Pushkin, Hey, Slight Changers, it's Maya. I'm so excited to be back with a new season of A slight Change of Plans. Many of us have experienced a moment in our lives that changes everything, a moment that instantly divides our life into a before and and after. On this show, we'll hear inspiring stories of change from people who have weathered these transitions, like my conversation with writers su Leka Jawad, her cancer diagnosis in her early twenties changed the way she thinks about survival.
I realized it wasn't enough to just be alive. That's not why I had endured. What I had endured, it was to live a good life, a meaningful life, and I needed to figure out how to do that.
We'll also hear from scientists, like psychologists Alison Gottnik, who does a deep dive on the creative genius of children and explains what we can learn from their approach to problem solving.
Being noisy, both literally and metaphorically, doing lots of weird, random stuff right that doesn't seem to make sense. All these features of what children are like that we might have thought were signs that they were irrational or just immature, really are exactly the things that make them so good at learning.
And we hear from clinical psychologists Becky Kennedy. Becky's known as the millennial parenting whisperer, and she offers a parenting philosophy that can radically improve the well being of both kids and their parents.
Behavior is not identity, Like there's a good kid, a in pain kid, probably a smart kid, a freaking funny kid underneath these really difficult behaviors. And I think when you start seeing that, you intervene totally differently in a way that feels better to the kid and the parent, and honestly in a way that also is just much more effective for behavior change.
And next week we kick off the season with a conversation with writer Laura Cathcart Robins. Laura struggled with anxiety as a new mom and developed an addiction to sleeping pills. The experience upended her expectation of being the perfect parent.
All I think about, besides my kids, are these pills. How many can I take? When can I take them? Where can I get them? How can I keep it a secret? I was a full blown addict, and I was a full time mom.
I'm so grateful to our guests this season for sharing their stories and hard won wisdom. New episodes will hit your feed on Monday, April first. All episodes of A Slight Change of Plans are free and you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. See you next week.