Cait Donovan, Top Burnout Expert for Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations
344 episodes listed below
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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.…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
FRIED makes burnout legible through candid coaching and guest conversations about capacity, boundaries, connection and workplace fit.
Kate Donovan keeps asking what exhaustion reveals about workload, boundaries, relationships and the systems around a person. FRIED. The Burnout Podcast moves between guest interviews and coaching conversations, connecting personal recovery with workplace conditions.
Another 10 p.m. call becomes a boundary question: what happens if you let it ring?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A direct burnout conversation about self-reliance, support, and the loop that keeps people stuck.
Kate Donovan's conversation about burnout keeps coming back to a plain problem: people try to carry everything themselves until the load stops feeling temporary and starts feeling normal.
Burnout leave can feel like stuckness before it feels like relief.
Sarah's conversation with Kate Donovan lands in that uneasy stretch of burnout leave where the body says stop but the mind keeps checking for work.
A calm, humane look at burnout as a signal, not a failure.
Kate Donovan treats burnout as a signal, not a moral failing, and the episode keeps that idea close to the ground. It moves through capacity, shame, and the way work can flatten people into functions, then returns to simpler reliefs: doing nothing for a moment, sitting still,…
A blunt case for treating burnout as a workplace signal, not a self-care failure.
Kate Donovan treats burnout as information rather than a personal failure, and the discussion lands that point with real force. It also keeps the harder truth in view: no amount of self-care can repair a toxic environment.
A burnout conversation that treats alignment as internal, biological, and not something paper plans can force.
FRIED treats burnout as a mismatch at work rather than a personal failure, and that framing gives the episode its edge. Kate Donovan and Sarah move through business and relationship change, while also circling the impulse to remake everything once burnout sets in.
A clear look at millennial burnout and the stories people use to explain it.
Kate Donovan treats millennial burnout as a familiar label, then spends the strongest parts of the episode pushing back on the easy stereotype.
A steady look at disconnection and the awkward work of building community again.
Haley Page returns to FRIED in a conversation about disconnection and the slow, awkward work of rebuilding community after a hard stretch. Kate Donovan traces the shift from being pulled away from old ties to the ordinary effort of making new ones: joining the National Speakers…
A golf coach's hard truth: good help should leave people less dependent.
Kate Donovan steers a conversation that uses golf coaching to probe access, boundaries, and the pressure that comes with being the person others rely on.
Reported stories of responsibility and its consequences.
Researchers, doctors and coaches, translated into everyday health stakes.
Kate Donovan opens by framing burnout as information, not failure.
Kate Donovan opens FRIED by framing burnout as a sign of misalignment between people, roles, expectations, leadership behaviors, and systems, then shifts to why companies still hesitate to say “burnout” or invest in wellness.
Jerry Colonna tells Kate Donovan that he was not simply burned out but "baked" and "overcooked," with his "inner me and outer me" at cross purposes.
Cindy Spiegel describes leaving a 15-year fashion career in 2012 after New York Fashion Week, saying she felt “like a shell of myself” despite being at the height of her success.
Kate Donovan frames FRIED as burnout information, not failure, and this coaching session follows Sarah Vosen guiding Christy through a burnout recovery step.
Kate Donovan opens FRIED by framing burnout as a “match issue at work,” then Sarah Vosen coaches Heather through a burnout recovery problem that includes a cliquey temporary workplace, interview fatigue, and shame about needing a break.
FRIED’s Coaching with Sarah session centers on Samira, a longtime listener juggling a full-time in-office job, three internships, client work, and the financial strain of covering a roommate’s bills.
Kate Donovan talks with the guest about the loop of wondering whether she is burned out.
Kate Donovan speaks with Casey McGuire Davidson, host of the Hello Someday podcast and a sober coach who says she stopped drinking a decade ago after 20 years in corporate life.
Kate Donovan speaks with Dr.
Kate Donovan starts from a simple premise.
Kate Donovan opens with a live recording that gets knocked off course when life interrupts the plan.
Kate Donovan talks with the guest about burnout recovery, asking for help, and the loop that keeps pulling her back to doing everything alone.
Kate Donovan centers the conversation on burnout as a work problem, not a private weakness.
Kate Donovan talks with a guest about why younger people, including millennials, keep getting labeled as burned out.
Kate Donovan talks with Mike Goldman about a model for thinking about workplace fit.
Kate Donovan welcomes Haley Page back to talk about burnout, loneliness, and the work of rebuilding community after being pulled away from connection.
FRIED looks at mattering at work.
The conversation talks about healing through music.
Kate Donovan talks with a coach about burnout through the lens of golf coaching.
Kate Donovan talks with Emily about burnout as a signal, not a verdict.
A guest is about seven weeks into leave and still feels stuck.
FRIED brings back a conversation about burnout and recovery.
This episode explores whether mindfulness works for burnout and PTSD, citing Dr.
Host Kate Donovan addresses the common fear of backsliding into burnout during winter, explaining how the season's natural 'death cycle' triggers terror and depletes energy.
Co-host Sarah Vosen explains why feelings of grief and guilt often intensify in the fall, connecting it to Chinese medicine principles about the lungs and large intestine.
Host Cait Donovan introduces the concept of interoception as a key skill for leaders to address burnout and improve workplace performance.
This episode introduces a podcast about understanding and overcoming burnout, focusing on leadership and workplace culture.
Host Cait Donovan discusses the web of causation theory of burnout, exploring how childhood, workplace, family, culture, and health contribute to burnout.
A podcast about understanding and overcoming burnout, with practical advice for individuals and leaders.
A podcast about understanding and overcoming burnout, with practical advice for individuals and leaders.
A June poll of 24 newsletter readers found that resting often triggered thoughts such as “I’m not enough” and “I’m lazy.” Sarah Vosen contrasts those brain judgments with body signals such as fatigue, acid reflux, anxiety, and insomnia.
On FRIED.
Host Cait Donovan introduces the podcast's mission to understand and overcome burnout through individual and workplace strategies.
Host Cait Donovan introduces the podcast's mission to end burnout culture by helping individuals and leaders recognize and address burnout patterns.
Host Cait Donovan introduces the podcast's mission to understand and overcome burnout through individual and workplace strategies.
A podcast about understanding and overcoming burnout, with practical advice for individuals and leaders to improve workplace culture.
Host Cait Donovan introduces the podcast's mission to understand and end burnout through individual and workplace strategies.