Episode 1: Better Than This 

A deep dive into systemic issues fueling stress and mental health challenges at work.

Show Notes: Episode Overview

In this foundational episode, host and resident instigator Meghan French Dunbar explores why work feels so broken — and how we got here. From rising burnout to outdated business models, she lays out how the “old playbook” is harming workers and leaders alike leading to staggering statistics including:

• 4 out of 5 people say their primary source of stress is work 
• Three out of five working adults have experienced negative mental or physical health issues from work-related stress.
• 60% of people say their job has more of an impact on their mental health compared to anything else
• More than 75 percent of workers have experienced burnout at their current work

We need a radical new approach to address this situation and improve work for everyone. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything “right” and still burning out, this episode is your wake-up call — and your invitation to something better.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Meghan’s personal story of struggling with mental health issues while leading a successful media company
  
• The hidden societal forces driving workplace stress, overwhelm, and inequality
  
• 5 toxic business norms that are making us sick, stressed, and disengaged
  
• The history of how the “old playbook” came to dominate business — and why it no longer serves us
  
• The promise of a new playbook built on well-being, equity, and true success
  

Key Takeaways:

• You're not the problem. The way we’re working is.
  
• Overwork, lack of autonomy, and winner-takes-all culture are structural issues — not personal failings.
• A new model of success is not only possible — it’s already happening in workplaces around the world.
• Changing the way we work starts with naming the problem and imagining a radically better way forward.

Resources & References:

• Meghan’s upcoming book: This Isn’t Working (coming August 2025)
• Stats from the American Psychological Association on stress and burnout
• Influential business leaders mentioned: Eileen Fisher, Jane Wurwand, Susan Griffin-Black, Alfa Demmellash
  
• Milton Friedman’s 1970 NYT article on shareholder primacy
   

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Full Episode Transcript*

*We've lightly edited the verbatim copy of the transcript to improve readability 

Meet Your Host: Why I'm Here

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Better Than This. Every week, we're going to get real, go deep, and hopefully have some fun as we discuss research-backed ways to actually improve your work, your workplace, and your life. My name is Meghan French Dunbar, and my most profound hope as a result of our time together is that you walk away understanding that there is a better way to work and live—and that you feel inspired to begin making changes in your own life.

Why? Well, put simply: the way we're working isn't working.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of watching wonderful, ambitious, delightful human beings get chewed up and spit out by a system—especially when it can be so much better than this. Hence the podcast title: Better Than This.

Why Should You Listen to Me?

So your next question might be, "Okay lady, who are you, and why should I be listening to you on this topic?" And I’d be like, yeah, I’ve been asking myself the same thing. And I think I actually have a legitimate answer here.

For more than a decade now, I’ve been studying what I call better business. Good business. Impact business. Businesses that are actually doing good for the world in some way.

Thirteen years ago, I did my MBA with a focus on sustainable management. I took that and five months of publishing experience and, in the summer of 2014, crowdfunded the launch of a business magazine. My co-founder and I asked: why doesn't a business magazine exist for people who want to hear about business leaders doing good for the world, people creating incredible workplaces, people solving societal issues through business?

So we launched Conscious Company Magazine. Our first issue came out January 1, 2015, and was picked up by every Whole Foods in the nation. Suddenly this little dream project of mine became a nationally distributed print magazine about sustainable business. I was 30 years old.

Building the Conscious Business Movement

We did the whole entrepreneur’s journey. We raised over $700,000, built it into a media company. We had the print magazine, an in-person event series called the Conscious Company Leaders Forum, and a women's-only component called World-Changing Women, which included a summit and a podcast.

All of this gave me the incredible opportunity to interview extraordinary leaders—people like Eileen Fisher, Chip Conley of Joie de Vivre Hotels, Susan Griffin-Black, Alfa Demmellash—the very people I idolized during my MBA program. I got to sit down and learn from them about how they were building extraordinary businesses that weren’t harming the people inside them and were actually doing good for society.

