In this episode of Simplify, psychologist Guy Winch tells Caitlin why we should treat our emotional pain as seriously as physical pain and explains how to heal from common heartaches. Nothing hurts worse than heartbreak. Whether it’s the painful end of relationship or the passing away of a beloved pet, grief and emotional suffering can quickly become all-consuming. And that’s where we blame ourselves and feel guilty for our inability to overcome emotional pain fast enough. Moreover, as psycholog...
Sep 20, 2018•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you consider yourself a night owl or are you a morning person? Regardless of whether you love mornings or not, we all want to make best of them. Everybody has those few things––that certain morning ritual––that if they don't do it, their whole day is ruined. But what’s the best way to start your day off right? Benjamin Spall and his co-author, Michael Xander, have spent five years studying morning routines of today’s most successful innovators, entrepreneurs, writers and artists to find out h...
Sep 13, 2018•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Simplify, Caitlin talks to bestselling author and self-help “anti-guru,” Sarah Knight, about how to stop people-pleasing and get what you want — without becoming a jerk! How much of your life do you spend pleasing those around you? Maybe it’s time to be honest with yourself, invest time in the things that really matter, and start weeding out unnecessary obligations to people you don’t really like. But how exactly are you supposed to do that? In this episode of Simplify, Sarah ...
Sep 06, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Simplify, Caitlin talks to behavioral economist and bestselling author Dan Ariely about how environment influences our financial decision-making and why saving is so hard. 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 epis...
Sep 04, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Simplify kicks off Season 4 with words of wisdom from Cheryl Strayed, a bestselling author widely known for her advice column, Dear Sugar, and the memoir that spawned the blockbuster hit, Wild. 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...
Aug 23, 2018•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast The sun's a-shining, the iced coffee's cold, and Simplify is back with season 4! Here's what's in store. 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 gets into swing, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. See you ...
Aug 16, 2018•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you feel bad about wasting time? Good news: you can stop beating yourself up! In the bonus episode, MIT professor and writer Alan Lightman shares the benefits of procrastination and how wasting time is essential to our productivity and creativity. 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 A...
Jun 07, 2018•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 just 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 might make you rethink your idea of what luck really is. With the help of research, pioneering studies, and interviews with “lucky’ successful people, they...
May 10, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author and psychologist, Christopher Ryan, talks with Caitlin about the prehistoric origins of human sexuality and how they influence our modern sexual behavior. 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...
May 03, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Simplify, Caitlin talks to women’s sexual health expert, Dr. Lori Brotto, about how to elicit sexual desire and use your mind for better sex. 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 c...
Apr 26, 2018•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Simplify, neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin unlocks the secret functions of the human brain and explains how to keep your mind healthy. 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...
Apr 19, 2018•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Simplify, sex educator Emily Nagoski tells Caitlin about ways to improve sexual well-being and sustain a strong sexual connections. 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 hav...
Apr 12, 2018•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Got goals and dreams? Charles Duhigg's methods will help you reach 'em. Hear the writer of The Power of Habit & Smarter, Faster, Better on why self-belief is the key to real change and to find out which productivity tips he's teaching his kids. Pultizer-prize-winning, bestselling author and NYT writer Charles Duhigg has cracked the code to what makes the world’s most productive people so effective—and how you can use those techniques for yourself. Listen in to hear why self-belief is the key to ...
Apr 05, 2018•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast We made it through the Berlin winter! Here's what's to come on Season 3 of Simplify. Simplify Season 3 launches next week with an episode featuring Nobel Prize-winner, NYT columnist, and master of habits: Charles Duhigg! If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. One more thing! We'd still love to get your voices on Simplify. Specifically, we want to hear how you would answer one of the questions we always ask our guests: “...
Mar 22, 2018•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Simplify’s 2017 Sampler Episode by Ben Schuman-Stoler. Making big ideas personal. Get personal growth and business lessons from thought leaders and entrepreneurs.
Feb 09, 2018•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this bonus episode of Simplify season 2, we talk with Eli Finkel, a writer and relationship psychologist at Northwestern University. Northwestern professor, relationship researcher and author of the new book The All-or-Nothing Marriage. On this episode, Caitlin Schiller talks to Finkel about his new book, The All-or-Nothing Marriage. Finkel explains how marriage is tied to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: throughout history, the main purpose of marriage was tied to survival, but today we’re askin...
