In this episode of the People Who Read People podcast, I interview Dr. Jennifer McCoy (her Twitter), a specialist in political polarization, democracy creation and destruction, and mediation. She has authored or edited six books and dozens of articles, and has acted as mediator in 2002 in Venezuala after a failed coup again Hugo Chavez. Her latest work is Polarizing Polities: A Global Threat to Democracy, co-edited with Murat Somer (2019).
I talk to Dr. McCoy about what she views as the psychological and emotional forces behind extreme political polarization, how the United States is similar or different from other countries that have unraveled due to extreme polarization, and what might be done to solve these issues.
Transcript of the interview is at bottom of this page.
Links to this episode:
Topics discussed include: