FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
by Cait Donovan, Top Burnout Expert for Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast by BurnBOLD™BurnBOLD™ is the powerhouse matchup of burnout experts Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen. Together, they host FRIED as part of their mission to #endburnoutculture — with deep, real, and sometimes hilariously practical advice (yes, like #peewhenyouneedtopee).Each week, you’ll hear raw stories, powerful coaching sessions, and practical strategies to help you drop the shame, blame, guilt, and judgment so you can heal from burnout and rebuild your life.Cait works globally as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, helping organizations and associations create burnout-proof cultures. Sarah guides individuals through burnout recovery using her signature UNFRIED process, working one-on-one or in small groups with people all over the world.Wherever you are in your burnout journey, FRIED is here to help you BurnBOLD™ and take your life back.
Episodes
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Nobody Believes You Anymore: Closing the Signal Gap in the Age of Doubt, with Henna Pryor
"Skepticism is now the default posture." Henna Pryor You're communicating more than ever. So why aren't people believing you? Deepfakes, scams, AI-polished everything, and a meeting transcript that gets screenshotted into a Slack thread before you've even logged off. Everyone you talk to is…
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Your Quiet Quitter Isn't Lazy: Three Mismatches Behind the Same Disengagement, a #straightfromcait episode
A perfectly good solution aimed at the wrong problem is still the wrong solution. Picture an employee who has been fantastic for years. Smart, dependable, great work. Lately they are quieter in meetings, they stopped volunteering for projects, and they are doing what is required and not one thing...
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Bankrupt and in the Hall of Fame the Same Year: How Leaders Climb Out of Crisis, with Jess Pettitt
"The same year that I filed bankruptcy, I was inducted into the Hall of Fame." Jess Pettitt On Inauguration Day, my friend Jess Pettitt lost her largest contract. Not because of anything she did. The entire office she worked with was closed 21 minutes after the inauguration, and the people she'd...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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.…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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....
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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...
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350 Episodes In: The Burnout Story I Haven't Told in a While, a #straightfromcait episode
EPISODE SUMMARY Cait 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....
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The 4 Behaviors of A Toxic Workplace a #straightfromcait episode
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/UffD0Ec0SX4 Cait 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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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.…
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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…
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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...
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#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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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#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...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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#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…
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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...
Topics in this show
About this show
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast by BurnBOLD™BurnBOLD™ is the powerhouse matchup of burnout experts Cait Donovan and Sarah Vosen. Together, they host FRIED as part of their mission to #endburnoutculture — with deep, real, and sometimes hilariously practical advice (yes, like #peewhenyouneedtopee).Each week, you’ll hear raw stories, powerful coaching sessions, and practical strategies to help you drop the shame, blame, guilt, and judgment so you can heal from burnout and rebuild your life.Cait works globally as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, helping organizations and associations create burnout-proof cultures. Sarah guides individuals through burnout recovery using her signature UNFRIED process, working one-on-one or in small groups with people all over the world.Wherever you are in your burnout journey, FRIED is here to help you BurnBOLD™ and take your life back.
Hosted by
Cait Donovan, Top Burnout Expert for Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations