Your Brain On Climate – Details, episodes & analysis

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.  

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 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.  

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 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.   

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 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.   

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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.

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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.

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 hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.

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.   

It's all very well demanding that everything happens NOW, but we're actually going to do - or not - about climate change is all about negotiation.  What happens inside those fusty negotiating halls?  How does one negotiate well and get what one wants, whether on climate or things more domestic? And does the climate have the time for us to negotiate our way out of a paper bag?

Joining Dave this episode is Camilla Born MBE. Camilla's been at more top tables than you've had hot dinners, and has been there for the crunchy bits of some of the planet's most important negotiations - not least when advising COP26 President Alok Sharma.  Find out how Camilla gets her way, and what she thinks about protestors demanding the seemingly impossible. Follow Camilla on Twitter @camillaborn.

We don't talk about it in the episode but Camilla and I recommend this moving piece by Pete Betts, a legendary negotiator, reflecting on everything he's learned.

Owl noises:
-- 08:08: Anchoring bias explained over at the Decision Lab.
-- 10:16: I should probably give due kudos to the thing that I read, which is these top 10 negotiating tips by the Harvard Law School's negotiation programme.
-- 16:56: it really does matter whether we phase coal 'down' or 'out', and Carbon Brief explains why.
-- 19:52: Professor Lee's thoughts on tactical empathy and much else - including more Camilla - in this Inside Science episode on negotiation.

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 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.   

Yup, buzz-buzz-swat-buggers. Now, I can't guarantee you're going to come out of this one in love with flies (and fleas), but maybe you'll think a wee bit differently about 'em. About what we need to do to our brains to make small buzzing things our chums, not our nemesis. And why needing to do it is pretty dang essential for not wiping out everything that lives, including ourselves.

Joining Dave this week is the legend that is Dr Erica McAlister, the London Natural History Museum's expert on all things dipeteric (flies) and siphonapteric (fleas). Never will you have been so charmed by one woman's protective affection for these unloved insects. 

Owl noises:
-- 08:07: if you want more secret sexy fly stuff, you perv, check out Erica's talk on Youtube.
-- 29:52: an obituary of Miriam Rothschild who believed in God because fleas have willies.

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 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.   

Yes you probably WOULD walk by on the other side, wouldn't you, and don't say you wouldn't, because you would.  Alas, a trio of brain wirings add up to the so-called Bystander Effect: our tendency to stand in a crowd of people watching someone flail in a canal, hoping it's not us that has to get our frock wet to jump in and save them. 

In this episode Dave learns all about the Bystander Effect with Dr Gerdien de Vries from TU Delft. What is it? Why is it? And can working out what'll make us jump in the canal, make us more likely not to stand by and watch the world burn? 

Check out Gerdien's excellent climate psychology talk here.

Owl noises:
-- 05:47: the sad story of Kitty Genovese and why as Gerdien says, it's not entirely right.
-- 09:59: you really should know what cognitive dissonance is by now, but if not here's a primer from the always excellent folks at the Decision Lab.

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 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.