FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, hosted by burnout experts Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen from BurnBOLD™, explores burnout and recovery through raw stories, coaching sessions, and practical advice. The show aims to end burnout culture and help listeners overcome shame, blame, guilt, and judgment. Cait works globally as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, while Sarah guides individuals through her UNFRIED process. Each week, listeners hear strategies to heal from burnout and rebuild their lives.
Episodes
Why Good People Burn Out in Good Organizations: Jess Pettitt Interviews Me About Mismatch
Preorder Mismatch (out October 27, 2026): https://caitdonovan.com/mismatch"I just, for the first time, realized that I'm not actually in a toxic workplace. I'm just in a bad match." From an email a coaching client sent me.For almost three years, a woman in one of our UNFRIED coaching cohorts kept calling her workplace toxic. Then she listened to my episode on what "toxic" a
Your Team Already Knows You're Burnt Out: Leadership, Capacity and the Busy Badge, with Anton Gunn
Your team already knows you're burnt out. Anton Gunn said it out loud on one of his leadership lives, and I almost drove off the road: "Leaders, your team knows you're burnt out, so here's what we're going to do about it."In this episode, I sit down with Anton Gunn, a leadership and workplace culture expert, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, and one of the le
Burnout Is Not Your Fault, It's a Mismatch: An Early Look at My New Book, a #straightfromcait episode
FRIED Fam,One month before Mismatch: Why Good People Burn Out in Good Organizations lands, I got the email I was most nervous to open. A beta reader who has read a mountain of burnout books, and admits her honest reaction to most of them is "meh," told me this one was the exact opposite. So this week I am doing something a little different. I am reading her review on the show and walking y
Former SWAT Negotiator: The Workplace Mental Health Lie Nobody Tells You | Jessi Beyer
FRIED Fam,Your company cares about mental health. There is a flyer in the break room, a pizza party in September, and an EAP number nobody calls. And people are still quietly drowning at their desks.This week I sit down with Jessi Beyer, MHP, a crisis mental health professional and former SWAT negotiator, to draw a hard line between crisis awareness (the flyer and the pizza party) and crisis readi
Can You Burn Out in a Good Workplace? a #straightfromcait episode
Burnout does not require a toxic workplace.For years, the burnout conversation has had a tendency to point fingers in one of two directions. Organizations tell employees they need to become more resilient. Burnt-out employees point back at leadership and say the system needs to change.But what if both sides are only partially right?In this episode of FRIED. The Burnout Podcast, I’m exploring why g
How a Leader’s Ego Can Burn Out Their Team with Ewa Błaszczak
What happens when a leader's ego is running the show without them even realizing it?In this episode of FRIED. The Burnout Podcast, I'm joined by my longtime friend, leadership expert, and author Ewa Błaszczak to talk about her new book, The Leader and the Ego: The Path to Conscious Leadership. Ewa argues that we don't need to get rid of our egos. We need to become conscious of them, un
What Employee Engagement Surveys Really Tell You a #straightfromcait episode
Employee engagement surveys give us a lot of data. But what does that data actually tell us?In this first Survey Says episode, I’m looking at two questions from the 2024 U.S. Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey through the burnout and mismatch lens. When only 48% of employees respond positively to whether management involves them in decisions that affect their work, it
CEO Burnout: Why a Great Leader Was Burning Out in a Healthy Organization, a #straightfromcait episode
I worked with a CEO who was burning out, but here's what made the situation interesting: they were really good at their job. They had a supportive board. They had a supportive staff. The rest of the organization wasn't burning out.So what the hell was going on?When we started looking for the mismatch, one word kept coming up: urgency.This CEO was moving faster than everyone around them. Th
The $322 Billion Business Case for Employee Wellbeing, with Bhushan Sethi
This episode is a reminder that there are people fighting for human leadership, inclusivity, responsible AI and more as we move into the future of work.FRIED Fam,In June of this year, I got to work with one of my very favorite clients again (repeat business is so fun when it's people you truly enjoy), the National Council of Nonprofits. I had sessions in the afternoon, so I went to the confere
What is Emotional Intelligence? a #straightfromcait episode
