#990 - Dr Tara Swart - How to Use Your Intuition as a Superpower

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan, and an author. What is intuition? We’ve all heard the phrase “trust your gut,” but where does that feeling actually come from? Is it grounded in neuroscience or something more mysterious? And most importantly, can you rely on it, and how do you get better at listening to it? Expect to learn what it means to trust your instincts and what really mean “trust your gut” actually means and comes from, how to tell the difference between anxiety-driven thoughts and genuine intuitive insight, what role inflammation plays when it comes to brain function, why you should be focusing on the importance of connective fascia tissue, if there really is a metaphysical element to intuition and much more… Sponsors: See me on tour in America: ⁠https://chriswilliamson.live⁠ See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period from Shopify at https://shopify.com/modernwisdom Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular Flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Timestamps: (0:00) Why Do We Ignore Our Instincts? (2:05) Choosing What Feels Right Over What is Right (6:14) Is There a Difference Between Instincts and Intuition? (8:11) What is the Serotonin Hypothesis? (11:53) How Can We Determine What Feels Right? (21:27) When Logic, Intuition and Emotion Clash (23:34) Which Archetypes Struggle with Intuition? (28:35) The Effect of Brain and Gut Health on Intuition (36:21) How Do Relationships Impact Our Intuition? (43:18) The Benefits of Gratitude Practice (51:13) How to Train Yourself to Listen to Your Intuition (59:04) How Much Does Chris Trust His Intuition? (01:01:52) What is the Difference Between Being Psychic and Trusting Your Intuition? (01:04:43) Receiving Signs from ‘Beyond’ (01:13:14) Can Signs Be Explained by Psychology? (01:16:44) What Might We Discover? (01:20:43) Find Out More About Tara Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What do you mean when you talk about trusting our instincts?
0:05.1	I think it's a return to something quite primal and physical.
0:10.6	So I think in this modern world, we've, we overthink everything, we try to rationalise
0:17.1	everything, we prize logic above anything else.
0:20.3	And I'm sort of talking about
0:22.0	using intuition as well as logic. Why do you think it is that we are laying at the feet?
0:33.5	Why is it that we're dispensing with sort of the wisdom that comes from instinct?
0:37.9	If it's something that is sort of more ingrained, why is that being pushed to a side?
0:44.3	So I think it goes back to when the outer cortex of our brain grew from being a sliver around the limbic system, which is the size of your clenched fist.
0:53.4	And that's when we could articulate speech
0:55.7	and we could like plan better for the future. And so then we sort of prized those things more than
1:04.4	the primal instincts that we had relied on before. And then if you fast forward to much more recently, until about 30 years ago,
1:14.5	we didn't have sophisticated scanning technology that could actually show us things like how
1:19.5	emotions and intuition work in the brain. So it just, I think, felt safer to rely on something
1:26.1	like logic that makes more sense. And then if you
1:29.6	also add in the rise of technology, it feels like it's counterintuitive, but I actually think
1:37.1	this is where intuition and emotion and creativity and vulnerability are going to become
1:43.1	superpowers,
1:44.8	whereas, you know, they've sort of been put lower down than logic and rationality.
1:50.7	Why would you say superpowers?
1:53.1	Because I think there are things that technology and AI won't be able to emulate
1:58.6	or, you know, actually use in the same way that we can.
	...

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