We sold the company in 2017, and I stayed on as CEO until early 2020. I resigned in February of that year—unbeknownst to me, just a month before global lockdown.

What I've Been Up To Since

Since then, I’ve been leading CEO retreats, masterminds, and leadership workshops for companies like Kate Spade, Coach, Leonard Green, and Charter Next Generation.

Over the last two years, I wrote a book—This Isn’t Working, which comes out in August 2025. Writing this book gave me the chance to interview nearly 100 incredible leaders about the ways work is broken and how we can fix it.

So yeah, I’ve got some credentials. But more importantly, I have a passion for making work better for all of us. I like to say I’m kind of like the Steve Irwin of good business. I geek out about this stuff. I know a lot. But instead of saying, "Crikey, it’s a crocodile!" I say, "Let’s look at open-book management!"

I love learning about business and teaching other people about it. That’s my thing. No judgment. Mine just happens to be purpose-driven business.

Why I Started This Podcast

Of course, I had the existential crisis: the podcast space is crowded. Why should I launch another one? Cue all the self-doubt and internal monologue. But then I had a great conversation with Josh from Brink Media, host of This Is Propaganda. He asked, "Didn’t you just write a book?" I said, "Yes." He asked, "Aren’t there tons of books out there?" Also yes.

"So why did you write yours?" he said. "Because I felt like I had something important to share," I replied.

"Same goes for a podcast," he said. And I thought: yeah. With great knowledge comes great responsibility. I've been lucky enough to learn from some of the most inspiring leaders doing business differently—leaders building healthy, thriving cultures where people flourish. Leaders creating actual value in the world beyond just profit.

So I’m doing this. Podcasts are a powerful way to democratize access to information. And I’m really grateful you’re here with me.

What to Expect from Better Than This

I promise to keep things real. We're going to break the mold in terms of format: some episodes will be me riffing solo, others will feature interviews or roundtable discussions. But the common thread will always be:

• Leadership
• Workplace culture
• Mindset shifts
• How to improve your work and your life

Because those two things? They’re deeply intertwined.

This first episode is the foundation—the "why" behind everything. Why does work suck so bad? Why are so many of us so stressed out and struggling?

Have you had this moment? You run into a friend and ask, "How are you doing?" and they reply, "Hanging in there... So busy. So stressed. Fine. Everything’s fine. Living the dream."

We're all aware that everyone’s struggling. But we don’t talk about it. Or we wear it like a badge of honor. But deep down, we feel like we can’t actually change anything. So we push through.

When Panic Becomes the Wake-Up Call

This is exactly where I was in 2017. We had launched the magazine, raised investment, built a team, and created a full media company. But the day-to-day stress of running that business? It was a lot.

One day, while reviewing our financials, I realized we had six to seven months of runway left—unless we pulled off a miracle or raised more money. The stress crushed me.

I was sitting in the guest room of our old condo in Boulder, Colorado, staring out the window. I couldn’t catch my breath. My chest was tight. I collapsed on the hardwood floor, screaming into a pillow. My husband ran upstairs, our 85-pound dog on his heels, and found me crumpled on the floor.

I will never forget the terrified look in my husband's eyes as he watched me have a full-blown panic attack. The stress from my career had impacted my health in such a way that I genuinely didn’t know if I was having a heart attack or not. I was 33 at the time.

The next day, he helped me get through it. That evening, he said, "I can’t watch you do this to yourself anymore." I promised him that something would change. But the next morning? I went right back to work. Because that’s what we’re told to do. I was the infallible leader. I couldn’t show weakness. I had to push through.

And honestly, it felt normal. Everyone I knew was stressed and overwhelmed. I’d heard of other people having panic attacks. So, I thought, maybe this is just the cost of success.

