I Contain Multitudes, with Sarah Stein Lubrano

Your Brain On Climate

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.

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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.