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

In this episode of Simplify, Caitlin talks to The Second City executive Kelly Leonard about how improv-based skills and techniques can be applied to the business world. Effective collaboration, innovative thinking, and constructive problem-solving can be major struggles for many teams, regardless of industry. But for those who really want to fix these issues, it’s time to look beyond how other companies work and turn to improv comedy ensembles for inspiration. After all, they’ve literally taken teamwork and turned it into an art form. Reflecting on years of experience with Chicago’s famous Second City improv troupe — where comedians like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Dan Aykroyd cut their teeth — Kelly Leonard explains how improv techniques can benefit the business world. From fostering better communication to generating better ideas, improv can help to build teams capable of rising to any challenge. Leonard gives useful advice and practical exercises on how to get the most out of a meeting, what kind of

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 psychologist Guy Winch shows, when going through a breakup, it’s not just our mental health that suffers, but our bodies too. In this episode of Simplify, Winch reveals what happens in our brain when we’re experiencing a romantic heartbreak or a loss of a pet and offers warm and wise advice for all the broken-hearted. Listen to this episode to find out the reasons why you should stop stalking your ex on social media and why you should not necessarily wait to jump into another relationship after a breakup. Stick around af

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 how they developed a morning regimen that sets them up for the day ahead in the best possible way. Based on his research and numerous interviews, Spall describes the best ways to introduce new rituals into your morning routine––consequently turning it into a habit––and gives recommendations on how to craft a morning routine that suits your needs. Tune into this episode to peek into the morning routines of talented creatives and successful people, and find out what kind of morning is most likely to boost your productiv

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 Knight will help you start a process of mental decluttering and show you how to develop your personal “f*ck budget”, i.e. the amount of f*cks you are prepared to dispense on any given day. Use it as a filter to make sure you’re spending your time, energy, and money on the things that actually matter to you. Listen to this episode if you want to have more confidence in asking for what you want in life, and learn how to get it without feeling guilty or worrying about what others think. Stick around after the inter

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 episode of Simplify, behavioral economist and cognitive psychologist Dan Ariely explains what’s behind our irrational behavior in financial decision making and teaches us how we can get better at managing our finances. Based on extensive research and numerous global studies, Dan shows what exactly matters in personal economics and offers ideas toward better ways to save. For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode, go to https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-finance-dan-ariely-g

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 has unlocked what makes a good advice-giver and friend: sincerity, listening without judging, and connection. This—paired with her straight-shooting style—is why thousands of people have trusted Sugar with their deepest secrets. In all of her work, from memoir to advice to fiction, she teaches us all to listen deeply to our own inner voices for the truth we already know. Get comfortable and tune into this episode with Cheryl Strayed to ponder how to move on after a deep loss or a heartbreak and reflect on the three

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 next week!

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 Alan Lightman has a plan. Or, rather, a lack of one. And that's perfect. In this episode of Simplify, the MIT professor, scientist and novelist offers an antidote to how we live today. He underscores the importance of wasting time, revealing how unstructured time with no goal, unplugged from the wired world, can actually make you a better version of yourself. Tune in to learn how procrastination sparks your creativity and makes you even more productive and how wasting time is essential for establishing a solid sense

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 discovered that luck is actually very much under our control. That’s right. You can set yourself (and your kids) up for being luckier in everyday life. Hear Janice Kaplan reveal some simple techniques to help you generate luck and share stories of successful and famous people who took failure as a lucky opportunity to turn fortune to their favor. Tune in to discover the best way to get lucky in love and learn how to raise lucky children. You’ll also discover which people will help you get lucky, and why this isn’

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 about the purpose of sexual relations in matriarchal and male-dominated societies, why what we believe about our primate origins is doing us more harm than good as a species, and how to reposition your own beliefs about what is and isn't a sexual taboo. Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the main takeaways from the conversation with Christopher Ryan and helps put together a book list for further reading on sexual evolution, bodies, and biology. For m

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 can have positive effects on desire, response and connection — and the effects seem to be lasting. A lot of what we ‘know’ about sex as a society is based on outdated research and cultural assumptions. Listen to Dr. Lori Brotto talk about her new book, *Better Sex Through Mindfulness* and explain some of our many misconceptions about sex, and introduce ways we can use mindfulness practices to feel more connected to ourselves — and to our partners — during sexual encounters. By the end of this episode, you’ll learn c

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 and their past, is a distortion. But it's not all bad news! Listen as Dr. Daniel Levitin of The Organized Mind sheds light on what we've long misunderstood about our brains and makes recommendations on how to keep your mind healthy with “cellular housekeeping." Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the key ideas in this episode and recommend some great reads on the various functions of the all-mighty mind. For more info, including links to everything

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 have to use your imagination and become a gazelle) and to describe our physical responses to sexually relevant information (enter: car metaphor). If you’ve been anxious about sex, are struggling to connect to a long-term partner, or just want to understand yourself better, this episode offers lots of calm, informed, empathetic advice on how you can find your way. Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the big ideas in this episode and help make a sexy book

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 real, lasting change and find out which productivity tips Duhigg’s teaching his kids. Plus, hear the smart, slightly dirty productivity trick he pulled on Caitlin. If you want to break an old habit or be your most innovative, creative self, then this episode is for you! After the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to go deeper into the ideas and books covered in this episode. Also, they make a booklist to help you keep becoming more productive. For more info, including links to everything we discussed in t

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: “What have you discovered was much easier than you initially thought it was?” Just record your answer as a voice memo on your phone and email the audio file to us at podcast@blinkist.com. See you next week!

Simplify’s 2017 Sampler Episode by Ben Schuman-Stoler. Making big ideas personal. Get personal growth and business lessons from thought leaders and entrepreneurs.

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 asking for much more. We want our marriage to make us better people; to realize our best selves. He and Caitlin dive into social psychology, long-term passion, and a couple of “love hacks” that can get you and your partner back on track. After the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler and Emily Philips discuss the key takeaways of the interview and make a booklist for anyone who wants to read more about changing your mindset (which has more to do with good relationships than you think!). Simplify is made with love by Blinkist

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 wants to read more about this. 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.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-singlehood-rebecca-traister] // This season, we are collecting your voices! It's not as creepy as it sounds, we promise. We just would love to hear how you would answer one of the questions we always ask our guests: “What have you discovered was much easier than you initially

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, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make a booklist about sound, listening, communication, and Sam Harris. 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.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-communication-julian-treasure] // This season, we are collecting your voices! It's not as creepy as it sounds, we promise. We just would love to hear how you would answer one of the questions we alway

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 and what’s at stake if we don’t make it happen. Then, they move on to nitty gritties ranging from the politics of The Spice Girls to how to talk to your partner about sex. Plus, they break down where the term “Girl Power” comes from. After their conversation, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make a booklist about good sex and working with (or against) the powers that be. 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