Blinkist Podcast - Interviews | Personal Development | Productivity | Business | Psychology

Ben Schuman-Stoler. Making big ideas personal. Get personal growth and business lessons from thought leaders and entrepreneurs.

Simplify is an independent podcast that explores work, relationships, habits, creativity, and the quiet structures that shape our days. Join Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler for conversations with area experts that sit somewhere between reading, thinking, and living.

  1. 4D AGO

    Jane Borden: Cults and The American Monomyth

    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.

    53 min
  2. Seth Godin: Make Better Plans (and How to Beat AI) 00:0041:29

    FEB 3

    Seth Godin: Make Better Plans (and How to Beat AI) 00:0041:29

    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.

    41 min
  3. Elinor Cleghorn: The Sacrifices Behind Women's Health

    JAN 12

    Elinor Cleghorn: The Sacrifices Behind Women's Health

    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.

    54 min
  4. Jessica DeFino: Beauty Beyond the Bottle

    03/28/2024

    Jessica DeFino: Beauty Beyond the Bottle

    Today, our guest is an award-winning beauty reporter and critic whom you might have stumbled upon while reading her super popular newsletter, The Unpublishable, which, as HuffPost says, "basically gives the middle finger to the entire beauty industry." Writing about what the beauty industry won’t tell you, Jessica DeFino has built an identity as a reporter on a mission to reform it. It all started, however, in a place as opposite as it could be: a few years back, Jessica was a product-obsessed editor for the Kardashian-Jenner Official Apps, embedded in the core of the beauty industry. This exact "behind-the-scenes" angle and her own beauty-product mishaps led her to start bravely and compellingly writing about what she experienced: mass marketing manipulations, pseudoscience, and consumerism that have become endemic to the beauty industry. Her fearless truth-telling on topics such as the politics of appearance in the Barbie movie, or why Madonna’s plastic surgery is not as subversive as she claims, makes her one of the most beloved analysts and writers on beauty culture out there. Jessica doesn't reject beauty. Instead, she seeks to reveal the industry and culture built around it. Beauty remains an essential force we all crave as humans, but in order to reveal its roots, we have to dismantle the boring, mass-produced thing that beauty has become. Recommended by Jessica: Disobedient Bodies by Emma Dabiri The Book of Ayn by Lexi Freman Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen Chatter by Ethan Cross Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to [https://www.blinkist.com/simplify\][2], tapping on Try Blinkist at the top right, and entering the code beauty. Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller https://twitter.com/caitlinschiller [2], Ben at @bsto https://twitter.com/bsto [3]. You can write us all an email at podcast@blinkist.com [4]. This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, Maria Levacic & Stephane Obadia at Blinkist

    37 min
  5. Dhiraj Mukherjee: Optimism Defines the Future

    03/06/2024

    Dhiraj Mukherjee: Optimism Defines the Future

    This week's episode of Simplify brings you a special collaboration: a conversation with Dhiraj Mukherjee, who is not only the entrepreneur behind Shazam (the app we all love and use so much!), but also a devoted impact investor focused on social good. Drawing from his experience at Shazam, Dhiraj learned firsthand that the best way to predict the future is to create it. That’s why today, his work mostly focuses on investing in mission-driven companies aiming to create a better future for the planet, addressing critical issues such as climate action and inequality. In this interview, Dhiraj shares some of his most valuable insights across his career, emphasizing the crucial importance of tapping into your instincts and developing your own taste and intuition. Moreover, it leaves us with a short but important reminder that optimism matters: every valuable change once started with nothing but hope for a better future. UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Recommended by Dhiraj: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: The Social Animal by David Brooks The Business of Good by Jason Haber Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to [https://www.blinkist.com/simplify\][2], tapping on Try Blinkist at the top right, and entering the code impact. Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller https://twitter.com/caitlinschiller [2], Ben at @bsto https://twitter.com/bsto [3]. You can write us all an email at podcast@blinkist.com [4]. This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, Maria Levacic & Ben Jackson at Blinkist

