Upside examines startups outside of Silicon Valley, featuring interviews with early and later-stage founders, venture capitalists, and community builders.

Upside Shortcast Trailer

Please visit us at blinkist.com/simplify to see our new podcast, Simplify!

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

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 Dabiri

The Book of Ayn by Lexi Freman

Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: 

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen

Chatter by Ethan Cross

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 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 Blinkist

Jessica DeFino: Beauty Beyond the Bottle

This week's episode of Simplify brings you a special collaboration: a conversation with Dhiraj Mukherjee, who is not only the entrepreneur behind Shazam (the app we all love and use so much!), but also a devoted impact investor focused on social good.

Drawing from his experience at Shazam, Dhiraj learned firsthand that the best way to predict the future is to create it. That’s why today, his work mostly focuses on investing in mission-driven companies aiming to create a better future for the planet, addressing critical issues such as climate action and inequality.

In this interview, Dhiraj shares some of his most valuable insights across his career, emphasizing the crucial importance of tapping into your instincts and developing your own taste and intuition. Moreover, it leaves us with a short but important reminder that optimism matters: every valuable change once started with nothing but hope for a better future.

UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Recommended by Dhiraj: 

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

Recommended by Caitlin and Ben: 

The Social Animal by David Brooks

The Business of Good by Jason Haber

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 impact. 

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 & Ben Jackson at Blinkist

Dhiraj Mukherjee: Optimism Defines the Future

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 Blinkist

Cole Kazdin: Health is Not a Size

Today, we bring you Simplify's first ever crossover episode with the  #1 Technology show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: Acquired!

For nearly 9 years David Rosenthal—today's guest—and his co-host Ben have been sharing the strategies and history of 200+ of the world's most successful businesses. From Sequoia to Sony, through to TSMC, Amazon, The New York Times, the NBA and Oprah, Acquired's hosts go deep—sometimes 3 hours deep!—into the details of each business's ups and downs. 

In this episode of Simplify, we had the unique chance to tap into David's unique wisdom and expertise and ask: what are the patterns you've seen across these success stories? 

Caitlin and David focus on 3 big lessons from David's gleaned through years of research and immersion. He shares one powerful lesson on customers, one on product, and one that extends out to collaborations. They scrutinize and highlight the insights and attitudes that have helped some of the world's most notable companies thrive. What’s more, with an experience of two hosts and expert interviewers, they reach some everlasting wisdom on quality, connection, and authenticity— applicable both in business and life! 

Check out Blinkist's exclusive collection that offers concise and insightful Blinks, revealing the secrets behind Nike's global triumphs, tailored for listeners of the Acquired podcast. 

Recommended by Caitlin and Ben:

Powers of Two by Joshua Wolf Shank

The Everything Store by Brad Stone

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 acquired. 

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 Blinkist

Acquired's David Rosenthal: 3 Secrets of the World's Most Successful Businesses

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 Life

Simplify episode - Rebecca Traister and The Power of Being Single

All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister 

Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab

Recommended by Amy: 

Kick the Latch by Katherine Scanlan

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 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 Blinkist

Upside Shortcast Trailer

Download our free app to listen on your phone