What is emotional intelligence?Cait breaks down what emotional intelligence actually means, tracing the term back to its 1990 origins and Daniel Goleman's four domain model: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. She digs into Dr. Tasha Eurich's research showing that while 95% of us believe we are self-aware, only 10 to 15% of us actually are, and s
Belief Leadership Starts with Knowing Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick
What if the exhausting voice in your head isn't your inner critic but something closer to an inner dictator, running a full scale propaganda campaign to keep you safe instead of happy? Repeat guest Owen Fitzpatrick, social psychologist and author of the new book Inner Propaganda, joins Cait to unpack how our brains build the beliefs that quietly drive burnout, perfectionism, and people pleasin
Redefining Productivity: Why Rigor Turns Into Burnout, with Dr. Natalie Nixon
Creativity expert Dr. Natalie Nixon has spent 25 years studying what activities happen right before your best ideas, and they aren't what you think. They include: staring out a window, folding laundry, taking a walk, admiring a flower. In this episode, she and host Cait Donovan dig into why rigor curdles into rigidity, why that's the exact moment burnout takes hold, and why doing less bett
The Brain on Burnout: New Science, A Correction, and Why You're Not as Far Gone as You Think
Cait opens with something rare: a public correction. She has been telling audiences for years that the hippocampus shrinks during burnout. New research says it doesn't. And that changes a lot. In this solo episode, Cait walks through a landmark August 2025 review of 17 MRI studies to give you the most current picture of what burnout actually does to your brain. The result is not what you might
Moral Injury Is Costing You Your Best People - a Harvard Trained Neurologist Explains with Dr. Zarya Rubin
Dr. Zarya Rubin spent twelve years as a neurologist before realizing the career she'd sacrificed everything for no longer matched who she'd become. What she figured out on the way out is exactly what most corporate and nonprofit leaders are missing right now.In this episode, Cait and Dr. Zarya break down three concepts every HR and people leader needs in their vocabulary:Moral injury — the
Your Boss's Burnout Is Burning You Out Too.
There's a story from the 1840s that is going to make you furious. And then it's going to make you look at burnout solutions very differently.Stress spreads like a nasty bug. We have the data. We know what interventions work. We have the results. And we are still not doing what needs to be done.Let's talk about why.Want to bring this work into your organization?Book Cait for a keynote,
Your Workplace Is a Soap Opera. Here's How to Rewrite the Script with Robyn Hatcher
Burnout does not start with overwork. It starts with miscommunication. Robyn Hatcher, keynote speaker and former soap opera writer for All My Children and One Life to Live, joins Cait to break down why every company has a show bible and what happens when the cast stops reading from the same one. This is an episode about the drama no one is writing on purpose and the silence that is writing it for
Burnout Recovery Is Surging: What Leaders Need to Know Right Now
Burnout searches just hit 24.8 million per month, and searches for burnout recovery grew 1,000 percent year over year (for those not great at math, that's 10x more searches for burnout recovery this year as compared to last year). Cait digs into a recent Inc. magazine article by Lucia Auerbach to unpack what those numbers really mean and why the conversation is far from over. Spoiler: Gen Z is
350 Episodes In: The Burnout Story I Haven't Told in a While, a #straightfromcait episode
EPISODE SUMMARYCait Donovan has spent the last seven years building one of the most rigorous, nuanced frameworks for understanding burnout in the world. In episode 350, she finally tells the full story of how she got there -- and it turns out it started long before she knew burnout was a thing. From a failed organic chemistry test at Boston University to an acupuncture practice in Poland with a si
The 4 Behaviors of A Toxic Workplace a #straightfromcait episode
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/UffD0Ec0SX4Cait Donovan, host of FRIED. The Burnout Podcast breaks down a 2018 peer-reviewed study on toxic workplaces and what it actually proves about the relationship between organizational dysfunction and burnout — and she has opinions. If you've been told to breathe through it, journal harder, or just be more resilient, this episode is here
Toxic or Just a Bad Fit? How to Tell the Difference at Work with Leanne Elliott of Truth, Lies, & Work
Your workplace might not be toxic. It might just be missing the biology lesson that explains why everyone keeps behaving badly.Work burnout is rarely one person's failure, and this conversation makes that case clearly. Occupational psychologist and Truth, Lies, and Work co-host Leanne Elliott joins Cait to untangle what actually makes a toxic work environment, and what we keep getting wrong wh
We’re Expecting the Wrong Things From Leaders And It’s Causing Leadership Burnout: A #straightfromcait episode.
