Simplify
93 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★ - 258 ratingsSimplify is a podcast for anyone who’s taken a close look at their habits, their happiness, their relationships, or their health and thought, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.” Hear ideas that get you to better from Gretchen Rubin, David Allen, Rebecca Traister, Dan Savage, Seth Godin and many more. Hosted by Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler. Brought to you by Blinkist.
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Episodes
Introducing: Self? Help! Episode One - featuring Susan Cain
March 14, 2019 15:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBSelf? Help! is the new podcast out of Blinkist. Host Terence Mickey, Moth Storyteller and creator of Memory Motel, goes deep with people about the books that sparked their life-changing realizations. In season one you’ll hear five bestselling NYT authors—Johann Hari, Paula McLain, and Eli Finkel, to name a few—tell the stories of that moment when they asked themselves who am I? How did I get here? And what am I supposed to do next? and the book that helped them answer those oh-so-existentia...
Amanda Siebert: It's Just a Plant
March 07, 2019 13:00 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBPicture a person who uses cannabis regularly. Did you imagine an Olympic medal-winning athlete, or a successful entrepreneur? Or did you think of someone who fits the standard stoner stereotype? If, like most people, you conjured up the latter, then today’s episode of Simplify might challenge some of your assumptions about what cannabis-use looks like, and what it’s used for. In this episode, Caitlin interviews cannabis journalist and author of The Little Book of Cannabis, Amanda Siebert. A...
Robin DiAngelo: Think impact, Not Intention
March 01, 2019 11:00 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBWhat does whiteness mean? If you're a white person, the occasions on which you've thought about it might be few. If you're a person of color, the time you spend reckoning with its meaning & consequences are likely far too many. Today's episode of Simplify is an invitation to grapple with what white means in the world, and how to have more generative, revelation-ready mindsets and conversations about racism as a system. As a Racial Justice Educator, Robin DiAngelo exhorts white people to con...
Jen Sincero: Believe Better Stories
February 21, 2019 16:30 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBCoach & writer Jen Sincero tried every self-help technique out there, then condensed the most powerful practices into one straight-talking bestseller that thousands have used to kickstart their lives. Listen in as Sincero takes you through how to bust your own self-defeating beliefs to become the badass you’ve always known you are. Sincero, author of bestselling book You Are a Badass talks with Caitlin about negative thinking about money, how to tap into "source energy" (without getting too...
Melissa Hartwig Urban: Create Your Own Food Rules
February 14, 2019 11:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MBIf you've got a pulse and like eating food, you've likely either been on a diet, or felt obligated to start one. Yet the fact remains that diets, in the traditional cut-and-count-calories format, rarely work long term. That's where Melissa Hartwig Urban comes in. On this episode of Simplify, the co-creator of nutrition phenomenon The Whole30 talks with Caitlin about how to get free of diets forever, why your weight doesn't count, and how changing the way you eat can change everything. Plus,...
Ayelet Waldman: Microdose, Maybe?
February 07, 2019 11:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBThe turning point came for Ayelet Waldman when she found herself frozen before her medicine cabinet, wondering "what's going to kill me fastest?" She knew it was time to try a new tactic to improve her mental health. In this episode, hear this bestselling nonfiction author (who also happens to be a mother, a wife, and a novelist) describe her experience with microdosing LSD and how it improved her writing and her marriage, and maybe even saved her life. Waldman will bring you deep into the ...
Dan Harris: One Minute Counts
January 31, 2019 11:01 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBDo your negative thoughts race faster than Usain Bolt? Do you wish you were calmer, kinder, or more focused? Would you like to meditate, but just don’t think you have time? If you answered yes, then this episode of Simplify is for you. Dan Harris might be best known for his reporting on ABC News, Nightline, and the weekend edition of Good Morning America, but in recent years, this hard-nosed newsman has been helping fidgety skeptics like himself tap into the many benefits of meditation. To...
Trailer: Simplify Season 5
January 17, 2019 10:55 - 2 minutes - 1.95 MBIn season 5, you’ll learn how easy meditation can be with Dan Harris, how to change your self-defeating beliefs with Jen Sincero, and how to talk about race with Robin DiAngelo. You'll also hear what it's like to microdose LSD for a month and learn the surprising ways a little bit of cannabis can improve your health. If you haven’t subscribed, make sure to do so before the first new episode drops on January 31. If we’re lucky enough to already count you as a Simplify fan, then please spread...
Luvvie Ajayi: Speak Your Uncomfortable Truth
October 18, 2018 11:45 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBIf a friend of yours needed to hear an unpleasant truth, would you tell it to them? Or would you gloss over it in order to avoid an uncomfortable conversation? Many of us would probably opt for the latter to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, but sometimes loving criticism is necessary to make people understand that they deserve better — and are capable of achieving it. In conversation with Caitlin, Luvvie Ajayi argues that honesty, judgment and criticism shouldn’t always be perceived as neg...
Kelly Leonard: Say Yes! To Funny Business
September 27, 2018 13:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBEffective collaboration, innovative thinking, and constructive problem-solving can be major struggles for many teams, regardless of industry. But for those who really want to fix these issues, it’s time to look beyond how other companies work and turn to improv comedy ensembles for inspiration. After all, they’ve literally taken teamwork and turned it into an art form. Reflecting on years of experience with Chicago’s famous Second City improv troupe — where comedians like Tina Fey, Stephen ...
Guy Winch: Heartbreak Hygiene
September 20, 2018 10:00 - 45 minutes - 42.2 MBNothing hurts worse than heartbreak. Whether it’s the painful end of relationship or the passing away of a beloved pet, grief and emotional suffering can quickly become all-consuming. And that’s where we blame ourselves and feel guilty for our inability to overcome emotional pain fast enough. Moreover, as psychologist Guy Winch shows, when going through a breakup, it’s not just our mental health that suffers, but our bodies too. In this episode of Simplify, Winch reveals what happens in our...
Benjamin Spall: Start Your Day Off Right
September 13, 2018 10:08 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBDo you consider yourself a night owl or are you a morning person? Regardless of whether you love mornings or not, we all want to make best of them. Everybody has those few things––that certain morning ritual––that if they don't do it, their whole day is ruined. But what’s the best way to start your day off right? Benjamin Spall and his co-author, Michael Xander, have spent five years studying morning routines of today’s most successful innovators, entrepreneurs, writers and artists to find ...
Sarah Knight: Care Less, Get More
September 06, 2018 10:32 - 38 minutes - 35 MBHow much of your life do you spend pleasing those around you? Maybe it’s time to be honest with yourself, invest time in the things that really matter, and start weeding out unnecessary obligations to people you don’t really like. But how exactly are you supposed to do that? In this episode of Simplify, Sarah Knight will help you start a process of mental decluttering and show you how to develop your personal “fck budget”, i.e. the amount of fcks you are prepared to dispense on any given da...
Dan Ariely: Saving Up Is Hard To Do
August 30, 2018 10:45 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBWe all like to buy stuff. Endless ads screaming “sale,” “discount," and “free” trick us into believing that we want things that we don’t actually need. In an age of credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, and Apple pay, it has become incredibly easy to spend our hard-earned sheckles and tough to save them. In this episode of Simplify, behavioral economist and cognitive psychologist Dan Ariely explains what’s behind our irrational behavior in financial decision making and teaches us how we can get bett...
Cheryl Strayed: Listen For The Truth
August 23, 2018 11:30 - 42 minutes - 39 MBIn the first episode of Season 4, Caitlin talks with Cheryl Strayed about how tending to humanity’s toughest quandaries has become her calling, and the three central questions that keep us all up at night. Through years of listening deeply and sensitively to others’ experiences as well as her own, Strayed has unlocked what makes a good advice-giver and friend: sincerity, listening without judging, and connection. This—paired with her straight-shooting style—is why thousands of people have t...
Trailer: Simplify Season 4
August 16, 2018 15:02 - 1 minute - 1.53 MBSimplify season 4 launches on August 23rd with an episode featuring bestselling author, memoirist, and internet legend, Cheryl Strayed. This first episode is one of our favorites yet, but as you'll hear in the trailer, there's much more to come. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin before the season really kicks into gear, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. See you next week!
Introducing Spotlight: Laura Vanderkam on Expanding Time
June 21, 2018 10:01 - 14 minutes - 13 MBFeel like there's never enough time in the day? Then this episode is for you. In this very first Spotlight episode of Simplify, time-management expert Laura Vanderkam offers surprising ideas from her new book Off The Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done to help you overhaul your relationship with time. Here, she tells Emily Phillips about how committing to more activities—not fewer—is the key to slowing the experience of time so you feel less time-poor and richer in life. And what...
