Your Brain On Climate

We're reasonably good at imagining what nuclear war would be like (although it'd probably be even worse than that). 

But it's not the same for most other complicated, really really scary risks. Eg: the UK government is still not taking seriously the risk of another pandemic - and that's despite the fact we LITERALLY JUST HAD ONE, GUYS.  

And it's the same for climate change - with knobs on. For sure, our politicians, banks and cultures just aren't ready for the climate-clusterfudge. But if you're anything like me, there's a limit to how much of it you can take into your overloaded little brain as well. 

Why? Are we just not evolved for it? Are we doomed to sail merrily into a storm we don't want to see coming?  No, says this episode's guest, the fab Laurie Laybourn from the Strategic Climate Risk Initiative.  Yes, it's hard to wrap your head around. But Laurie thinks we're very far from doomed - as long as we first understand where we're actually starting from. Listen for a chat that's sometimes vertiginous, sometimes funny, and always inspiring. 

And you can't say you weren't warned, but here's Threads (1984) on iPlayer. 

These new-format episodes take a long time to record, script, and edit. If you like it - that'll make me happy. 

• Let me know your thoughts on the show - [email protected]. 
• Please rate, review and subscribe, and share the show on socials. 
• Please consider chucking this humble indie podcaster a few quid at www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. 

Owl noises = references: 

• 20:48 - Derailment risk: a paper by Laurie and others. 
• 25:50 - 58% of Americans say climate change contributed to the LA wildfires. 
• 26:12 - George Marshall's important book, Don't Even Think About It.
• 36:17 - Normalcy Bias over at the Decision Lab: why we believe nothing bad will happen. 
• 37:05 - Scope insensitivity, courtesy of Wiki. 
• 38:28 - Laurie's report, the Security Blind Spot. 
• 41:13 - The Daily Telegraph's investigation into the pandemic prep exercise too scary to publicise. 
• 41:42 - The UK's under preparedness for Covid, via the BBC. 
• 50:31 - Going Infinite, Michael Lewis's superb book about Sam Bankman-Fried. 
• 51:54 - In 2019 I quit my job live(ish) on Sustainababble #169. 

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Bluesky and X/Twitter, although I don't use the latter any more.

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me.  Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. Other music in this episode by Robertothenice. 

If you want someone to change their mind, it's best if they persuade themselves. And they're much more likely to do that if they actually *do* something new, rather than just pathetically feeling like they *should*.

There's nothing like getting yer metaphorical hands dirty to show you you can do things you never thought you could  - from bleeding radiators to leading climate marches. And everyday stories of people *doing stuff* are far more effective than simply telling people there's a climate crisis going on - so why don't we tell more of them?

This episode, welcome to the noggin and work of Kris de Meyer - neuroscientist, documentarian, and science communicator par excellence. Kris is the director of the UCL Climate Action Unit and one of the most requested guests for Your Brain on Climate. There ain't much about your brain that he doesn't know, so strap yourself in for some lessons in how minds really change.  Kris even has an answer to how come Dave ended up nearly getting nicked dressed as a beagle - and how societies drift slowly apart, one tiny step at a time. 

These new-format episodes take a long time to record, script, and edit. If you like it - that'll make me happy. 

• Let me know your thoughts on the show - [email protected]. 
• Please rate, review and subscribe, and share the show on socials. 
• Please consider chucking this humble indie podcaster a few quid at www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. 

Owl noises = references: 

• 06:22 - Here's Kris's TED talk about the pyramid ... 
• 06:40 - ... and here's his other one, 'Why we need to change how we talk about climate change'. 
• 08:50 - A nice little primer on the information deficit model. 
• 13:31 - I loved my chat with Anil Seth back in 2022. 
• 20:47 - Strong recommend for Will Storr's The Science of Storytelling. 
• 24:47 - The Single Action Bias, over at the always excellent Decision Lab. 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis. Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Bluesky and X/Twitter, although I don't use the latter any more.

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me.  Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. 

Common sense? Ain't nothing common about it.

Populists - like Donald Trump - love to appeal to  'common sense', while pushing ideas as contentious as they come.  But what does  Trump get right about how he talks to people about big ideas - and what can everyone else learn from it?   And what does all this mean for how to talk about something as complex and polarised as climate change?

