This one’s personal.

In Episode 10 of Looks Like Work, host Chedva Ludmir steps up to the mic solo—and gets real about the complicated, messy, and deeply human relationship between ambition and exhaustion.

From working in the Diamond Exchange at age 15 to launching startups while undergoing steroid treatments, Chedva takes us on a journey through identity, grief, burnout, and why the question “Do I have to?” might just be the most important one we never ask ourselves.

This episode isn’t a how-to.
It’s a pause.
A deep breath.
An unfiltered invitation to consider what we’re chasing—and at what cost.

Burnout is not a badge of honor — but it took Gili Yuvall hitting a wall at 27 to really believe that.

Gili started her career in the always-on world of digital media, chasing deadlines across time zones until her body and mind told her it was unsustainable. What followed was a pivot, not just in job title but in rhythm: from journalism’s relentless sprint to the more deliberate pace of museums and fundraising. She moved to London for a master’s in curation, started over professionally, and eventually became Head of Development at the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel.

Somewhere along the way, she also became a poet — capturing the absurd, poignant, and quietly revealing moments of working life. Her Hebrew poetry collection, This Time With Attachment, is filled with sharp, wry observations: the passive-aggressive email, the unmuted Zoom slip, the lunchbox that accidentally tells your colleagues everything about you. One short poem about office life went viral overnight, proof that we’re all living in some version of the same workplace sitcom.