After collapsing from burnout and sleep deprivation in 2007, Arianna Huffington threw herself into the latest research on sleep, discovering that the sleepless nights she’d depending on to build her career had had profound negative consequences on her health. What she learned was transformative: these days, Huffington is so dedicated to getting a full night of sleep, she won’t even bring her smartphone into the bedroom, for fear of accidentally stimulating a bout of insomnia. We spoke with Huffi...
May 12, 2017•19 min
Sandra Aamodt is a neuroscientist and former lifestyle dieter who wants to shout what she’s learned from the rooftops: according to the leading research in neuroscience, your brain has decided how much it wants you to weigh and will keep pushing you back to that weight *forever*. If you were already skeptical of popular weight loss methods, the ideas in Sandra’s book, Why Diets Make Us Fat, will be empowering. For the latest episode of Blinkist Podcast, I spoke to Sandra about the science of wei...
Apr 28, 2017•30 min
For this episode, we talked to Daniel Schacter, professor of psychology at Harvard and the author of The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers. Our conversation focused on the three “sins of omission” outlined in his book on memory. The big bad memory sins, in order of badness, are: absent-mindedness, transience, blocking. Tune in for Schacter’s insights on how to remember what you have to remember and forget what you need to forget. ____ Highlights: "We tend to think of memor...
Apr 14, 2017•21 min
Hey guys, it's Ben. Before you listen to this week's interview with Adam Alter, author of IRRESISTIBLE: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked (Penguin Press; March 7, 2017), please take our exciting survey -------> goo.gl/dYUjeo (It's just eight questions and takes literally two minutes to fill out. Email me at podcast(at)blinkist(dot)com if you can do it faster. Big thanks to those of you that already have.) This episode is an interview with psychology and ma...
Mar 08, 2017•31 min
Hey guys, it's Ben. Before you listen to this week's interview with Rachel Hills, author of The Sex Myth, please take our **~~exciting~~** survey: -------> https://goo.gl/dYUjeo (It's just eight questions and takes literally two minutes to fill out. Email me at podcast(at)blinkist.com if you can do it faster.) Today we have an interview with Rachel Hills, author of The Sex Myth. We talk about sex, Disney movies and how to not let sex make you anxious — which, in her view, is a major societal ...
Mar 01, 2017•28 min
Hey guys, it’s Ben. I just wanted to post this quick programming note: I’m away for a little bit because, well, I’m having a baby! Eek! But before I head out for family time, Caitlin and I put together some highlights from all the podcasts we made in 2016. In 2016 we grew into a podcast with tens of thousands of listens. So this episode is a bit of a look back at how we did that, via a 2016 Blinkist podcast Sampler episode. I think it shows how we’ve not only grown and learned a lot about how to...
Jan 03, 2017•42 min
In this episode of the Blinkist Podcast Ben and Caitlin team up for Is That Even a Thing? Part 2. It’s a follow-up to the first Blinkist Podcast episode ever, the original Is That Even a Thing. In Part II, they discuss and mythbust power posing, gratitude journals, whether or not your devices should be forever banished from the bedroom, and email. Plus, learn about Ben’s newest hobby (it involves carbs), and how imagining herself as an animal helps Caitlin get through first dates — and can help ...
Dec 16, 2016•29 min
Today on the Blinkist podcast, Ben speaks with esteemed behavioral economist, bestselling author, TED speaker extraordinaire, and all around cool guy Dan Ariely. Ariely is the author of Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and (just published) Payoff among other books. His TED talks have been viewed like 8 million times. No big deal. In the interview, Ben and Ariely go into some of the nuts and bolts of behavioral economics, like, why it’s different from standard economics, and w...
Dec 01, 2016•27 min
This episode is an interview with famous Less Doing More Living author Ari Meisel, a champion of productivity and efficiency. Since beating the incurable Crohn’s Disease through optimizing his body, Ari has had a successful career as an entrepreneur. Recently he started a virtual assistant company called Less Doing and wrote a book with his co-founder Nick Sonnenberg called Idea to Execution that came out in early October. That book is all about how to optimize, automate, and outsource (these ar...
Nov 17, 2016•27 min
Today on the Blinkist podcast we have an interview with branding expert Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book What Great Brands Do. In the interview, Lee Yohn and Ben talk about why all branding starts inside, and how exactly Sony implemented that idea when Lee Yohn was there. Then they get into what happened with brands like Saturn and RadioShack – remember them??? They also tried something new: Lee Yohn and Ben read brief bits from some of their favorite branding books. (Hint: neither of them pi...
