Simplify

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 BohannonBen's rec: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara CollinsLet 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.comThis episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Ody Constantinou in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Simplify is back on January 12, 2026! We’ve got a new look, we’re independent now, and we can’t wait to share new episodes with you every other Monday from January 12th onward. This episode features Liz Fosslien.To warm you up, we’re reissuing 5 of our favorite episodes. So, catch up on the great ideas you might’ve missed and get ready for Monday: you’ll hear from a cultural historian who will change the way you interact with the medical system. Sign up for our new newsletter, follow us on instagram. See you there!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Simplify is back on January 12, 2026! We’ve got a new look, we’re independent now, and we can’t wait to share new episodes with you every other Monday from January 12th onward. To warm you up, we’re reissuing 5 of our favorite episodes. So, catch up on the great ideas you might’ve missed and get ready for Monday: you’ll hear from a cultural historian who will change the way you interact with the medical system. Sign up for our new newsletter, follow us on instagram. See you there!This one features Tiffany Dufu, it's one of our most-downloaded episodes ever. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know a magical connection when you feel it—that undeniable magnetism that pulls you together for a fit that's as much like home as it is an adventure. We see these sorts of connections in romcoms all the time, but they're not just relegated to the romcom realm. Magical connections happen in friendships, too, and Rhaina Cohen wants to dignify them. This conversation with the writer and NPR Embedded producer/editor draws on some key stories and insights from her new book: The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center. Caitlin and Rhaina talk about why it can be beautiful and beneficial to distribute the "significant other" title across many people, what it looks like to treat friendships more like life partnerships, the friendship tradition and where we might have lost passionate platonic significant otherships, and the important work of letting the ones who love us see our mess.In the Bookend, Ben and Caitlin discuss friendship, awkwardly thank each other for their friendship, and make further learning and reading recs. And thank you, listeners, for bein' a friend. :)Caitlin's Rec: Rituals Roadmap by Erica Keswin Ben's Rec: Caitlin's Guide on Adult Friendship and The Lonely Century by Noreena HertzTry 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 friendship.Let us know what you thought of this episode, or just come say hi! Find Caitlin on instagram at @cschills https://www.instagram.com/cschills/[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 & Stéphane Obadia at Blinkist See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 DabiriThe Book of Ayn by Lexi FremanRecommended by Caitlin and Ben: Happy Fat by Sofie HagenChatter by Ethan CrossTry 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 BlinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Although we're at the tail end of 2024's symbolic new beginning, we're still confronted with the flood of discounted "detoxes," "cleanses," gym promotions touting a "New Year, new you," and the latest buzzword, "resets." Despite our desire to think that fad diets are relics of the past and that we have collectively moved away from diet culture, we may instead have fallen for a wolf in sheep's clothing.Drawing from her personal narrative and investigative reporting experiences, Cole Kazdin, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, scrutinizes today's diet industry and the disorder it spawns in her debut book, 'What's Eating Us - Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety.' Walking us through the issues in our generation, she interviews women and the world’s most renowned researchers, revealing disordered eating as the crisis it is—a mental illness with the second-highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths)—and a topic that no one wants to talk about.In this week’s episode of Simplify, Cole generously shares with us her hard-won wisdom for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. Even more importantly, the conversation will leave you with a gentle but revolutionary reminder of how gratifying it is to focus on how health is lived and felt in the body rather than the size you’re wearing.Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: Simplify Interview: Sonya Renee Taylor: Love Yourself, Save The World Intuitive Eating by Evelin Tribole and Elise Resch 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 kazdin.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 & Stéphane Obadia at BlinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1971, Joni Mitchell released Blue, an album teeming with stories of a life shaped by romance, desire, longing, and the default path of sharing life with another person. The ideal might persist to this day, but what happens if the romance we are told will give life meaning... never shows up? How gorgeous and fulfilling can we make our lives, sans romantic partner? Amy Key, the celebrated British essayist and poet, sets out to explore exactly these questions in her memoir, Arrangements in Blue, with Joni's seminal album as its scaffolding. Amy embarks on an intimate, sometimes painfully candid journey to search for all the things a soulmate was supposed to deliver, working out how to live well in this culture that prizes romantic love. And she shares her findings with us.Amy’s wisdom and tenderness guide us from an important shift in ideas about intimacy and solitude to the painful feelings we are often too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief, and the sensation of wanting. In this episode, learn about the importance of building a home, how to travel alone, the importance of recognizing your own milestones, and why we should consider expanding the remit of friendship.Recommended by Caitlin and Ben:Living Your Best Single LifeSimplify episode - Rebecca Traister and The Power of Being SingleAll the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover TawwabRecommended by Amy: Kick the Latch by Katherine ScanlanTry 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 arrangement. 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 & Stéphane Obadia at BlinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.