If you're a leader who's exhausted, this one's for you. Cait Donovan, host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast has spent over a decade coaching leaders through burnout — and the pattern is clear: expectations have skyrocketed, but support hasn't followed. In this episode, she draws on real stories, her upcoming book *The Match Move*, and 10+ years of field research to break down exactly
Burned Out and Managing Multiple Generations? What Leaders Get Wrong About Generational Conflict at Work with Kristin Scroggin
Workplace burnout makes a lot more sense when you stop blaming generations for the survival strategies they were trained to carry.Kristin Scroggin, founder of genWHY Communications and a leading voice on generational communication in the workplace, joins Cait for a candid conversation about workplace burnout, generational conflict, and what happens when the career you worked so hard to build start
Why Giving Your Best Employees More Autonomy Sometimes Backfires (And What to Do Instead) A #straightfromcait Episode
Autonomy can be the silent mismatch that drains a team long before anyone names burnout.Leadership and autonomy are often treated as simple: give people more freedom and they will do better work. Cait Donovan offers a more useful frame. Autonomy works when it matches the person, the role, and the responsibility in front of them. When there is an autonomy mismatch at work, the result can look like
The Career Structure That's Actually Burnout-Proof (And Why More Execs Are Moving to It) with Ilana Golan
Portfolio careers may be one of the smartest paths to financial stability in the future of work. In this episode, Cait Donovan talks with Ilana Golan about why the old career model feels less secure than it once did and why more people are questioning the idea that one company or one title can carry their whole professional identity. As the future of work keeps shifting, this conversation offers a
The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You (That Predicts Everything)
Your body has been warning you about burnout, bad hires, and misalignment long before your brain caught up.This episode looks at leadership burnout through the lens of interoception, or your ability to notice and respond to signals from your own body. Cait Donovan explains why leadership burnout often feels sudden even though stress has been building for a long time, and why many leaders miss the
Psychological Safety First: The Foundation of Thriving Teams with Aoife O'Brien
Talent does not disappear on its own; it erodes when people feel unsafe, unseen and mismatched to the work meant to bring out their best.Aoife O’Brien joins Cait Donovan for a thoughtful conversation about what helps people thrive at work and what quietly pulls them under. At the center is psychological safety and the way it shapes workplace culture from the inside out. When people do not trust th
Why Your Culture Initiatives Keep Failing — And What Actually Works with Chris Pineda
When leadership turns into a transaction, culture starts to starve. Workplace culture is at the center of this conversation as Cait Donovan sits down with organizational psychology expert Chris Pineda about leadership development, psychological safety at work, and the deeper forces that shape how people relate, respond, and grow inside organizations. Chris makes the case that organizational health
Nobody Is Neutral at Work: How Every Behavior Either Builds or Burns Your Culture a #straightfromcait episode
Burnout rarely begins with the job alone because the habits that once kept you safe may be the very ones quietly wearing you down at work.Cait Donovan takes a clear-eyed look at burnout at work and the way workplace culture can either reinforce it or help interrupt it. This conversation explores how perfectionism, people pleasing, and unclear personal values can fuel employee burnout long before
Burnout Doesn't Wait for a Good Time: Building Resilience Into Your Leadership with Dr. Rachel Goldman
Burnout recovery begins with one honest moment of self-awareness and the willingness to make a single small shift that your exhausted brain can actually sustain.Burnout at work often builds quietly until one day you realize the pace, pressure, and expectations are no longer sustainable. In this conversation, Cait Donovan speaks with clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman about burnout at work an
Why Companies Are Afraid to Talk About Workplace Wellness (And What That Silence Is Costing Them) a #straightfromcait episode
Why does workplace wellness still feel risky for leaders even when the data proves it works?Burnout at work is widely acknowledged as a growing challenge, yet many organizations still hesitate to address it openly. Cait Donovan examines the tension beneath that hesitation and the complicated reality leaders face when they try to tackle employee burnout. Most leaders want healthier teams and strong
