Show Notes
This week Claire & James explore uncertainty with Katherine Templar-Lewis, an expert in neuroscience and the science of uncertainty. Katherine has done brilliant work on how to build resilience through increasing our tolerance to uncertainty.
The reason attention scarcity is so, well, scary is because it increases feelings of uncertainty - with which humans are profoundly bad at coping. Uncertainty usually means change, and throughout human history, uncertainty means potential danger (an example in behavioural economics - loss aversion: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/loss-aversion). Katherine radically suggests that the answer to uncertainty is not to “fix” uncertainty, but rather increase resilience to it, so that its gifts can be embraced.
Katherine describes what happens in the brain and the body when we are confronted with change, and her book provides concrete examples and ways of building resilience to change. So next time someone shouts, “EMBRACE CHANGE! CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT!”, kindly direct them to Katherine’s book on suggestions for how to do exactly that.
The Uncertainty Toolkit: How to Feel Calmer, Happier and More Confident in an Uncertain World will be published January 1st, 2026 - right in time for New Year’s resolutions. You can pre-order here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16591/9781035060054
You can find out more information about Katherine and her work on uncertainty and resilience on her website: https://www.templarlewis.com/
Claire’s paper on attention scarcity - The Age of Attention Scarcity contains references to all of the data mentioned, including such terrifying figures as the volume of content on YouTube - which has exploded between 2012 and 2022 (from 60 hours per minute to 500 hours per minute)
The World Uncertainty Index
More on interoception in ‘Beyond 5 Senses’, Katherine’s audiobook with Robyn Landau.
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Can We Have Your Attention? is a podcast about the attention economy, presented by Claire Coady and James Wickham. After 20+ year careers in broadcasting (James) and advertising (Claire), these university friends have reunited over a shared obsession with the (mal-?) functioning attention economy.
Find out more here: https://linktr.ee/Canwehaveyourattention
Hosts: Claire Coady & James Wickham
This is a Phonogram production.
Visit our store on Bookshop.org.uk for more recommendations for further reading
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