Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examined an unmistakable turning point in American

politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most

controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present

moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on theHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From Pushkin Industries, this is Deep Background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news.

I'm Noah Feldman. On Saturday, we'll be continuing our special series, Bench about the rightward turn of the Supreme Court.

But today, in the midst of an election season, we thought we should still deliver a regular deep background episode to you.

We're about two weeks out from the presidential election now.

And in most polls, it looks like Biden has a serious lead.

I don't know about you, but I don't pay much attention to the polls until I do.

And I've entered that phase of the election where I can't quite help myself, like a guilty

pleasure or maybe a non-pleasure.

I keep stealing back to the websites

to see what the polls say. Can we trust the polls that are out there? What have pollsters learned

from recent experiences, including the 2016 election? And what methods do they use to get the results that we see when we look online?

Here to discuss these questions with us is Anthony Salvanto. He is the Elections and Surveys

Director at CBS News, which puts him in charge of one of the most significant operations

doing polling and calling elections in the country. He's also the author of the most significant operations doing polling and calling elections in the country.

He's also the author of the book, Where Did You Get This Number, a pollster's Guide to Making Sense of

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