Alan Lightman: Wasting Time is Good For You (Bonus Episode)
June 07, 2018 10:37 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBAre you slavishly devoted to your to-do list, rushing around to fit every vacant area of time to a task? In this day and age, most of us are—and it's doing no favors to our creativity, our minds, and our very humanity. Something's got to give, and Alan Lightman has a plan. Or, rather, a lack of one. And that's perfect. In this episode of Simplify, the MIT professor, scientist and novelist offers an antidote to how we live today. He underscores the importance of wasting time, revealing how u...
Janice Kaplan: Luck Isn’t Magic
May 09, 2018 20:29 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBIn this episode of Simplify, Caitlin talks to Janice Kaplan, bestselling author, TV producer, and magazine editor about how luck happens and how you can create it. Does luck feel like something you either have or you don’t? Does it feel like chance? Or, do you think you have some, not all of it good? Well, Janice Kaplan and Barnaby Marsh turned to research, pioneering studies, and interviews with “lucky" successful people to discover that luck is actually very much under our control. And yo...
Christopher Ryan: Don’t Take Sex So Seriously
May 03, 2018 09:20 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBEver wondered whether humans are meant to be monogamous, or when we started to look at our sexual partners as private property? The authors of the extraordinary book on sexual evolution Sex at Dawn, Cacilda Jethá and Christopher Ryan, study our primate legacy and explain how it shaped human sexual behavior. In this episode, Ryan talks about the purpose of sexual relations in matriarchal and male-dominated societies, why what we believe about our primate origins is doing us more harm than go...
Dr. Lori Brotto: Make Sex More Mindful
April 26, 2018 09:50 - 42 minutes - 39.4 MBWhile mindfulness can feel like a relatively new phenomenon in western societies — Jon Kabat-Zinn popularized it in the US in the 1970s — it has, in fact, been helping people feel connected to their lives for centuries. Dr. Lori Brotto experimented with the practice as treatment for women with sexual concerns and found that mindfulness can have positive effects on desire, response and connection — and the effects seem to be lasting. A lot of what we ‘know’ about sex as a society is based on...
Daniel Levitin: Trick Your Brain, Treat Your Brain
April 19, 2018 08:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBA lot of the things that we’ve learned about how our minds work are simply not true. Did you know that a small part of your brain can fall asleep while the other parts are awake and working? And we can't trust our memories, either: it turns out that much of what ends up getting stored in memory, especially what people remember about themselves and their past, is a distortion. But it's not all bad news! Listen as Dr. Daniel Levitin of The Organized Mind sheds light on what we've long misund...
Emily Nagoski: Pleasure is the Measure
April 11, 2018 23:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBAs a sex educator, Emily Nagoski sees her main purpose as “teaching people to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies.” Step one? Understanding what’s actually going on in there! In this episode, Nagoski employs colorful analogies to illustrate the ways in which our minds and bodies react to stressful situations (spoiler alert: you'll have to use your imagination and become a gazelle) and to describe our physical responses to sexually relevant information (enter: car metaphor). If...
Charles Duhigg: Thinking is the Killer App
April 05, 2018 09:45 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBPultizer-prize-winning, bestselling author and NYT writer Charles Duhigg has cracked the code to what makes the world’s most productive people so effective—and how you can use those techniques for yourself. Listen in to hear why self-belief is the key to real, lasting change and find out which productivity tips Duhigg’s teaching his kids. Plus, hear the smart, slightly dirty productivity trick he pulled on Caitlin. If you want to break an old habit or be your most innovative, creative self,...
Trailer: Simplify Season 3
March 22, 2018 08:45 - 2 minutes - 2.36 MBSimplify Season 3 launches next week with an episode featuring Nobel Prize-winner, NYT columnist, and master of habits: Charles Duhigg! If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. One more thing! We'd still love to get your voices on Simplify. Specifically, we want to hear how you would answer one of the questions we always ask our guests: “What have you discovered was much easier than you initially thought it was?” Jus...
