Democracy may be one of the best things that humans have ever done, but what are our chances of keeping it? In today’s episode we’ll watch Plato go head-to-head with Norman Rockwell, analyze a graph, check in with Barbara Kingsolver and a Martian, and … learn what hope there is for our beleaguered democracies.

This is episode two of our four-part series on democracy. I Heart This, everybody. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love.

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_%28painting%29

Graph: Autocracy and Democracy by Country

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/countries-democracies-autocracies-row

For more on humanity's democratic origins check out:

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader on Hunter-Gatherer Economics and the Environment. Ed. John Gowdy

The Dawn of Everything. by Graeber and Wengrow

Ishmael. by Daniel Quinn