FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
Cait Donovan, Top Burnout Expert for Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations
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About This Podcast
Your best people aren't lazy. They're burned out. And there's a difference — one that costs you performance, retention, and culture if you can't spot it.
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast is a top 1% global show with over a million downloads, hosted by keynote speaker and burnout expert Cait Donovan. It's the show for leaders, executives, HR professionals, and high-responsibility humans who want to understand burnout at a systems level — not just survive it personally.
The core question FRIED keeps asking: Where is the work no longer matching the humans doing it?
Burnout isn't a motivation problem. It's a mismatch problem. When the fit between people, roles, expectations, and organizational systems breaks down — disengagement builds, resentment festers, and your best people start quietly planning their exit. FRIED helps you see those mismatches before they become crises.
Each week you'll get expert conversations on workplace burnout, leadership, organizational culture, employee retention, and sustainable high performance — plus solo episodes where Cait breaks down the hidden dynamics driving disengagement in even the highest-performing teams.
No blame. No fluff. No breathing exercises you didn't ask for.
Topics covered: burnout prevention, chronic stress, leadership development, workplace culture, employee disengagement, resentment at work, emotional intelligence, nervous system regulation, boundaries, organizational design, psychological safety, and middle management burnout.
FRIED. Because burnout isn't the price of ambition. It's a signal that something needs to change.
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Recent Episodes
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…
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…
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…
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:…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
#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…
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.…
Frequently Asked Questions
FRIED. The Burnout Podcast has published 349 episodes since June 2019, covering topics in Business, Careers.
FRIED. The Burnout Podcast is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 36m.
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