Episode 136: Burnout
Released August 12th, 2025
What makes burnout different from exhaustion or fatigue? In episode 136 of Overthink, Ellie and David look at the history of the term burnout and its surprising connection to social justice. They also explore Byung-Chul Han’s reading of burnout as a natural consequence of “achievement culture.” How does our mindless scrolling on TikTok and Instagram reveal our inability to be bored and meditate? And how does this contribute to our personal and collective run-ins with burnout? Why do so many people, academics included, fail to recognize their own burnout? And is it even possible to escape burnout in a capitalist society? In the bonus, your hosts talk about the shame surrounding burnout, errand paralysis, and the relationship between burnout and compulsive buying.
Works Discussed
Herbert J. Freudenberger, “Staff Burn-Out”
Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society
Emily and Amelia Nagoski, Burnout, the Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
David M. Peña-Guzmán and Rebekah Spera, Professional Philosophy and Its Myths
Anne Helen Peterson, Can’t Even: How Millennials became the Burnout Generation
Hannah Proctor, Burnout
