Leaving the Life You Trained For

Professional violinist Vijay Gupta grew up performing on the world’s biggest stages in order to fulfill his parents' dreams for him. But the pressure to play perfectly became too much, and over time he lost his love of the violin. Then Vijay started performing in homeless shelters and mental healt…

Petra Mathers and Her Michael | From Death of an Artist

Here’s a preview of another Pushkin podcast, one that explores many of the topics we cover here on A Slight Change of Plans: grief, jealousy, anger, and awe. It’s called Death of an Artist.  In February 2024, celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers and her husband, photogra…

What a Therapist Learned in Therapy

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb built her career helping people question the stories they tell themselves. But when an unexpected heartbreak left her reeling, she found herself sitting in the patient’s seat – and discovered just how hard it can be to rewrite your own story. This week, Lori joins May…

“I Have One Goal: Keep You Alive”

Stephanie Wittels Wachs and her younger brother Harris were best friends. So when he confided that he was struggling with opioid addiction, Steph believed they’d find a way through it together, like they always had. But Harris didn’t survive his addiction.  Steph immersed herself in research on ad…

Can Uncertainty Be a Gift?

How can we find resilience, growth, and new possibilities within life’s more unpredictable moments? In this special episode from the podcast, TED Talks Daily, Maya joins journalist and author Simone Stolzoff to talk about how they’ve each explored uncertainty and change from different perspectives.…

The Hidden Wounds of Moral Injury

While deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force in 2014, psychologist Michael Valdovinos had an unexpected emotional breakdown. None of the diagnoses he knew best–like PTSD or depression–fit the crisis of conscience he was experiencing. Then he came across the concept of moral injury.  On to…

Tenacity: Stories about perseverance | From The Story Collider

As the great Rocky Balboa once said about life: Iit will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.” But in this week’s episode from our friends at The Story Collider, two storytellers share stories of their strength of will and persistence to keep going despite the scient…

A Realist’s Guide to Optimism

Deepika Chopra, a clinical psychologist, has a problem with the way optimism is often defined. Real optimism, she says, shouldn’t be about always expecting the best, because sometimes the bad thing will happen. Instead, she wants us to expect the best from ourselves.  On today’s episode, Deepika j…

When Panic Takes Over – And How to Break Free

Amazon editors just chose Maya’s new book, “The Other Side of Change,” as one of the Best Books of 2026 So Far! To celebrate, we’re sharing a chapter from the audiobook with you today.  Journalist Matt Gutman spent years reporting live from high-pressure situations all over the world. Calm and col…

Caitlin Lost the Voice in Her Head

Today we’re bringing you an episode from Proxy, a show built around a simple idea: Whatever you might be going through — no matter how specific or hard to explain – you’re not alone. There is someone else out there, somewhere, who truly gets it – and they might have just the advice you need to hear…