In this episode I'm joined by Dr Dannagal Young, Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Delaware. Danna is the author of 'Wrong:  how Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation'.   We talk about her amazing work on the psychological underpinnings of political tribes, including how much any of us actually like to think about complicated things at all. 

These new-format episodes take a long time to record, script, and edit. If you like it - that'll make me happy. 

• Let me know your thoughts on the show - [email protected]. 
• Please rate, review and subscribe, and share the show on socials. 
• Please consider chucking this humble indie podcaster a few quid at www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. 

Owl noises = references: 

• 07:15 - Here's a paper by Danna about lay epistemology.
• 10:45 - Sophia Rosenfeld's book, Common Sense: A Political History 
• 12:17 - Wikipedia entry on Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
• 24:27 - Alex Bellos sets puzzles every week in the Guardian. 
• 25:58 - Want to measure your own need for closure? Check out the Kruglanski scale.  
• 44:25 - Awful lot of stuff written about using fear in climate messaging. Here's a decent piece from Scientists for Global Responsibility. 
• 47:28 - If you've liked this episode and you haven't read Kahneman's seminal Thinking Fast and Slow, you better get on it.  
• 52:09 - Numberphile2 on YouTube explains the Monty Hall problem (with visuals, which really helps). 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis. Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Bluesky and X/Twitter, although I don't use the latter any more.

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me.  Lots of other lovely bed music in this episode by Rockot.  Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. 

Is climate science 'neutral'? Should it be? Are humans even capable of being neutral about anything?

In this new-format episode, I dig into accusations that climate scientists risk undermining their work by going on climate marches. Can that really be true? Doesn't the scientific method speak for itself? And is it realistic to expect people to spend all day immersed in awful data, and NOT want to change the world afterwards?

I'm joined this episode by the fab Dr Lydia Messling, climate engagement expert and a very thoughtful and clever person. Lydia talks about her experiences in being told not to go on climate marches, and what she's learned about how climate scientists can be great public communicators.  And Lydia helps me understand the big big difference between being 'neutral' and being 'objective': while the former's probably impossible in science or life, the latter is the very heart of what makes science fab in the first place. 

This is a new type of episode that I hope will be the norm from now on. But it takes a lot longer to do. So if you want to see more like this, let me know - [email protected] and please do leave a review. And do please consider chucking a few quid at www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. 

Owl noises: 

• 08:12 - Lydia et al's Nature piece challenging the 'neutrality myth'... 
• 08:22 - which was a response to this Nature piece from Ulf Büntgen. 
• 12:25 - More on the BBC's change of tack on 'balance' in climate reporting, from the Guardian. 
• 13:20 - The thoroughly unedifying Climategate affair, 10 years on. 
• 15:46 - the audio here is from a great interview with Prof Brian Cox from Champion Speakers on Youtube. 
• 17:37 - Helen Douglas's 2009 book.
• 28:45 - Lydia's 8 tips for climate science communication. 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis. Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find  @powellds on Twitter. 

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me.  Other music in this episode by Daniel Cutter.  Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. 

When it gets hot, we all get a bit stroppy: think 'shouting at people on the internet' stroppy. But that's only the tip of the (melting) iceberg. Too much heat can trigger or make worse a range of mental health conditions. And what does climate change bring? More heat.  So what are the mental health implications of rising global temperatures? 

Joining Dave this episode is Dr Alessandro Massazza (X / LinkedIn) - Policy Advisor for United for Global Mental Health. Ale tells Dave all about what the science has to say about the very many ways getting too hot can fry your state of mind - and why it's time to give mental health a proper seat at the climate table. 

Owl noises: 

• 06:38 - Whole Body Hyperthermia as a treatment for depression - a metareview.  
• 07:57 - I meant the wet bulb, and we didn't explain what it is. 
• 08:38 - Schizophrenia as a key factor in heat deaths.  
• 11:00 - more on temperature vs asylum judges. 
• 13:31 - the links between poverty, depression and anxiety. 
• 16:51 - a review of ambient temperature (including humidity) and mental health
• 17:46 - the Lancet Countdown set of indicators on climate & health. 
• 18:53 - you must read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. it will radicalise you 
• 20:00 - more on the relationship between sleep loss and heat. 
• 22:26 - Looky at what trees do to cool streets down. 
• 35:04 - We've come across hyperobjects before, like in my chat with Jonathan Rowson. 
• 36:22 - How health framing boosts support for climate policies. 
• 42:35 - South Australian heat warning system & mental heath. 

