Your Brain On Climate

Dave Powell

A show about climate change and climate psychology. But sideways. Explore human brains doing amazing or awful things, learn why, then see what it means for the planet.

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72 episodes
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Episodes72

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Sep 29, 2025 · 11 min
Change Blindness
Climate change: fast in a geological sense, but slow in a second-by-second human-perception sense. Our brains stop paying attention to things that change (relatively) slowly. This is 'change blindness' - and it's why we need laws and leadership that prioritise our shifting climate, because our brains struggle to. In this MICRO episode, a snippet of my 2022 chat with neuroscientist and author, Professor Anil Seth. You can listen to the full interview here or in the back catalogue. Please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.
Sep 16, 2025 · 59 min
Fear of Death, with Molly Conisbee
I'm afraid that you are going to die. Sorry. You can imagine afterlives and amass great hordes of wealth, but you're still made of human stuff, and thus will die. Humanity's inability to get its head around this most inconvenient of truths is probably behind most of the silly pointless stuff we do, from rampant consumption to wars to spaceships to conjuring up Gods. Joining me on this episode of Your Brain on Climate is Molly Conisbee - author of No Ordinary Deaths, a social history of how we've lived and died through the generations. Molly says we can learn a huge amount about how societies choose to live by how they deal with death - and why coming to terms with the fact that we will all (probably) cark it might lead us to do better by the climate in the here and now. We learn how our relationship with death, the afterlife, and messy mortality, has changed hugely over the years. When we're ever more botoxed and scared of aging, and billionaire-backed scientists are actively trying to cure death, are we running ever more away from the most human - and beautiful - thing of all? Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 28:07. God on the rise with young people. 29.09. Yougov tracked people's belief in ghosts etc. 30.07. Roger Clark's Natural History of Ghosts. 34.51. Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday. 39.12. A wiki on Ernest Becker's Denial (not Fear!) of Death. 56:40. Make a death / memory box, The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. You can follow the show on instagram @yourbrainonclimate, and I occasionally put up a Substack. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.
Aug 29, 2025 · 10 min
Optimism Bias
Thing about humans is, we like to look on the bright side of life. Without optimism, we'd not have evolved out of the trees in the first place. Our species has optimism bias. But we're all different, and some of us are a little bit too wired to be over-optimistic - and vice versa. This has big impacts for the messages we see about climate change. In this MICRO episode, a snippet of my forthcoming chat with Professor Geoff Beattie. What did he learn when he put optimistic and pessimistic people in an eye tracker and got them to read bits of text about the state of the planet? OWL NOISE: Read more about Geoff's brilliant work on optimism here. Please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.
Aug 17, 2025 · 50 min
Climate Violence, with Peter Schwartzstein
Climate change sucks, not least when it causes violence - which it does more than you'd think. In a hundred ways it can add stress and trauma to brains already under huge pressure, and when that's all finally a bit much - well, the worse demons of our nature can, and do, come out. Grim. But are we doomed? Does it have to be like that? Can environmental peacebuilding turn climate violence into an engine of cooperation? Or is human nature a more powerful force when the chips are down, which they increasingly are? Joining me this episode is environmental journalist Peter Schwartzstein. We discuss his remarkable book of reportage from the world's climate and confrontational hotspots - The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence - and what lies behind his termite theory of climate violence. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 15:33. Peter's piece for Columbia Journalism Review about how climate change is scuppering climate journalism. 16:43. A review of Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker. 21:09. Alessandro Massazza joined me last year, discussing climate change & mental heat. 39:15. Steven Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. You can follow the show on instagram @yourbrainonclimate, and I occasionally put up a Substack. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.
Jul 30, 2025 · 11 min
Laughing Matter
Comedy opens the mind and helps us cope with the sheer strangeness of being alive. But is climate change a suitable topic for comedy? In this micro episode of Your Brain on Climate, I chat to Stuart Goldsmith - stand-up par excellence and host of the Comedian's Comedian podcast - about what he's learned from trying to to do jokes about the state of the planet. If you liked this episode, here's the full chat with Stuart from back in 2023. I use a clip from Stuart's set on Live at the Apollo earlier this year. Please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.
Jul 13, 2025 · 59 min
Parenting in the Climate Crisis, with Nina Alexandersen and Sophia Cheng
How should you bring up baby in the age of climate breakdown? Should you tell them what's happening or not? And given how messed up is the planet we're passing on - is it even fair to *have* kids? In a YBOC first this episode is a 3-way chat. Dave meets Nina Alexandersen and Sophia Cheng - respectively someone who became a climate activist through fear for her kid's future, and someone whose activism made them very ambivalent about becoming a mum, until something changed. We talk about all things motherhood and parenthood - like what it does to your brain, and whether you still have as much time to care about things like climate change. And we discuss people who don't want to have kids because of the state of the planet: are they doing the right thing, or missing out on something core to being human? See here for some of Sophia's project's stories of motherhood in a crisis, as discussed in the show. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 18:57: More on matrescence. And 19:09: Matrescence, including Lucy Jones, in Time Magazine. 20:02: Lucy Jones wrote a brilliant book about foxes. 23:33: The (wrong) finite pool of worry hypothesis talked about in this from Vox. And 24.57: Sisco et al take apart the finite pool of worry idea. 26.15: Steve Akehurst discusses the importance of keeping climate in the news. 29:10: A discussion of Joanna Macy's Three Dimensions of the Great Turning. 38:55: Jo McAndrews's work. 45:55: Alice Brown, then of the Birthstrike movement, on Sustainababble. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. You can follow the show on instagram @yourbrainonclimate, and I occasionally put up a Substack. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.
Jun 13, 2025 · 58 min
Somewhere, with Karl Dudman
We vote in our self interest, right? So how come people living on islands disappearing because of climate change - and they know it - keep voting for Donald Trump? The answer to that goes to the heart of our climate politics. But it also tells us something very important about how different people think about climate change and what should be done about it, even when they can see it literally killing the place they love. This episode is a fascinating chat with anthropologist Dr Karl Dudman. He talks all about his time spent with the unique communities of Down East, North Carolina - a fiercely proud, strongly Republican, and very maritime patch of the US Coast. Karl explains with empathy how Down Easterners talk about the sea level rises, hurricanes and changing fishing patterns that feels like the last straw in a community whose centuries-old identity is falling apart. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 04:33 - Karl's brilliant blog on the Conversation. 07:53 - Yale's climate opinion maps. 09:33 - Google Maps link to Down East, as if you can't find it yourself. 23:48 - Miranda Fricker's epistemic injustice. 33:34 - Danna Young's appearance on YBOC. 34:18 - more on affective & negative polarisation 40:19 - the original paper on solastalgia by Glenn Albrecht et al. 40:55 - Arlie Russell Hochschild's majestic Strangers In Their Own Land 41:23 - OK I can't find a great link for the aesthetics of embodiment. A bloke explained it to me. 42:40 - Revisionist History episode on country vs rock music. 44:04 - some stuff about methodological symmetry in here. 51:25 - my chat on YBOC with Jonathan Rowson. 52:17 - the not uncontroversial original essay by David Goodhart on somewheres vs anywhere. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. You can follow the show on instagram @yourbrainonclimate, and I occasionally put up a Substack. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.
May 30, 2025 · 9 min
Kill All Pests
I'm out in the garden looking for that pile of jobby I found the other day, and it made me think back to my chat in episode 17 with Erica McAlister all about flies (and fleas). Erica is the London Natural History Museum's expert on all things dipeteric (flies) and siphonapteric (fleas), and an extremely funny and nice person too. Reaching for that fly-killer? WAIT A MINUTE. Must we call kill all pests? (Must we even think of them as pests in the first place?) If you like the show please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate. YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. Poo definitely not by Maggie cat.
May 11, 2025 · 57 min
Bullsh*t, with Mike Berners-Lee
An episode all about the subtle art of talking bollocks. We live in a golden age of bullshit. It can seem that our politics is riddled with it. Corporate climate communications are drenched in it. And despite the looming eco-crisis, perhaps our own brains are too. In this episode, Dave meets author Mike Berners-Lee to chew over his new book, A Climate of Truth. It's a brilliant balance of home truths about the state of things, with unputdownable optimism that humanity can - and must - do better. What distinguishes glorious bullshit from mere lying? How do we get more honesty about the state of the world into our politics and our own lives? And in the age of Trump and Boris, how realistic is it to hope that any of this will change in time to face up to, and head off climate disaster? All this, and Macavity the cat too. If you liked this episode, check out episode 19 on Honesty, with Rupert Read. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 14:34 - Harry Frankfurt's 1986 'On Bullshit', later turned into a book. 18:55 - Quassam Cassim's brilliant term, 'epistemic insouciance'. 21:22 - the Political Lies website: Boris and much more. 25:13 - in case you don't still remember, here's what naughty Volkswagen did. 25:39 - the always superb You Are Not So Smart podcast, here talking about that study that showed you prefer sharing fake news that makes you look good. 34:10 - Julian Kirchherr's paper on bullshit in sustainability literature. 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.
