Special Episode: Clayton Page Aldern & The Weight of Nature

August 25, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 2015, a computational neuroscience lab tech named Clayton Page Aldern kept seeing papers cross his desk that he couldn't shake. Stanford behavioral economists and the Department of Defense were publishing studies suggesting a real, measurable relationship between temperature and violence—even after correcting for income, race, and every other confounding variable. As a neuroscientist, Aldern knew people had an intuitive sense that heat makes them quicker to anger. But nobody seemed to be asking why. That question launched a multi-year research project that eventually became The Weight of Nature: How a Change in Climate Changes Our Brains, a book that moves well beyond climate anxiety to examine how warming temperatures physically alter our cognition, decision-making, and vulnerability to disease.

The brain as a weather model

Aldern’s central argument rests on a deceptively simple idea: the brain is a statistical model of the environment. Its job is to generate expectations about what will happen next, then measure the gap between those predictions and what actually occurs. When there’s a mismatch, the brain can either update its model or act to change its perception. This is how organisms navigate the world successfully.

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What you'll learn

1 (07:22) **Origins of the Book & The Core Question** - Clayton explains how he became curious about the link between climate, conflict, and the brain, leading to a multi-year project bridging neuroscience and journalism.
2 (10:38) **Shifting Baselines, Climate Amnesia & The Brain as a Model** - The hosts and Clayton discuss how climate change disrupts our memory and expectations by redefining what we consider "normal."
3 (19:13) **The Impact of Heat on Cognitive Function** - How rising temperatures degrade critical thinking, impulse control, and decision-making, measured since the 1940s.
4 (24:50) **Heat, Violence, and Aggression** - A look at the studies linking warmer temperatures to increased aggressive behavior in real-world settings.
5 (27:21) **Cyanobacteria Blooms & Neurodegenerative Disease** - The hypothesized link between climate-driven algal blooms and diseases like ALS and Alzheimer’s.
6 (33:26) **The Brain-Eating Amoeba (Naegleria fowleri)** - How a warming climate is making a rare, deadly infection less rare.
7 (38:20) **Climate Change & Mental Health (PTSD)** - The profound psychological scars from living through extreme weather events.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Already this summer, heatwaves are causing thousands of deaths across the world, catastrophic flooding threatens millions, wildfires rage across enormous swathes of the globe, many regions face extreme drought conditions, and a very strong El Niño is predicted for later this year, leading to further climate chaos. It’s a lot to take in. The devastating consequences of climate change can be measured any number of ways, and in this week’s book club episode, we delve into some of the more insidious and less explored impacts: those on our cognition, our mental health, our brains, and our behavior. In The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes our Brains, author Clayton Page Aldern, neuroscientist and journalist who leads the data journalism program at Grist, presents a compelling and sweeping examination of the many unseen ways that climate change is changing us. Why do we have a shorter fuse when it’s hot outside? How are our memories and language impacted by our changing climate? What pathogens pose a greater threat to our brains as the climate warms? And most importantly, how can we begin to process these effects on our inner selves? Tune in to find out.

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