Emily McDonald

speaker
2,071 appearances 3 recordings 2 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 2 Jun

Emily McDonald’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.

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Know Thyself · E192 - Emily McDonald: The Neuroscience of Transforming Yourself · 28 Apr 2026 podcast
One of my favorite phrases was like,
That Tao that can be named is not the Tao.
And I always say like as soon as you start to kind of put labels and language onto it, you sort of take its power away.
And actually from the neuroscience perspective, it is true.
It's why when you're feeling anxious or emotional and you start to label the emotions that you're feeling, you activate the prefrontal cortex, which turns down activity in the limbic system, which are the emotional centers of the brain.
So you actually and it's the same reason why when you look at a sunset, as soon as you start to describe the sunset, you stop feeling it as deeply.
And so it's like as soon as you try to start describing yourself with words and you put language on it, you kind of take its power away.
And so that's kind of my first part about knowing myself and identity.
That's great.
I had a moment actually, before we go into the DMN, I had a moment not that long ago where I was thinking about the neuroscience of intuition, right?
And I think from the deterministic kind of reductionist standpoint, you can think of intuition, you know, a lot of scientists will say, you know, it's, you know, the nervous system in your gut, it's the enteric nervous system, or maybe it's your programming.
And they've shown that when your nervous system is dysregulated or you're stressed, you have low heart rate variability, your intuition is less accurate.
right?
And so I know from personal experience, right?
And I've developed this.
I remember when I first learned about this while I was in my PhD, actually, I was like, oh, wait, you can go into meditation and just ask a question and the answer can come.
That's so cool.
And I was like, I don't think that's something I can do.
I was like, oh, that's something that you're born with.
That's not a power that I could develop.
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