I also mentioned at the end the study I'd read about a piece in the Times that conservative voters have larger fear centres (the amygdala). That's here.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis. Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find  @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Time. You work on a human timescale, but the planet doesn't.  Sometimes we can think long term but mostly real life gets in the way: but the decisions we collectively take will have a huge impact on life on Earth now, and for generations to come. 

What are the biases that peg us to short term thinking? How can we shift our perspective to the day after tomorrow, and how can that help everyday life? And what do pigeons have to do with it? 

Joining Dave this episode is Ella Saltmarshe, Director of the Long Time Project and co-founder of Internarratives. She's also the host of the Long Time Academy podcast and a general all round nice egg.  We talk about how to be a good ancestor, and yes: how to talk to pigeons. 

Owl noises: 

• 14:25 - Here's present bias in a nutshell. 
• 20:55 - a New York Times article by Seligman about Homo Prospectus. 
• 28:40 - Decca Aitkenhead's Times article on taking smartphones off her kids.  
• 29:02 - Jonathan Haidt's campaign to stop kids having smartphones.  
• 38:46 - Artist Katie Paterson.  
• 39:51 - A Guardian review of Martin MacInnes's In Ascension. 
• 40:20 - Here's the Marshmallow Laser Feast collective, including Treehugger.   
• 43:48 - The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Imagination Infrastructures project. 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

You are so much more lucky than you think, even if you think you're not.

Most of us are dead proud of the good things we've done, and we tell ourselves how hard we have worked and how much we deserve it. But unfortunately we don't. This also works the other way round: we are never as much to blame for our 'failures' as we think.

Thing is most things in life are down to luck: not just whether you win the lottery or meet the perfect person, but deeper stuff. Like who your parents were and where (and when) you were born.  That's a big idea to get your head around and it runs counter to most things our society tells us. And it's as true about climate change as anything else - what it means to us, and how important we think it is. 

Joining Dave this episode are Will Snell and Anita Sangha from the Fairness Foundation.  They talk all about their brilliant and challenging report, Rotten Luck. You'll never look the same way at someone down on their luck again.

Owl noises:
— 14:23 - Branko Milanovic says here “80% of your income can be explained by the two factors of your country of birth (60%) and your parents’ income position (20%)”. 

— 19:38 - Just World Theory, courtesy of the excellent Decision Lab. 

— 31:02 - Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future: “chilling yet hopeful”. 

— 36:18 - The Welsh Well-being of Future Generations Act is here. 

— 36:49 - all rise for the UN’s Summit of the Future, September 2024. 

— 40:45 - Over to Wiki for more on luck egalitarianism (or read Will’s report). 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Well you SAY you care about climate change, but you don't, do you? There's you, driving a car (!!!)  or not putting that plastic bottle in the recycling (!!!!!).  There's you, saying you value the planet, but acting like you JUST DON'T CARE.

You and me and everyone else. The gulf between our values and actions is large you could drive an SUV through it.  This is the 'values action gap'. Closing it is the stated aim of just about all behavioural science and climate campaigns and all the rest of it. But it is evidently bloody hard. Because although most people say they care about the planet, the plastic and the carbon emissions and the dead stuff keeps on piling up.   So what is the values action gap all about, and how do we actually leap it? 

Joining Dave this week is Dr Gail Hochachka from the University of British Columbia in Canada.  She explains her brilliant research which picks apart the values action gap in all its complexity, and gives us abundant reasons to be cheerful: perhaps the gap isn't as large as all that.  Gail's paper on the gap (referenced throughout) is here.

Owl noises:

--  12:28: This owl is a plug for Gail's paper, linked above.
--  13:16: We've talked about hyperobjects on YBOC before, can't remember where. Read this.
-- 49:52: Gail has a fantastic new initiative, SALT.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Mindfulness: a technique for training your brain to reflect on what it thinks and why.  It can help us make smarter decisions, and can even get the House of Commons to stop shouting at each other quite so much.  Magic! But can it save the planet? 

Today's guest is Jamie Bristow, co-founder of the Mindfulness Initiative - an amazing organisation bringing the technique to the heart of policy and parliament.  Jamie's trained MPs on skills of compassion and self-reflection, and thinks (as do I) that we could all benefit hugely from a bit more time spent thinking about thinking.   He's also part of the team that's devised the Inner Development Goals.

