The Burnout Recovery Podcast

What does it look like to build a big clinical career and stay well doing it? This week Jo sits down with Dr Jennifer Coller — senior cardiologist, regional practitioner, and founder of Pulse Point Academy — to find out. Jen's burnout never stopped her showing up to work. But it quietly hollowed out everything outside of it. What changed wasn't willpower. It was systems, environment, a...

We're halfway through 2026. And if your year has been relentless with very little genuine recovery built in — this episode is your reset. The most downloaded episode of this podcast ever is "How to Recover from Burnout" — over 2,100 listens. That question never stops being relevant. So today we go deeper. I share the four signals your mind and body send before you crash, and one concre...

High performers are exceptional at supporting others. They are often much less exceptional at being supported themselves. In this episode, Dr Jo Braid unpacks why professional isolation is so common in healthcare — and what to actually do about it. You'll hear: Why medical culture trains us to see help-seeking as weakness - The neuroscience of social connection and what chronic isolation doe...

You've been told that high performance means giving everything you've got. But what if that's exactly what's burning you out? In this episode — part two of the four-part series The High Performer's Paradox — Dr Jo Braid unpacks the 80% rule: the counterintuitive idea that deliberately leaving something in the tank isn't a sign of weakness or laziness. It's one of the most strategic thi...

In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid kicks off a special four-part series exploring the patterns that drive high performers toward burnout - starting with one of the most confronting realisations in high performance: the qualities that make you exceptional can also be the ones that exhaust you. Drawing on personal experience in medicine and coaching, Jo shares how strengths like reliability, analytical t...

When Dr. Jo received news that her podcast reached the top 3% globally, her first instinct was to credit grit and optimization—but the real truth was much more profound. In this heartfelt finale to our 10-episode block, we explore how healthcare workers become so focused on improving themselves that they lose connection to their own humanity. Discover why reconnecting with yourself as a huma...

In this episode, Dr. Jo explores the organizational factors that drive burnout in healthcare and helping professions. While we've been told to focus on individual resilience and self-care, research shows that workplace systems and structures are the primary contributors to burnout. Dr. Jo shares real stories from healthcare workers struggling with systemic issues and provides a practical "System C...

Healthcare workers are caught in a cycle of time poverty - never having enough hours to meet both work demands and personal needs. In this episode, Dr. Jo shares her real-time experience working a busy rehabilitation locum and how protecting lunch breaks actually improved cognitive clarity and efficiency. Research shows that time scarcity creates a "tunneling" effect that makes us less productive,...

In this episode, Dr. Jo explores the toxic "should" statements that plague healthcare professionals and fuel burnout. She shares personal stories about breaking free from perfectionist expectations and introduces the powerful concept of "Gap vs. Gain" thinking from Dr Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan's transformative book. Learn practical tools to distinguish between realistic professional standards and...

Not all burnout is created equal - and neither should your recovery strategy be. In this episode, Dr. Jo explores how different medical specialties experience distinct burnout patterns, from the hypervigilance of emergency medicine to the emotional exhaustion of primary care. Research shows that tailored recovery interventions are 67% more effective than generic stress management programs, yet mos...

In this episode, Dr. Jo explores the often-overlooked connection between financial stress and professional burnout in healthcare. She shares how financial pressure creates a vicious cycle that amplifies workplace exhaustion and discusses the unique financial challenges healthcare professionals face, from student debt to delayed earning potential. Drawing from research on scarcity mindset and cogni...

What happens when a doctor's carefully planned career path takes an unexpected turn? In this compelling interview, Dr. Ben Condon shares his journey from aspiring plastic surgeon to emergency medicine during COVID, and ultimately to healthcare innovation. As Clinical Director at Heidi Health, Ben is now focused on making the healthcare system work better for both clinicians and patients. This epis...

