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. We're about a month out now from what promises to be a historic election and what might become a

historically chaotic election. Before Donald Trump tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus,

he refused, in a presidential debate, to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost.

Now his diagnosis has plunged things even further into uncertainty.

The question that is preoccupying me is not just the health of the president, but the health

of our democracy.

How worried should we really be about the pressures that are currently being put on our electoral

system and our capacity to transfer power? To discuss this, we are joined by one of the most

renowned scholars of democracy in the world, and someone whose work has deeply, deeply

influenced my own throughout my career.

That's Adam Chivorsky.

He's a professor emeritus at New York University.

He was the 2010 recipient of the Skype Prize,

which has been nicknamed the Nobel Prize for Political Scientists.

...