Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
The only constant is change. You’ve heard it a thousand times. But here’s what the cliche leaves out: Change may be inevitable, but how you respond to it — and who you become because of it — that part’s up to you.
Maya Shankar knows a thing or two about this. She’s studied change as a cognitive scientist, explored it on her podcast, “A Slight Change of Plans,” and now written a book — "The Other Side of Change" — about how the hardest moments of our lives can transform us for the better. In the book, she tells remarkable stories of people overcoming colossal change — debilitating diagnoses, amnesia, incarceration — and extracts universal lessons grounded in the latest science.
“When a big change happens to us,” she tells us in this episode, “it can feel like a personal apocalypse of sorts. And that the word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokálypsis, which actually means revelation. That etymology is instructive. Change can upend us, yes. But it can also reveal things to us.”
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This episode is sponsored by Bitdefender! Get 30% off your plan at bitdefender.com/idea
The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at www.nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).
That Tim Kreider essay we quoted is called “Reprieve,” and you can find it in his wonderful book "We Learn Nothing."
The George Saunders clip comes from his lovely conversation with David Marchese, co-host of “The Interview.” You can watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=wGWCqgIyrbM
The only constant is change. You’ve heard it a thousand times. But here’s what the cliche leaves out: Change may be inevitable, but how you respond to it — and who you become because of it — that part’s up to you.
Maya Shankar knows a thing or two about this. She’s studied change as a cognitive scientist, explored it on her podcast, “A Slight Change of Plans,” and now written a book — "The Other Side of Change" — about how the hardest moments of our lives can transform us for the better. In the book, she tells remarkable stories of people overcoming colossal change — debilitating diagnoses, amnesia, incarceration — and extracts universal lessons grounded in the latest science.
“When a big change happens to us,” she tells us in this episode, “it can feel like a personal apocalypse of sorts. And that the word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokálypsis, which actually means revelation. That etymology is instructive. Change can upend us, yes. But it can also reveal things to us.”
—
This episode is sponsored by Bitdefender! Get 30% off your plan at bitdefender.com/idea
The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at www.nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).
That Tim Kreider essay we quoted is called “Reprieve,” and you can find it in his wonderful book "We Learn Nothing."
The George Saunders clip comes from his lovely conversation with David Marchese, co-host of “The Interview.” You can watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=wGWCqgIyrbM
