Something Shifted with Sean Loots

Something Shifted is a South African podcast about identity after interruption, those unpredictable lifequakes that divide our lives into before and after. Before the diagnosis. Before the loss. Before the moment everything changed. Hosted by award-winning broadcaster Sean Loots, Something Shifted explores identity, resilience, reinvention, and personal growth in the aftermath of disruption. Because we all face moments that fracture who we thought we were. On this podcast, we lean in when things are complicated. Through honest, documentary-style conversations, some of South Africa’s most interesting and courageous voices share how experiences that felt devastating - divorce, burnout, grief, career collapse, parenting challenges, health crises - became catalysts for growth and unexpected empowerment. This is not a quick-fix self-help show. It’s a podcast about transformation. About rebuilding identity. About finding possibility in the middle of chaos. If you’re navigating change, searching for meaning after loss, or standing at the edge of a second act, you’ll feel at home here. Because Something Shifted believes in the power of great stories, and in the power of possibility. I think you're going to like it here. Welcome to Something Shifted.

Identity After Trauma, Brain Cancer, and the Science of Resilience. What happens when a brain tumor fractures the identity you’ve built your life around? In this episode of Something Shifted, Sean Loots explores identity after trauma through the story of Conn, a high-performing creative director whose life split into before and after at age 36. What began as subtle slurred speech and six-second headaches became emergency brain surgery and a rare diagnosis: medulloblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer usually found in children under five. Within hours, Conn was signing a form warning he might wake up blind, deaf, or not wake up at all. This is the moment identity fractures. www.somethingshifted.co.za recorded at Latitude Podcast Studio.

A case for optimism. In the prelude to the new season of Something Shifted, Sean Loots speaks to astrophysicist-turned-journalist and author of "The Bright Side" Sumit Paul-Choudhury, about the science and psychology of optimism. Drawing on stories from Ernest Shackleton's 1915 Arctic expedition, to Sean's "Joy Jar", and the research behind optimistic chickens, Sumit shares how he became an optimist after experiencing great loss.

A case for optimism. In the prelude to the new season of Something Shifted, Sean Loots speaks to astrophysicist-turned-journalist and author of "The Bright Side" Sumit Paul-Choudhury, about the science and psychology of optimism. Drawing on stories from Ernest Shackleton's 1915 Arctic expedition, to Sean's "Joy Jar", and the research behind optimistic chickens, Sumit shares how he became an optimist after experiencing great loss.

Healing is like peeling an onion. The final episode of this season is a story about love, although it's not a traditional love story. It's about love addiction, the fear of not being loved and the kind of love that can keep you alive. It's about a mother's love, facing your greatest fear and learning to love yourself through it all. Sara-Jayne shares her complex family background, the trauma of being abandoned and adopted at 7 weeks, and her struggles with addiction alongside her partner's relapse. Through it all Sara-Jayne Makwala-King emphasizes that the opposite of addiction is not soberity, but rather connection. SJ is a journalist and author and has written two books about her life story. 'Killing Karoline' and 'Mad, Bad Love'. Both are available online and in all good bookstores. QUOTES: 'My biggest fear had just happened, and yet I was the one that had told him to go. I’d facilitated that. So that was the quake—the worst thing in the world that could happen to me as I exist is happening, which is that I am a single parent, and it’s all on me.' 'You feel as if it must be personal, and it isn't. If somebody's not ready to get well from addiction, there's nothing you can do. I am powerless over another person in their addiction.' INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/seanloots https://www.instagram.com/thisissjking BOOKS: Killing Karoline: https://exclusivebooks.co.za/products/9781920601959 Mad, Bad Love: https://exclusivebooks.co.za/products/9781990973567 RECORDED AT LATITUDE PODCAST STUDIO: https://www.staylatitude.co.za/latitude-podcast-studio/