A psychologist’s guide to avoiding moral superiority - Per Espen Stoknes

A psychologist’s guide to avoiding moral superiority - Per Espen Stoknes

Per Espen Stoknes is a psychologist, economist, and one of the world's leading experts on why climate change feels so hard to act on—and what actually works to break through that paralysis. He's the author of ‘What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming’, ‘Tomorrow's Economy: A Guide to Creating Healthy Green Growth’ and ‘Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity’ He’s associate professor and co-director of the BI Center for Sustainability and Energy, and someone who's spent decades unpacking the psychological barriers that keep us stuck: distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. This conversation goes deep into the mechanics of climate psychology—why telling people what to do almost always backfires, why inequality is one of the biggest accelerants of climate inaction, and why the pendulum swings of history might be our strangest source of hope. We talk about why comedy and messengers like Joe Rogan matter more than scientists think, why AI and privacy loss mirror the climate crisis psychologically, and why Per believes the next frontier isn't just decarbonisation—it's rewilding finance itself. We cover why attacking someone's identity shuts down climate conversation immediately, how social trust is the variable that determines whether governments can actually implement climate policy, and why the UK cutting 2% of global emissions matters far more than the math suggests. Per explains why the five barriers to climate action—distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity—also apply to digital privacy and AI, why inequality creates a vicious cycle that makes climate action nearly impossible, and why universal basic income might be one of the most powerful climate policies we're not talking about. We also talk about why Per thinks Trump's second term might accidentally be the pendulum swing we need, why possibilism is a better philosophical framework than optimism or pessimism, and why the people with the answers—indigenous communities—are the ones we keep ignoring. He shares his vision for biodiversity credits that pay land stewards for regeneration, why AI could either accelerate the climate transition or make inequality catastrophically worse, and why the questions he wishes people would ask are about the assumptions underneath everything we're doing. —— Find Per's work at stoknes.com [http://stoknes.com] Learn more about Earth for All at earth4all.life [http://earthforall.life] Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/ [https://climateunfucked.substack.com/] And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/] —— Chapters 0:00 Why Facts Make People Believe You Less 2:35 The Real Reason Arguments Feel Like Personal Attacks 3:26 The One Question That Defuses Any Disagreement 4:09 What Jeremy Clarkson Gets Right 6:13 Why You Only Listen to People Like You 8:51 A Psychologist's Dream Messenger: Joe Rogan 9:49 The Two Groups Who Care Least About Climate 10:50 Why You Need 9 Good Stories for Every Bad One 14:49 The Solar Boom That Could Power the Entire Planet 18:11 Why Systems Thinking Kills Polarisation 22:07 The Pizza That Explains Why Your 2% Matters 24:11 How One Norwegian Tax Made Your EV Cheaper 27:35 Why You're Not as Powerless as You Feel 30:10 The Two Trends That Could Undo Everything 34:32 The 5 Turnarounds We Actually Need 37:08 Why Things Get Worse Before They Get Better 42:02 "I Fell Through the Floor When Trump Won Again" 42:45 The Black Swan That Changes Everything 46:05 The Hidden Link Between Inequality and Climate 53:16 Is AI a Confirmation Bias Machine? 57:38 How AI Could Quietly Make Us More Unequal 58:08 The Surprising Ways AI Could Save Us 1:05:37 What One Person Can Actually Do About AI 1:07:54 The 4 Roles You Didn't Know You Had 1:10:03 Why Climate and Privacy Break Your Brain the Same Way 1:12:00 The Data Trap You're Walking Into 1:15:05 Why We Can't See Inside AI 1:16:05 Paying Indigenous Tribes to Protect Jaguars 1:19:16 The Questions Per Is Sick of Being Asked 1:21:01 Why 35 Years of Sustainability Failed

Does laughing about the end of the world help? Stuart Goldsmith & Professor Lauren Feldman

