Amantha calls her AI 'Sunny'. She talks to it on the drive to the gym, like she's chatting to a friend. And it has quietly changed how she works, how she writes, and how she gets the thinking out of her own head.

Dr. Amantha Imber is one of the sharpest, most generous humans I know. An organisational psychologist, the founder of Inventium, host of How I Work, the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award, the author of four bestselling books, and her brand new one, The Energy Game, lands in July.

In this episode, we discuss Amantha's burnout year and the tiny experiments that crawled her back, the ones she calls boosts, rest, and protect. Why "fake rest" (Netflix while you scroll) won't fill the bucket. And we talk about the childhood praise imprint that drives so many of us: what if the goal isn't to be more, but to be okay with being ordinary?

We explore:

• The pressure we accept being human and thinking we must do it all
• The hit-by-a-bus fantasy and what it tells us about how women carry stress
• AI as a thought partner, and how Amantha uses it without losing the human bit
• What we want for our daughters, and the thinking skills we don't want to outsource

[Recorded January 2026]

About Amantha Imber:

Dr. Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and the founder of Inventium, a behaviour-change consultancy that works with companies including Google, Apple and Lego. She also runs Inventium AI, focused on AI capability building inside organisations. Amantha hosts the How I Work podcast (over 6 million downloads) and recently launched a new podcast, How I AI. She is the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award and is the author of four bestselling books, including Time Wise and The Health Habit. Her new book, The Energy Game, is out on 7 July 2026.

Connect with Amantha:

• Instagram: @amanthai
• Inventium: inventium.com.au
• Newsletter: One Percent Better
• Podcasts: How I Work, How I AI
• Book: The Energy Game (out 7 July 2026)

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