Your Brain On Climate

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 health17:46 - 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.