FRIED. The Burnout Podcast

350 Episodes In: The Burnout Story I Haven't Told in a While, a #straightfromcait episode

Published: June 7, 2026

Duration: 29:36

EPISODE SUMMARY

Cait 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 story of how she got there -- and it turns out it started long before she knew burnout was a thing. From a failed organic chemistry test at Boston University to an acupuncture practice in Poland with a six-month waitlist, from a 2016 article that named everything to years of peer-reviewed research and a second graduate degree, this episode is the origin story FRIED has been building...