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
What happens in the gap between updating your LinkedIn title and actually knowing how to do the job?
Caitlin sits down with Deborah Caulet—leadership coach, former VP of People at Blinkist, and someone who's spent 15 years helping leaders figure out what they're doing (and why they feel like they aren't doing it right!). Deb works with first-time managers and founders at growing startups, coaching them through the messy, humbling transition from high-performing individual contributor to someone whose job is to make other people shine. It's an identity shift, she says—and your sense of self has to catch up.
They get into the classic traps: the leader who becomes their own bottleneck because delegating feels slower than just doing it, the difficult conversation that gets avoided for weeks because the anticipation is worse than the thing itself, and the imposter syndrome that 85% of professionals have felt at some point. Deb shares her CLEAR framework for navigating hard feedback conversations, and there's a thread about what it actually means to be kind versus nice at work — and why the difference matters more than you'd think. There's also a moment about AI's role in leadership that takes a surprising turn.
The conversation lands on a deceptively simple piece of advice for anyone staring down a new role and feeling the weight of everything they don't yet know. It's the kind of thing you'll want to remember on a Monday morning.
Resources
Deb's Rec: Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock
Ben's Rec: Radical Candor by Kim Scott
Caitlin's Rec: A.Q.: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That's Always Changing by Liz Tran
Deborah Caulet's 7-Day Difficult Conversation Challenge (free) Deborah Caulet's 12-Week Leadership Bootcamp.
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter on beehiiv here. Also, you can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and engineered by João Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What if the part of you that knows what's actually wrong isn't your brain?
This week on Simplify, Caitlin sits down with Dr. Arielle Schwartz—clinical psychologist, somatic therapy expert, and author of more books than seems reasonable for one person—to talk about what your body has been trying to tell you for years. Arielle has been working in somatics for thirty years, long before TikTok turned it into a buzzword, and her gift is making something that can feel slippery and slightly woo-woo feel concrete and useful. And, delightfully, she'll get us there via rivers, vagus nerves, and the wisdom of your gut.
The conversation moves through somatic therapy itself, what an actual session looks like, and why the chairs aren't bolted to the floor, polyvagal theory broken down for a five-year-old, and why some of the most stubborn anxiety patterns aren't really about what's happening out there, exactly—they're about what's happening inside your. body.
There's also a thread that quietly runs through the whole episode about how our earliest experiences—earlier than we usually consider—shape how safe the world feels in our bodies for the rest of our lives.
Her parting demystification of the field is one for anyone who's tried to fix themselves quickly and wondered why it didn't stick.
Resources:
Arielle's Recs: The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook, the work of Janina Fisher
Ben's Rec: Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Caitlin's Rec: Tell Me Where it Hurts by Dr. Rachel Zoffness
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter on beehiiv here. Also, you can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and engineered by João Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What if the stories running your life aren't really yours?
This week on Simplify, Caitlin talks with Angela Natividad: a mythologist, writer, and advertising veteran—a trifecta that turns out to be the perfect preparation for the argument she makes in her book Remember His Name: Unmasking the Faceless God of the West. That argument, put simply: capitalism isn't an economic system. It's a religious one.
We get into what that actually means—the hidden god at the center of it all, the ancient mythologies that laid the groundwork, and a concept called the egregore that might be as unsettling as it is useful. Angela also makes a case for why the stories we tell ourselves about productivity, laziness, and whether we're doing enough aren't pointing to personal failings. They're architecture that someone built, and understanding that is the first step to not being entirely at their mercy.
Resources
Remember His Name: Unmasking the Faceless God of the West by Angela Natividad
Midwifing The Mother, Angela's Substack
The Dawn of Everything by Davids Graeber and Wengrow
How to Re-Enchant the World by Serge Latouche
Caitlin's rec: The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Ben's recs: The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrère / The primary texts (the Bible, the Quran, the Avesta — just dip in!) / Bad Cousins podcast
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and engineered by João Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A loss isn't always a loss—sometimes, it's one of many stepping stones towards winning big. When you change how you think about what succeeding looks like, the long game of changing the systems we live in seems infinitely more doable.