    41 min
  6. Cole Kazdin: Health is Not a Size

    02/21/2024

    Cole Kazdin: Health is Not a Size

    Although we're at the tail end of 2024's symbolic new beginning, we're still confronted with the flood of discounted "detoxes," "cleanses," gym promotions touting a "New Year, new you," and the latest buzzword, "resets." Despite our desire to think that fad diets are relics of the past and that we have collectively moved away from diet culture, we may instead have fallen for a wolf in sheep's clothing. Drawing from her personal narrative and investigative reporting experiences, Cole Kazdin, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, scrutinizes today's diet industry and the disorder it spawns in her debut book, 'What's Eating Us - Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety.' Walking us through the issues in our generation, she interviews women and the world’s most renowned researchers, revealing disordered eating as the crisis it is—a mental illness with the second-highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths)—and a topic that no one wants to talk about. In this week’s episode of Simplify, Cole generously shares with us her hard-won wisdom for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. Even more importantly, the conversation will leave you with a gentle but revolutionary reminder of how gratifying it is to focus on how health is lived and felt in the body rather than the size you’re wearing. Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: Simplify Interview: Sonya Renee Taylor: Love Yourself, Save The World Intuitive Eating by Evelin Tribole and Elise Resch Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to [https://www.blinkist.com/simplify\][2], tapping on Try Blinkist at the top right, and entering the code kazdin. Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller https://twitter.com/caitlinschiller [2], Ben at @bsto https://twitter.com/bsto [3]. You can write us all an email at podcast@blinkist.com [4]. This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, Maria Levacic & Stéphane Obadia at Blinkist

    38 min
  7. Acquired's David Rosenthal: 3 Secrets of the World's Most Successful Businesses

    02/08/2024

    Acquired's David Rosenthal: 3 Secrets of the World's Most Successful Businesses

    Today, we bring you Simplify's first ever crossover episode with the #1 Technology show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: Acquired! For nearly 9 years David Rosenthal—today's guest—and his co-host Ben have been sharing the strategies and history of 200+ of the world's most successful businesses. From Sequoia to Sony, through to TSMC, Amazon, The New York Times, the NBA and Oprah, Acquired's hosts go deep—sometimes 3 hours deep!—into the details of each business's ups and downs. In this episode of Simplify, we had the unique chance to tap into David's unique wisdom and expertise and ask: what are the patterns you've seen across these success stories? Caitlin and David focus on 3 big lessons from David's gleaned through years of research and immersion. He shares one powerful lesson on customers, one on product, and one that extends out to collaborations. They scrutinize and highlight the insights and attitudes that have helped some of the world's most notable companies thrive. What’s more, with an experience of two hosts and expert interviewers, they reach some everlasting wisdom on quality, connection, and authenticity— applicable both in business and life! Check out Blinkist's exclusive collection that offers concise and insightful Blinks, revealing the secrets behind Nike's global triumphs, tailored for listeners of the Acquired podcast. Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: Powers of Two by Joshua Wolf Shank The Everything Store by Brad Stone Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to [https://www.blinkist.com/simplify\][2], tapping on Try Blinkist at the top right, and entering the code acquired. Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller https://twitter.com/caitlinschiller [2], Ben at @bsto https://twitter.com/bsto [3]. You can write us all an email at podcast@blinkist.com [4]. This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, Maria Levacic & Stéphane Obadia at Blinkist

    55 min
  8. Amy Key: Romance Isn't Everything

    01/25/2024

    Amy Key: Romance Isn't Everything

    In 1971, Joni Mitchell released Blue, an album teeming with stories of a life shaped by romance, desire, longing, and the default path of sharing life with another person. The ideal might persist to this day, but what happens if the romance we are told will give life meaning... never shows up? How gorgeous and fulfilling can we make our lives, sans romantic partner? Amy Key, the celebrated British essayist and poet, sets out to explore exactly these questions in her memoir, Arrangements in Blue, with Joni's seminal album as its scaffolding. Amy embarks on an intimate, sometimes painfully candid journey to search for all the things a soulmate was supposed to deliver, working out how to live well in this culture that prizes romantic love. And she shares her findings with us. Amy’s wisdom and tenderness guide us from an important shift in ideas about intimacy and solitude to the painful feelings we are often too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief, and the sensation of wanting. In this episode, learn about the importance of building a home, how to travel alone, the importance of recognizing your own milestones, and why we should consider expanding the remit of friendship. Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: Living Your Best Single Life Simplify episode - Rebecca Traister and The Power of Being Single All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab Recommended by Amy: Kick the Latch by Katherine Scanlan Try Blinkist for free for 14 days by going to [https://www.blinkist.com/simplify\][2], tapping on Try Blinkist at the top right, and entering the code arrangement. Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi on Twitter! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller https://twitter.com/caitlinschiller [2], Ben at @bsto https://twitter.com/bsto [3]. You can write us all an email at podcast@blinkist.com [4]. This episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, Maria Levacic & Stéphane Obadia at Blinkist

    33 min
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4.1
out of 5
55 Ratings

About

Simplify is an independent podcast that explores work, relationships, habits, creativity, and the quiet structures that shape our days. Join Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler for conversations with area experts that sit somewhere between reading, thinking, and living.

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