Simplify

In this bonus episode of Simplify season 2, we talk with Eli Finkel. Finkel is a writer and social psychologist at Northwestern University. He's also the author of the new book The All-or-Nothing Marriage. On this episode, Caitlin Schiller talks to Finkel about where the ideas in the book came from. Finkel explains how he discovered that 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 help us 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 Phillips 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!). For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to http://blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-marriage-eli-finkel. Quick reminder: 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 thought it was?” You can just record your answer with any voice memo app and email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Let them know what you're reading! Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

Rebecca Traister is an author and writer-at-large for New York Magazine. She writes about women, culture, and politics, and her most recent book is All The Single Ladies. On this episode of Simplify, Traister and Caitlin Schiller discuss the larger meaning of singlehood, why marriage doesn’t make any sense anymore, and the one thing that attracts the most single-ladies. It's part Traister's story, part journalism, part history, and part crazy clever idea-connecting. 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. For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to http://blinkist.com/magazine/posts/simplify-singlehood-feminist-writer-rebecca-traister-power-single. Quick reminder: 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 thought it was?” You can just record your answer with any voice memo app and email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Let them know what you're reading! Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

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. 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, dear listeners (not as creepy as it sounds)! Specifically, we’d 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 thought it was?” You can just record your answer with a voice memo app of your choice and then email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. We are looking forward to listening to your responses, and stay tuned—you just might hear yourself on a future episode of Simplify! If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Your hosts are Caitlin Schiller and Ben Schuman-Stoler. Stellar research and production assistance by the outstanding Natallia Darozhkina. Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook. Sound and editing by Ody Constantinou and Ben Jackson.

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, sex-educator, and activist whose 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. In between, they touch on nitty gritties ranging from the politics of the Spice Girls to tactics for talking 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. (FYI- we're publishing this episode a day earlier than our usual Thursday release date because tomorrow Blinkist is having an all-day Holiday Party! Woot! Next week we'll be back to Thursdays.) 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-sexual-empowerment-jaclyn-friedman-youre-not-broken/. Quick reminder: 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 thought it was?” You can just record your answer with any voice memo app and email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Let them know what you're reading! Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

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: being lazy is a good thing, for example. And sometimes, when you know the right answer, you just have to shut up. (In the interview, Caitlin learns this the hard way.) After the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make a booklist about the topics covered in this episode. Bill Bryson is involved. 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-coaching-michael-bungay-stanier-podcast. __ Quick reminder: 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 thought it was?” You can just record your answer with any voice memo app and email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. Let them know what you're reading! Thanks to Nico Guiang for our fantastic intro and outro music. Listen to more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

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 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 the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to make a booklist for anyone who wants to read further into the topics Holiday discusses. Spoiler alert: 50 Cent is involved. 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-philosophy-ryan-holiday. You can also send us a voice memo at podcast@blinkist.com. We'd love to hear what you learned was easier or simpler than you initially thought it was. If you want to tweet to us, Caitlin is @CaitlinSchiller and Ben is @bsto. Say hi! That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Welcome to the second season of Simplify! 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 something forward, it’s because we’re afraid. He touches on the ideas in his bestsellers Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and Linchpin, and talks through a few ways to stop hiding, including why sometimes you have to do bad work. After the interview, Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin to go deeper into the ideas and books covered in this episode. Find out what it means to be remarkable, why authenticity might be a lie, and why reading is a superpower. 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-success-seth-godin-says-do-bad-work Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter, we’d love to hear from you! Caitlin is @CaitlinSchiller and Ben is @bsto. That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/niceaux).

Simplify Season 2 launches next week with an episode featuring Seth Godin. If you want to say hi to Ben and Caitlin in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto and @CaitlinSchiller. And we have a favor to ask! We want to include your voices in this season of Simplify. Specifically, we’d 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 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!

We’re back on November 16th, 2017, with a new season of Simplify! Tune in for 6 new guests and 6 new ways to look at your world. To keep you busy ‘til then, we have an assignment for you: go into your voice memo app on your phone (called Voice Memo on iOS and on Android, you've got lots of choices) and record us a message with your name, where you’re calling from, and one thing you learned is much simpler or easier than you thought it was. Then, email it to us at podcast@blinkist.com. If you have questions, want to say hi, or tell us what you had for breakfast, get at us on Twitter. Find Ben at @bsto, and Caitlin @caitlinschiller.

Ben Schuman-Stoler talks to speed-reading expert Abby Marks Beale about how to become a more mindful reader. Abby is a consultant and the author of 10 Days to Faster Reading. Abby and Ben clarify the meaning of speed-reading (it’s NOT reading War and Peace in five minutes and knowing it’s a book about Russia) and review simple strategies for getting the most out of your reading material. After the interview, Caitlin joins Ben to recap the interview and have a very meta conversation about books you can read about books. For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to http://blnk.st/2isbPSb. That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/niceaux). See you in Season 2!