Simplify’s 2017 Sampler Episode
February 08, 2018 10:40 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBWhat’s better than getting to the heart of a great idea? Getting to the heart of seven great ideas in under 40 minutes—which is exactly what happens in this best-of episode. Hear from Simplify Season 1 and 2’s most beloved guests, including Seth Godin, David Allen, Dan Savage, Jaclyn Friedman, Ryan Holiday, and more. And stick around after the last interview’s rolled to hear hosts Ben Schuman-Stoler and Caitlin Schiller share a very special Bookend—plus some quality overshares from their li...
Eli Finkel: Marriage Is Dead, Long Live Marriage (Bonus Episode)
December 28, 2017 10:00 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBIn this bonus episode of Simplify season 2, we talk with Eli Finkel. Finkel is a writer and social psychologist at Northwestern University. He's also the author of the new book The All-or-Nothing Marriage. On this episode, Caitlin Schiller talks to Finkel about where the ideas in the book came from. Finkel explains how he discovered that marriage is tied to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: throughout history, the main purpose of marriage was tied to survival, but today we’re asking for much mor...
Rebecca Traister: The Power of Being Single
December 21, 2017 10:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBRebecca Traister is an author and writer-at-large for New York Magazine. She writes about women, culture, and politics, and her most recent book is All The Single Ladies. On this episode of Simplify, Traister and Caitlin Schiller discuss the larger meaning of singlehood, why marriage doesn’t make any sense anymore, and the one thing that attracts the most single-ladies. It's part Traister's story, part journalism, part history, and part crazy clever idea-connecting. After the interview, Be...
Julian Treasure: Make Good Noise
December 14, 2017 10:36 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBJulian Treasure is a sound designer, a musician, and a public speaker—his TED talks have been viewed more than 40 million times!—and he’s also a master of what he calls the “silent skill:" listening. In this episode, Treasure talks to Caitlin about the 7 deadly sins of speaking, how your listening shapes who you are, and why certain cities sound so delicious to our ears. Plus, Caitlin finds out why she feels old every time she walks past an Abercrombie & Fitch store. After their conversat...
Jaclyn Friedman: No Pill Will Fix Your Sex Life (Ever)
December 06, 2017 13:05 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBJaclyn Friedman is a writer, sex-educator, and activist whose work helped establish the “yes means yes” standard of sexual consent. Her new book, Unscrewed; Women, Sex, Power, And How To Stop Letting the System Screw Us All, was released in November, 2017. On this episode of Simplify, Caitlin Schiller talks with Friedman about sexual empowerment – or the lack thereof, which Friedman calls “Fauxpowerment.” They discuss some of the fundamental challenges to women becoming truly sexually empow...
Michael Bungay Stanier: Be Lazy, Be Curious, Be Often
November 30, 2017 08:52 - 43 minutes - 40 MBCoach of coaches Michael Bungay Stanier is a bestselling author and #3 coach worldwide according to Global Guru. In this episode of Simplify, Bungay Stanier talks to Caitlin Schiller about why leaders who get quiet, get curious, and ask a few simple questions are more successful than advice-giving maniacs. (Warning: you're probably an advice-giving maniac.) Bungay Stanier explains how you can be more coach-like without becoming a drill instructor. There are a few surprises along the way: b...
Ryan Holiday: Provoke With A Purpose
November 23, 2017 10:57 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBAre you iOS, Android, or Stoic? In this episode of Simplify, hear bestselling author and master of controversy, Ryan Holiday, talk about finding your personal operating system and using it to focus and fuel the work you love to do. Holiday and Caitlin discuss some of the secrets of media marketing, and then dive into Holiday's other passion: philosophy. He also has great advice on finding your fans, applying abstract theory to real life, and becoming OK with saying “I don’t know.” After th...
Seth Godin: Do Bad Work
November 16, 2017 10:10 - 39 minutes - 36 MBWelcome to the second season of Simplify! In this season's first episode, Caitlin Schiller talks to the bestselling author and legend of marketing and entrepreneurship, Seth Godin. Building on his own experience, Godin explains how when we find ourselves stuck and unable to move something forward, it’s because we’re afraid. He touches on the ideas in his bestsellers Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and Linchpin, and talks through a few ways to stop hiding, including why sometimes you have ...
