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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Psychological Safety First: The Foundation of Thriving Teams with Aoife O'Brien
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 the environment around them, how can they speak honestly, share ideas, or stay fully invested in the work?</p><p><br></p><p>They al...
Beyond Transactional Leadership: How Leaders Create Real Culture Change
<p>When leadership turns into a transaction, culture starts to starve. </p><p><br></p><p>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 is built through trust, purpose, and accountability, not just policies, titles, or polished values statements. He looks at how leaders influence employee experience every day and why organizational design has more impact on culture than many t...
Burnout at Work Isn’t Just the Workplace: The Behaviors Shaping Your Culture with Cait Donovan
<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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 someone fully realizes what is happening. Cait connects personal coping strategies to the broader systems people work inside, offering a thoughtful perspective on culture and burnout without reducing th...
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...