This week on Simplify, Caitlin speaks with international human rights lawyer and author Nani Jansen Reventlow about her book Radical Justice—and about what real, systemic change actually looks like from the inside. Nani founded two nonprofits, the Digital Freedom Fund and Systemic Justice, and has spent her career building a model of legal action in which communities most affected by injustice stay in the driver's seat. The implications of that, for how we think about winning, losing, and the long arc of change, are quietly radical.
They also get into the surprising connections between different kinds of justice, who gets left out of the climate conversation and why, and what it takes to imagine a world that isn't just a patched-up version of this one. Nani is one of those rare people who can hold a wide-angle view of broken systems and still tell you exactly what to do on a Tuesday.
Her parting thought is one of those things that sounds simple until you actually try it: start today—you've already got the tools for revolution.
Nani is doing a live event here in Berlin, Germany at Chapters Bookshop at the end of April—come say hi!
Resources
Radical Justice by Nani Jansen Reventlow (use JUSTICE15 for 15% off at https://www.plutobooks.com/. ) Win a free copy: email info@kollomedia.com — first come, first served.
Caitlin's rec: Farewell to Growth by Serge Latouche
Ben's rec: How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and engineered by João Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
Resources
Radical Justice by Nani Jansen Reventlow. YOU can win a free copy generously donated by Nani and her publisher, Pluto. Just email info@kollomedia.com and ask for it—first come, first served. And if you don't win, you can use the 15% off code JUSTICE15 to buy your copy at https://www.plutobooks.com/.
Nani's nonprofits: Systemic Justice / Digital Freedom Fund
Nani is doing a live event in Berlin at Chapters Bookshop at the end of April — come say hi!
Ben's rec: How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm
Caitlin's rec: Farewell to Growth by Serge Latouche
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us (send a voice note!) at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and engineered by João Lucas, in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Most of us have gotten up on a Monday morning and thought: I simply cannot do this today. Our job is grinding us down in that slow, invisible way that work does when we're not managing it well. Psychotherapist, author, and podcast host Guy Winch has spent his career sitting with people who have experienced this for a passel of reasons from sabotaging coworkers to unrealistic goals. His new book Mind Over Grind is a practical, science-backed guide to surviving your job—even when it really, truly sucks.
In this episode, Caitlin and Guy dig into why so many of us experience our jobs as far more stressful than they objectively need to be, what the Goldilocks zone of stress actually looks like, and how to catch yourself before you blow past it. Guy also speaks candidly about his own early burnout and the slow, identity-shifting work it took to come back from it—including why your Netflix queue might not be doing what you think it's doing when it comes to real recovery.
Resources
Mind Over Grind by Guy Winch
Guy's podcast: Dear Therapists (with Lori Gottlieb)
Caitlin's rec: How to Enjoy Your Life and Your Job by Dale Carnegie
Ben's rec: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us (or send us a voice note!) at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Joao Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What if getting back at someone isn't as satisfying as we think—and what we're really trying to avoid is grief?
This week on Simplify, Caitlin speaks with psychotherapist, teacher, and author David Richo about his book Sweeter Than Revenge, which makes the case that there's a better way to respond when people hurt us than the one our brains (and basically every movie ever made) are wired for.
Dave has spent decades sitting with people in their messiest, most wounded moments. What he's found is that retaliation isn't really about power or justice. It's about running from grief! We retaliate so we don't have to feel bad. Which, when you think about it, is kind of a bummer.
The conversation gets into the neuroscience of revenge (yes, it lights up reward circuits—but only briefly), why our most beloved stories and films keep selling us the same retaliatory fantasy, and what it actually looks like to choose differently. He and Caitlin also dig into why we hurt the people we love in the first place, and Dave offers four concrete steps for the next time the urge to retaliate arises.
Resources
Sweeter Than Revenge by David Richo
Caitlin's Rec: With The End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix
Ben's Rec: How to Be And Adult in Relationships by David Richo
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Joao Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Most of us have no idea what it means to repair harm, not just apologize for it. We also regard rage as frightening and out of place in loving, connected relationships. It takes a special person to demystify these staticky aspects of human relating—and we found her.