Suzy Welch: When Your Values and Your Job Stop Matching, Performance Tanks
Burnout might be the cost of living someone else’s values instead of your own.Cait sits down with Suzy Welch, creator of the Values Bridge and author of Becoming You, to explore why so much burnout at work stems from misalignment rather than effort. Cait shares the realization that shifted her path: she built thriving one-on-one practices and helped thousands, yet still felt drained because her co
Why High Performers Are Quietly Quitting Your Best Teams — and the Fix Most Leaders Miss with Mike Goldman
Only 2 percent of leaders believe their performance reviews actually work, yet most companies still rely on them to shape culture, compensation, and careers.Cait Donovan sits down with leadership team coach and best-selling author Mike Goldman to question why so many organizations cling to management systems that quietly undermine organizational performance. If leaders say people are their greates
Mattering at Work: The Missing Leadership Skill Driving Engagement, Retention, and Burnout Recovery | Zach Mercurio
Belonging might get you on the team, but if burnout is a systems problem, then mattering is a systems solution. Cait sits down with Zach Mercurio, PhD, author of The Power of Mattering, to examine why engagement continues to decline even in organizations investing heavily in culture initiatives. If burnout is a systems problem, then addressing workplace burnout requires more than resilience traini
Does Mindfulness Work for Burnout, PTSD, and Trauma? What Research in War Zones Shows | A #straightfromcait Episode
Burnout does not get fixed by waiting for the workplace to change and it does not get solved by ignoring the biology of chronic stress either. Cait Donovan challenges the growing resistance to mindfulness in workplace and corporate wellness by asking a more honest question: what if the tools people dismiss as basic are misunderstood rather than ineffective? Drawing on research from war zones, medi
Burnout Recovery, Alignment, and a Thoughtful Transition
Part of burnout recovery is learning when to respond to what your body and life are telling you, even when that response brings some discomfort.In this episode, Cait and Sarah talk openly about a shift in how they work together and what’s ahead for FRIED. As their roles and priorities have evolved, Sarah is stepping back and Cait is focusing her work more fully on leadership, organizational, and s
#straightfromcait: Burnout Isn’t About Resilience. It’s About Match.
Burnout recovery does not start with fixing yourself. It starts with understanding job fit, burnout at work, and whether there is a true values match between who you are and what your work and life demand.Cait Donovan returns with a #straightfromcait episode that marks a turning point in how she thinks about burnout and in the writing of her next book. After years of explaining burnout as a comple
Re-Release: 7 Stages of Burnout with Mandy Lehto
Burnout is less a breaking point than a slow unravelling of identity and the seven messy phases high achievers cycle through on the way back to themselves.We’re revisiting a conversation with Dr. Mandy Lehto that still holds relevance for anyone who has pushed past their limits and felt the ground shift beneath them. Mandy and Cait talk through burnout as a gradual process shaped by denial, urgenc
Tess Brigham: Why Millennials Might Be The Most Burned Out of Us All
What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit: https://bit.ly/friedgatewayWhy do millennials seem mor
Casey McGuire Davidson: Dry January Advice for Burnt Out High Achievers
What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible, join us January 13 – 15. Visit https://bit.ly/friedgatewayStress pushes high-achieving
#sarahshares: Winter Self-care for When You Fear You are Back-sliding
Winter fear can feel like burnout recovery slipping away but this episode reframes fear and depletion as a natural part of winter rather than a sign of winter burnout or failure. In this #sarahshares episode, Sarah Vosen speaks directly to the quiet panic that surfaces when low energy and fear return during the darkest part of the year. When light fades and energy pulls inward, burnout recovery ca
Coaching with Sarah: How To Ask For Help From the Right People (And Then, How to Accept It)
Burnout recovery starts when you stop treating self-sufficiency as strength and learn how to ask for help without shame.In this Coaching session, Sarah Vosen sits down with Samira, a longtime listener facing burnout rooted in over-responsibility, financial stress, and a habit of doing everything alone. Rest has started to bring back some energy, yet doubt remains. What if it is still not enough? W
Hailey Paige Magee: Burned Out and Lonely: How Do You Rebuild Your Community?