We talk about Jamie's report - Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out - a compelling and comprehensive guide to how mindfulness can help society change how we live on planet Earth.   

**EDIT: In introducing Jamie I wrongly say he started the mindfulness programme in the UK parliament. He didn't, he founded the associated institute. Jamie's asked me to correct that - happy to. *** 

Owl noises:

--  13:40:  a short video in which Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about homo-sapiens-sapiens.
-- 18:12: the Reconnection... report is linked above.
--  28:45: if you've never read The Unbearable Automaticity of Being, you should.
-- 37:55:  the Apolitical Foundation's Mere Mortals report.
-- 41:58: A nice primer on Bob Kegan's levels of human development work.
-- 48:38: The excellent Common Cause  is a good place to read about intrinsic v extrinsic values.
-- 51:55: I was going to link to some stuff I found on google about nature connectedness but you can google it yourself. Instead a plug for my chat with Lauren Hall Ruddell about this very thing.
-- 53:16: Ian McGilchrist is a very clever man. I'm reading his The Master & His Emissary right now.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Or: how chinwags can save the world.

Imagine I could give you a superpower. The ability to make people trust you who currently don't. To help them change their own mind, on their own terms. And to maybe even heal society, perhaps just a little bit. WELL I CAN. It's called 'having a grown up conversation', and it's perhaps the most underrated thing we can all do about climate change.

Joining me to talk about all things chatting, nattering and deep canvassing is the charming Alex Evans, founder and director of the charity Larger Us.  We (yes) have a conversation about the best ways to have a good ol' chinwag, why we're all shouting at each other more, and the psychology behind why we perhaps we don't disagree anywhere near as much as we might think.

Plenty owl noises this week:
--  05:19: Climate Outreach's Britain Talks Climate research toolkit, which is fab in which I have precisely no vested interest whatsoever.
-- 11:18: Dave Fleischer's TED Talk about deep canvassing.
-- 15:23: George Marshall's brilliant book, Don't Even Think About It.
-- 23:55: Bill Bishop came up with the Big Sort idea back in 2004.
-- 28:00: Hannah Arendt on totalitarianism, via Wiki.
-- 30:52: Bobby Duffy's Divided Britain report.
-- 36:30: Oil and gas workers team up with greenies.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

So much of our silly short lives is spent chasing after trophies or money or glory. Success!

But it's never really enough. We just want more trophies and more more money and one day we die and so does everything else, the end. As a culture, we've got success wrong.

Today's guest says we should instead see success as learning to lose ourselves in things - whether that's playing the piano, or sport, or listening to jolly interesting podcasts.  Pursuing, and cherishing, a flow state - the only state in which we are truly contented. And perhaps if we all did that a bit more, we might bugger up the planet a little less.

Simon Mundie is a BBC sports reporter, host of the magnificent The Life Lessons Podcast, and author of the new book Champion Thinking: How to Find Success Without Losing Yourself.  He's had just about every sports star you can think of on his show, and has learned more than just one book's worth of wisdom about what success really means, from those who've chased it, won it, and lost it.

Owl noises:
-- 12:48 - you can find Simon's episode with Caitlin Jenner here, and here's some words about it.
-- 21:14 - Goldie Sayers chucks it long.
-- 44:17 - Dacher Keltner's stuff on awe. I'll get him on here one day. 

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Frazzled? Go for a walk in the woods. It'll calm you down, fill your nose with lovely smells, and reset your eyes to room temperature. But why?  According to today's guest, humans evolved to need to chill out in natural environments. It gives us nice chemicals like serotonin, is good for long term mental health, and generally resets our stress alarms. This is the idea of Biophilia, and it's rather nice.

Joining Dave this episode is Dr Lauren Hall Ruddell - a  journalist and naturalist  who has spent many years thinking  about the restorative power of being in nature.  We talk about all things biophilic, and how losing the nature we evolved to need is one of the biggest tragedies of the climate crisis.

The opening poem thingy is an extract from "A Transparent Eyeball" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, read by Ruth Everett.

Owl noises:
-- 08:43 - Attention Restoration Theory - a fascinating, still-developing field which posits that being in nature can restore your, well, attention.
-- 12:12 - Default Mode Network - the surprisingly large amount of brain activity that goes on when you're not thinking about anything in particular.
-- 18:53 - Savannah Theory crops up in this interesting article about why so many companies put pot plants all over their offices.
-- 19:40 - Cows face north!