That difficult conversation you've been putting off at work isn't going away - and avoiding it is actually fuelling your burnout. In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid explores why healthcare professionals who excel at difficult conversations with patients often freeze when it comes to workplace conflict with colleagues. She shares the CLEAR framework for approaching these conversations constructively, al...

When you're burnt out, the last thing you need is another overwhelming plan — and in this episode, Dr. Jo Braid explains why the grand reset almost always fails, and what the science says actually works. Drawing on behavioral research, neuroplasticity, and the concept of atomic habits, Jo unpacks why tiny, consistent micro-changes are the most powerful tool in burnout recovery. You'll walk a...

In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid tackles one of the most requested — and least talked about — topics in healthcare burnout: the colleague who makes an already demanding job feel almost impossible. Drawing on her own experience as a doctor of over 20 years, alongside research on workplace incivility and the neuroscience of threat response, Jo explores why certain people trigger us so deepl...

In this episode, Dr Jo explores how to create your personal burnout prevention plan using fire readiness parallels—from recognizing early warning signs to building defensible space around your time and energy. She breaks down the critical 80/20 reality: 80% of burnout stems from systemic workplace factors, not personal failings, and shares how to distinguish between organizational and indivi...

In this episode, we explore where your mental energy really goes and why healthcare professionals feel so depleted. I share the story of Kate, a coaching client running her own allied health clinic while navigating the demands of the sandwich generation, and the profound exhaustion she experienced. We dive into the neuroscience of cognitive load—including how the brain uses 25% of our body's...

Dr. Jo shares her raw, honest experience as a locum doctor in a Sydney trauma hospital, where perfectionist expectations led to sleepless nights, self-doubt, and rumination over clinical decisions. She explores the crucial difference between adaptive perfectionism that drives professional growth and maladaptive perfectionism that fuels burnout and anxiety. Drawing on Stanford WellMD research and n...

Feeling exhausted before your day even starts? In this episode, Dr. Jo shares how a simple 5-minute morning micro-recovery can transform anticipatory dread into intentional energy. Drawing from Stanford neuroscience research on the "physiological sigh," she explores evidence-based techniques that shift your nervous system from stress to calm in minutes. Through a real coaching story and practical...

In this episode, Dr. Jo shares her personal struggle with social media comparison when she started her coaching business five years ago and how she overcame the constant feeling of professional inadequacy. She explains the neuroscience behind why social comparison activates our threat-detection systems and becomes a significant burnout trigger for healthcare professionals who are already operating...

In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid explores how our devices can become sources of chronic stress and burnout for healthcare professionals, sharing a personal story about digital overwhelm while building her coaching business alongside her medical practice. She dives into the latest neuroscience research, explaining how notifications simultaneously trigger dopamine cravings and cortisol spikes, while "a...

Do you ever feel like your brain never gets a break? In this episode, Dr. Jo explores the invisible cognitive burden that healthcare professionals carry and how it's damaging the relationships that matter most. Drawing from Stanford WellMD research showing that over 40% of physicians report work negatively impacting their personal relationships, discover practical strategies to break the mental lo...

Are you experiencing burnout, or is something deeper happening when you feel that gut-wrenching sensation of knowing what's right but being unable to do it? In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid draws from her experience chairing an expert panel at the MPLA conference in 2025 to clarify the crucial distinctions between moral distress, moral injury, and burnout. Understanding these differences isn't just a...

Welcome back to another episode of The Burnout Recovery Podcast! I'm absolutely delighted to share my conversation with Anthony Mennillo, Head of Claims and Legal Services at MIGA - Medical Insurance Group Australia, who has spent over two decades walking alongside doctors through their most challenging professional moments. As someone who has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact that medica...

Hey amazing listeners! After 160+ episodes together, I want to make sure The Burnout Recovery Podcast is creating content that truly serves YOU in 2026. Whether you're a healthcare professional, someone passionate about workplace wellbeing, or you just love practical strategies that work - your feedback will directly shape what you hear on this podcast.  What's in it for you? ✨ One lucky res...