AD: What if you could step into a room filled with the people who hold the keys to the big stages, the book deals, and the most powerful platforms for your voice? The Gateway Gathering Pitch Fest is a visibility accelerator for thought-leaders. Whether you’re ready to pitch or just want to discover what’s possible join us January 13 – 15. Visit https://bit.ly/friedgatewayAD: The right support chan
Burnout Recovery Exercise: How to Stop Feeling Like a Failure at Burnout Recovery
Many people mistake burnout for personal failure, but the real issue is the quiet mismatch between the energy you actually have and the expectations you keep pushing yourself to meet.Sarah Vosen gets to the core of why so many burned-out high achievers feel defeated: the math of your life stopped working long before you noticed it. When your energy drops but your expectations stay at their old set
Fall Self-care for When Grief and Guilt are Weighing You Down
Fall can hit like a quiet emotional landslide as grief, guilt, and old heaviness rise to the surface and ask for release.Sarah Vosen talks about why this season often feels heavier than we expect and how that weight points to emotion that never fully moved through the system. She highlights the way sadness, guilt, and that familiar tightness in the chest show up when the pace naturally shifts and
Cyndie Spiegel: Use This Technique to Find Hope When You're Burnt Out
Burnout doesn’t end with a mindset shift—it begins when you finally allow grief, emptiness, and small sparks of joy to coexist without needing to fix any of them.Author and speaker Cyndie Spiegel joins Cait to talk about what it means to live inside the gray area, the space where both pain and beauty can exist at once. She shares how walking away from a high-profile fashion career led her to teach
#straightfromcait: Why Behavior Change Is So Hard (and What Your Brain Has to Do With It)
Most people think they’ve failed at change when they’ve actually just hit the part where being human takes over.Cait Donovan is taking a closer look at why behavior change is so hard to maintain and why relapse isn’t a sign of weakness but proof that your brain is doing exactly what it’s designed to do. She explains how old habits never fully disappear, they just sit quietly, waiting for a moment
Coaching with Sarah: Spinning in the ‘Am I Burned Out?’ Loop? This One’s for You
Burnout doesn’t always look like collapse; sometimes it hides in the moments when you’re still performing, but your spark keeps flickering out, and that’s where this honest coaching session begins.In this episode, Sarah Vosen sits down with Jennie, an attorney and mom unsure whether what she’s feeling qualifies as burnout. Together they unpack the World Health Organization’s markers of burnout—exh
Coaching with Sarah: Letting Go of Shame from Failing to Meet Unrealistic Expectations
Admitting you’re burnt out can feel like failure, but as Heather learns in this live coaching session, it’s actually the first brave step toward freedom.In this coaching conversation, she opens up about the shame of slowing down and the fear that rest will undo everything she’s worked for. For years, she’s equated effort with worth, believing that if she just pushed a little harder, she’d finally
#straightfromcait: What PT Taught Me About Burnout Recovery
Burnout convinces you that rest should be enough, and when it isn’t, you assume you’re broken.In this #straightfromcait episode, Cait shares how a shoulder injury revealed a missing step in her own recovery process. Two months of full rest left her pain-free but not ready. When her physical therapist handed her one-pound weights and she could barely lift them, she realized the injury had healed, b
Will Robins: How PGA Science Helps You Recover from Burnout
Burnout hides best inside people who love their work so much they don’t notice it draining the life out of them.PGA coach and RGX founder Will Robins joins Cait to unpack how devotion to service can turn into slow-motion burnout, especially when you’re praised for being endlessly available. He shares how surviving the 2004 tsunami gave him purpose, but years later COVID thrust him into a different
Coaching with Sarah: How to Manage The Panic of Not Being Able to Control All The Things
Control shows up early in Christy’s story — first as protection, then as identity, and eventually as exhaustion. She has spent years anticipating other people’s needs, convinced that staying ahead of every outcome would keep things safe. Instead, it left her overextended and unsure how to take up space without earning it through service.In this real-time coaching session, Sarah helps Christy notic
Coaching with Sarah: How to Calm Your Mind When You're Overwhelmed and Feeling Stuck
