FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
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...
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Managing Burnout When Life Happens: A Psychologist’s Guide to Resilience at Work | Dr. Rachel Goldman
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 and the subtle signals people ignore before they reach their breaking point. Many people assume recovery requires a massive life overhaul. Dr. Rachel explains why small shifts can interrupt workplace burnout patterns, support...
Why Companies Are Afraid to Talk About Workplace Wellness: A #straightfromcait Episode
<p>Why does workplace wellness still feel risky for leaders even when the data proves it works?</p><p><br></p><p>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 stronger workplace culture, but conversations about workplace wellbeing can raise fears of blame, backlash, or initiatives that promise more than they deliver. In a crowded industry where trust is fragile, even well-intentioned...
Becoming You at Work: Suzy Welch on Values, Burnout, and Sustainable Performance
<p>Burnout might be the cost of living someone else’s values instead of your own.</p><p><br></p><p>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 core drive for broad impact did not match the intimate service model she was operating in. How often do we mistake competence for alignment? How often do we...
Performance, Fit, and Retention: Inside the Talent Density System with Mike Goldman
<p>Only 2 percent of leaders believe their performance reviews actually work, yet most companies still rely on them to shape culture, compensation, and careers.</p><p><br></p><p>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 greatest asset, why do they rely on a process that most of them admit adds little value? When expectations are unclear and culture standards are flexible for the wrong people, team health performance drops and talent retention...
Mattering at Work: The Missing Leadership Skill Driving Engagement, Retention, and Burnout Recovery | Zach Mercurio
<p>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 training. It requires redesigning how leaders show up in everyday interactions.</p><p><br></p><p>Zach breaks down the difference between belonging, inclusion, and mattering. Belonging is being welcomed. Inclusion is being invited to participate. Mattering...
Does Mindfulness Work for Burnout, PTSD, and Trauma? What Research in War Zones Shows | A #straightfromcait Episode
<p>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? </p><p><br></p><p>Drawing on research from war zones, medical training programs, and high-stress professional environments, the conversation reframes mindfulness as a form of burnout prevention grounded in trauma and PTSD science. When practices reduce symptoms in active conflict z...
Burnout Recovery, Alignment, and a Thoughtful Transition
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 systems-level burnout.</p><p><br></p><p>Cait shares how she came to see that her work is strongest when she is creating change at...
#straightfromcait: Burnout Isn’t About Resilience. It’s About Match.
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 complex web shaped by childhood, culture, health, personality, and work, she hits a wall. Information alone does not change behavior. What people need is a...
Re-Release: 7 Stages of Burnout with Mandy Lehto
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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, urgency, over-efforting, and grief, rather than a single moment of collapse. Mandy’s “seven-ish” buckets offer language for patterns many high achievers recognize but rarely name. When the...
Tess Brigham: Why Millennials Might Be The Most Burned Out of Us All
<p>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/friedgateway</p><p><br></p><p>Why do millennials seem more exhausted than everyone else, and what does that say about the world they came of age in? Cait Donovan and Tess Brigham challenge the idea that b...
