Your Brain On Climate

• 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 - [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: 14:40 - Metacognition26:29 - Bounded (/Adaptive) Rationality 44:48 - Philip Tetlock / Foxes vs Hedgehogs46:38 - Pilots (still) report confirmation bias48:38 - 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. 

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• MICRO: The Conservative Lag

  Why is social change so hard - particularly right now? Part of the reason likes 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. https://www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/episodes/9347344-pluralistic-ignorance-with-deborah-prentice 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. 

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• (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 - [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. 

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• 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 - [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. 

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• 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 - [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. 

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