Oct 10, 2016•27 min
Today on the podcast, we welcome Cal Newport. Newport is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University but most of us know him as the author of five excellent books, each of which takes a unique view on how to study better, find a career better, or, with his new book Deep Work, work better. Deep work, as he defines it, is professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new...
Sep 27, 2016•30 min
*** Podcast programming alert!! *** Today we have something a little different. Not only do we have Vishen Lakhiani, one of the most forward-thinking CEOs in the world, but we also have him in conversation with one of the Blinkist co-founders, Niklas Jansen. Niklas is a huge admirer of Vishen’s distinctive approaches to his companies, so we figured we should let him ask Vishen whatever he wanted! Vishen is the founder and CEO of Mindvalley, a transformational education company, and Afest, an inv...
Sep 12, 2016•30 min
Today on the podcast, we’re continuing our Olympics-themed episodes, where we’re talking about world-class athletes, these people who made it to the top, and how they got there. Last week we talked to David Epstein about what makes athletes great, and this week Ben speaks with a champion to find out more. Andy Lee is 34-3-1, and a former WBO Middleweight Boxing Champion. Known in boxing circles as a tough-as-nails southpaw, Lee’s famous right hook is absolutely devastating. He’s also an Olympian...
Aug 18, 2016•26 min
Today, we have the author of the The Sports Gene, David Epstein. The Sports Gene is a New York Times bestseller about exactly what it sounds like: whether or not there are things that make certain people preternaturally more likely to be great athletes. It feels like a perfect thing to talk about considering, you know, the Olympics start today. So Ben and David talk about some of the greatest physical specimens in the world, one athlete you must watch out for in Rio, and the central weakness of ...
Aug 05, 2016•33 min
This is our second podcast in the Eureka! theme. Last week we spoke with Inventology author Pagan Kennedy, and we’re excited to build on that by featuring David Burkus, author of The Myths of of Creativity. In this podcast, Ben and David focus on a concept called incubation. According to creativity research, this incubation moment often occurs right before a Eureka moment, and the best part? Everyone can incubate. The only question is how. David Burkus is a professor of management, bestselling a...
Jul 27, 2016•30 min
Welcome to a brand new era! Hot on the heels of the sleep episodes, this week’s podcast is the first of two episodes on the theme of Eureka. Where do great ideas come from? It turns out it’s not that clear. So today on the podcast, Ben speaks with Pagan Kennedy, author of the new book Inventology; How we dream up things that change the world. You probably already know Pagan from her time writing the Who Made That column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. She’s an expert on invention, and we ...
Jul 18, 2016•33 min
In this special bonus edition of the Blinkist Podcast, we talk to sleep specialist Max Kirsten. Max is a hypnotherapist and a sleep coach, and he’s worked with stars like Adele and Ewan McGregor. In the podcast, Max and Ben delve into topics like the right position for optimal sleep, how one even becomes a sleep specialist, the problems some of his most difficult patients experience, and much more. This is a perfect follow-up to the first sleep-themed episode, which featured Arianna Huffington s...
Jul 14, 2016•39 min
In her book The Sleep Revolution, Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington succinctly sums up the argument she’s been making in books and speeches for almost a decade now. Why should we fundamentally change the way we think about sleep? “Come for the job-enhancing benefits,” she says, “stay for the life-enhancing opportunities.” Huffington’s sleep revolution isn’t just about convincing people to sleep more so that they’re more productive and healthy. The sleep revolution is about recog...
Jul 04, 2016•20 min
This week on the Blinkist Podcast, Blinkist Magazine Editor-in-Chief Caitlin Schiller speaks with David Allen, known as the man behind the productivity system Getting Things Done, and the bestselling book of the same name. On today’s episode, they discuss what he calls “clear space,” and how easy it is to screw it up in your head; they talk about the happiness industry; and Abraham Lincoln, among other things. And near the end, you’ll find out why Allen isn’t a productivity or efficiency robot, ...
Jun 20, 2016•21 min
Our guest producer Emily talks to an old friend who’s brought her small business from twinkle of an idea to globally recognized, Beyoncé-worn recognition. Emily and Laura Wass of WXYZ Jewelry talk entrepreneurism, what it actually takes to bring a business from fledgling to flight, and the importance of having a ritual. Plus, the Book Doctor! Woot! That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/nic...
Apr 13, 2016•43 min
Some ideas and products catch on like wildfire but some plain don’t. One man can tell you exactly why. In this quickie bonus episode, hear Jonah Berger, NYT bestselling author and expert on trends and marketing, reveal the secret sauce of stickiness.
Feb 25, 2016•13 min
