Stay ConnectedSimplify is a podcast for anyone who’s taken a look at their habits, their happiness, their relationships, or their health and thought, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.” Join Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler for conversations with authors and thinkers you know—and some you might not, yet—that sit at the intersection of reading, thinking, and daily life.
Simplify is now independently owned by Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler.
Copyright: © 2017 Simplify
We 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 better at managing our finances. Based on extensive research and numerous global studies, Dan shows what exactly matters in personal economics and offers ideas toward better ways to save.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-finance-dan-ariely-get-wrong-money
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code broccoli.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.
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In 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 trusted Sugar with their deepest secrets. In all of her work, from memoir to advice to fiction, she teaches us all to listen deeply to our own inner voices for the truth we already know.
Get comfortable and tune into this episode with Cheryl Strayed to ponder how to move on after a deep loss or a heartbreak and reflect on the three major questions people struggle with throughout their lives.
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation with Cheryl Strayed and helps put together a book list for further reading on how to better communicate your needs and listen to your inner voice.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-cheryl-strayed-life-questions-struggle/
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code sugar.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Simplify 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!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Feel 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's Spotlight, you ask? It's an experimental mini-member of the Simplify family that gives you one big idea from a new nonfiction book, straight from the author who wrote it. You’ll walk away with something to think about—and a plan for what to read next—in just about fifteen minutes. Stay tuned for more Spotlights (and more experiments) in the Simplify feed.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/introducing-simplify-spotlight/
Let us know what you thought of the first episode of Spotlight, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller, Emily at @phillips_em.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code lessbusy
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Are 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 unstructured time with no goal, unplugged from the wired world, can actually make you a better version of yourself.
Tune in to learn how procrastination sparks your creativity and makes you even more productive and how wasting time is essential for establishing a solid sense of self.
Stick around after the interview for when Emily Phillips joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation and the two compose a book list for further reading on making the most of your time in a fresh new way.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-time-management-alan-lightman-wasting-time/
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller, Emily at @phillips_em, and Ben at @bsto.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code relax.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In 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 you can set yourself (and your kids) up for being luckier in everyday life.
Hear Janice Kaplan reveal some simple techniques to help you generate luck and share stories of people who took failure as a lucky opportunity to turn fortune to their favor. Tune in to discover the best way to get lucky in love and learn how to raise lucky children. You’ll also discover which people will help you get lucky—and why your mom probably isn't one of them.
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation with Janice Kaplan and helps put together a book list for further reading on generating luck in health and in love, at work and at home.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-luck-janice-kaplan-says-luck-isnt-magic
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code luck.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Ever 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 good as a species, and how to reposition your own beliefs about what is and isn't a sexual taboo.
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation with Christopher Ryan and helps put together a book list for further reading on sexual evolution, bodies, and biology.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-human-sexuality-christopher-ryan-embrace-fantasies/
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/friends/ and typing in the code bonobo.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/niceaux).
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
While 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 outdated research and cultural assumptions. Listen to Dr. Lori Brotto talk about her new book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness and explain some of our many misconceptions about sex, and introduce ways we can use mindfulness practices to feel more connected to ourselves — and to our partners — during sexual encounters.
By the end of this episode, you’ll learn concrete practices you can use to really tune into sex and make it better – regardless of your age or gender – and discover that pleasure is always there for you, if you can be there for it.
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation with Dr. Lori Brotto and to compose a sexy book list on mindfulness, positive psychology, improving sex life and relationships.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-desire-lori-brotto-make-love-mindfully
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/niceaux).
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A 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 misunderstood about our brains and makes recommendations on how to keep your mind healthy with “cellular housekeeping."
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the key ideas in this episode and recommend some great reads on the various functions of the all-mighty mind.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-thinking-daniel-levitin-how-to-organize-your-mind
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/niceaux).
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As 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 you’ve been anxious about sex, are struggling to connect to a long-term partner, or just want to understand yourself better, this episode offers lots of calm, informed, empathetic advice on how you can find your way.
Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the big ideas in this episode and help make a sexy book list for your nightstand.
For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to
https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-sex-emily-nagoski-pleasure-measure-great-sex-life
Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.
That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/niceaux).
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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