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.  

Some people think climate science is made up.  This annoys other people.  But calling each other dullards is unhelpful, and it misses the deeper questions. What determines who and what we trust, including science?  And what can be done to make people and politics - particularly, Lord help us all, American politics - a bit less squabbly about it all?

Joining Dave this episode is Laur Hesse Fisher, programme director for MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative. Laur's an expert in climate science communications that bridge political divides, which sounds like a very useful person to be.   She's also the host of TILClimate.  Listen. It's good.

Owl noises:
-- 15:22: Elke U Weber's 2006 paper on psychological distancing is here.
-- 16:25: Far be it from me to blow my own trumpet, but I once interviewed that Katharine Hayhoe on Sustainababble...
-- 32:38: Find out more about Americans being alarmed about climate change, via Yale.
-- 34:37: Your political identity is a form of group attachment, it says here.
-- 38:16: ... Toot toot! And here's my Sustainababble interview with the fabulous Naomi Oreskes.
-- 43:47: important, un-great news: the Gen Z gender / ideological gap.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

WE need to take action on climate change. WE need a revolution. WE need to unite and tackle the problem. Etc.  But who is this "we"? 

Politicians and campaigners love to invoke it. It has powerful rhetorical force. But does this confusing "we" give us any sense of what each of us can actually do? Is it a linguistic problem or something more profound about how our brains think about collective agency? And how the heck do "we" actually go from not doing enough, to doing so?

Joining Dave to talk about all things "we" and collective agency is Jonathan Rowson. He's CEO and founder of Perspectiva, a charity working on the relationship between system, souls and society. He is also an author and a  chess grandmaster (who once thrashed Dave at chess while being interviewed).

Owl noises:
--  15:01 -  Jonathan's Substack piece that prompted this interview.
-- 18:46 - The United Nations High Seas treaty.
-- 22:05 - More from Jonathan on the metacrisis.
-- 27:08 - Hyperobjects.
-- 29:07 - Off topic it may be, but here's the Jeavons paradox.
-- 29:43 - A chat between Jonathan and John Vervaeke about the agent in the arena.
-- 37:42 - I chatted to Rupert Read about the Climate Majority Project a few episodes back.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

Are we responsible for how we behave? If so, should we feel bad about it? And if the answer to those two is 'yes' and 'yes' respectively, how do we change our behaviour?  How much of 'behaviour change' is about nudging or encouraging individuals to change, versus how much is banning bad things and making good things easier and cheaper?  And are simple answers stupid? (Spoiler: yes.)

Joining Dave this month is the esteemed Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE. Lorraine is Prof of Environmental Psychology at the University of Bath, UK, and runs the Centre for Climate and Social Transformations (CAST).  She's an expert in a hundred thousand things, several of which help her know how to change our behaviour and whose job it is.

Owl noises:
--  07:34 - The Climate Change Committee advises  the UK government on, er, climate change. It says about 60% of emissions cuts to come require behaviour change in some form.  You might also like this report Lorraine wrote for them about how to do that.
-- 20:25 - An excellent primer on nudging from the Decision Lab.  And at 25:18, here's them on sludging.
-- 24:01 - The Austrian nudging experiment.
-- 32: 24: Fly lots? Pay disproportionately more tax. Here's the Frequent Flyer Levy idea.
-- 43:17: Lessons from Covid for climate, from CAST.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

Try running for a few miles, and then a few miles more, and then several hundred few miles more. That's proper endurance that is, the kind demonstrated regularly by Damian Hall: ultrarunner, climate activist, author, and all-round lovely chap.  He's the holder of the men's record for the 268-mile Spine Race, so he knows a thing or two about keeping going when things look grim.   And when it comes to climate change, heaven knows we need a bit of that.

What can running very long distances teach us about perseverance despite increasingly grim climate news? What has Damian learned about climate activism from running up mountains all day long? And is running REALLY as bad for the planet as Formula 1? (Spoiler: no).
 
Damian is the co-founder of the Green Runners. Run? Join.

