It's Me. Your Brain. | The mind behind your decisions

Virginia Palm | Augment Mind
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Updated Weekly

It’s Me. Your Brain. is a neuroscience and psychology podcast about decision-making, stress, mental health, brain health, and thinking clearly in a fast-paced, AI-driven world. The show explores attention, emotional regulation, cognitive performance, and how modern work environments shape the way our brains function under pressure. Hosted by Virginia Palm, founder of Augment Mind. Grounded insights into the mind behind your choices - no hacks, no hustle culture.

  1. 1d ago

    Do you listen to your body - or does it have to shout? | Guest Episode with Barnabás

    Every time your body sends a signal and you push through anyway - stay later, skip the walk, override the tiredness - you're making a quiet decision about which of you is in charge. Most people only notice that relationship when it breaks down. This episode is about what it looks like to build it deliberately, before the breakdown. Barnabás has been moving every single day for thirty years. Not to stay fit, and not through willpower, through something closer to identity. Built from a coach's rule at 14, a decade as a paramedic and air ambulance medic in Hungary, and a period of sustained pressure as a GM through COVID that took his health, his relationship, and his sense of self before it finally got his full attention. He moved to Switzerland chasing balance. He concluded, flatly, that balance doesn't exist, not the way we imagine it. In this conversation, Virginia and Barnabás trace what daily movement actually does to the brain - why the runner's high isn't endorphins (that's the outdated story), how consistent aerobic exercise restructures the cortisol response over time, and what happens structurally to the hippocampus after decades of near-daily movement. This isn't a fitness conversation, and it isn't a story about athletic performance. It's a conversation about the signal your body has been sending, and what it quietly costs when you've learned not to hear it. You'll learn: Why the runner's high is endocannabinoids, not endorphins, and why that changes how you think about stress and recoveryHow consistent aerobic exercise measurably lowers cortisol reactivity, not just in the moment, but recalibrated over timeWhat BDNF does to the brain over years, and why hippocampal volume actually changes with sustained movementThe one rule Barnabás's coach gave him at 14 - and why it's still the most useful thing he's ever been toldWhat "use it or lose it" really means for the ageing brain, and why his mother at 76 still proves it every day If you've ever felt your body saying something before your mind caught up with it - this episode explains what that signal is, where it comes from, and what it means when it goes quiet. About BarnabásBarnabás spent over a decade as a paramedic and air ambulance medic in Hungary before relocating to the UK, where he built a career in private healthcare and became General Manager of a nursing company — a role he held through the COVID pandemic. Now based in Switzerland, he runs his own business in Zurich while maintaining the thirty-year daily movement practice he began as a teenage athlete. He has been Hungarian athletics champion multiple times, competed against adults as a teenager, and runs to work every day.

    Do you listen to your body - or does it have to shout? | Guest Episode with Barnabás

  2. Aug 7

    Your Brain on Heat: What This Summer Is Actually Doing to Your Thinking

    You've read the same email three times. The decision that should take two minutes is still sitting there at four in the afternoon. And underneath it, a quiet thought: I'm just being lazy today. That story isn't just wrong, it's making the week harder. In this episode, Virginia Palm breaks down four specific things heat does to a working brain: why it makes complex thinking so much harder while leaving routine tasks untouched, why you're often already dehydrated before you feel thirsty, why a foggy morning is often last night's bad sleep catching up with you, and why two people in the same room can be having completely different days depending on where they're sitting. Drawing on real research, including a study from a Boston heatwave and fieldwork on outdoor workers in Qatar, Greece, and Cyprus, this episode explains why none of this is a discipline problem, and what to actually do about it, especially if you're the one other people are looking to this week. You'll learn: Why heat hits complex thinking hard, but leaves routine tasks aloneThe dehydration threshold that affects your focus and memory, and why thirst warns you too lateWhy a foggy morning is often about last night's heat, not today'sWhy the same room can feel completely different depending on where you sitA simple way to lead a team through a heatwave without mistaking low capacity for low motivation This isn't about pushing through. It's about understanding what your brain is actually doing this week, and working with it instead of against it. 🔗 Learn more about our work at Augment Mind: augment-mind.com

    Your Brain on Heat: What This Summer Is Actually Doing to Your Thinking

  3. Jul 26

    When the Alarm Won't Stop - Guest Episode with Nikki Anderssen

    Nikki Anderssen spent fifteen years running live international news, thriving on exactly the kind of pressure most people spend their careers trying to avoid. Then, without warning, her body started failing her in ways that made no sense. She followed every protocol, eliminated every trigger, saw every specialist. And got smaller, not better, until the day she reacted to a handful of blueberries, and understood, all at once, that this was never about the food. This episode is about what happens when the brain's alarm system gets stuck in the on position, and what it actually takes to rewire it. In this episode: Why a nervous system built for pressure can stop telling the difference between real danger and no danger at allThe blueberry moment, and why it was never really about blueberriesWhat neuroplasticity actually requires: not willpower, but repetition under conditions of safetyWhy the people who look most "fine" under stress are often carrying the most of itWhat comes back, cognitively, once the nervous system stops rationing everything for survival About Nikki: Nikki Anderssen is an international broadcast journalist and communications specialist with nearly twenty years across radio, TV, and digital media. After years of unexplained physical decline, she used neuroplasticity to rewire her nervous system out of chronic dysregulation, and went on to co-found Repair Circle EU, recognized among Berlin's leading social enterprises, where she's now building the digital backbone for Germany's circular economy in electronics repair. It's Me. Your Brain. - the mind behind your decisions. Find Nikki: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-anderssenRepair Circle EU: https://repaircircle.eu/enInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/repair.circle/

