Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and the host and executive producer of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans.

[3] A Slight Change of Plans was first published in 2021 by Pushkin Industries, the media company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jakob Weisberg.

It’s inspired by Shankar’s experience as a young classical violinist, training at Juilliard, whose career was cut short by an injury.

“I was forced to try and figure out who I was, and who I could be, without it.” [4] On the show, Shankar interviews people who have lived through different kinds of big changes — accidents, deaths, kidnappings — to understand how they navigated the waters ahead.

[16] In her Meditative Story, The Joy of Being An Unwilling Traveler Through Life, she describes her father's influence on her and the insights he shared to ease her lifelong anxiety.