Simplify Season 2: Trailer
November 09, 2017 10:00 - 2 minutes - 2.58 MBSimplify Season 2 launches next week with an episode featuring Seth Godin. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. And we have a favor to ask! We want to include your voices in this season of Simplify. Specifically, we’d love to hear how you would answer one of the questions we always ask our guests: “What have you discovered was much easier than you initially thought it was?” Just record your answer as a Voice Memo...
Announcing Simplify Season 2
October 23, 2017 09:30 - 2 minutes - 2.7 MBWe’re back on November 16th, 2017, with a new season of Simplify! Tune in for 6 new guests and 6 new ways to look at your world. To keep you busy ‘til then, we have an assignment for you: go into your voice memo app on your phone (called Voice Memo on iOS and on Android, you've got lots of choices) and record us a message with your name, where you’re calling from, and one thing you learned is much simpler or easier than you thought it was. Then, email it to us at [email protected]. If y...
Abby Marks Beale: Read Smarter (Bonus Episode)
August 24, 2017 08:00 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBBen Schuman-Stoler talks to speed-reading expert Abby Marks Beale about how to become a more mindful reader. Abby is a consultant and the author of 10 Days to Faster Reading. Abby and Ben clarify the meaning of speed-reading (it’s NOT reading War and Peace in five minutes and knowing it’s a book about Russia) and review simple strategies for getting the most out of your reading material. After the interview, Caitlin joins Ben to recap the interview and have a very meta conversation about b...
Jonah Berger: You Are Always Under the Influence
August 10, 2017 09:40 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBCaitlin Schiller talks to New York Times bestselling author Jonah Berger. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches Wharton’s top-ranked online course. He is also the author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On and Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. Jonah tells Caitlin about his newest book, Invisible Influence, which reframes the latest research on decision-making and behavioral psychology in a way that ...
Laura Vanderkam: You Have More Time Than You Think
August 03, 2017 09:54 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBBen Schuman-Stoler talks to time management expert Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. Her writing has appeared in Fast Company, Fortune, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Vanderkam made a surprising discovery after interviewing hundreds of professional women: most of us actually have way more free time than we think. She also tells an unforgettable story involving an exploding water heater and a floode...
Dr. Joel Fuhrman: The Salad is the Main Meal
July 27, 2017 09:40 - 36 minutes - 33.9 MBThis week, we talk with Dr. Joel Fuhrman. You might be familiar with his bestselling books, like Eat to Live and Super Immunity. Dr. Fuhrman is the passionate pioneer of nutritarianism, a style of eating which focuses on jamming into your diet as many nutrient-rich, cancer-fighting, health-bolstering foods as possible. Over his many years of medical practice, Dr. Furhman has seen nutritarianism reverse diabetes, stall cancer, and remedy many long-term health problems — all in addition to he...
David Allen: Your Brain is Not a Hard Drive
July 20, 2017 09:19 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBCaitlin Schiller travels to Amsterdam to talk to productivity guru David Allen, the best-selling author of Getting Things Done, Ready for Anything, and Making It All Work. They talk about how to overcome the internal obstacles that stand in our way when we’re trying to get things done in the external world. In the second segment, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make another must-have reading list. By the end of the episode, you’ll understand David’s no-nonsense approach to productivity,...
Dan Savage: Keep Not Breaking Up
July 13, 2017 10:14 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBCaitlin Schiller talks to sex and relationship advice columnist Dan Savage. Savage is the author of four books, including American Savage, and a nationally syndicated column called Savage Love. Since 2006, his podcast, Savage Lovecast, has been regularly featured on the Apple Podcasts top charts. In the interview, Savage explains why the best thing you can do for your relationships might be to lower expectations. Plus, how monogamy is a lot like snowboarding and why a nail in his head made ...
Gretchen Rubin: You Do You
July 13, 2017 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBCaitlin Schiller talks to Gretchen Rubin, NYT bestselling author of Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. Her books have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, in over thirty languages. Rubin speaks about her approach to happiness, habits, and self-acceptance. The main thing you should listen for is how to apply the ancient idea of “know thyself” to your fast-paced 21st-century life. In the second segment, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin for a deep but pithy ...
Simplify Season 1 Trailer
July 05, 2017 12:30 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBHere's a little taste of what you'll hear in the next six weeks. Hit subscribe to have the first episode automatically delivered to your podcast feed in just a few days! Until then! Be good, Ben and Caitlin