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.
  • 4.1 (55)
  • EDUCATION
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Simplify 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 independently owned and produced by Caitlin Schiller & Ben Schuman-Stoler.

  1. Guy Winch: First Aid for Your Work Life

    MAR 26

    Guy Winch: First Aid for Your Work Life

    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.

    56 min
  2. David Richo: Better Than Revenge

    MAR 9

    David Richo: Better Than Revenge

    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.

    39 min
  3. Christabel Mintah-Galloway: The Relational Skill Nobody Taught You

    FEB 24

    Christabel Mintah-Galloway: The Relational Skill Nobody Taught You

    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: https://www.christabelmintahgalloway.com/ 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.

    48 min
  4. Jane Borden: Cults and The American Monomyth

    FEB 9

    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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
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4.1
out of 5
55 Ratings

About

Simplify 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 independently owned and produced by Caitlin Schiller & Ben Schuman-Stoler.

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