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The Mel Robbins Podcast #381 · March 25, 2026 · 59m

This Simple Mindset Shift Will Change the Way You See Your Life

Maya Shankar
Apple PodcastsShow Notes

Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar — former Obama White House behavioral science advisor, Rhodes Scholar — discusses the science of navigating unwanted change. Her framework from The Other Side of Change: identity is not fixed to a single path, and disruption can be reframed as data rather than failure. Practical tools for stopping negative thought spirals and rebuilding after setbacks. Grounded in behavioral science, though the Robbins framing makes it feel lighter than the research warrants.

Canon

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Disruption as data, not failure
Reframing setbacks as information rather than verdicts — applied cognitive science version of the Stoic dichotomy of control.
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Highlights

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Identity is not fixed to a single path
Shankar's core framework: when life disrupts your plan, your identity doesn't collapse — it reveals that you were never only one thing.
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Stopping negative thought spirals
Practical tools for interrupting rumination: externalize the thought, name the pattern, redirect attention to sensation. Cognitive defusion techniques from ACT.
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Editorial

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You don't need everything figured out to move forward
Shankar's message for people stuck in analysis paralysis: clarity comes from action, not from thinking more.
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References

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The Other Side of Change — Maya Shankar (2026) — NYT bestseller on navigating life disruptions using cognitive science

Misc

✧Shankar founded the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team under Obama
✧BA from Yale, PhD from Oxford (Rhodes Scholar), postdoc at Stanford
✧Her podcast 'A Slight Change of Plans' was Apple's Best Show of the Year
✧First behavioral science advisor to the United Nations