I'm Maria Konnikova. And I'm Nate Silver. And our new podcast, Risky Business, is a show about making better decisions. We're both journalists who moonlight as poker players. And that's the lens we're going to use to approach this entire show. We're going to be discussing everything from high-stakes poker to personal questions. Like whether I should call a plumber or fix my shower myself. And of course,

we'll be talking about the election too. Listen on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you listen to podcasts. I know it's election season and it's huge win and taxes and spending and there's all kinds of things going on in the government right now.

I know all that and they are important things. I am not dismissive of anything that's happening.

It's fun. It's good. It's

exciting. I'm watching. You're watching. But let's remember. That's what this special is about

remembering what is important and what will save us in the long run. You see, if you have a brain

tumor, God forbid, but if you have a brain tumor and the brain tumor

grows to a big enough size, you are going to begin getting headaches, obviously. It has a big

mass growing in your brain. You're going to begin getting headaches. And headaches suck. I'm not

dismissive of headaches. And you can take things

to get the pain gone, but that doesn't actually save you in the long run. In the long run,

headache or not, you have to remove the tumor. We have elections, and elections do matter.

I'm not dismissive of them in the same way.

I'm not dismissive of the headache.

It's good, fine, that we have a sane administration.

We'll get better here and better there,

and these things do matter.

But in the long run, it's not this politician

or that politician or this bill or that border wall

that can and will save this country.

In the long run, what will save this country is the same thing that has saved many a country

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