Augmented Wellness

Betterness

Augmented Wellness — where we meet the people in pursuit of better. Every episode pairs a real builder with a public artifact you can try, fork, and run yourself — a starter kit, a prompt set, an agent you can stand up. Hosted by Demian Bellumio — co-founder and co-CEO of Betterness, longtime Miami tech entrepreneur — who has built across applied AI (his field is graph computing), media, telemedicine, and mental health. On Augmented Wellness he interviews from the inside: a builder comparing notes with the founders, healers, coaches, and operators on a mission to make the world better. Made by Betterness. Bett-i (betti.bot) is a personal wellness AI — a team of specialist agents tuned to help you live better (Men's Fitness asked if it's "the most ambitious AI health product ever built"). Betterness One (betterness.one) is its counterpart for wellness businesses: one of the most comprehensive analytics platforms in wellness and the agentic studio that turns that view into action. You meet Bett-i live each episode; Betterness One's agents produce the show end to end. Collaborate: partners@betterness.ai Nothing here is medical advice. Opinions belong to our guests.

Episodes

  1. 2d ago

    Ulisses Abbud: recovery is not the reward — it is the adaptation mechanism

    Ulisses Abbud spent 13 years competing as a professional cyclist. Today he is a high-performance coach, researcher, endurance athlete, and physiology thinker working with athletes, executives, and people trying to understand how performance and longevity actually work. In Episode 002 of Augmented Wellness, we go deep on recovery: why it is not a luxury, why it is not the reward, and why it may be the missing operating system for founders, executives, and anyone whose mind never really shuts down. We talk about HRV, cortisol, resting heart rate, overtraining, metabolism, nutrition, gravel cycling, Girona training camps, community, and the difference between training from fear and training from love. We also bring Bett-i into the conversation. Demian shows his daily Focus plan and calls a breathwork agent live to read his HRV and suggest a nervous-system reset. The agent gets one thing right and one thing imperfectly — and that honesty is part of the point. Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/002-ulisses-abbud Chapters (00:00) Cold open: recovery, longevity, HRV, and the agent (01:01) Brand reveal: Augmented Wellness (01:20) Meet Ulisses Abbud (02:45) From professional cycling to riding for love (04:13) Thirteen years as a pro cyclist (05:24) Road, gravel, speed, risk, and why gravel feels different (10:22) The diet trap: why eating less can make the body hold on (12:12) From engineering to physiology (14:21) Breathing, HRV, and simple nervous-system tools (15:53) Why executives think like athletes but skip recovery (18:54) Chronic sympathetic mode: the founder and vibe-coding problem (21:09) Recovery is not the reward — it is an adaptation mechanism (24:13) Cortisol, HRV, resting heart rate, and overtraining signals (26:13) Longevity: dying young as late as possible (28:38) Bett-i turns known basics into daily action (33:56) Girona training camp, stress with intention, and community (38:22) Recovery routines: cold plunge, sauna, yoga, reading, and mental shutdown (40:40) Live demo: a breathwork agent reads Demian's HRV (45:19) Final advice: routine, nutrition, breathing, and sleep Where to find Betterness Web: betterness.ai Instagram: @betterness.ai X: @betterness_ai Credits. Produced by Demian Bellumio with the support of agents from Betterness One — the agentic studio inside Betterness. Recorded at The LAB Miami; on-site production by Podcast Studio Miami. Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. This is educational conversation about training, recovery, HRV, breathwork, nutrition, and longevity. Work with qualified professionals for personal health decisions.