    When the Alarm Won't Stop - Guest Episode with Nikki Anderssen

  4. Jul 12

    Halfway: What Six Months Has Actually Cost Your Brain

    A mid-year audit - for your own nervous system, and for the team you lead It's July. Half the year is already gone. Maybe you're already sitting somewhere quieter than usual, the inbox further away than it normally is. Or maybe you're not there yet, still fully present in three meetings a day while mentally packing for a break that hasn't started. Either way, there's a particular kind of tired that shows up around now. Not sharp. Not one bad week you can point to. More like a low hum that's been running under everything for months. That's not just needing a holiday. That's accumulation, and it has a name. In this episode, Virginia Palm looks at what actually builds up in a brain and a nervous system over six months of sustained pressure — and, for the many listeners who lead teams, what that same accumulation looks like in the people they're responsible for. Drawing on Robert Sapolsky's research on allostatic load and Christina Maslach's landmark burnout model - the six specific mismatches between a person and their job that predict it - this episode reframes the mid-year point not as a vacation question, but as an audit: what's actually accumulated, individually and organisationally, and why a single week off was never going to clear it on its own. You'll learn: What allostatic load actually is - measurable, structural cost, not just a feelingWhy high performers are especially prone to carrying it undetected, because functioning isn't the same as recoveringChristina Maslach's six-factor model for burnout - workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values - and why generic wellness initiatives fail to touch itWhy the people who look most resilient on your team are often carrying the most unaddressed loadA two-part mid-year audit - individual and organisational - you can run this week This isn't about squeezing more rest out of your summer. It's about understanding what the last six months actually cost, and why rest alone was never going to balance the accounts. If you're heading into the second half of the year wondering what it's already cost you, or you lead a team and suspect at least one person is quietly carrying more than they're showing - this episode gives you the language, and the audit, to find out. 🔗 augment-mind.com

    Halfway: What Six Months Has Actually Cost Your Brain

  5. Jul 5

    The Brain in the Age of AI

    Are you using AI - or is it using you? Every time you hand a thinking task to AI without noticing, you're making a quiet choice about which mental muscles to keep training and which to let go quiet. Most people never make that choice consciously. This episode is about what happens when you do. Dr. Pauldy Otermans is a cognitive neuroscientist and psychologist who helped build one of the first AI-powered teachers in the world, and has spent years since asking a question research hasn't caught up with yet: what is AI actually doing to the human brain? In this conversation, Virginia and Pauldy trace why a fluent AI answer feels true even when it isn't, what happens to memory and thinking when we consistently offload cognitive effort, and why the skills AI can't automate - creativity, communication, critical thinking - are the ones leaders now have to protect on purpose. This isn't a conversation about EdTech, and it isn't a feature on Pauldy's company. It's a conversation about the brain at a genuine turning point - from someone honest enough to sit inside a question she doesn't yet have the full answer to. You'll learn: Why fluent, well-structured AI text feels more credible than it actually isWhat cognitive offloading does to memory, and why "use it or lose it" is literally trueThe Three C's: the human skills AI can't replace, and how to keep training themWhy neurodiversity is the real stress test for whether personalised learning worksWhat quietly changes in your thinking when a habit forms without you noticing If you've ever caught yourself trusting an AI answer a little too fast - this episode explains exactly what's happening in your brain when you do. About Dr. Pauldy Otermans Dr. Pauldy Otermans is a female tech leader in the UK. She is a neuroscientist and psychologist by academic background and a female leader of AI technology. She was awarded as the inspirational womxn in the Tech Industry by Hustle Awards, was named one of the ‘22 most influential women in the UK of 2022’ by Start-Up Magazine, and has been awarded by the UK Prime Minister in 2021, and globally for her work. Pauldy helped build the first digital human teachers powered by AI in 2021 called OIAI. The language model developed for OIAI is now also used to power Teddy AI which provides a conversational AI study buddy for all children aged 3-7 years. She was Topic Editor for Frontiers in AI and publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals on AI in Education. She was named as one of Tech 100 women by KPMG in October 2025 and a Global Leader in AI by Women in Management 2025.  Links:Website: https://www.portfolio.oiedu.co.uk/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oiedu/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oiedu19/