Burnout recovery gets complicated as Sarah sits down with Janine, an anonymous guest who is more than halfway through medical leave but still unable to rest. She loves her team and takes pride in her work, yet the thought of returning to the same boss and culture fills her with dread. Even time away hasn’t quieted the anxious loop of questions: Should she go back? Ask for a different role? Step in
Barry Goldstein: Lower Anxiety and Reconnect With Yourself Through Music
Grammy Award–winning producer Barry Goldstein joins Cait Donovan to explore burnout and the healing power of music. Barry shares how chasing success in New York’s music scene drained the joy from his craft - until he began composing at the rhythm of a relaxed heart. That experiment sparked “acoustoceuticals,” music designed to calm the nervous system, restore heart-brain coherence, and reignite pa
Emily Slachetka: The Pros of Not Waiting Until You are Fried Crispy to Get Help
What does burnout look like before it takes you all the way down? For Emily Slachetka, it showed up as constant overwhelm, unexpected tears, and the thought of leaving a job she once valued. She joined UnFried hoping for validation that her workplace was toxic. Instead, she discovered her real challenge was over-functioning.Emily shares how she learned to separate capability from capacity, the une
Mita Mallick: Could Your Boss Be the Real Reason You’re Burnt Out?
Toxic bosses don’t only wear people down, they spark the very burnout cycles that drain whole teams. Cait Donovan talks with author and change-maker Mita Mallick about the damage bad leadership leaves behind and the toll it takes on both people and organizations. Mita shares personal stories, including her experience with a boss she nicknamed “Medusa,” whose intimidation and cruelty pushed her int
Jerry Colonna: The Question That Changed How I See Burnout Forever
Burnout shows up in many ways, but at its core it often signals a life out of alignment. Cait Donovan sits down with executive coach and author Jerry Colonna to explore what happens when outward success hides an inner collapse. Jerry opens up about the years he spent chasing achievement as a venture capitalist and how every new milestone left him feeling worse instead of fulfilled. What does it me
Coaching with Sarah: Get your Inner Critic Out of the Driver’s Seat
Burnout recovery gets real as Sarah Vosen sits down with an anonymous guest who feels trapped by perfectionism, people-pleasing, and the voice of an inner critic that makes self-compassion feel out of reach. In this episode, she’s trying something different for the podcast: a real-time coaching session. Her guest “Kate” describes how burnout began with constant illness and eventually knocked her f
Dr. Jen Wagner: Canyon Ranch Burnout Retreats Fall 2025
Burnout reaches far beyond the office, touching every layer of health, purpose, and identity, and Dr. Jen Wagner joins Cait Donovan to uncover what true recovery really looks like. As Chief Health and Performance Officer at Canyon Ranch, Dr. Wagner brings both professional expertise and lived experience, sharing how her own burnout as a young physician and mother reshaped her path and deepened her
#straightfromcait: How Long Does Burnout Recovery Take
Burnout recovery takes more than waiting for time to pass. It asks you to examine who you’ve been, who you want to be, and what kind of life will truly sustain you. In this #straightfromcait episode, Cait Donovan explores one of the questions she hears most often: how long does it take to heal from burnout? Drawing on her own experience, client stories, and survey results from her community, Cait
Burnout Recovery Exercise: Worst Case Scenario
Burnout can make every decision feel impossible. When you’re stuck in fear and second-guessing everything, how are you supposed to move forward in a way that actually feels right?In this episode, Cait Donovan shares a tool she’s used for years to help people get unstuck: the “Worst Case Scenario” exercise. Instead of pushing fear aside, Cait walks you through what it looks like to write it down, f
#sarahshares: Getting Back on the Recovery Horse
Burnout thrives in silence. This episode is your reminder that healing often starts with one simple but radical act: asking for help.Sarah Vosen, Director of Coaching at Burn Bold, shares a personal #sarahshares about finding herself stuck in exhaustion despite doing everything she thought she needed to recover. As a coach and acupuncturist, she’s used to helping others untangle their burnout, but
#straightfromcait: How to Change The Habit That Is Keeping You Stuck
Cait Donovan is back with a #straightfromcait episode that gets real about something most of us wrestle with quietly, how we soothe ourselves when things get hard, and what that looks like after burnout.This time, Cait’s digging into her long-standing sugar habit. Not the occasional treat, but the reflex to reach for something sweet when emotions start to build. She thought she’d done the work. An
#sarahshares: Your Burnt Out Brain is Mean… and a Liar. Here’s How You Find Out The Truth.
