FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
Cait Donovan, Top Burnout Expert for Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast is a top 1% global podcast hosted by burnout expert and keynote speaker Cait Donovan. It’s for leaders, teams, and high-achieving humans who are done treating exhaustion as the cost of ambition.For its first 10 seasons, FRIED focused primarily on individual burnout recovery—helping listeners understand their nervous systems, boundaries, and capacity. Starting in Season 11, the conversation expands.FRIED now takes a more organizational and leadership-level view of burnout, exploring how the fit between people, roles, expectations, and systems determines whether work is sustainable or slowly burns people out.Each week, you’ll hear:Conversations with professionals and leaders who’ve recovered from burnoutInsights on leadership, workplace stress, and organizational designSolo episodes where Cait breaks down how hidden mismatches quietly drive disengagement, resentment, turnover, and burnout—even in high-performing culturesAt its core, FRIED asks a different question than most burnout conversations:Where is the work no longer matching the humans doing it?Burnout is rarely a motivation problem. It’s a mismatch problem. FRIED helps leaders and organizations spot those mismatches early and make practical, human-centered adjustments that improve both performance and wellbeing.You’ll love FRIED: The Burnout Podcast if you’re a leader, manager, HR professional, or high-responsibility human who wants to reduce burnout without lowering standards or blaming people.Welcome to FRIED.Let’s build work that matches.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 12, 2020 • 60min
Donna Stewart: Balancing Energy Input and Energy Output
Donna Stewart is a 25 year veteran of healthcare and has burned out at least four times. Having battled back time and again, she now enjoys a peaceful little acupuncture practice in Portland, Oregon. Donna started as a physical therapist and worked her way through hospitals, outpatient care, home care, acupuncture school, and the loss of faith in acupuncture and along the way, she learned a few things about burnout that she generously shared this week on FRIED! Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/donna-stewart Contact Cait: www.caitdonovan.com/contact Loved this episode? Be sure to drop a review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 5, 2020 • 50min
Melissa Boo: To Avoid Burnout - Choose Yourself, Every Time
Melissa and I spent a lot of time on this podcast talking about the internal vs. external causes of burnout and how at the end and underneath all of it - your body has to come first because, as Melissa’s aunt told her, ‘You only get one body’. No matter what the corporation says. No matter what your boss says. No matter what your non-profit that you adore says - YOUR BODY COMES FIRST. So, as 2020 begins, I’m asking you - We’re asking you - to CHOOSE YOURSELF. No matter what your resolutions are, no matter what challenges stand in your way - choose you. Over and over and over again - it’s a sure path to peace and fulfillment. Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/melissa-boo/ Instagram (best place to connect): www.instagram.com/friedtheburnoutpodcast Melissa's website: www.melissaboo.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 15, 2019 • 54min
Maggie Reyes: Trust The Whispers, Leave Burnout Behind
It is extremely important to me that people see their doctors before doing burnout coaching with me because sometimes we find something out that’s an easy fix. Maggie was EXHAUSTED and waking up unrested. She went to her doctor and found out she had slight sleep apnea. Now, she sleeps with a CPAP machine and wakes up earlier than ever with energy to spare. I’ve had other clients and patients find out that they had thyroid issues, anemia, low-level chronic infections, and more. I was so glad to hear Maggie talk about this in her episode because it’s so important. No matter how much I love natural health and Chinese medicine, you NEED to know your labs! Maggie organizes her time; she has space for rest, for time, and for fun - all scheduled in. This is what boundaries mean to her and she explains that she would judge herself for resting before her burnout and really needed to learn that rest was ESSENTIAL and not ‘Lazy’ or ‘Selfish’ because success, to that point, for her had come by ‘pushing through’. We also talk about feeling stuck in life and how to get out of it. You know you’re stuck if: You feel like there is something missing - that’s how you know you need to explore and listen to the whispers TO trust your whispers Look at what you desire Allow yourself the discomfort of saying No Allow yourself to disappoint people. Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/maggie-reyes Maggie's website Continue the conversation on IG! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 8, 2019 • 47min
Cyrina Talbott - Use Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) to Understand Your Inherent Value
When your self worth is tied up in your business, or your job, or your role as a mother - you take EVERYTHING personally. Everything feels to you a reflection of whatever you’re doing right, or whatever you’re doing wrong and no matter what - it’s never good enough. If you have a 'good day' at the office and feel good about yourself, it feels okay. But when you have a bad day and feel like crap - you've woven your value into your performance and the two should remain separate! "I was so driven with the need to get approval from this, and my self-worth was wrapped up in it so the idea of letting it go, even though it was the exact thing I needed to do, was super hard for me." - Cyrina Talbott Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/cyrina-talbott Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/friedtheburnoutpodcast Follow Cyrina: www.instagram.com/cyrinatalbott FIND Cyrina: https://www.cyrinatalbott.com/ Learn about Rapid Transformational Therapy: Rapid Transformational Therapy Don't forget to leave a review on Itunes! It helps small shows like mine get more ears :) Thanks for joining me to #endburnoutculture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 1, 2019 • 54min
