Nate Silver (538) & Sam Wang (Princeton Election Consortium) were on NPR today

[mshan]

Audio: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=163245520&m=163245505

Ms. Jay Sheckley // Oct 19, 2012 at 2:56 pm

Glad to learn how your name is said. I _suspected_ she’d asked… So, I culdnt hear what Nate of the President’s chances, though of course as a 538 refugee I’m more interested to know- Did you say 8 out of 9??

I’m happy with watching all the charts. This is a gift for Dad. He’s 85.

Sam Wang // Oct 19, 2012 at 3:59 pm

I believe he said 70-30. I said 9-1, or 90-10. I offered him odds. Gambling nerd humor.


PEC: http://election.princeton.edu/2012/10/19/welcome-npr-listeners/#more-7742

538: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2266842

 

[mshan]

Humorous side note on Nate Silver:

"Silver, 34, grew up in East Lansing, Mich., where his mother, Sally, was active in local politics, and his father, Brian, chaired the political science department at Michigan State. His own sports career was undistinguished, but in midget baseball he quickly figured out that kids his age threw strikes no better than he could hit.

"I basically never swung at anything," he says.

"I had something like a .600 on-base percentage."


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1205991/index.htm

(article also says he dabbled as a professional poker player and made $400,000 that way over 3 years)