Stephanie Nadi Olson’s Story: A Mirror Image

I had a conversation with my friend Stephanie Nadi Olson, founder and former CEO of We Are Rosie. Her story mirrored mine:

"I started the business when my kids were two and four. I immediately started working 80-hour weeks. There was no delineation between weekdays and weekends—2 a.m., 11 p.m., whatever it took. My body would wake up in full adrenaline response every morning. I never slept past 4:30 a.m. while building We Are Rosie. And sometimes I was up till midnight the night before. It just became normal.

"But I wasn’t okay. I herniated a disc in my neck—caused entirely by stress. When I received the letter of intent from our investors, I was literally in the hospital getting an injection in my spine. I was having panic attacks, on anxiety and depression meds, and I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. It was just too much."

We Wait Too Long to Change

You’re hearing these stories, and this is what happens when we let stress and overwhelm build unchecked. We wait until something breaks—our bodies, our minds, or both. And even then, maybe we see a therapist once or twice, but then we get right back in the saddle.

We’re stuck in a culture of stress, overwhelm, and exhaustion. But we keep saying, "Everything’s fine."

The Breaking Point

After we sold the company in 2017, I thought things would get better. But staying on as CEO brought the same pressure and anxiety. Then I had a baby in 2019. When I came back from maternity leave, I had nothing left. I had lost my passion. I could barely get out of bed. I wasn’t the leader, mother, partner, or friend I wanted to be. So I resigned.

Then came the pandemic. And in those dark days of 2020 and 2021, I started to wonder: does it really have to be this way? Do we have to sacrifice ourselves to succeed? Is this just the price of being in business?

The Seed of a New Idea

My friend Courtney Klein talks about insistent ideas being like raspberry seeds stuck in your teeth. This was mine. It just wouldn’t go away. So I turned it into a book proposal. I got a book deal. And I wrote This Isn't Working.

Because I knew something: I had met leaders who weren’t stressed and burnt out. They had traditional markers of success, but their workplaces were thriving—and so were they.

Leaders like Susan Griffin-Black at EO Products. Alfa Demmellash at Rising Tide Capital. Jane Wurwand of Dermalogica. Eileen Fisher. These weren’t anomalies. They were proof of something better.

The New Playbook

I call it the new playbook. It's a complete departure from the toxic, outdated system most of us are still stuck in. Right now, more than 3.5 billion people in the global workforce are playing by rules that don’t work.

But here’s the thing: this new playbook is real. It’s proven. It’s research-backed. And it works.

We’ll be talking about the people using it, the science behind it, and the practices you can apply in your own life and leadership.

This isn’t just about improving company performance. This is about improving your workplace—and your life.

Why Work Isn’t Working

Let’s get into it. To start, we’re going to look at some of the key reasons we feel stress, burnout, and mental health challenges.

Top Drivers of Stress and Burnout

According to the American Psychological Association, three of the most common stressors we face are:

• Economic insecurity
• Concerns about money or job loss
• Work pressure—feeling overwhelmed or overworked

When it comes to mental health, key predictors include:

• Social isolation or discrimination
• Chronic stress
• Cultural expectations
• Self-sacrificing behavior

And burnout? The six key predictors of burnout are:

1. Overwork
2. Compromising your values
3. Isolation or lack of community
4. A sense that things are unfair
5. Lack of acknowledgment or rewards
6. Lack of autonomy or control

These challenges aren’t random. They’re directly tied to how we’ve built the modern workplace.

The Business Paradigm That Got Us Here

Business, in its essence, is the exchange of goods or services for financial gain. Historically, it’s evolved as a way to structure human social interaction. The idea of business is a social construction—made up by people, and still being shaped by us.

Today, over 3.5 billion people are part of the global workforce. The ways we define business success and build our organizations have enormous implications—for people and the planet.

Business Can Build or Destroy

Business can:

• Lift people out of poverty
• Drive solutions to societal problems
• Provide meaning and purpose

But it can also:

• Destroy communities
• Widen inequality
• Erode mental and physical health

Unfortunately, we’re trending more toward destruction.

Milton Friedman and the Profit-At-All-Costs Paradigm

In 1970, economist Milton Friedman published a now-famous New York Times piece claiming:

“There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.”