Dec 28, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rebecca Traister is an author and writer-at-large for New York Magazine. She writes about about women, culture, and politics, and her most recent book is All The Single Ladies. On this episode of Simplify, she and Caitlin discuss the larger meaning of singlehood, why marriage doesn’t make any sense any more, and the one thing that attracts the most single-ladies. After the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to discuss the key takeaways of the interview and make a booklist for anyone who...
Dec 21, 2017•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Julian Treasure is a sound designer, a musician, and a public speaker—his TED talks have been viewed more than 40 million times!—and he’s also a master of what he calls the “silent skill:" listening. In this episode, Treasure talks to Caitlin about the 7 deadly sins of speaking, how your listening shapes who you are, and why certain cities sound so delicious to our ears. Plus, Caitlin finds out why she feels old every time she walks past an Abercrombie & Fitch store. After their conversation, Be...
Dec 15, 2017•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, sex-educator, and activist. Her work helped establish the “yes means yes” standard of sexual consent. Her new book, Unscrewed; Women, Sex, Power, And How To Stop Letting the System Screw Us All, was released in November, 2017. On this episode of Simplify, Caitlin Schiller talks with Friedman about sexual empowerment – or the lack thereof, which Friedman calls “Fauxpowerment.” They discuss some of the fundamental challenges to women becoming truly sexually empowered a...
Dec 06, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coach of coaches Michael Bungay Stanier is a bestselling author and #3 coach worldwide according to Global Guru. In this episode of Simplify, Bungay Stanier talks to Caitlin Schiller about why leaders who get quiet, get curious, and ask a few simple questions are more successful than advice-giving maniacs. **(Warning: you're probably an advice-giving maniac.)** Bungay Stanier explains how you can be more coach-like without becoming a drill instructor. There are a few surprises along the way: bei...
Nov 30, 2017•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are you iOS, Android, or Stoic? In this episode of Simplify, hear bestselling author and master of controversy, Ryan Holiday, talk about finding your personal operating system and using it to focus and fuel the work you love to do. Holiday and Caitlin Schiller discuss some of the secrets of media marketing, and then dive into Holiday's other passion: philosophy. He also has great advice on finding your fans, applying abstract theory to real life, and becoming OK with saying “I don’t know.” After...
Nov 23, 2017•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the second season of Simplify! As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // In this season's first episode, Caitlin Schiller talks to the bestselling author and legend of marketing and entrepreneurship, Seth Godin. Building on his own experience, Godin explains how when we find ourselves stuck and unable to move s...
Nov 16, 2017•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Get ready for Simplify Season 2! As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // Tune in! We kick off the new season with an episode featuring Seth Godin. Simplify is made with love by Blinkist. For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to https://www.bli...
Nov 16, 2017•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's an episode from our new podcast, Simplify. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // In this episode Caitlin Schiller talks to the New York Times bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On and Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior, Jonah Berger. There are so many things vy...
Nov 10, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's another episode from our Simplify podcast. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // In this week’s episode of Simplify, Ben Schuman-Stoler chats to time management expert and author of the bestsellers I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam...
Nov 10, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's another episode from our Simplify podcast. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // This episode of Simplify finds Caitlin chatting with Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of the bestselling books on nutrition, Eat to Live and Super Immunity. Fuhrman is a passionate advocate of nutritarianism, which basically means e...
Nov 10, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's a bonus episode from our new podcast, Simplify. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j
Aug 24, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's an episode from our new podcast, Simplify. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed, so if you want to hear more great stuff, subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // Caitlin Schiller travels to Amsterdam to talk to productivity guru David Allen, the best-selling author of *Getting Things Done*, *Ready for Anything*, and *Making It All Work*. They talk about how to overcome the intern...
Jul 20, 2017•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's the first episode of our new podcast, Simplify. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed so if you want to hear more great stuff subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: pca.st/qnKH Overcast: bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: bit.ly/2uVeF4j // What does relationship utopia look like? Dan Savage, nationally syndicated sex and relationship advice columnist, shares what 26 years of giving advice has taught him about making good love, and making good love last....
Jul 13, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y'all, here's the first episode of our new podcast, Simplify. As we mentioned, we're phasing out this RSS feed so if you want to hear more great stuff subscribe to the new podcast! iTunes: http://apple.co/2sUeLYA PocketCasts: http://pca.st/qnKH Overcast: http://bit.ly/2uVNFlk RSS: http://bit.ly/2uVeF4j We talk to NYT bestselling author Gretchen Rubin about how to apply the ancient idea of “know thyself” to your fast-paced 21st-century life. Gretchen is the author of Better Than Before, The H...
Jul 13, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
