In this episode of Tent Talks,  I speak with professor Michael Morrell about the nature of democracy. Dr. Morrell is currently a political science professor at the University of Connecticut.  He received his PhD in political science from Arizona State University in 1998.   Here I speak with Dr. Morrell about a range a different topics related to democracy, including the question of whether democracy has epistemic value, the distinction between deliberative democracy and agonistic democracy, the effect that social media is having on democratic discourse, the connection between empathy and democracy, the recent rise of populist politics in the United States, and the nature of contemporary political polarization in America.  Find Professor Morrell’s book (entitled Empathy and Democracy: Feeling, Thinking, and Deliberation) at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Empathy-Democracy-Feeling-Thinking-Deliberation/dp/0271036605