If your brain screams ‘lazy’ every time you try to rest, it’s time to stop trusting a bully and start listening to the one part of you that never lies: your body. So many people in burnout recovery hear the same harsh inner dialogue. “You’re lazy.” “You should be doing more.” “You’ll never be enough.” But what if those thoughts aren’t reflections of reality, just echoes of a brain running on exhau
Nicole Kalil: Imposter Syndrome and Burnout
Imposter syndrome has a way of creeping in when we’ve spent so long meeting everyone else’s expectations that we forget what we actually want for ourselves.In this episode, Cait Donovan reconnects with Nicole Kalil for a conversation about burnout, confidence, and the stories we tell ourselves when we’re doing all the right things but still don’t feel like we belong. Nicole shares what happened wh
#straightfromcait: Top Burnout Symptoms According To You (Dear Gentle Listeners)
Burnout quietly hijacks your focus, your memory, your sleep, and eventually, your sense of self.In this #straightfromcait episode, Cait Donovan unpacks the results of a burnout symptoms survey answered by over 150 listeners. What shows up again and again? Brain fog. Forgetfulness. Sleep issues. That heavy, unshakable sense of dread. She walks through the patterns in these responses with honesty an
Adrien Cotton: Stages of Perimenopause + Burnout Overlap
Perimenopause and burnout often hit at the same time, and when they do, it can feel like something is off but you’re not quite sure what. Cait Donovan talks with wellness expert Adrien Cotton about the confusion so many women face in midlife. Adrien shares how years of high-pressure work and unresolved health issues led her into what she calls a “perimenopause prison,” and how she eventually found
#sarahshares - Here’s Why Your Anxiety is at a 11/10 Lately
Summer has a way of turning up the volume on everything, including your anxiety. And if you’re already feeling stretched thin, that shift can feel like a lot.In this #sarahshares episode, Sarah Vosen talks through why things like racing thoughts, trouble sleeping, and that wired-but-tired feeling often ramp up this time of year. She shares a story from one of the UNFRIED program graduates who was
Jen Fisher: Burned Out at the Top—and Changed Corporate America
Burnout isn’t a personal failure. Sometimes it’s a sign that the system around you never made space for you to ask what’s actually sustainable.Kicking off Season 10 of FRIED. The Burnout Podcast, Cait Donovan is joined by Jen Fisher, the founder of The Wellbeing Team and the former Chief Well-being Officer at Deloitte, for a conversation that goes straight to the heart of what burnout really is, a
Celebrating 300 Episodes with a Fresh New Tool for Our Listeners!
Burnout recovery takes more than bubble baths and boundary scripts. It asks you to let yourself receive.To celebrate 300 episodes of FRIED, Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen are getting real about what it took to get here… emotionally, financially, and logistically. What do you do when your mission is to serve others, but you’re maxed out behind the scenes? How do you keep showing up with integrity whe
#straightfromcait: What Is Stress Resilience? And How Do You Get More Of It?
