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Pushkin Industries

What happens when life doesn’t go according to plan? In this award-winning podcast, cognitive scientist Dr. Maya Shankar explores how we experience change and strategies we can use to better navigate moments of upheaval.

Maya’s life took a dramatic turn when an injury ended her career as a violinist and inspired her to study the science of change.

Named Apple Podcasts’ Best Show of the Year, A Slight Change of Plans features deeply personal stories and scientific insights about who we are and who we become in the face of a big change.

Past guests include Kacey Musgraves, Brené Brown, Ruby Bridges, Amanda Knox, Adam Grant, Angela Duckworth and more.

Whether it’s a sudden pivot or a slow transformation, each episode reveals how change can give us an opportunity to reimagine who we are and unlock greater possibility.

You can follow Maya on instagram @DrMayaShankar and read her free newsletter at changewithmaya.com.

 

Get early, ad-free access to episodes of A Slight Change of Plans by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows. 

Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

A Slight Change of Plans

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb built her career helping people question the stories they tell themselves. But when an unexpected heartbreak left her reeling, she found herself sitting in the patient’s seat – and discovered just how hard it can be to rewrite your own story.
 
This week, Lori joins Maya to share what being a patient taught her about being a therapist, how therapy might not actually be for everyone, and how we can all start to be more honest with ourselves. 
 
Check out Lori’s most recent book, “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.” 
 
For more A Slight Change of Plans, we recommend our conversation with Julia Samuel, “Lessons from a Grief Therapist.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What a Therapist Learned in Therapy

Stephanie Wittels Wachs and her younger brother Harris were best friends. So when he confided that he was struggling with opioid addiction, Steph believed they’d find a way through it together, like they always had. But Harris didn’t survive his addiction. 
 
Steph immersed herself in research on addiction to better understand what her family had been through. This week, Steph joins Maya to share what she’s learned about the disease and how we can help save more lives. 
 
Check out Steph’s new book “Last Day: How to Stop Losing Our Loved Ones to the Opioid Crisis” and find her podcast, “Last Day” wherever you like to listen.
 
For more on addiction and healing, we recommend our conversation with singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, “Jason Isbell on Resisting the Mythos of Sobriety.”
 
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or if you’d like to learn more about the topic, resources are available at FindSupport.gov.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I Have One Goal: Keep You Alive”

How can we find resilience, growth, and new possibilities within life’s more unpredictable moments? In this special episode from the podcast, TED Talks Daily, Maya joins journalist and author Simone Stolzoff to talk about how they’ve each explored uncertainty and change from different perspectives. Listen as they draw from their new books, Simone's “How to Not Know” and Maya's “The Other Side of Change,” to discuss why our discomfort with not having the answers might be holding us back, and how to find resilience in the face of change.
 
Find TED Talks Daily wherever you listen to podcasts or here: https://link.mgln.ai/kMxu6e

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Can Uncertainty Be a Gift?

While deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force in 2014, psychologist Michael Valdovinos had an unexpected emotional breakdown. None of the diagnoses he knew best–like PTSD or depression–fit the crisis of conscience he was experiencing. Then he came across the concept of moral injury. 
 
On today’s episode, Michael and Maya explore what happens when our deepest values are violated, the different ways it can occur in everyday life, and how we can start to heal.
 
Check out Michael’s book, “Moral Injuries: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt.”
 
If you enjoyed our conversation with Michael and want to hear more from A Slight Change of Plans, we recommend our episode “A Theranos Whistleblower” with Erika Cheung.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hidden Wounds of Moral Injury

As the great Rocky Balboa once said about life: Iit will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.” But in this week’s episode from our friends at The Story Collider, two storytellers share stories of their strength of will and persistence to keep going despite the scientific challenges.
 
Part 1: Coral reef conservationist Emily Darling is at loss when a journalist asks her if she still has hope for coral reefs. Dr Emily Darling is a coral reef scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. Her research has won international awards and been featured on National Geographic, Forbes International, CNN, and PBS Nature. She is passionate about the importance of underwater science and works closely with scientists around the world to measure the impact of coral reef conservation. In her spare time, she is (still) learning to sail.
 
Part 2: James Gordon readies himself for another one of his daughter’s heart surgeries. James Gordon is an international award winning author and poet, champion storyteller, and acclaimed actor. James can be seen on Chicago Med as Kent Taylor, Detective Smiley on Amazon's The G, and PA Flanders in Background Extras.
 
Find The Story Collider wherever you get your podcasts.

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Tenacity: Stories about perseverance | From The Story Collider

Deepika Chopra, a clinical psychologist, has a problem with the way optimism is often defined. Real optimism, she says, shouldn’t be about always expecting the best, because sometimes the bad thing will happen. Instead, she wants us to expect the best from ourselves. 
 
