People I (Mostly) Admire

34. Maya Shankar Is Changing People’s Behavior — and Her Own

Jul 3, 2021

45:26

Creator website

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Introduction

2min

How Did That Work?

3min

How to Get Government Agencies to Work on Behavior Old Science Pilots

2min

The Secret to Success in the Federal Government

2min

Is There Resistance in Government?

2min

I've Been There, Done That

3min

The Limitations of Behavior Science

2min

The Scale Is a Big Factor

2min

I Disbanded the White House Component

2min

10.

Would You Go Back to Des if They Offered You the Job?

2min

11.

How Many Failures Are There?

2min

12.

Is There a Negative Effect of Nudges?

2min

13.

Aren't You Afraid of Survivorship Bias?

4min

14.

A Slight Change of Plans

3min

15.

How Did You Learn Mandarin?

4min

16.

Are You Bad at Change?

3min

17.

The World's Greatest Wall Climber

3min

18.

Are You Trying to Play the Violin Again?

4min

She used to run a behavioral unit in the Obama administration, and now has a similar role at Google. Maya and Steve talk about the power (and limits) of behavioral economics and also how people respond to change — the topic of her new podcast A Slight Change of Plans.