Podcast Revisits Election Predictions With Jon Ralston
The Tough Call's second episode, recorded in Las Vegas, examines trust in media and the reliability of election forecasting.
Updated on Nov. 7, 2026 in Gambling
PokerStars Ambassadors Maria Konnikova and James Hartigan released the second episode of their podcast The Tough Call on Election Day, featuring Jon Ralston, CEO and founder of The Nevada Independent. The 50-minute conversation, recorded in Las Vegas, covers trust, media, and election predictions.
Why it matters
The episode connects poker strategy with business and political decision-making, focusing on how stories and forecasts can mislead audiences. Ralston's incorrect predictions in the 2024 presidential election form part of the discussion about trust in media.
The full episode runs 50 minutes and is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Season one is planned as ten episodes released every Tuesday.
The players
Maria Konnikova
Maria Konnikova is a writer and PokerStars Ambassador who co-hosts The Tough Call and previously wrote for The New Yorker.
Jon Ralston
Jon Ralston is the CEO and founder of The Nevada Independent, a longtime political journalist known for his Nevada election coverage.
James Hartigan
James Hartigan is a PokerStars Ambassador and co-host of The Tough Call.
The details
Hosts Maria Konnikova and James Hartigan sat down with Jon Ralston in Las Vegas to discuss trust, media, and election predictions. Konnikova previously wrote a 2015 New Yorker piece titled "How Stories Deceive," and her former Risky Business co-host is Nate Silver.
Timeline
2015: Konnikova's New Yorker piece "How Stories Deceive" is published.
2024: Ralston makes incorrect presidential election predictions.
- 2026-11-04
Second episode is released on Election Day; Nevada midterms are held.
Every Tuesday: New episodes are released on this schedule.
Season Trajectory
The episode revisits Jon Ralston's incorrect 2024 presidential election predictions, placing the discussion of media trust alongside a recent forecasting miss. The conversation returns to the same theme Konnikova explored in her 2015 New Yorker essay on deceptive storytelling.
Listeners in Las Vegas and across Nevada can hear the discussion of local election forecasting in full. New episodes arrive each Tuesday, giving audiences a steady stream of conversations on media and politics.
The takeaway
Forecasts and headlines can shape perception as much as the underlying facts, so readers should weigh predictions against the evidence behind them. Listening critically to election coverage helps separate reliable reporting from confident but flawed projection.
Further reading
For more on the poker world's wider entertainment scene, explore Gambling coverage in Las Vegas.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Pokernews.
