The Weight of Nature, with Clayton Page Aldern

Jan 18, 2026

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Brain-eating amoebae are only the start of it. Just you wait until Clayton Aldern talks you through the ways big and small that climate change is changing what it means to be you. From your mood to your expectations and even your mental model of the whole world - your consciousness itself, for Chrissakes - Clayton explains with brilliant clarity how your brain is climate.

Clayton Page Aldern is the author of the compelling The Weight of Nature. Its strapline is "How a Changing Climate Changes Our Minds, Brains and Bodies" - so bang on the turf of this show, I simply had to get him on. But as he says in the chat, it's not really a book about climate change at all. Instead his book - and this episode - are about what it really means to be a lifeform embedded in the world around it, whether you're a bat, a cat, or a human.

I loved the book and I hope you enjoy this chat. Let me know your thoughts on the show - hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.

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Owl noises = references:

12.07: US Department of Defence's 2015 report, amazingly still on its website, on how climate change is exacerbating conflict.
18.44. George Marshall's Don't Even Think About It. Yes, again.
20:40. Karl Friston's free energy principle idea which is, I warn you, hard.
31:16: Tim Morton's Hyperobject idea. Yes, that again too.
39:02. James Gibson's affordances.
42:09: Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like To Be A Bat?
44:55: Andy Clark interviewed about embodied cognition and the extended mind.

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. Ruth Everett does all other YBOC voices.

Show logo by Arthur Stovell at https://mondial-studio.com/.

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