    The Brain in the Age of AI

  6. Jun 24

    Resting Wrong: Why One Break Won't Undo the Year You Just Had

    What's actually happening when you finally stop, and why your brain needs more than a holiday to recover from it It's day one of your time off. The out-of-office is on, the laptop is closed. And then your hand finds your phone, not because anything's wrong, just to check. You close it again, and nothing settles. That night you're lying in bed replaying something from weeks ago. Your body is somewhere with nowhere to be. Your nervous system hasn't gotten the message. That's not a failure to relax. It's biology that hasn't caught up yet. In this episode, Virginia Palm looks at why almost a quarter of people take no time off at all, and why, for the people who do, one break often isn't enough to undo what the year actually cost. Drawing on Robert Sapolsky's research on allostatic load and a decade of evidence that the well-being benefits of a break fade within the first week back at work, this episode reframes rest as a frequency, not a once-a-year event, and explains why the guilt that follows you into a holiday is, neurologically, the thing undoing it. You'll learn: What allostatic load actually is, and why it's a measurable physical cost, not a feelingWhy a single break doesn't "clear the balance" of a hard year, according to the researchWhy guilt about resting activates the same threat circuitry as the overwork that caused itA three-question recovery audit to use before, during, and after this breakWhy frequency - not duration - is what actually determines whether rest worksThis isn't about trying to relax harder. It's about understanding why your nervous system doesn't believe you yet that it's safe to stop. If you've ever come back from time off feeling like it barely happened, this episode explains why, and what would actually need to change. To learn more about Augment Mind visit: www.augment-mind.com

    Resting Wrong: Why One Break Won't Undo the Year You Just Had

  7. Jun 14

    What You Lose When AI Remembers for You - with Lucy Dinu

    The strategy built in minutes. The brief drafted before the meeting ended. The answer retrieved before the question was fully formed. Everything faster. Everything smoother. And somewhere in that efficiency, something quietly shifting. This episode is about what happens to the brain when AI takes the cognitive load, what gets offloaded, what stops being encoded, and what leaders need to deliberately protect before they notice it's gone. In this episode: What cognitive offloading actually is, and why the brain does it automaticallyWhy integrating AI changes not just how you work, but how you thinkWhat most executives aren't asking when they bring AI in, and what that's costing themThe difference between retrieving intelligence and building itWhat human judgement actually means when the tools get this goodVirginia Palm's guest is Lucy Dinu, founder and managing director of KHAIO, an AI architecture firm that helps executives architect AI integration, building both the technical structure and the human judgement that decides whether the rest of it holds. Her path runs from opening her own restaurant at 20 to over a decade leading global teams across 50 markets in pharma, finance, automotive, hospitality, and the public sector. Originally from Romania, she has lived in the Netherlands, dreams of living in Japan, but currently calls Stuttgart, Germany home. It's Me. Your Brain. | The mind behind your decisions.

    What You Lose When AI Remembers for You - with Lucy Dinu

  8. Jun 7

    Brain Capital - The Asset Nobody's Managing

    Brain Capital - The Asset Nobody's Managing. Why the Most Important Asset in Your Organisation Is the One Nobody Is Measuring Most organisations manage their buildings, their technology, their financial capital with rigour and intention. The cognitive capacity of the people doing the thinking, the brains running every meeting, every decision, every strategy, is largely unmanaged, often actively depleted, and almost never measured. In January 2026, brain capital arrived at the main stage of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Not in the wellness tent. In the core economic agenda. The McKinsey Health Institute and the World Economic Forum published a landmark report arguing that in the AI era, investment in brain capital - brain health and brain skills, is not an optional wellbeing initiative. It is the most important infrastructure decision most organisations aren't making. In this episode, Virginia Palm, breaks down what brain capital actually is, why the numbers demand a boardroom conversation, what is depleting it in most high-performance environments - including an AI paradox most leaders haven't seen coming - and what building it looks like at the level of strategy, team design, and individual leadership. You'll learn: Why brain capital is defined as two interdependent components, brain health and brain skills, and why you cannot optimise one while neglecting the otherWhat $3.5 trillion, 12 billion working days, and 1 in 5 professionals actually tell us, and why these are economic figures, not health statisticsWhy the AI era creates a paradox: human cognitive skills become most valuable exactly when the conditions of work are most reliably depleting themWhat the five levers of brain capital investment look like at the level of a leadership team, and what most organisations are still missingWhy this is not a wellness conversation, and what it means to treat cognitive capacity as the strategic asset it isIf you manage anything - a team, a function, an organisation - this is the conversation your strategy is missing. 🌐 www.augment-mind.com

    Brain Capital - The Asset Nobody's Managing
See All (27)

About

It’s Me. Your Brain. is a neuroscience and psychology podcast about decision-making, stress, mental health, brain health, and thinking clearly in a fast-paced, AI-driven world. The show explores attention, emotional regulation, cognitive performance, and how modern work environments shape the way our brains function under pressure. Hosted by Virginia Palm, founder of Augment Mind. Grounded insights into the mind behind your choices - no hacks, no hustle culture.

Information

You Might Also Like