Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
In this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Leah Smart talks with Maya Shankar, cognitive scientist and host of A Slight Change of Plans podcast, to explore how we can navigate life's unexpected twists and turns.
Maya opens up about her personal journey through profound loss and identity struggles, sharing tools that helped her - and can help us - cope with uncertainty and grief. She highlights the transformative power of understanding the desires and intentions underlying our goals, and the importance of being flexible when things don’t go as planned.
"I would urge everyone to engage in what’s called a ‘self-affirmation exercise,’ where you actually list out all of the identity, all the parts of yourself that you value that are unaffected by the change. That's one way. But the second, is to try to anchor your identity not just to what you do, but why you do it," Maya says.
This conversation reminds us that while change can feel overwhelming, it also reveals new aspects of who we are and who we can become.
#linkedinnews #everydaybetter #unexpectedchange #lifechanges
00:00 - Introduction
03:42 - From violinist to cognitive scientist
06:11 - Who we become after change
08:56 - Maya’s motherhood story
12:02 - How we react to life’s curveballs
16:09 - Anchoring identity beyond labels
19:24 - Grief and growth through change
20:41 - The illusion of certainty
25:15 - The other side of change
In this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Leah Smart talks with Maya Shankar, cognitive scientist and host of A Slight Change of Plans podcast, to explore how we can navigate life's unexpected twists and turns.
Maya opens up about her personal journey through profound loss and identity struggles, sharing tools that helped her - and can help us - cope with uncertainty and grief. She highlights the transformative power of understanding the desires and intentions underlying our goals, and the importance of being flexible when things don’t go as planned.
"I would urge everyone to engage in what’s called a ‘self-affirmation exercise,’ where you actually list out all of the identity, all the parts of yourself that you value that are unaffected by the change. That's one way. But the second, is to try to anchor your identity not just to what you do, but why you do it," Maya says.
This conversation reminds us that while change can feel overwhelming, it also reveals new aspects of who we are and who we can become.
#linkedinnews #everydaybetter #unexpectedchange #lifechanges
00:00 - Introduction
03:42 - From violinist to cognitive scientist
06:11 - Who we become after change
08:56 - Maya’s motherhood story
12:02 - How we react to life’s curveballs
16:09 - Anchoring identity beyond labels
19:24 - Grief and growth through change
20:41 - The illusion of certainty
25:15 - The other side of change