This week on Simplify, Caitlin speaks with relational skills teacher Christabel Mintah-Galloway about repair: why it’s so difficult, why most of us avoid it, and why real accountability requires more than just good intentions. In a culture that prizes speed, certainty, and individualism, repair demands slowness, humility, and interdependence, so we're never taught how to practice this essential skill. Christabel offers tools that help us knit back together after a rupture (if we want to!), become true mirrors for one another, and learn to be in community—even when it's hard.
The conversation also explores how rage can actually clarify values and point to injustice, strengthening our strongest relationships and freeing us from the ones that no longer work.
Want to spend more time with Christabel? You can! Attend one of her Relational Skills for Liberation workshops, find her on Instagram, or get her Relational Skills Toolkit.
Resources
Christabel's Website
Caitlin's rec: The WEIRDest People in The World by Joseph Heinrich
Ben's rec: Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Arun Gandhi
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. You can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Ody Constantinou in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What if the United States wasn’t just influenced by cult-like thinking, but shaped by it from the very beginning?
This week on Simplify, Caitlin Schiller speaks with journalist and author Jane Borden, whose book Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America explores how cult dynamics show up across U.S. history, politics, consumer culture, and self-help. From Puritan theology to superhero movies, Borden argues that cults aren’t fringe phenomena—they’re extreme versions of patterns baked so deep into American culture that they came over in the metaphorical sourdough starter brought over on the Mayflower.
Together, Caitlin and Jane unpack why Americans are so drawn to comfort, certainty, and strongmen—and what it costs us when we give up agency in exchange for reassurance.
You'll also hear about Caitlin's new least favorite figure in history (spoilers: it's the compunctionless Edward Bernays), dismantle the stories about power we're told, learn how the desire for comfort slowly erodes democracy, and where we should turn—if not to a singular outside "hero"—to save the day.
Resources
Cults Like Us by Jane Borden
The American Monomyth by Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence
Caitlin's rec: The Hardest Job in the World by John Dickerson
Ben's rec: Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here—this week, a take on hero worship & Bad Bunny. You can email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Ody Constantinou in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Strategy. It can sound abstract, intimidating, and vaguely corporate. So who better to help demystify it than Seth Godin?
Seth returns to Simplify to talk about his book This Is Strategy, and to reframe strategy not as a rigid plan or a set of tactics, but as a philosophy of becoming. In this conversation, Caitlin Schiller and Seth Godin explore what strategy really is, why tension is not only inevitable but necessary, and how pricing, trust, and generosity fit into long-term thinking about work.
If strategy has ever felt overwhelming, or if you’ve been told to “be more strategic” without anyone explaining what that means, this episode is for you.
______
Resources
Seth's Blog (going strong for 30 years without missing a day!) and his new book, This is Strategy
Caitlin's rec: Considered Chaos, Substack of Eugene Healey
Ben's rec: Good to Great by Jim Collins
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter here. Email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Ody Constantinou in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Simplify is back! When you leave the doctor with a protocol for what ails you, do you wonder where the knowledge behind your prescription came from? In fact, we know how to treat today's woes thanks to the bodies of people who suffered—and nowhere is that data more inexact and editorialized than in women's health. Feminist cultural historian Dr. Elinor Cleghorn, who specializes in women’s health and its history, is just the person to set the story straight.
Her book, Unwell Women, demystifies myths around women’s health—stories about what women's bodies are for, whether pain is just a necessary side effect of being a woman, and why women's bodies have been policed and traded as political capital, yet we still have to fight to be believed about our own bodily experiences. Women's bodies aren't mysteries—they are our own to care for and make decisions about.
In this episode, Caitlin Schiller talks with Dr. Cleghorn about the relevance of this history today, as women's sexuality and reproductive freedoms are being redefined in response to a threatened patriarchy and budding pronatalist movements across the west.
In the Bookend, Ben and Caitlin make reading recommendations and discuss Simplify's new, independent era.
Caitlin's rec: Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution by Cat Bohannon
Ben's rec: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on instagram at @simplifypod on instagram. Subscribe to our newsletter here. Email us at info@kollomedia.com
This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Ody Constantinou in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.
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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