Owl noises:
--  Race owls: 07:20 - the Spine Race;  19:38 - the Barkley Marathons. 20:29 - UTMB.
--  26:37 - here's Michael Mann on Twitter, and if you want to hear Dave nattering with Katherine Hayhoe, you're in luck.
-- 28:45 - herewith all of Damian's books.
-- 36:36 - in case you missed it, what Rishi did.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

The climate crisis needs all the ideas and imagination it can get. But today's guest says that liberalism - the system many of us live in, which cherishes individual freedom above pretty much all else - is a straitjacket on our imaginations, and our ability to think and act big. If it really is harder to imagine the death of capitalism than the end of all life on Earth, does that explain why most visions of the future are so, well, crap? 
 
Joining Dave this ep is Dr Christopher Shaw, author of 'Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change'.  Chris has a very large brain and tells us why the rules of the system we live in have a huge influence on how we think about what's possible. Follow him on twitter @kalahar1.

Owl noises:
-- 10.01: One of the people credited with the phrase is the late Mark Fisher in his very influential (including I bet on Chris) Capitalist Realism.
-- 11.34: Not cheery, but here's more in Science about the transgression of six of the nine planetary boundaries.
-- 15.47: Chris means Hope in the Dark, a book I commend to you in the strongest possible terms.
-- 32.35: Freud and his repression. For plenty more on Freud, check out episode 11 with Dr Aaron Balick.
-- 40:44: The shortcut to Chris's Twitter thread.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

Our ideas about climate change are filtered through layers of Stuff, and for us in the West quite a lot of that Stuff is inseparable from being gits to other countries for centuries.  We've nabbed land, exploited populations and perhaps most enduringly of all, seen the world as basically being for 'us' to do with as we want. That Stuff dies hard, and, this episode's guest argues, shapes how we think even about what climate change is, never mind how and in whose interests to solve it.

Joining Dave this ep is Dr Ayesha Siddiqi, lecturer in human geography at the University of Cambridge. Ayesha's a postcolonial geographer, which means she 1) is clever and 2) understands how the impacts of things like climate change overlap with legacies of politics, power and security.  Most usefully of all for this episode at least, she talks warmly and accessibly about the need to decolonise research and the Western framing of climate change. So: learn stuff.

Owl noises:
-- 06:33 - the wet bulb test, and why it's scary.
-- 40:40 - the Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, and why Matthews have it even easier than Daves.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me, and I twiddle all the production knobs too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

The death of everything: no ROFLing matter. Right?  Well probably yes. But can chuckles save the planet?  Does laughing at humans being silly confused bags of water help the climate fight or take the heat out of it? And just why is so much climate comedy, well, crap?

Joining Dave this episode is a right proper comedy mastermind, Stuart Goldsmith.  Stuart's spent aeons both behind the mic as a stand-up, and peering at other comics via interviews in his legendary The Comedian's Comedian podcast. He's drunk heavily from the comedy well, and knows more about the art (science? craft?) of rib-tickling than just about anyone.   And - [applause, cheers] - Stuart now reckons he might spend the rest of his career doing comedy about climate change, such is his commitment to the cause.

See Stuart's show  Spoilers at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer.

Owl noises:
-- 11:11 - The rule of three in comedy. 
-- 12:33 - This really is a most excellent, warm and wise interview with John Lloyd from the folks at Rebel Wisdom.
-- 13:23 - Here's a TED talk - Why We Laugh - off of Professor Sophie Scott.
-- 27:24 - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's climate Venn diagram.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me, and I twiddle all the production knobs too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.   

You can't handle the truth! Or maybe you can. But does the truth set us free, or bum us out? Do we all have a duty to say it like we see it - particularly on things we're not seeing clearly enough, like climate change?  How much honesty can our flimsy little brains bear?

Joining Dave this episode is Dr Rupert Read.  He's an academic, author, agitator and activist, and used to be one of Extinction Rebellion's biggest thinkers and strategists. As well as a new book - 'Do You Want To Know The Truth - the surprising rewards of climate honesty' - he's launching the Climate Majority Project to help everyday people talk more honestly about the climate crisis. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenRupertRead.

Owl noises:
-- 18:09 - El Niño doesn't sound like fun.
-- 32:58 - Rupert's call for a 'moderate flank'.
-- 34:36 - Do check out the work of Larger Us. Cool stuff.
-- 37:37 - A chewy chat with colossal-brained Daniel Schmachtenberger about the 'war on sense-making'.

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency.  Contact the show:  @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].

Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.

The show is hosted by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter.  Original music by me, and I twiddle all the production knobs too.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.