Apr 27, 2025 · 11 min
You Disgust Me
In this bite-sized edition we look back at perhaps my favouritest episode ever - episode 9 about disgust, with Yoel Inbar. We all have a gag reflex. But when we find people - like polluters - disgusting, are we feeing *actually* disgusted, or is it just a metaphor? What about how we might feel about things like climate change itself? Does it make us want, literally, to vom? If you like the show please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. 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.
Apr 16, 2025 · 59 min
Cognitive Dissonance, with Sarah Stein Lubrano
An episode all about cognitive dissonance. Ever feel like there are two yous in the same head? The one that cares about the planet, and the one that doesn't act like it does? And that having two yous makes at least one of your yous freak out? You (and you) are not alone. Welcome to cognitive dissonance. As Walt Whitman wrote: you contain multitudes. It's a feature, not a bug, of being alive. Humans, it turns out, are very good at thinking conflicting things at the same time. This helps us get through the day, but means we're as likely to run away from scary facts we don't like - eg, the state of planet Earth - as to take meaningful action. It's as bad for our politics as it is for getting our heads around climate change. What's to be done? In this episode, Dave chats all things cognitive dissonance and more with the brilliant Sarah Stein Lubrano. Sarah's an author, podcaster and academic whose work is at the intersection of psychology, politics, and cognitive science. Her new book, Don't Talk About Politics: How to change 21st century minds, is out in mid-May. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 23:52 - Joseph Henrich coined the term WEIRD & wrote a book about it. 32:30 - Excellent article on Kristin Laurin's work studying bans. 42:44 - Deep organising, via the legend that was Jane McAlevey. 49:29 - Google Deepmind founder Mustafa Suleyman's terrifying book, the Coming Wave. 52:35 - critical theory and social pathology. Clips in this episode are from the (er) 1984 film of 1984, starring Robert Burton and John Hurt. 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.
Mar 28, 2025 · 9 min
Running Up That Hill
In this YBOC microdose, a hark back to my inspirational chat with ultrarunner and climate activist Damian Hall, who dispensed his wisdom about how to keep up the slog - advice that's as useful for changing the world as it is for running up that hill. Sorting climate change is the definition of a marathon, not a sprint. It particularly feels that way right now. What we need is ENDURANCE, and plenty of it - and the right perspective to keep on keeping on. For the full chat, check out episode 23 here. If you like the show please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. 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.
Mar 10, 2025 · 53 min
Confirmation Bias, with Adam Harris
Or: why we all hear what we want to hear, and disregard the rest. Confirmation bias is hardwired into human brains, and without it we'd never get through our day. But it doesn't half get us - and the planet - into trouble sometimes. In this episode Dave learns all about confirmation bias from the splendid Professor Adam Harris off of University College London. Learn about how casinos make their cash, why lefties should read righty-press sometimes, why confirmation bias once caused a plane to crash into a massive volcano, and why climate deniers and activists alike could all benefit from being a bit more like a fox. 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 - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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: 14:40 - Metacognition 26:29 - Bounded (/Adaptive) Rationality 44:48 - Philip Tetlock / Foxes vs Hedgehogs 46:38 - Pilots (still) report confirmation bias 48:38 - Mussweiler et al / Consider the Opposite 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.
Feb 27, 2025 · 9 min
The Conservative Lag
Why is social change so hard - particularly right now? Part of the reason lies in pluralistic ignorance - the social phenomena that helps to explains everything from imposter syndrome to slow progress on climate change. In this micro episode, we explore a nugget of insight from Professor Deborah Prentice - currently vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and at the time of our chat back in 2021, provost of Princeton. What is pluralistic ignorance, and how does it lead to a 'conservative lag' in society? For the full chat, check out episode 6 here. If you like the show please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. 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.
Feb 10, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
(Getting Your Head Around) the End of the World, with Laurie Laybourn
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 - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.
Jan 12, 2025 · 56 min
Stories of Action, with Kris de Meyer
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 - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.
Dec 1, 2024 · 52 min
Common Sense, with Dannagal Young
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 - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.
Oct 30, 2024 · 45 min
Are Scientists Ever Truly Neutral? with Lydia Messling
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 - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com 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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.
Sep 30, 2024 · 47 min
Mental heat, with Alessandro Massazza
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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.
Aug 27, 2024 · 51 min
Deep Time, with Ella Saltmarshe
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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com. 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.