FLAME with Brad Hook

Bradley Hook
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

FLAME (formerly Brad Hook Podcast) — warm conversations, bright ideas. A space for the curious, exploring what it actually means to be fully alive: how we think, connect, adapt, and find meaning in a world that's changing faster than we can feel. Episodes span psychology, neuroscience, creativity, leadership, and wisdom traditions — sometimes with guests, sometimes just honest reflections from the road. Always grounded. Always human. Hosted by Brad Hook, author of Start With Values (Penguin Random House, 2025) and creator of the FLAME method: flame.live

  1. 4d ago

    The Stress Response Was Built to Save Your Life, Not Your Future

    Does your immune system have more say over your thoughts than you realize? Dr. Aoife O’Donovan, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF and director of the THRIVE Lab, has spent nearly two decades studying how psychological stress gets under the skin and into the brain. In this conversation, she explains why humans mount a full stress response to events that are long past or may never happen, how inflammation sharpens the brain’s threat detector while loosening its brakes, and why trauma can leave the body on alert for years. She also shares early findings from the UCSF Translational Psychedelic Research Program, where psilocybin therapy was linked to lower inflammation and mitochondrial stress in patients with Parkinson’s disease, and research showing that biological aging in immune cells can move in reverse. A candid, hopeful guide to working with a nervous system that evolved for short-term survival rather than long-term flourishing. In this episode: Why the stress response protects you today at the expense of your long-term health, and why that isn’t your faultInflammation and threat sensitivity feed each other: what happens between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex under stressPessimism and perceived threat predict shorter telomeres, yet immune cell aging turns out to be reversible“Figure out what kind of nervous system you have, then build your environment around it,” plus why starting absurdly small works Aoife’s lab (THRIVE Lab, UCSF): https://odonovanlab.ucsf.eduAoife’s UCSF profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/aoife.odonovan Connect with Brad: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhookAttend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad’s work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

  2. Oct 5

    What Psychedelics Actually Do in the Brain, Explained by a Neuroscientist

    Dr. Chloe West is a psychedelic neuroscientist who studies how psychedelics change the way the brain processes information and updates its beliefs about the world. Her path began at age ten, when her family moved from a small town in Georgia's Bible Belt to Kawakawa in New Zealand's Northland, and she encountered atheism, evolution and ayahuasca in the same disorienting year. Brad and Chloe explore why beliefs absorbed in childhood are so hard to shift, how psychedelics raise neural entropy and soften the brain's certainty in its own predictions, and why the weeks after an experience matter as much as the experience itself. They also consider mystical states reached without substances, the risks of a challenging trip, and whether psychedelics helped shape the world's religions. Psychedelics act like fresh snow on a sledding hill, letting the mind carve new paths beyond the rigid grooves of PTSD, depression and addiction.Perception is a "controlled hallucination," and psychedelics temporarily loosen the brain's predictions so old beliefs can update.Chloe's research suggests a window of openness in the weeks after an experience, when setting and support shape what takes hold.Breathwork, meditation and flicker light can open similar states without any substance at all. Dr. Chloe's Links Born Again Again (Substack): https://drchloewest.substack.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chloewestjacobsGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HGfgbJMAAAAJ&hl=en Brad's Links Brad Hook on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookBrad Hook on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhookAttend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad's work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

  3. Sep 25

    The Navy SEAL Playbook: Don Mann on Grit, Goals, and Leadership

    Don Mann spent 21 years in the Navy SEAL Teams, retiring from SEAL Team Six, then another 25 as a CIA contractor. He is a New York Times bestselling author, host of the TV series Surviving Mann, and a veteran of more than 1,000 endurance events, including a double Ironman he finished after passing out at mile 32 of the run. In this conversation with Brad Hook, he describes the combat mindset that got him through a night dive with no oxygen, the leaders who taught him to leave ego at the door, and the four daily habits from his new book, Navy SEAL Playbook, that he offers to anyone who wants more from their life. He is also frank about what twenty years of continuous war has done to the people who fought it, why the wars being fought today keep him up at night, and why he now puts being a good person ahead of being a warrior. Why most people set their goals too low, and how to choose a macro goal and micro-goal your way upFour daily rules: get stronger, get faster, get smarter, and do something good for somebodyLeading without ego, from the SEAL Team Six leader who made every man on the team feel neededVisualize it worse than it will be: the mental practice that got Don through BUD/S Get the book: https://navysealplaybook.com/the-navy-seal-playbook-don-mann Connect with Don: https://www.usfrogmann.com Connect with Brad: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhookhttps://flame.livehttps://bradleyhook.comhttps://values.institute

  4. Aug 20

    The Second Adulthood: Why Midlife Is an Awakening, Not a Crisis

    What happens when the striving that built your career stops working? Fabrice Desmarescaux, McKinsey partner, leader of Aberkyn in Southeast Asia and author of The Art of Retreats, joins Brad to explore the "second adulthood": the unnamed life stage that begins around 45, when raw problem-solving gives way to wisdom, judgment and the ability to hold paradox. Drawing on decades of coaching CEOs and C-suite teams, Fabrice explains why control doesn't scale, why midlife is an awakening rather than a crisis, and why silence, solitude and stillness are the most underrated leadership tools of all. A warm, quietly radical conversation about presence, letting go, and finding your new game. In this episode: Fluid intelligence peaks in your 30s, but crystallized intelligence keeps growing into your 70s and 80sWhy senior leadership is an adaptive challenge: influence, nudging and holding space instead of controlThe lost rites of passage, and why we need elders to guide life's biggest transitionsHow to build a retreat into a busy day through silence, solitude and disconnection Get The Art of Retreats: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Retreats-Leaders-Journey-Clarity/dp/1544526369Fabrice's website: https://www.desmarescaux.comFabrice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabrice-desmarescaux Connect with Brad:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhookAttend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad's work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