Stress resilience isn’t a mindset trick. It’s built on your biology, your history, and whether or not you actually use the support available to you.This week on #straightfromcait, Cait Donovan challenges the idea that self-awareness is where resilience begins. What if your stress response was shaped long before you ever had a chance to influence it? Cait walks through how genetics and early experi
Sarah Swanberg: To Create a Sustainable Business (and Life) This is What You Need
Burnout doesn’t always look like falling apart. Sometimes it looks like holding everything together, until your body makes it clear you can’t keep going this way.Cait Donovan is joined by her longtime friend Sarah Swanberg, a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine and co-founder of Indigo Wellness Group. They talk about what burnout really feels like for women moving through major life phases
#sarahshares: Afraid you won’t ever feel joy or want to work again? Let Yourself.
Sarah Vosen is back for another #sarahshares with a question many of us have quietly wondered: could you be happy if you never wanted to work again? This episode unpacks the deeper story behind that fear: the fight between the part of you that craves freedom and the voice that demands you stay responsible and practical.Sharing her own experience, Sarah describes what happened when she finally stop
#straightfromcait: Can't Quit Your Job? Here's How You Recover from Burnout.
Burnout recovery doesn’t always come with the luxury of stepping away from your job, and Cait Donovan knows that firsthand. In this episode, she speaks directly to those who feel stuck in burnout but still have to show up for work every day.Cait offers a starting point: pick one small shift and commit to it for a few weeks. Just one. She lays out two clear paths, depending on how you're feelin
#sarahshares: Spring is Anger Season. Here's how to not let it worsen your burnout.
Anger is a message from your body that, if ignored, can quietly fuel burnout.This week, Sarah Vosen digs into something most of us don’t talk about enough: why spring often brings a spike in anger, and how that ties directly to burnout. Could your short fuse or simmering resentment have more to do with your body than your circumstances? According to Chinese medicine, the liver and gallbladder take
#straightfromcait: Struggling After Returning to Work? How to Tell If It’s Burnout or a Bad Job
You did the healing, took the break, felt better. So why does going back to work feel like a total relapse?Cait Donovan tackles a common (and confusing) moment in recovery: feeling like you’re right back where you started after returning to your job. She breaks down how to tell if the workplace is toxic, a bad fit, or simply triggering habits you haven’t had a chance to practice in that environmen
#FRIEDguides: Stop Self-Sabotaging Your Burnout Recovery
Self-sabotage isn’t a personal flaw. It’s your nervous system doing its best to keep you safe.In this whole new episode of #FRIEDguides, Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen take a closer look at why so many people feel like they’re getting in their own way during burnout recovery. What if those moments where you fall back into old habits aren’t failures, but signals that your body is overwhelmed and reac
Kim Bolourtchi: How to Be Strategically Unruly & Create the Life You Want
Most of the rules you’re following were never made with you in mind and could be the reason you’re burned out.Cait Donovan sits down with keynote speaker and executive consultant Kim Bolourtchi to talk about what it really means to be Strategically Unruly, and why breaking the right rules might be the key to burnout recovery. Kim shares her story of living a double life as a buttoned-up lawyer and
#FRIEDguides: What To Do When The World Is In Chaos
Burnout recovery isn’t just about resting more. It’s about finding the energy to live fully, set boundaries that protect your peace, and show up in ways that actually matter.When the world feels chaotic, how do you stay committed to your healing? In this #FRIEDguides episode, Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen dig into the challenges of burnout recovery when external stressors feel overwhelming. They ta
Genein Letford: A New Take on Improving Focus, Brain Fog, and Overall Brain Health
Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (5 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Apply now! [http://bit.ly/unfried]Your brain craves creativity, and the arts might be the secret weapon against burnout. Genein Letford joins Cait Donovan to break down how music, movement, and self-expression fuel emotional resilience, sharpen thinking
#FRIEDguides: What to Do If You Are a Giver Who Sucks At Taking
Burnout happens when you give endlessly without allowing yourself to receive.Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen are back for #FRIEDguides to break down why high achievers and caregivers struggle to accept support, energy, and appreciation. If you dismiss compliments, downplay your needs, or feel guilty for resting, you’re not alone. The problem is that without refueling, burnout becomes inevitable.The c
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