Stuart Goldsmith is a stand-up comedian with 20 years of experience who's spent the last five years doing something almost no other comic attempts: making audiences laugh about the climate crisis. Professor Lauren Feldman teaches Media and Climate Change at Rutgers University, where her students regularly bring in clips of Stuart's work to dissect in class. She's the co-author of A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice, and her research unpacks why comedy is one of the most powerful tools we have for breaking through climate denial, fear, and apathy. This conversation explores why it's so hard to make people laugh about something that genuinely terrifies you, why comedy works when facts and fear don't, and why the brand of climate action is so catastrophically bad that we desperately need comedians to fix it. We talk about the psychology of counter-arguing, why charged information shuts down the prefrontal cortex, and how comedy creates a kind of social lubricant that lets unpalatable truths slip past our defenses. Stuart explains why he had to convince himself not to cry on stage, why his climate confessions format helps people admit their hypocrisy without shame, and why he's trying to write the perfect joke about how activists are the only professionals not allowed to fly. Lauren shares research showing that comedy increases engagement, makes messages more memorable, and helps people feel less alone in their climate anxiety. We also talk about why partisan comedy backfires with skeptical audiences, why the tabloid press treated Britain's hottest May on record like a beach party, and why Stuart believes the more you learn about climate change, the less paralyzed you feel. —— Find Stuart's work and UK tour dates at stuartgoldsmith.com [http://stuartgoldsmith.com] Find Lauren's book A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar on Amazon and University of California Press Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/ [https://climateunfucked.substack.com/] And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/] —— Chapters 00:00 Lauren studies Stuart's work 01:53 Is it odd to make people laugh about something that scares you? 04:18 What emotion should comedy target? 05:59 Comedy as a social lubricant 08:23 Why learning more makes you less scared 11:40 The brand of climate is terrible 13:44 Lauren's research: nonpartisan vs partisan comedy 17:39 Does comedy break down barriers better than other mediums? 20:11 How comedy reduces counter-arguing 23:43 Jokes as compressed files 24:38 The hypocrisy bit: flying to a climate conference 26:27 Do you lean into virtue signalling or stay away? 29:02 Climate confessions and why they work 33:05 Does shaming change behaviour? 35:44 Disrupting the doomism narrative 39:33 Does it work differently online? 45:16 The heatwave and making the invisible visible 48:48 Arthur's Seat caught fire: complexity in comedy 50:16 Talking about effects vs causes 51:34 The Joint Intelligence Committee report on biodiversity 54:52 Your phones are fine, everyone else's have slave minerals 56:17 If you had a billboard, what would it say? 1:03:09 The joke Stuart wishes he could write 1:06:51 Personal action as background work, not the solution 1:09:58 Where to find Stuart and Lauren's work

Why you’ve heard of recycling but not…

Check out the UK's most trusted climate action platform, Ecologi at: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] Vojtech Vosecky is one of the world's leading voices on the circular economy, with nearly a quarter of a million people following his work on LinkedIn. He's an environmental engineer who's spent over a decade working inside the European Parliament, advising governments, training over 350 circular economy professionals, and building a global community of changemakers across 20 cities from Barcelona to Melbourne. His mission is simple: turn as many people as possible into circular economists, because he believes that's where the exponential impact lies in unfucking our climate. This conversation unpacks why 90% of people think climate change is only about energy when the other half of the coin is resources. We dive into what the circular economy actually is, why nature has always been circular, and why recycling is the worst of all the good options we have. Vojtech explains why 45% of global emissions come from how we make, use, and waste stuff, and why the plastic bottle you drink from in 30 seconds represents months of materials, fossil fuels, and energy that's lost the moment you throw it away. This is a masterclass in rethinking waste, rethinking consumption, and rethinking what it means to be a changemaker instead of a consumer. —— This podcast is sponsored by Ecologi, the UK's most trusted climate action platform. They help businesses reduce their emissions, restore our planet and report their progress for every step of their climate journey. Check them out here: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] —— Find Vojtech on LinkedIn and learn more about his circular economy training program: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vojtechvosecky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vojtechvosecky/] Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/ [https://climateunfucked.substack.com/] And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/] —— Chapters 00:00 What is the circular economy? 06:30 Linear vs circular: the plastic bottle example 12:15 Why climate isn't just about energy 18:40 The problem with the carbon footprint 24:50 Individual action vs systemic change 30:20 Building a community of circular economists 36:45 Which sectors need circularity most? 42:10 Gothenburg's housing crisis solved without building 48:30 How Philips pivoted from selling to leasing light 54:00 The 9 circular business models explained 1:02:15 Why 40% of food is wasted before it's eaten 1:08:40 Designing waste out of the system 1:14:20 What individuals can actually do 1:20:30 Stop being a consumer, start being a changemaker

