Steven Kotler

Steven Kotler is an American author, journalist, and entrepreneur who has spent much of his career studying high performance and human potential. His books include The Rise of Superman (a study of flow states in extreme athletes), Bold (co-written with Peter Diamandis on entrepreneurship and exponential technologies), The Art of Impossible, and The Future Is Faster Than You Think. He is the founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective, a research and training organization focused on the science of peak performance, and his journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Forbes, Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. Kotler's work consistently sits at the intersection of cognitive science, performance psychology, and emerging technology.

Jamie Wheal is an executive coach, author, and the co-founder of the Flow Genome Project, an organization dedicated to studying ultimate human performance. His training programs have been used by U.S. Special Forces operators, Olympic athletes, Fortune 500 executives, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. After Stealing Fire, he wrote Recapture the Rapture (2021), which extended the book's concerns into a broader cultural and political analysis of meaning-making in modern life. Wheal speaks frequently on the topic of peak states and the future of human potential, and his work tends to combine practical training methodology with cultural and historical analysis. Together, Kotler and Wheal have positioned themselves as among the most prominent popularizers of what is sometimes called the human performance" or "peak performance" movement, building a bridge between academic researchers, contemplative traditions, and the practical concerns of high-performing professionals.