A Climber Loses Her Grip

A Climber Loses Her Grip

Author: Pushkin Industries June 9, 2025 Duration: 44:20

As a professional rock climber, Beth Rodden was taught to see pain as weakness. Fear and discomfort—mental and physical—were just things to be tolerated along the path to one record-breaking climbing feat after another. But when Beth was kidnapped on a climbing expedition in Kyrgyzstan, she had to confront the limits of that approach. On today's show: when the mindset that built you, starts to break you.

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Life has a way of rewriting our scripts, often when we least expect it. A Slight Change of Plans, from Pushkin Industries, sits with that universal truth through conversations that feel both intimate and expansive. Hosted by cognitive scientist Dr. Maya Shankar, the podcast is shaped by her own pivotal shift-a violin career ended by injury, which led her to professionally examine how we process transformation. Each episode moves beyond theory, featuring deeply personal stories from a wide range of guests who share their own encounters with upheaval. What you’ll hear isn’t just about resilience, but the nuanced science and practical strategies that can help anyone navigate a redirected path. It’s this thoughtful blend of human experience and grounded research that earned the series Apple Podcasts’ Best Show of the Year. Listening feels like gaining a wiser friend, one who helps you reframe life’s unexpected turns not as disasters, but as complex chapters in a continuing story. The podcast ultimately explores how our identities adapt, how we find meaning, and how even the most disruptive changes can lead to growth we never planned for.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 182

A Slight Change of Plans
Podcast Episodes
A Sneak Preview Of Maya’s New Book [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:49
Maya’s book, “The Other Side of Change”, is officially out! To celebrate, we’re sharing an exclusive excerpt with our community – about what first sparked Maya’s interest in change, and the story of a woman named Olivia…
Kicking Off the New Year Right [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:56
Booklist awarded Maya’s upcoming book, The Other Side of Change, one of its coveted starred reviews, saying “It’s impossible not to be moved.” The Other Side of Change hits shelves on January 13th and is filled with a ra…
The People-Pleaser’s Recovery Guide [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:23
Therapist Meg Josephson learned early on to put others’ needs before her own. It was a way for her to stay safe in a home that didn’t feel emotionally stable. But over time, she saw that her people-pleasing habits were e…
Why It’s Never Too Late To Bet On Yourself [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:45
After a turbulent adolescence and decades of reinvention, Zarna Garg found her voice somewhere she never expected: stand-up comedy. On today’s episode, she tells Maya why she believes courage is a skill you can learn, an…
How to Stay Hopeful (When It Feels Impossible) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:56
The world feels especially heavy these days, and it’s easy to feel cynical. So today, Maya is revisiting her conversation with psychologist Jamil Zaki, who offers an alternative to cynicism: a mindset he calls “hopeful s…
Malala, On Losing Herself [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:55
It’s been more than a decade since Malala Yousafzai, then a 15-year-old student and advocate for girls education, survived an assassination attempt. Malala is 28 now, and she’s written an intimate new memoir called “Find…
What If Finding Community Wasn't So Hard? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:29
When Dr. Vivek Murthy first appeared on the show a few years back, he and Maya discussed the science of loneliness and its impact on our long term health. Now, the former U.S. Surgeon General is back to share simple, pra…
Maya’s Launching Something New This Fall! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32
In the run up to the release of her book, The Other Side of Change, Maya is starting an Ambassadors Program! Ambassadors will get access to all sorts of exclusive content – like a companion journal, an invitation to an i…
A Dream, Revisited [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:38
Felicia Hsu grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor. Years of relentless dedication brought that dream within reach, but the toll it took left her wondering whether it was finally time to let it go. Have you had a slight c…
How To Talk About Hard Things [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:30
Anna Sale is what you might call a professional “haver of hard conversations”. As the creator of the podcast “Death, Sex, & Money,” she’s spent years exploring the big questions and taboo topics people tend to shy away f…