How Much Europe’s Energy Dependence Costs You | Aurélie Maréchal, Postive Money Europe Director

Check out the UK's most trusted climate action platform, Ecologi at: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] Aurélie Maréchal is the Director of Positive Money Europe, an organisation working to reform the economic system so that it works for people and the planet. She's spent 15 years inside the European policy machine, watching the Green Deal go from a fringe idea to the headline of the European Commission, and then watching it disappear from political discourse entirely in just five years. She now spends her time showing policymakers, central banks, and businesses why the way we handle money, interest rates, and investment is one of the most powerful climate levers we're not using properly. This conversation unpacks the relationship between climate and economics that almost nobody explains clearly: why fossil fuels drive inflation, why raising interest rates to fight that inflation actually makes renewable energy harder to finance, and why the European Central Bank's standard playbook is accidentally locking us into the very system we're trying to escape. We talk about fossil inflation and climate inflation, why renewable energy projects are more sensitive to interest rate changes than fossil fuel infrastructure, and why the Green Deal went from mainstream policy to politically toxic in the space of two election cycles. Aurélie also shares what it's like working as an insider in Brussels, why lobbying isn't a dirty word but power imbalances make it dangerous, and why the arguments that work today aren't about saving the planet, they're about sovereignty, security, and competitiveness. —— This podcast is sponsored by Ecologi, the UK's most trusted climate action platform. They help businesses reduce their emissions, restore our planet and report their progress for every step of their climate journey. Check them out here: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] —— Find Positive Money at: https://positivemoney.org [https://positivemoney.org] Follow Positive Money Europe on LinkedIn, Facebook, Bluesky, and TikTok Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/ [https://climateunfucked.substack.com/] And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/] —— Chapters 00:00 Why are we talking about money? 06:30 What is monetary policy? 12:45 What is fossil inflation and climateflation? 18:20 Why raising interest rates makes renewables harder to finance 24:10 Evidence that renewables reduce electricity prices 29:40 The rise and fall of the Green Deal 35:50 Why climate arguments don't work anymore 41:15 The insider/outsider strategy 47:30 How lobbying actually works 54:00 What can you do after this episode?

UN Advisor: How Al-Shabaab Is Weaponising Climate Change | Christophe Hodder

Check out the UK's most trusted climate action platform, Ecologi at: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] Christophe Hodder is the world's first UN-appointed Climate Peace and Security Advisor, working in Somalia, the 5th most climate-vulnerable country on Earth. He's spent six years on the frontlines of where climate breakdown meets armed conflict, helping communities navigate droughts, floods, displacement, and violence in a country that contributes just 0.08% of global emissions but bears some of the heaviest consequences. This conversation goes deep into what climate insecurity actually looks like on the ground: two goat herders fighting over shrinking grazing land, clans feuding over water access, young men with guns caught in cycles of violence made worse by collapsing ecosystems. Christophe explains why climate change doesn't directly cause conflict, but it intensifies every existing tension, and why restoring land, building trust between communities, and creating economic opportunities are all part of the same solution. We also talk about what climate finance pays for when it's done right, how Al-Shabab uses resource control as a weapon, and how the instability happening in Somalia can eventually show up on Britain's doorstep through migration, terrorism, and disrupted global trade. —— This podcast is sponsored by Ecologi, the UK's most trusted climate action platform. They help businesses reduce their emissions, restore our planet and report their progress for every step of their climate journey. Check them out here: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth [https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth] —— Find out more about the UN Climate Security Mechanism and follow Chris on LinkedIn Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/ [https://climateunfucked.substack.com/] And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/] —— Chapters 00:00 What is a Climate Peace and Security Advisor? 04:15 How climate impacts show up as violence on the ground 08:45 Somalia's conflict context and why it matters 13:20 How drought and flooding drive resource competition 18:10 The Mataban project: building trust between clans 24:30 Somalia's first £100 million in climate finance 29:50 How Al-Shabab exploits resource scarcity 35:15 Why half of Somalia's population is under 30 40:20 Kenya vs Somalia: stable ecosystems vs conflict spirals 46:10 What surprised Chris most in six years 51:30 Success stories: from small trials to big programs 56:45 Why this matters to someone in the UK 1:07:10 What Chris wishes more people would ask 1:10:30 Where to learn more and get involved