On today’s episode, Deepika joins Maya to talk about the deeply personal experience that changed her understanding of optimism – and how to hold onto hope while staying planted in reality. 
 
Check out Deepika’s book, “The Power of Real Optimism: A Practical, Science-Based Guide to Staying Resilient, Curious, and Open Even When Life Is Hard.”

If you enjoyed our conversation with Deepika and want to hear more from A Slight Change of Plans, we recommend these episodes:
 
 • “
You Have More Influence Than You Think • ” with Vanessa Bohns
 • “
Why We Avoid Conversations That Would Make Us Happier • ” with Nick Epley
 • “
How to Build Empathy and Avoid Burnout • ” with Jamil Zaki
 
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A Realist’s Guide to Optimism

Amazon editors just chose Maya’s new book, “The Other Side of Change,” as one of the Best Books of 2026 So Far! To celebrate, we’re sharing a chapter from the audiobook with you today. 
 
Journalist Matt Gutman spent years reporting live from high-pressure situations all over the world. Calm and collected on camera, he was privately dealing with panic attacks behind the scenes. Then, after an on-air mistake jeopardized his livelihood, Matt fell into a seemingly endless cycle of negative thoughts. 
 
Order “The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans” at changewithmaya.com/book, or wherever you like to buy books. If you’ve already read “The Other Side of Change,” leave a quick review here: 
 
Check out some of Maya’s favorite episodes of “A Slight Change of Plans” here. 
 
 A Black Musician Takes on the KKK 1. - Daryl Davis (
Spotify 2. ) (
Apple 3. )
 Wired for Change 4. - John Elder Robinson (
Spotify 5. ) (
Apple 6. )
 7. “
Grieving the Man I Thought My Husband Was 8. ” - Susan Messing (
Spotify 9. ) (
Apple 10. )
 A Theranos Whistleblower 11. - Erica Cheung (
Spotify 12. ) (
Apple 13. )
 The Science of Regret 14. - Daniel Pink (
Spotify 15. ) (
Apple 16. )
 The Science of Making (and Keeping) Friends 17. - Marisa Franco (
Spotify 18. ) (
Apple 19. )
 How Awe Transforms Us 20. - Dacher Keltner (
Spotify 21. ) (
Apple 22. )
 Brené Brown on Our Flawed, Imperfect Selves 23. - Brené Brown (
Spotify 24. ) (
Apple 25. )
 
Looking for more? Explore six years of inspiring stories of change and science-backed insights for a happier, healthier life here.

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When Panic Takes Over – And How to Break Free

Today we’re bringing you an episode from Proxy, a show built around a simple idea: Whatever you might be going through — no matter how specific or hard to explain – you’re not alone. There is someone else out there, somewhere, who truly gets it – and they might have just the advice you need to hear. 
 
In this episode, a writer who loses her inner narrator grapples with what happens when you can’t do the thing you love the most anymore — the thing you’ve built your whole life and identity around — and gets help from another artist who’s gone through something similar.
 
You can find more episodes of Proxy at https://www.proxypodcast.com/, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caitlin Lost the Voice in Her Head

As adults, it’s easy to think of fun as a luxury – something we’ll get around to after everything else is done. But science journalist Catherine Price says fun is essential to our wellbeing. On today’s episode, Catherine joins Maya to talk about the difference between true fun and fake fun, and how making space for the real thing can leave us feeling more energized and restored.
 
Check out Catherine’s book, “The Power of Fun: How To Feel Alive Again.”
 
If you enjoyed our conversation with Catherine, we recommend our episode with Priya Parker, “The Art and Science of Gathering.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Science of True Fun

In 2023, Allie Kramer’s three-year-old son Theo was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In the months and years that followed Theo’s diagnosis, Allie tried to keep a steel grip on her “old” life. Until she realized that that life didn’t exist anymore. This week, Allie joins Maya to talk about what it means to survive something that changes you so completely, you cannot go back to who you were.
 
For more on the topic of grief, we recommend this one from our archive: “Lessons from A Grief Therapist.” 
 
Find Allie’s podcast, “Worst Club Ever” wherever you get your podcasts.

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When Grief Remakes You

Last week, Maya talked to author Michael Pollan about his newest book, “A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness.” He says that the seeds for this book were planted by his exploration of psychedelics – a topic that he and Maya covered last time he was on the show. So we wanted to replay that episode, in which Maya and Michael discuss the science of psychedelics, and how they can help us see the world in new ways.
 
And if you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Kacey Musgraves, where she talks about how a psychedelic trip inspired one of her albums.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Pollan Changes His Mind

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