Dr. Maya Shankar: The Mindset Shift You Need When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned | Human Behavior | YAPClassic

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha

YAP Media Network | Hala Taha

Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One mindset shift changed everything for Dr. Maya Shankar. After suffering a devastating hand injury at 15 that abruptly ended her promising violin career, her sense of identity was shattered. Forced to reimagine a future beyond music, she turned to cognitive and behavioral science to understand how humans navigate unexpected change. That path led her to President Obama’s White House, where she applied human behavior insights to influence policy and improve decision-making at scale. In this episode, Dr. Maya reveals the power of human psychology and how small mindset shifts can help us make better decisions when life doesn’t go as planned. In this episode, Hala and Dr. Maya will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (02:13) Dr. Maya’s Early Life and Violin Journey (11:04) What Is Behavioral and Cognitive Science? (21:23) The Sunk Cost Fallacy Explained (26:55) Her Impact at the White House (37:24) Understanding the Power of Nudging (43:43) Why Changing Minds Is So Difficult (46:24) Practical Nudging Tactics for Everyday Decisions (50:12) Decision-Making Biases You Need to Know (54:32) A Slight Change of Plans Podcast Mission Dr. Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and the creator, executive producer, and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans. She currently serves as Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and previously founded the White House Behavioral Science Team under President Obama, where she served as a Senior Advisor. Dr. Maya completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at Stanford, earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a B.A. from Yale. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Visit Spectrum.com/FreeForLife to learn how you can get Business Internet Free Forever. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Intuit QuickBooks - Start the new year strong and take control of your cash flow at QuickBooks.com/money Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Working Genius - Take the Working Genius assessment and discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to workinggenius.com and get 20% off with code PROFITING Resources Mentioned: Dr. Maya's Podcast, A Slight Change of Plans: bit.ly/ASCOP-apple Dr. Maya's Website: mayashankar.com Nudge by Cass Sunstein: bit.ly/-Nudge Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Positivity, Human Nature, Critical Thinking, Robert Greene, Chris Voss, Robert Cialdini Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yep, Gap, gangs, our lives are shaped by thousands of decisions, from the big decisions to the small ones and even the ones that we don't realize we're making.
0:18.8	But imagine being able to understand the hidden forces behind those choices that we make
0:23.5	so we can navigate our paths with more confidence and clarity.
0:27.1	In this Yap Classic episode, we're revisiting my conversation with Dr. Maya Shankar,
0:31.6	a renowned cognitive scientist and former behavior science advisor in the White House.
0:36.6	Maya has spent her career studying how emotions, identity, and subtle nudges influence the
0:41.4	paths and decisions that we make.
0:43.5	Together we unpack how to let go of outdated identities, overcome mental traps like
0:47.5	the sunk-cost fallacy, and design environments that support smarter, more intentional
0:51.8	decision-making.
0:53.0	Yeah, fam, I guarantee you're going to want to
0:54.8	take notes on this one. Here's my sit-down with Dr. Maya Shankar.
1:01.5	Hey, Maya, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Hey, Halit, so lovely to be here with you.
1:07.6	Yeah, me too. I'm really excited for this conversation, human behavior,
1:11.6	and the science of decision making, the science of change. These are all things that I'm really
1:15.8	passionate about. I love talking about them on my podcast. And so you're super impressive. You know,
1:21.4	you worked at the White House, you worked at the United Nations, you work for Google now,
1:26.1	and you lead their behavioral science teams there.
1:29.6	So really interesting stuff, but we always like to start from the beginning.
1:33.1	So let's talk about you growing up.
1:35.9	And from my understanding, you were super talented at the violin.
1:39.4	And the violin was essentially your whole life.
	...

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