About
Steven
Steven’s Resume
Steven Kotler is a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the cofounder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of eleven bestsellers (out of fourteen books), including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for three Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over sixty languages, and has appeared in over 110 publications, including academic journals such as Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews and Psychophysiology, and mainstream publications like The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review.
The Flow Research Collective is the world leader in neuroscience-based peak performance research and training. On the research-side, FRC works with neuroscientists at institutions including the University of Southern California, the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford, and Imperial College in London, to explore the neurobiology of flow and related peak performance topics. FRC uses this research to train individuals and organizations in peak performance, working in more than a hundred-and-thirty countries, with clients ranging from companies like Meta, Audi, Accenture, Bain Capital and the San Francisco Police Department to professional athletes, members of the US special forces, CEOs and founders, and the general public.
Alongside his wife, author Joy Nicholson, Kotler is the cofounder of Rancho de Chihuahua, a special-needs dog rescue, and the Buddy Sue Hospice Home for Old Dogs, a canine elder care facility.
Stuff at the bottom of Steven's resume
Steven flew a Russian MIG-17 fighter jet into G-LOC (gravity-induced loss of consciousness) to test a theory about the neuroscience of near-death experiences.
Steven makes a drawing every day (or most days). He doesn’t claim to be an artist. He just likes to draw for flow and fun. You can find examples on Instagram. @stevenkotler
Steven ran a strange experiment in peak performance aging—he taught himself how to park ski at age fifty-three. Then, Steven expanded the experiment, convincing eighteen adults (ages 29-68) to test his methods on the mountain. If you don’t know what park skiing is, or want to see a video of the experiment, both can be found here.
Steven has helped launch over sixteen companies. This includes two flow-based organizations, five national magazines, an environmental marketplace, an environment-focused events company, a publishing house, a video game company, two canine non-profits, a prestidigitation events company, one short-lived forest fire non-profit, and the now defunct Reporter’s Gym, which taught inner-city kids how to be sportswriters, and was cofounded in conjunction with the Los Angeles Lakers and Dave Eggar’s afterschool tutoring organization, 826 LA.
Steven covered music early in his career as a journalist. This is why his books contain references to bands, and his endnotes contain playlists. This is also why he teamed up with fashion designer and punk rocker, John Varvatos, to create A History of Punk: How The Kids Who No One Wanted Created The Future We’re All Living In. A Punk Rock Legacy. Stay tuned…
Steven has helped over a million people use flow to maximize performance.
Everything we thought we knew about aging is wrong
Everything we thought we knew about aging is wrong.
Before the 1970s, scientists thought of aging as a long, slow rot.
Everyone agreed: depression, loneliness, and cognitive decline were inevitable, and there was nothing we could do about these facts.
Not so fast...
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