PT426 – Steven Kotler – Making the Impossible Possible: Flow Hacking and Peak Performance Aging
Psychedelics Today
Psychedelics Today, LLC
4.6 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2023
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Joe interviews one of the world's leading experts on human performance: New York Times bestselling author and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, Steven Kotler.
Kotler's work explores the neurobiology of peak human performance, flow states, and aging, and the concept of getting our biology to work for us rather than against us in our later years, by using the parts of our brains that expand in our 50s, combined with neuroplasticity, learning by play, and the biggest factor: working toward a very difficult - but not impossible - task. His 30-year exploration of the neurobiology behind people accomplishing 'impossible' feats led him to test his theories by teaching himself to park ski at 53 with resounding success, then using his protocol with people up to 70 years old the next season. The story is told in his newest book about challenging tired concepts of aging, "Gnar Country."
He discusses the power of flow states and how much flow actually amplifies productivity, motivation, wisdom, empathy, and more; why dynamic motion is a key activity for greater longevity and why skiing and similar action sports are some of the best examples; why dynamic activity in novel environments is even better; why changing one's mindset may be the biggest factor toward change; why corporations are looking at flow training and where these concepts could go in the future; and of course, how this all relates to psychedelics.
Click here to head to the show notes page!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody, welcome back to Psychedelics today. This is Joe Moore coming out. You from |
| 0:15.1 | Breckenridge, Colorado. Today on the show, we have Stephen Kotler. um most recently wrote nar country but um i think got |
| 0:24.0 | uh pretty famous for his last few books um the art of impossible abundance stealing fire i think is |
| 0:31.3 | probably the most popular and the rise of superman 2014 so i've been a fan of Stephen Kotler for a long time, really liked Art of |
| 0:39.6 | Impossible. I'm really excited so far about NAR country. And, you know, Stephen isn't necessarily a, |
| 0:48.0 | you know, psychedelic scientist, advocate. He's a flow states guy working on flow and neuroscience behind flow and trying to get |
| 0:57.3 | people thinking more about getting biology to work and work for us instead of against us. |
| 1:04.3 | And he believes that we can have amazing sports performance in our later days and we can |
| 1:09.0 | definitely work on that, you know, in, in a lot of |
| 1:12.5 | ways. Like, that's what we're up to in the psychedelic space, right? So I think there's some great |
| 1:17.8 | overlap here. I'm, I'm a fan because he also works too, includes skiing and kind of action sports |
| 1:24.6 | in the discussion. And I love that and speaks to me because it's the |
| 1:29.7 | lifestyle I've chosen. So yeah, I think that's it for right now. Definitely check out his stuff, |
| 1:35.8 | flowresearchcollective.com. Check out his books. Like every library will have these books. |
| 1:41.4 | So definitely check them out. And I think that's it. I think that's it for now. |
| 1:46.7 | So thank you all for listening. And I hope you enjoy this episode of Psychedelics today with |
| 1:51.4 | Stephen Kotler, famed author. Yeah, enjoy. And we will see you on the other side. |
| 2:00.8 | Hi, everybody. Welcome back to psychedelics today. Today we have Stephen Kotler on the show. |
| 2:04.5 | Stephen, thanks for joining us. It's good to be with you. |
| 2:08.3 | Yeah. So you just came out with an amazing new book, NAR country, which is quite poignant for me and my father and many other people in my demographic, right? |
| 2:19.6 | Like, thankfully, you're leading 10 years ahead. |
| 2:22.7 | So, or maybe more. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Psychedelics Today, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Psychedelics Today, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.