Cognitive Dissonance and Climate Change: An Interview with Planet Critical

It was such a huge pleasure to be on Rachel Donald’s podcast PlanetCritical discussing all the big themes of my work, from cognitive dissonance to our falsely fixed sense of self to social infrastructure. You can check it out on youtube or here if you want audio only.

Other News: I’m Making A Podcast!

What if we admitted that carefully reasoned, evidence-based arguments rarely work? What if we accepted that changing people’s hearts and minds is a process, not an event? What if we recognized how much a radical worldview is threatening to most people? What if it’s about action, and the ideas follow?

Now we’re ready!

On each episode you’ll hear:

  • A social movement organizer calls in with a awkward or vexing question about a real-world problem

  • Max and Sarah (two friends who met in a dysfunctional commune) take sides and debate the best course of action, calling experts to help

  • A panel of OG organizers pass judgment.

We'll also build a toolkit off the back of this for anyone working to change hearts and minds in a progressive or radical way.

What do we want?

A podcast about the gnarly, difficult, and downright awkward questions of activism, organizing and trying to change the world. Coming Summer 2024.

💌 Sign up for (infrequent) email updates here 💌

We urgently need to convince a lot of people to join movements, campaigns, mobilizations and organizations. But are our tools for changing hearts and minds fit for purpose? Why do we always seem to hit a wall in our organizing and never convince a majority (or even a sizable minority)? Why does the right unite and the left divide? And are we all just doomed to burn out after a few years?

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Welcome! I’m Sarah.

I’m a writer, content strategist, and researcher at Oxford University. My academic research focuses on the role of emotion in political communication, and specifically on cognitive dissonance. I write and speak publicly on a variety of topics.

I am the Head of Content Strategy at the Future Narratives Lab where I work on projects related to policy and politics. I also serve on the Institute of Imagination’s Global Imagination Board. Today I consult for a select group of clients, helping them develop content for their businesses. I also sometimes teach learning design.

For many years I was the Head of Content at The School of Life.

You can read more about me on the "About" page.