Ebb and Flow Podcast

We’ve all been there — loving someone who just doesn’t have the capacity to love us back the same way. In this week’s episode, Maya unpacks Daniel Caesar’s  “Please Do Not Lean”  and the lessons hidden in its lyrics: emotional imbalance, anxious attachment, and learning to stop shrinking yourself for someone still in their “becoming” season.

Inspired by  Frank Ocean – Channel ORANGE (2012) What happens when the things we place our faith in—love, institutions, people, ideas—fail us? In this week’s episode, I reflect on  Bad Religion  and how it captures the spiritual unraveling that comes from unrequited love and misplaced devotion. We talk about the personal and the political: from one-sided relationships and neurodivergent hyperfixat...

In this week’s episode, we’re getting vulnerable — peeling back the layers on the chaotic, beautiful, and bittersweet mess that is our twenties. Inspired by Givēon’s track from Beloved, I’m reflecting out loud on everything this decade has taught me so far: heartbreak, healing, missteps, self-sabotage, growth, and grace. This one has been sitting in the vault for a minute… but the mic felt safe en...

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Maya takes listeners on a raw, poetic, and reflective journey through her lived experience as a survivor, and as the daughter of one. Inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s deeply personal song  “Mother I Sober,”  this episode explores the intergenerational impact of abuse, the normalization of violence in Black households, and the complex emotions tied to heal...

Inspired by “Special” by SZA What happens when the person who broke your heart becomes everything you wished they were... but for someone else? What do you do when the softness you once carried so proudly feels like it’s gone forever? In this episode, I reflect on what it means to lose touch with your former self, especially after being deeply vulnerable with someone who couldn’t meet you there. I...

Sometimes love and loyalty are  not  the same thing. In this week’s episode, I’m diving into what it really means to hold your friends accountable...especially when they’re out here doing wild, harmful shit and no one is checking them. Inspired by Jack Harlow’s “Gang Gang Gang,” we’re talking about complicity, betrayal, and the danger of being loyal to people who wouldn’t pass your own moral test...

In this episode of  Ebb & Flow , Maya enters a new season: the  "No. 1"  era. Inspired by the song by Tyla ft. Tems, this episode is a raw exploration of what it means to put yourself first, unapologetically. From the high of feeling free after letting go, to the quiet struggle of learning radical accountability, Maya reflects on past patterns, over-investing in others, and the proce...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of suicide, suicidal ideation, and mental health struggles. Listener discretion is advised. In honor of Suicide Prevention Day, I sat down with my best friend Bre Banks — a licensed clinical social worker and therapist — for an honest, deeply personal conversation about mental health, the quiet signs we often overlook, and what it means to truly li...

Inspired by Mariah the Scientist. A vulnerable check-in on self-awareness and the quiet ways we self-destruct: overdoing it, staying where we don’t belong, telling ourselves lies that facts can’t seem to fix. Maya shares a turning point—learning to  ask for help —and unpacks the “strong Black woman” cape she never asked to wear. She closes with her notes for the week:  I am enough. I am smart. I a...

This world expects Black women to be unbreakable, resilient, strong, and unshakable. That's cool and all... but I'm not auditioning to be Superwoman anymore. In this kickoff to Ebb & Flow , I talk about why I created this space, the territory that comes with being a neurodivergent black woman, and what I'm doing to 'Pipe Down' the intrusive thoughts that tell me to 'get over it' so I can hear...

Welcome to  Ebb and Flow  — a podcast for the deeply feeling, the healing, and the ones still figuring it all out. I’m Maya Sanders, a neurodivergent Black woman navigating trauma, identity, and the rhythm of becoming. In this space, I share personal reflections through storytelling and music — with each episode titled after a song that helped me process what I couldn’t put into words. This isn’t...