From Our Neurons to Yours

Why our brains are bad at climate change | Nik Sawe


Listen Later

This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of climate change with neuroeconomist Nik Sawe.

If you follow the science or the news, you know how big of a risk climate change is. Storms, coastal flooding, heat waves, extinctions, mass migration — the list goes on.

But — as you can probably also appreciate — it’s really hard to properly perceive that risk. It’s much easier to focus on today’s emergency, this week’s looming deadline, this quarter’s economic forecast — where the risks are objectively much smaller, but feel more pressing.

This is where neuroscience comes in: Why are our brains so bad at perceiving this existential, long-term risk to our society and our planet? And are there ways we could work with our brains' limitations to improve our decision-making around environmental issues and the future more broadly?

To answer this question, we spoke with Nik Sawe, a neuro-economist who uses brain imaging to study environmental decision making in the  lab of Brian Knutson in the Stanford Department of Psychology. Nik is also a policy analyst at the think tank Energy Innovation, where he is working on policy avenues to reduce carbon emissions in the industrial sector.

References

  • Parks donation FMRI study
  • Ecolabeling/energy-efficient purchasing FMRI study
  • "Price of your soul" study by Greg Berns
  • Dan Kahan science literacy/numeracy and climate change risk study
  • Brain stimulation for perspective-taking of future generations

Episode Credits

This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with production assistance by Morgan Honaker. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

From Our Neurons to YoursBy Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University, Nicholas Weiler

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

24 ratings


More shows like From Our Neurons to Yours

View all
Science Magazine Podcast by Science Magazine

Science Magazine Podcast

809 Listeners

TED Health by TED

TED Health

1,424 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,367 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

110,617 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

55,911 Listeners

The Future of Everything by Stanford Engineering

The Future of Everything

127 Listeners

Life Kit by NPR

Life Kit

4,356 Listeners

Fiction - Comedy Fiction by The Sunset Explorers

Fiction - Comedy Fiction

6,446 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,219 Listeners

Chasing Life by CNN

Chasing Life

8,218 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,463 Listeners

Unexplainable by Vox

Unexplainable

2,245 Listeners

Stanford Psychology Podcast by Stanford Psychology

Stanford Psychology Podcast

86 Listeners

Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman by iHeartPodcasts

Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

579 Listeners

The Headlines by The New York Times

The Headlines

503 Listeners