October Pub Talk
Science Pub: “When Temperatures Rise and Tempers Flare”
October 7th, 2025 | 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Sip your favorite brew, while you learn a thing or two! Science Pub is an opportunity to enjoy learning about interesting topics in an informal atmosphere. Just bring your curiosity and a thirst to learn!
There are 2 ways to be at this event:
- In Person – Paradise Creek Brewery will be seating indoors at 100% capacity and the pub talk will be broadcast/projected on a the large projection screen in the pub/restaurant area.
- Via Zoom – Register for Zoom link HERE. Place a food/drink order for pick up at Paradise Creek Brewery’s Downtown Restaurant – 245 SE Paradise St, Pullman. Local delivery is also available. Tip: Place your order early so it’s ready by Pub talk time.
See the Facebook event HERE
This month’s speakers:
Join Kim Meidenbauer and Nicole O’Donnell on October 7th for their pub talk, “When Temperatures Rise and Tempers Flare”.
Why do hot days leave us tossing and turning at night, snappier in our moods, and more likely to make risky choices? Dr. Kim Meidenbauer, Ph.D. will discuss the science of heat and psychology, showing how higher temperatures can worsen our moods, impair our cognition, strain self-control, and amplify impulsive behavior. Drawing from her neuroscience and social psychology research, she’ll explain why heat affects our well-being, and what that means for our daily lives when temperatures rise. But what happens when we then read about health risks, such as rising temperatures, online? We live in a complicated media environment where we spend hours each day scrolling through posts and headlines. Much of what we encounter focuses on controversial topics like vaccines, health hacks, or climate change, often framed in ways that spark fear or outrage. Dr. Nicole O’Donnell, Ph.D. will discuss her research on how people process social media messages, why constant exposure to negative news can turn us off, and how positive media psychology offers tools to understand health risks, filter misinformation, and engage more constructively with what we see online.
Dr. Kim Meidenbauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2020, and now directs the Social, Cognitive, and Environmental Neuroscience (SCENe) Lab at WSU. Her research focuses on how heat exposure can lead to deleterious psychological outcomes and how greenspace interventions can be used to buffer against the effects of heat stress. She is also interested in the creation and validation of research methods that allow us to “take the lab outside”, via browser-based tasks, mobile neuroimaging (fNIRS), remote sensors and wearables, and experience sampling techniques. In her spare time, she enjoys biking and hiking, smothering her cats with affection, and reading mystery and sci-fi novels.
Dr. Nicole O’Donnell is an Assistant Professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, where she specializes in positive media psychology and the science of storytelling. She applies her storytelling research to social and mass media campaigns designed to inspire, educate, and engage. By studying narrative and emotional appeals she identifies what makes stories resonate, inspire, or fall flat, and uses these insights to develop strategies that strengthen health and environmental communication. O’Donnell often partners with nonprofit organizations and government agencies, including the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, the Inland Northwest Healthy Youth Collaborative, and Room One, and is dedicated to sharing her work beyond academia to inform policy and improve public health and safety.