Maya Shankar, a Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and former advisor in the Obama White House, shares her insights on navigating change and personal growth. She discusses how pivotal life transitions can redefine our identities, illustrated by her journey from aspiring violinist to embracing broader passions after a hand injury. Maya emphasizes the need for empathy in a divided society and the transformative power of storytelling, coaching, and community in fostering understanding and resilience through life's challenges.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Facilitating Mindset Shifts
To change someone's mind, show genuine curiosity and ask questions instead of making statements.
Affirm their humanity and let them arrive at their own conclusions.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Leaving Westboro
Megan Phelps-Roper, raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, left in her mid-20s.
Compassionate engagement and exposure to different perspectives can inspire change.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Temptation Bundling
Use temptation bundling to motivate yourself.
Pair an undesirable activity with a desirable one, only allowing the desirable activity during the undesirable one.
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Maya Shankar sits down with Jay Shetty to talk about taking lessons from other people’s stories. While it is easy to inspire people to change when you have the tools and right environment to inspire them, it’s difficult to change a person’s mind. This is because our mind sticks to our own reality, it believes the circumstances that we are in, and it associates with the community that we belong to.
Maya is currently the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and is the Creator, Host, and Executive Producer of “A Slight Change of Plans”, a podcast with Pushkin Industries. Maya previously served as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House's Behavioral Science Team. In 2016, she served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations under Ban Ki-moon.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty 