We vote in our self interest, right? So how come people living on islands disappearing because of climate change - and they know it - keep voting for Donald Trump?

The answer to that goes to the heart of our climate politics. But it also tells us something very important about how different people think about climate change and what should be done about it, even when they can see it literally killing the place they love.

This episode is a fascinating chat with anthropologist Dr Karl Dudman. He talks all about his time spent with the unique communities of Down East, North Carolina - a fiercely proud, strongly Republican, and very maritime patch of the US Coast. Karl explains with empathy how Down Easterners talk about the sea level rises, hurricanes and changing fishing patterns that feels like the last straw in a community whose centuries-old identity is falling apart.

• Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.
• 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:

• 04:33 - Karl's brilliant blog on the Conversation.
• 07:53 - Yale's climate opinion maps.
• 09:33 - Google Maps link to Down East, as if you can't find it yourself.
• 23:48 - Miranda Fricker's epistemic injustice.
• 33:34 - Danna Young's appearance on YBOC.
• 34:18 - more on affective & negative polarisation
• 40:19 - the original paper on solastalgia by Glenn Albrecht et al.
• 40:55 - Arlie Russell Hochschild's majestic Strangers In Their Own Land
• 41:23 - OK I can't find a great link for the aesthetics of embodiment. A bloke explained it to me.
• 42:40 - Revisionist History episode on country vs rock music.
• 44:04 - some stuff about methodological symmetry in here.
• 51:25 - my chat on YBOC with Jonathan Rowson.
• 52:17 - the not uncontroversial original essay by David Goodhart on somewheres vs anywhere.

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. You can follow the show on instagram @yourbrainonclimate, and I occasionally put up a Substack.

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.

I'm out in the garden looking for that pile of jobby I found the other day, and it made me think back to my chat in episode 17 with Erica McAlister all about flies (and fleas). Erica is the London Natural History Museum's expert on all things dipeteric (flies) and siphonapteric (fleas), and an extremely funny and nice person too.

Reaching for that fly-killer? WAIT A MINUTE. Must we call kill all pests? (Must we even think of them as pests in the first place?)

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. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate.

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me. Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com. Poo definitely not by Maggie cat.

An episode all about the subtle art of talking bollocks.

We live in a golden age of bullshit. It can seem that our politics is riddled with it. Corporate climate communications are drenched in it. And despite the looming eco-crisis, perhaps our own brains are too.

In this episode, Dave meets author Mike Berners-Lee to chew over his new book, A Climate of Truth. It's a brilliant balance of home truths about the state of things, with unputdownable optimism that humanity can - and must - do better.

What distinguishes glorious bullshit from mere lying? How do we get more honesty about the state of the world into our politics and our own lives? And in the age of Trump and Boris, how realistic is it to hope that any of this will change in time to face up to, and head off climate disaster?

All this, and Macavity the cat too.

If you liked this episode, check out episode 19 on Honesty, with Rupert Read.

• Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.
• 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:

• 14:34 - Harry Frankfurt's 1986 'On Bullshit', later turned into a book.
• 18:55 - Quassam Cassim's brilliant term, 'epistemic insouciance'.
• 21:22 - the Political Lies website: Boris and much more.
• 25:13 - in case you don't still remember, here's what naughty Volkswagen did.
• 25:39 - the always superb You Are Not So Smart podcast, here talking about that study that showed you prefer sharing fake news that makes you look good.
• 34:10 - Julian Kirchherr's paper on bullshit in sustainability literature.

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.