Flow Research Collective Radio is a podcast dedicated to helping you unlock the upper edge of your potential. Join New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler and Co-Founder of the Flow Research Collective, Rian Doris as they attempt to decode the science of peak performance and flow with world leading experts on the topic.
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In this episode of Flow Research, host Steven Kotler sits down with fellow neuroscientists Dr. Michael Mannino and Glenn Fox to unpack their viral opinion paper, "The Body Does Not Keep the Score." Taking direct aim at popular trauma psychology, the team exposes why Bessel van der Kolk’s belief that trauma is stored in the body gets neuroscience completely wrong. They unpack how the modern "cult…
High-performing teams are said to have chemistry. What's happening is synchrony—measurable patterns in brains, bodies, and behavior. In this episode, Steven Kotler speaks with Dr. Michael Mannino and Erwin Valencia about team synchrony—the biological alignment that underpins trust, psychological safety, and team flow. They explore why teams routinely overestimate their effectiveness, how synchrony…
Why do the smartest people get stuck the fastest? Recorded live in New York at the closing panel of our Alliance mastermind, this conversation brings together three of the sharpest minds in human performance—Steven Kotler, Dr. Sarah Sarkis, and Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman—to dissect the moment when learning quietly becomes procrastination. They break down why high performers regress to old habits, how…
When I think about the fastest, most creative teams I’ve ever seen, they all share the same blueprint: trust creates safety, safety fuels risk, risk sparks creativity, and flow binds it all together. That’s why I brought two of my favorite creative leaders into this conversation—Ivy Ross, VP of Design at Google, who has reshaped the look and feel of fifty-plus products and won hundreds of awards,…
Karl Friston is one of the most influential neuroscientists alive. He pioneered the methods that underpin modern brain imaging and developed the Free Energy Principle—considered by many neuroscientists to be the closest thing we have to a general theory of intelligence. In this conversation with Dr. Michael Mannino and me, Friston explains why your brain doesn’t just record reality—it invents it.…
AI is moving faster than most of us can comprehend. But what if our edge isn’t in outthinking machines—but in outflowing them? In this episode, Steven Kotler sits down with two of the sharpest minds shaping our technological future: Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE and a pioneer of exponential thinking, and Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X and bestselling author of Scary…
What if your gut instinct was more than a hunch? What if it was your brain’s first navigation system—designed to reduce uncertainty, minimize surprise, and keep you alive? In this episode of Flow Radio , Steven Kotler and neuroscientist Dr. Michael Mannino crack open the black box of intuition. Along with co-authors Karl Friston, György Buzsáki, J.A. Scott Kelso, and Guillaume Dumas, they’ve just…
What do DIY entrepreneurship, peak performance, and punk rock have in common? Everything. In this live Flow Radio episode, recorded at Summit at Sea 2024, New York Times bestselling author and FRC Executive Director Steven Kotler joins fashion icon John Varvatos to trace the rebel spirit from CBGB’s to Silicon Valley. Together, they map how the kids nobody wanted—punks, misfits, and…
No one is coming to save you—but staying stuck isn’t the only option. Steven Kotler and Ryan Wickes welcome back Columbia professor and humanistic psychologist Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman—author of the just-released Rise Above , and one of today’s leading voices on human potential. Kaufman joins to unpack the victim mindset, the neurobiology of agency, and how narcissism, entitlement, and impostor…
Creativity isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a survival skill. In this episode of Flow Radio, Steven Kotler sits down with artist, designer, and serial entrepreneur Jody Levy for a conversation on how intuition, constraint, and ritual unlock creativity—and why all three are non-negotiables for high-performance leadership. They trace Jody’s path through experience design and explore the mindset behind…