  5. Aug 10

    Seven Marathons, Seven Continents, One Week — with Ellen Hunter Gans

    Ellen Hunter Gans is a writer, 41-time marathoner, Ironman triathlete, and the first person with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. In this conversation she takes us inside the Great World Race — from a packed-snow course in Antarctica's White Desert to a heat-index scorcher in Cartagena — complete with a venomous spider bite, a stolen wallet, and a plane once used by the Rolling Stones. Along the way she shares the stories behind her new book, Seven Marathons: lung cancer survivors running with one lung, a Welsh firefighter racing in full kit, and elite women choosing collaboration over world records. It's a warm, funny, and quietly profound look at resilience, shared purpose, and why the time to chase your big goals is now. Camaraderie is a performance tool: research shows shared struggle literally reduces the experience of painTreat big goals as commitments, not options — sign up first, then figure out howRest matters: Ellen qualified for Boston by running less, not more (three focused runs a week)If not now, when? Don't wait for a diagnosis or a deadline to do the thing Get the book: https://sevenmarathonsbook.com Connect with Brad Hook:https://www.instagram.com/bradhookhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook Explore more:https://flame.livehttps://bradleyhook.comhttps://values.institute

  6. Jul 29

    Train Your Emotions Like a Skill: Joey Klein on the Inner Game of Mastery

    Joey Klein is the founder and CEO of Inner Matrix Systems and the author of The Inner Matrix and Relationship Alchemy. After a near-death experience at 19 pulled him out of a destructive lifestyle, he spent two decades blending ancient wisdom traditions, psychology, and neuroscience into a practical system for personal mastery — one he has now taught to more than 90,000 people, from Fortune 500 executives to professional athletes. In this conversation, Joey and Brad explore why lasting change starts with the nervous system rather than the mind, and how emotional mastery can be trained like any other skill. Why you can't think your way out of anxiety: regulate the nervous system first, manage emotion second, then train the mindThe three emotional competencies: awareness, switching off fear, and switching on love-based statesA simple morning check-in and four-sided breathing practice you can start todayThe four steps behind every real transformation Free for FLAME listeners — both of Joey's books plus a complimentary training session with a certified IMS trainer:https://joeyklein.com/flamepodcast Follow Joey:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JoeyKleinIMSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealjoeyklein/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyklein/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeyKleinIMS/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialjoeyklein Connect with Brad:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook Attend a live experience: https://flame.liveDiscover Brad's work: https://bradleyhook.comValues Institute: https://values.institute

  7. Jul 4

    Why AI Is Creating an Identity Crisis

    In this episode, psychologist and bestselling author Fiona Murden explores why identity—not skills—may be our greatest challenge in the age of AI. We discuss resilience, identity coherence, storytelling, parenting, leadership, and why understanding who you are is becoming one of the most important human capabilities. In this episode: Why AI is creating an identity crisisIdentity by osmosis and the people who shape usHow leaders create certainty through storytellingRaising children with a stronger sense of selfThe connection between identity and resiliencePractical ways to better understand yourself Connect with Fiona:Website: https://www.fionamurden.com/Substack (Still Human): https://fionamurden.substack.com/about

  8. Jun 24

    Your Family Is the Most Important Team You'll Ever Lead

    Most entrepreneurs pour relentless intention into their business and then wing it at home. Ann Sheu thinks that's backwards. She makes the case that your family is the most important team you'll ever lead, and shows how the same clarity, values, and rhythms that build great companies can build connected, resilient families. We get into values as the real foundation of a relationship, the "decade dream" and why a five-year-old can set one, weekly Family Alignment Meetings (FAMs), the difference between alignment and agreement, and why most money fights are really values fights. Ann also shares the one question that should ground every hard conversation: did your partner leave it feeling seen, heard, understood, and safe? About AnnAnn Sheu is a leadership coach, entrepreneur, and mother of four, and the founder of Mpowered Journey. She helps high-performing couples bring the clarity, alignment, and intentionality from their businesses into their family life, building stronger communication, shared expectations, and simple rhythms that reduce friction at home. What we explore Why values work has to come first, for each individual and then for the coupleThe "decade dream": one number that captures a whole vision (2,000 free days, 500 new experiences, 100 date nights abroad)Family Alignment Meetings, and how to run your family like its leadership teamAlignment over agreement, and why healthy couples still fight"Seen, heard, understood, and safe" as the real winning criteria in any disagreementHow values clarity dissolves most money and time conflictsConnect with Ann https://www.mpoweredjourney.com https://www.mpoweredjourney.com/know-thyself https://www.mpoweredjourney.com/foundations-preview https://www.instagram.com/mpoweredjourney https://www.linkedin.com/company/mpowered-journey Meet the host, Brad Hook, here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bradleyhook.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bradhook X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/bradleyhook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook

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5
out of 5
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About

FLAME (formerly Brad Hook Podcast) — warm conversations, bright ideas. A space for the curious, exploring what it actually means to be fully alive: how we think, connect, adapt, and find meaning in a world that's changing faster than we can feel. Episodes span psychology, neuroscience, creativity, leadership, and wisdom traditions — sometimes with guests, sometimes just honest reflections from the road. Always grounded. Always human. Hosted by Brad Hook, author of Start With Values (Penguin Random House, 2025) and creator of the FLAME method: flame.live

Information

  • Creator
    Bradley Hook
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    125
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bradley Hook
  • Show Website
    FLAME with Brad Hook