Kayla Rose Yoder: Addiction and Codependency as Burnout Risk Factors
Kayla Rose Yoder has many titles and accolades galore. The grand sum is that she's a talented coach and energy healer that has walked through her own shadow parts and lived to tell the tale. Kayla burnt out the first time at 15 and started smoking weed shortly thereafter which turned into a many-year battle with addiction. She was primed to be a success with socially responsible progressive parents, a focus on education, involvement in Landmark Forum from the age of 8, and a family of highly successful lawyers and doctors. Her story, instead, took her through addiction, codependency, and surrendering to the guidance of a higher power and reconnecting with her soul to become the person that she is today. Her story is powerful. Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/kayla-rose-yoder Kayla's website: www.kaylaroseyoder.com FRIED on Instagram: www.instagram.com/friedtheburnoutpodcast * * * Leave a review on Itunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 24, 2019 • 50min
Corina Rosca: Turn Off The Burnout Alarm By Choosing Your People Wisely
This conversation might be triggering. Corina didn't hold back and was really open and honest about still being in the thick of the journey through burnout even though she already dropped the overworking piece of her puzzle. Now, she is working to not only clear inner traumas (both her own and generational traumas) but also to create a community of people that support her. The pace of the current world is a piece of the burnout puzzle, which is why this podcast exists. There needs to be a collective movement to shift this tendency on our planet. Culture changes by people. It's time for us to say NO to burnout culture and start building sustainable lives and a sustainable planet. Raised by two deaf parents and immigrating from communist Romania to Canada in the 80’s, Corina has had her share of trauma and shares with us stories of sneaking out of Romania, a return visit a few years later, and now the process of getting information about her and her family from the secret police files that have started to be released. This is an amazing story of survival. Be relentless in your choices when it comes to your closest people - it might just be the thing that heals you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 17, 2019 • 48min
Nathalie Norris: The Energy You Need For The Life You Want
Nathalie told me that a major catalyst for her was realizing that she wanted a family in the future and she already didn’t have enough energy to make it happen. After getting blood work that said that she was fine, Nathalie found her way toward natural medicine, staring with spirulina and then moving more and more into the world of nutrition, superfoods, and more. Listen to this one all the way through the end - Nathalie has an important message just for you. Show notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/nathalie-norris/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 10, 2019 • 51min
Aisling Fitzgibbon: Moving From Fear To Trust
Aisling Fitzgibbon, Holistic Nutritionist Coach has studied many energetic healing modalities through the years. After being diagnosed with depression and medicated at a young age, Aisling went through a few rounds of burnout before really deciding to heal when she met another holistic nutritionist who taught her to view her body and her energy differently. That, with guidance from her mother about releasing the need for a specific outcome, created a space of trust that allowed Aisling to heal. She now teaches others to do the same through her membership, Energy is Your Currency. Show Notes: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/aisling-fitzgibbon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 3, 2019 • 44min
Kim Porter: Shed Old Identities And Emerge From Burnout
After a threatened miscarriage, instead of listening to the whispers, Kim Porter doubled down and went for it in her business because of the fear that if she slowed down and let go of what she had built, none of what she had done until that point would have had value. Can’t you just feel that in your gut? The need to stick with a job, a career, a relationship because you’ve invested in it already, because it's part of your identity? “I was so busy striving for goals I didn't know how to stop. Meditation, setting my intentions, and journaling all helped me get back to my center again.” Kim Porter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 30, 2019 • 1h 9min
Cait Donovan: The Host of FRIED Shares Her Burnout Story
This is it. Nathalie Norris, nutritionist and all-around superstar asked Cait if she could reverse interview her for FRIED, and Cait agreed. Here, you get the background story, Cait's burnout story, her methods for keeping it at bay these days and her plans for her business in 2020. If you've been curious about what got Cait where she is, this is the one you've been waiting for.... show notes at: www.friedtheburnoutpodcast.com/post/cait-donovan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
