Climate Communication and the Brain With Kris De Meyer

This episode features a conversation with Kris De Meyer, Director of the UCL Climate Action Unit. It was recorded in July 2024.

Kris is a neuroscientist, a science communicator and a science-policy co-production expert, bringing insights from neuroscience and psychology to the domain of climate change. He specialises in how people become entrenched in their beliefs, how this leads to polarisation in society, and how to overcome these conditions. 

The Climate Action Unit works to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media, civil society organisations and citizens engage with each other about climate change. And Kris is responsible for the neuroscientific basis of the interventions that the unit designs and delivers. 

Kris is also a Senior Research Fellow in UCL’s Department of Earth Sciences, has co-produced an award-winning documentary, called Right Between Your Ears, exploring how people views become ingrained, and co-created The Justice Syndicate, a participatory play about how we disagree. 

Amongst other things, Kris and I discussed fear and agency, where the conventional wisdom gets things wrong, and why stories about actions taken in response to climate change offer the total package when it comes to stimulating meaningful responses from our audiences.

Additional links:

Visit the Climate Action Unit website

Watch Kris’ brilliant TEDx Talk

Transforming the stories we tell about climate change: from issue to action

Check out Elliot Aronson’s article Fear, Denial, and Sensible Action in the Face of Disasters

Explore the UN Climate Chief’s speech “2 years to save the world”

Read Mike Hulme’s article on “Deadline-ism”