maria Konnikova, the author of The Biggest Bluff, are teaming up to launch a new weekly podcast called Risky Business. This podcast will focus on making good decisions in poker, politics, and everyday life. Both Silver and Konnikova are journalists who also happen to be high-stakes poker players.
The series is set to launch on May 16 and is produced by Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries and iHeartPodcasts. It comes a year after Silver left ABC News. Silver is known for founding and editing the political and statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight as well as being a leading election forecaster. He has also had success in poker tournaments and has a forthcoming book about gambling and risk called On the Edge.
Konnikova, who holds a doctorate in psychology, became a professional poker player while researching her book The Biggest Bluff. She has won over $500,000 in poker tournaments. Both Silver and Konnikova will be competing at the World Series of Poker this year. Risky Business will not only cover poker, but Silver will also discuss politics and polls leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Pushkin Industries is known for producing podcasts like Against the Rules from Michael Lewis, A Life in Lyrics from Paul McCartney, The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, and Broken Record. The podcast trailer can be found on their website. In Risky Business, Silver and Konnikova plan to discuss probabilities, tactics, and strategies around politics and current events to help listeners understand difficult decision-making frameworks.
Silver remarked, “How do things like expected value or game theory affect the decisions that impact all of our lives?” Konnikova added, “When you play high-stakes poker you don’t just learn how to play cards, you learn how to think about the world. In Risky Business, we’ll help listeners understand this framework and learn to apply it to the decisions in their own lives.”