This launched the shareholder supremacy era. Around the same time, the SEC required quarterly earnings reports for publicly traded companies—forcing leaders to chase profits under increasingly short timelines.

The result? Leaders are incentivized to:

• Reduce wages
• Cut safety measures
• Exploit resources and people
• Suppress damaging research (hello, Purdue and Monsanto)

Widening Inequality and Social Harm

This short-term, profit-at-all-costs approach has fueled:

• Wage stagnation and worker exploitation
• Outsourcing and layoffs
• Decline of the middle class (from 60% to under 50% in the U.S.)
• Extreme wealth concentration (the top 1% now hold more wealth than the entire middle class combined)
• One in seven people globally living below basic needs thresholds

Oh, and environmental collapse. Deforestation. Climate change. The works.

Psychopathy and Depression at the Top

One study I found while researching my book blew my mind: 1% of the general population qualifies as psychopathic—meaning they lack empathy or remorse. Among CEOs? That number jumps to 20%.

On the flip side, C-suite executives report depression at double the rate of the general population. You either become emotionally detached to survive—or get crushed by the system.

How This Affects Everyday Workers

Let me be clear: there are generalizations here. But most modern organizations operate within five harmful paradigms that directly contribute to stress, burnout, and mental and physical health issues.

1. High-Pressure, Growth-at-All-Costs Cultures

The narrative: do more with less. Work nights. Work weekends. Prove your worth. If you’re not maxing out, you’re falling behind.

This leads to:

• Chronic overwork (a major predictor of burnout)
• Job stress and pressure
• Loss of control over time and energy

2. Cost-Cutting Cultures That Undervalue People

Wage stagnation. Safety compromises. Squeeze every ounce of productivity for minimal return.

The results?

• 3 million deaths a year from work-related injury or illness
• 400 million workplace injuries annually
• Psychological stress from job insecurity and unsafe conditions

3. Rigid Hierarchies and Fear-Based Leadership

Top-down decision-making with little to no employee autonomy. People are told what to do, when, how, and with whom—with no real voice.

That creates:

• Lack of autonomy (a burnout driver)
• A deep sense of being unseen or unvalued
• Lack of acknowledgment
• Abuse or intimidation from toxic managers
• Psychological distress

4. Hyper-Individualism and Internal Competition

Performance is measured individually. You’re pitted against coworkers for raises and promotions. You win—or you lose.

This leads to:

• Overwork and self-sacrifice
• Isolation and disconnection
• Lack of collaboration
• Anxiety and depression

5. The Winner-Takes-All Model

Success flows upward. Shareholders and executives win big. Employees, who power the day-to-day, see little reward.

This fosters:

• A sense of unfairness
• Lack of acknowledgment
• Burnout

It’s Not Just You

So if you’ve ever felt like:

• Maybe you’re the problem
• Maybe it’s just you who’s not cut out for this

Please hear me: it’s not just you.

These systems were built this way. And the results are devastating.

• 75% of workers report experiencing burnout
• 3 in 5 report mental or physical health issues due to work stress
• 85% have felt moderate to extreme work stress in the last year
• 60% say work affects their mental health more than anything else

Stress Is a Public Health Crisis

Stress raises blood pressure. Suppresses the immune system. Disrupts digestion. It leads to inflammation—a common factor in conditions like:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes
• Autoimmune disorders
• Depression and anxiety

Black Monday Syndrome is real—more people have heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week.

We’re working in a system that’s making us sick.

But You’re Not Alone—and There Is Hope

If you’ve wondered:

“Is this really what success is supposed to feel like?”

You’re not the only one.

The way we’re working isn’t working. But we don’t have to keep doing it this way.

I didn’t set out to launch a podcast just to tell you everything’s broken and there’s no way out. I built this show—and wrote this book—because there are better ways.

And we’ll explore them together.

Up Next

In Episode 2, we’ll talk about the mindset shifts and practices you can use to break free from the toxic old playbook and start building something better.

Let’s do this.