    47 min
  2. Martin Varsavsky: building an AI that aims to pass the FDA — and a genuinely full life

    Jun 16

    Martin Varsavsky: building an AI that aims to pass the FDA — and a genuinely full life

    Martin Varsavsky has founded six unicorns over 35 years — across telecom, fertility, and now medical AI. In Episode 001 he walks through Certuma — his bid to build an AI physician that earns regulatory trust rather than routing around it, with the stated goal of passing the FDA and a doctor kept in the loop (it is not approved today). He explains how he closed a $10M seed round with AI as his only co-founder, why he cycles 14 hours a week at 66, and how he built "Pedro," a disclosed AI version of himself that posts on his X timeline. We turn it into BetterX: a public, guarded social-autopilot starter kit you can fork. What runs through it: that AI can legally extend a doctor's knowledge to make care more accessible — Martin's bet with Certuma, on the path to FDA approval with a physician always in the loop — and that an AI trained on you for long enough starts to become you (his disclosed persona "Pedro," two months in the making). Underneath both: risk is relative once you've faced the real thing. Build the artifact: BetterX — a guarded social-autopilot starter kit (forks with autonomy OFF by default and a review queue, so nothing posts without you). Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/001-martin-varsavsky Chapters (00:00) Welcome to Augmented Wellness — and why Martin is guest #1 (00:56) Origin story: a hard first 25 years in Argentina and 1970s–80s New York (04:11) The bank that rejected him for a job — then handed him a $9M loan (05:20) Real estate, pre-money valuations, and rezoning Tribeca lofts (10:00) A full life across many homes — buying for beauty, not business (19:30) GLP-1s and Mounjaro: what he takes, why, and where the science stops (22:32) Cycling at 66 — 14 hours a week, no fractures, and the discipline (25:53) Building his own app: "U versus U," watts, and racing himself since 2010 (32:04) Data as motivation: Garmin over Apple, audio cues, a radar that talks (34:00) Certuma: raising a seed round with AI as his only co-founder (39:50) Certuma Link and Fast Doctor: an agentic doctor, with a human in the loop (45:02) Pedro: cloning his own voice on X, and what "authorship" means now Where to find Martin X: @martinvars Website: english.martinvarsavsky.net LinkedIn: /in/martinvarsavsky Instagram: @martinvars From Betterness X: @betterness_ai Instagram: @betterness.ai YouTube: @betterness_ai Credits. Produced by Demian Bellumio with the support of agents from Betterness One — the agentic studio inside Betterness — including specialist agents for content, design, video, photography, insights, brand, and social, coordinated by Bett-i. Recorded at The LAB Miami; on-site production by Podcast Studio Miami. Made by Betterness. Bett-i — a personal wellness AI, a team of specialist agents tuned to help you live better (Men's Fitness asked if it's “the most ambitious AI health product ever built”). Betterness One — for the businesses doing the helping: one of wellness's most comprehensive analytics platforms and the agentic studio that turns that view into action, seeing and doing in one place. You meet Bett-i live each episode; Betterness One's agents produce the show end to end. Collaborate: partners@betterness.ai Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. Certuma's FDA approval is a stated goal, not a current status, and it operates with a physician in the loop. Opinions are Martin's own.

    54 min
  • 2 Episodes

About

Augmented Wellness — where we meet the people in pursuit of better. Every episode pairs a real builder with a public artifact you can try, fork, and run yourself — a starter kit, a prompt set, an agent you can stand up. Hosted by Demian Bellumio — co-founder and co-CEO of Betterness, longtime Miami tech entrepreneur — who has built across applied AI (his field is graph computing), media, telemedicine, and mental health. On Augmented Wellness he interviews from the inside: a builder comparing notes with the founders, healers, coaches, and operators on a mission to make the world better. Made by Betterness. Bett-i (betti.bot) is a personal wellness AI — a team of specialist agents tuned to help you live better (Men's Fitness asked if it's "the most ambitious AI health product ever built"). Betterness One (betterness.one) is its counterpart for wellness businesses: one of the most comprehensive analytics platforms in wellness and the agentic studio that turns that view into action. You meet Bett-i live each episode; Betterness One's agents produce the show end to end. Collaborate: partners@betterness.ai Nothing here is medical advice. Opinions belong to our guests.

Information

  • Creator
    Betterness
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Betterness Inc.
  • Show Website
    Augmented Wellness