So, Aaron, how you feeling?

Max, I'm feeling like I found out that my cat died because half of the country voted to kill it?

Well, you know what I do when I'm stressed about my country electing a far-right authoritarian?

Catamine.

Not at work.

When I am anxious about something, I read up on it.

Everything I can find.

Understanding it just makes it less

scary to me. It works for root canals, medical scares, and yeah, you know, whatever just happened

to our country. That works for root canals for you? That would make it so much worse. Okay, Max,

I kind of do the same thing, except before I get to the find out everything I can phase,

I kind of Marie condondo, my wardrobe.

And related, is there any chance you want some Circa 2012 infinity scarves?

Well, this week, listeners, we are putting our neuroses to work and doing the late night exit pole

doom scroll so you don't have to. We are absorbing every data point we can find to try to get some

wisdom on what just happened. Yes, we are absorbing data, not ketamine. Speak for yourself, Max.

I'm Max Fisher. I'm Aaron Ryan, and this is how we got here, a series where we explore a big

question behind the week's headlines and tell a story

that answers that question. Our question this week, what can we learn about America, its political

trajectory, and why it voted for Trump from the election data? One caveat before we get into it,

we're going to be citing numbers from a few different sources. One of those is exit polls, which can be

notoriously unreliable. They are polls, after all. You may remember, for example, the 2016

...