Conversations, with Alex Evans

04/30/24 • 51 min

Or: how chinwags can save the world.
Imagine I could give you a superpower. The ability to make people trust you who currently don't. To help them change their own mind, on their own terms. And to maybe even heal society, perhaps just a little bit. WELL I CAN. It's called 'having a grown up conversation', and it's perhaps the most underrated thing we can all do about climate change.
Joining me to talk about all things chatting, nattering and deep canvassing is the charming Alex Evans, founder and director of the charity Larger Us. We (yes) have a conversation about the best ways to have a good ol' chinwag, why we're all shouting at each other more, and the psychology behind why we perhaps we don't disagree anywhere near as much as we might think.
Plenty owl noises this week:
-- 05:19: Climate Outreach's Britain Talks Climate research toolkit, which is fab in which I have precisely no vested interest whatsoever.
-- 11:18: Dave Fleischer's TED Talk about deep canvassing.
-- 15:23: George Marshall's brilliant book, Don't Even Think About It.
-- 23:55: Bill Bishop came up with the Big Sort idea back in 2004.
-- 28:00: Hannah Arendt on totalitarianism, via Wiki.
-- 30:52: Bobby Duffy's Divided Britain report.
-- 36:30: Oil and gas workers team up with greenies.
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.

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Previous Episode

Success, with Simon Mundie

So much of our silly short lives is spent chasing after trophies or money or glory. Success!
But it's never really enough. We just want more trophies and more more money and one day we die and so does everything else, the end. As a culture, we've got success wrong.
Today's guest says we should instead see success as learning to lose ourselves in things - whether that's playing the piano, or sport, or listening to jolly interesting podcasts. Pursuing, and cherishing, a flow state - the only state in which we are truly contented. And perhaps if we all did that a bit more, we might bugger up the planet a little less.
Simon Mundie is a BBC sports reporter, host of the magnificent The Life Lessons Podcast, and author of the new book Champion Thinking: How to Find Success Without Losing Yourself. He's had just about every sports star you can think of on his show, and has learned more than just one book's worth of wisdom about what success really means, from those who've chased it, won it, and lost it.
Owl noises:
-- 12:48 - you can find Simon's episode with Caitlin Jenner here, and here's some words about it.
-- 21:14 - Goldie Sayers chucks it long.
-- 44:17 - Dacher Keltner's stuff on awe. I'll get him on here one day.
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.

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Next Episode

Mindfulness, with Jamie Bristow

Mindfulness: a technique for training your brain to reflect on what it thinks and why. It can help us make smarter decisions, and can even get the House of Commons to stop shouting at each other quite so much. Magic! But can it save the planet?
Today's guest is Jamie Bristow, co-founder of the Mindfulness Initiative - an amazing organisation bringing the technique to the heart of policy and parliament. Jamie's trained MPs on skills of compassion and self-reflection, and thinks (as do I) that we could all benefit hugely from a bit more time spent thinking about thinking. He's also part of the team that's devised the Inner Development Goals.
We talk about Jamie's report - Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out - a compelling and comprehensive guide to how mindfulness can help society change how we live on planet Earth.
**EDIT: In introducing Jamie I wrongly say he started the mindfulness programme in the UK parliament. He didn't, he founded the associated institute. Jamie's asked me to correct that - happy to. ***
Owl noises:
-- 13:40: a short video in which Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about homo-sapiens-sapiens.
-- 18:12: the Reconnection... report is linked above.
-- 28:45: if you've never read The Unbearable Automaticity of Being, you should.
-- 37:55: the Apolitical Foundation's Mere Mortals report.
-- 41:58: A nice primer on Bob Kegan's levels of human development work.
-- 48:38: The excellent Common Cause is a good place to read about intrinsic v extrinsic values.
-- 51:55: I was going to link to some stuff I found on google about nature connectedness but you can google it yourself. Instead a plug for my chat with Lauren Hall Ruddell about this very thing. -- 53:16: Ian McGilchrist is a very clever man. I'm reading his The Master & His Emissary right now.
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