Skip to main content

© 2026 WRVO Public Media

NPR News for Central New York

Donate

Play Live Radio

Next Up:

0:00

0:00

0:00 0:00

Available On Air Stations

How specialization can lead to burn-out

NPR | By Darian Woods,

Cooper Katz McKim, Kate Concannon

Published March 24, 2025 at 8:49 AM EDT

Workers assembling control units for tanks and aircrafts in 1943.

Half of all workers are showing signs of burnout according to a survey of international workers. Burnout can come from feeling detached from your work's purpose, having too much work, or ... from specialization. Today on the show, we speak with Shigehiro Oishi, author of Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life.

Related episodes:
Is endless vacation a scam? (Apple / Spotify)
Why we work so much

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Tags

Darian Woods

Darian Woods is a co-host of The Indicator from Planet Money.

See stories by Darian Woods

Cooper Katz McKim

Cooper Katz McKim is an Associate Producer for The Indicator from Planet Money.

Kate Concannon

Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money. She leads this small, collaborative team of hosts, reporters and producers in making sense of crucial, but often complex and confusing, economic news in just 10 minutes a day.

WRVO runs on listener support.

WRVO is now well into its second year without federal funding. Through it all, our mission has stayed the same: serving central and upstate New York with trusted journalism, vital local coverage, and the diverse programming that informs and connects our communities. Listeners like you are what keep journalists on the ground, asking the hard questions that matter to our region.

Stand with public media and make your gift today. You'll be supporting more than yourself. You'll be supporting everyone who depends on WRVO as a trusted resource and civic cornerstone in central and upstate New York.

Support WRVO now