Biography
Book Maya Shankar through The Keynote Curators.
Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and the creator, executive producer, and host of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, which Apple awarded as the Best Show of the Year 2021 and which received an Ambie award from the Podcast Academy in 2022. Maya was a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team. She also served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations under Ban Ki-moon, and as a core member of Pete Buttigieg’s debate preparation team during his 2020 presidential run.
Maya has a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience from Stanford, a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a B.A. from Yale. She’s been profiled by The New Yorker and been the featured guest on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Freakonomics,” and “Hidden Brain.” She’s a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music’s pre-college program, where she was a private violin student of Itzhak Perlman.
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Videos
Why Change Is So Scary — and How to Unlock Its Potential | Maya Shankar | TED
How to Shape Your Identity & Goals | Dr. Maya Shankar
Malala, On Losing Herself | A Slight Change of Plans podcast
What If Finding Community Wasn't So Hard? ft. Dr. Vivek Murthy | A Slight Change of Plans podcast
Blog Posts
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Brand Trust Strategies Every Event Pro Needs to Know
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Creativity Strategies That Transform Workplace Culture, with Nir Bashan
Creativity transforms workplace culture when leaders treat it as a learnable skill, not a personality trait. Nir Bashan explains how.
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The Reach-Out Rule for Mental Health
One simple rule for mental health this May: if someone crosses your mind, reach out. No agenda. Just humanity.
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Playing the Game of Life: Events and Experiences That Actually Transform
Events create human collision points that digital tools can't replicate. Here's why in-person experiences matter more than ever, with insights from Jess Ekstrom.
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