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

Virginia Palm | Augment Mind

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

    What Grit Actually Does to Your Brain - Guest Episode with Dev Aditya

    600 investor calls. 600 no's. At some point in that stretch, most people would take any money, on any terms, just to make the calls stop. Dev didn't. He turned down a term sheet because it would have built the wrong thing, when the wrong money was the only money on offer. Dev Aditya co-founded an AI teacher that ran offline in refugee camps eighteen months before ChatGPT existed, and had to explain what that even meant to people who didn't believe him. He's since built a company operating across 24 countries without VC funding, doing field work in Kenya and Burundi along the way. He's also neurodiverse, and has built deliberate cognitive systems around it, mental rehearsal before he speaks, watching himself back, a kind of hyper-personalised training applied to his own thinking. Describing his ability to pitch any product to any room with ten seconds' notice, he called it "muscle memory, but for the brain." He'd named neuroplasticity without knowing its name. In this conversation, Virginia and Dev trace what six hundred rejections actually do to a brain that keeps going anyway, why sustained motivation isn't willpower in the motivational-poster sense, but a trained connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system, and how repeated exposure to difficulty can inoculate the nervous system against a setback rather than break it. They also get into Dev's "muscle memory" moment: neuroplasticity, and the brain quite literally restructuring itself through repeated mental rehearsal - the same mechanism elite athletes have used for decades. This isn't a founder success story, and it isn't a product showcase. It's a conversation about what it costs, neurologically, to build something the world isn't ready for yet, and what's actually happening in the brain of someone who does it anyway. You'll learn: Why sustained motivation isn't willpower and what's happening between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system when someone keeps going after repeated failureWhat "stress inoculation" is, and why six hundred rejections can train a nervous system rather than break itWhy the brain doesn't cleanly distinguish a vividly imagined action from a real one and what that means for mental rehearsal under pressureHow neuroplasticity restructures the brain through repetition, and why "muscle memory for the brain" is biology, not metaphorWhat it looks like to build a cognitive operating system around being neurodiverse, rather than around "overcoming" it If you've ever kept going through a stretch where progress wasn't visible, this episode is about what that's doing to your brain, and why it isn't an accident when it works. About Dev Dev Aditya is an AI expert from London, UK. He led the team at Otermans Institute that built the first Digital Human AI teacher (OIAI), aiming to upskill 750 million learners globally by 2030. His AI teachers have taught in 24 countries, from universities to schools, corporates to marginalised learners directly. He's also developed a specialist teaching and learning LLM, OIMISA-7B. He was awarded by the UK Prime Minister for his work, and named a Young Global Innovator and Under 30 Social Entrepreneur (Mint). Innovate UK recognised his AI research and provided national-level funding. He has previous experience at The Alan Turing Institute and Brunel University of London, and his work now operates across four continents. His latest achievement is converting his AI products to run fully offline on Edge AI, for which he was named Young Innovator of the Year Europe by AIconics at the AI Summit London 2025. His AI system runs Africa's largest and fastest AI literacy programme, mentioned at the UN General Assembly in 2025. Website: https://www.portfolio.oiedu.co.uk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oiedu/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oiedu19

    What Grit Actually Does to Your Brain - Guest Episode with Dev Aditya

  2. Aug 29

    The Reset You Actually Get: Why September Works on Your Brain - If You Use It Right

    You've just sat back down at your desk. The inbox looks impossible, the calendar's already filling up, and underneath it, a quiet thought: I should be more motivated than this. That story isn't just wrong, it's costing you the exact week your brain is actually on your side. In this episode, Virginia Palm breaks down what's really happening in your brain during the return from a break: why this specific week gives you a real, documented boost in motivation, why that boost quietly expires if you don't use it, why the fog and dread of the first few days back isn't laziness but a predictable brain network processing everything you left unresolved, and why deciding on one thing now works better than planning everything later. Drawing on research tracking Google searches, gym visits, and goal commitments around calendar landmarks, and brain-imaging research on what the mind does when it's not focused on a task, this episode explains why none of this is a willpower problem, and what to actually do about it, especially if people are looking to you to set the tone this week. You'll learn: Why coming back from a break gives your brain a real, short-lived motivation boost, and why most people let it pass without using itThe "fresh start effect": why New Year's Day, birthdays, and returning from a holiday all work on your brain the same wayWhy the fog and dread of the first few days back isn't laziness, but a predictable brain network handing back everything you left unresolvedWhy deciding on one thing now protects it more than waiting to decide later wouldA simple three-question audit to use the reset window before it closes, for you, and for the people you leadThis isn't about forcing a fresh start. It's about understanding the window you're actually in this week, and using it before it closes. 🔗 Learn more about our work at Augment Mind:augment-mind.com

    The Reset You Actually Get: Why September Works on Your Brain - If You Use It Right

  3. Aug 18

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

    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 Barnabás Barnabás 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 Boross

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. Jul 5

    The Brain in the Age of AI - Guest Episode with Dr. Pauldy Otermans

    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 - Guest Episode with Dr. Pauldy Otermans

  8. 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
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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.

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