The Tao of Lloyd

Support The Tao of Lloyd on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/taooflloyd/membership

In Chapter 17 of The Tao of Lloyd, Lloyd Dobler unpacks the Tao Te Ching’s most unsettling insight about leadership: the best leaders are barely noticed—and the worst are despised.

The episode opens with Lloyd still spiritually bruised from last week’s road-rage failure, before pivoting to a chilling news story about members of Congress being threatened for reminding U.S. service members of their legal obligation to refuse unlawful orders. From there...

Lloyd Dobler returns with a confession: he lost a street-level spiritual battle at a red light and ended up in a Wes Anderson–directed Fast & Furious showdown with a MAGA pickup truck.

A near death experience.

A sorta guided meditation for anyone who’s ever tried to stay calm behind the wheel and failed beautifully.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching medita...

Subscribe free: https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd
Monthly supporters get the bonus universe: https://www.patreon.com/taooflloyd/membership

Lloyd aims the Tao Te Ching at Trumplandia like a spiritual weather report for a country vibrating itself into madness. Using Chapter 15, he explores three versions of where he comes from: Seattle, the Big Bang, and a VHS copy of Say Anything that slipped into the multiverse.

This is a guided meditation for people who metabolize news like caffeine, a political satire for listeners with mud in their water, and a...

Subscribe free: https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd  |  Monthly supporters get the bonus universe: https://www.patreon.com/taooflloyd/membership

Chapter 14 of The Tao of Lloyd dives into the fog: prediction culture, political chaos, AI riddling like a digital monk, and the Tao’s reminder that “you can’t know it — but you can be it.” Lloyd unpacks hope, fear, empire-time weirdness, and the quiet rebellion of refusing to let algorithms script your life. 

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

Duration: 00:13:46

Lloyd Dobler uses the Tao Te Ching to make sense of a tragedy in Washington DC: a National Guard member killed, another critically wounded, and a political system that turned grief into ammunition before the scene was even cleared. 

Lloyd traces the scapegoating of Afghan refugees, Trump’s threat to “permanently pause migration from all Third World countries,” and the creeping authoritarianism that arrives not with a bang but a slow-drip leak no one bothers to patch.

What follows is a guided meditation through the Tao Te Ching Chapter 13— a chapter that warns that success i...

AI acceleration meets sensory overload meets the eerie quiet that appears when you finally silence your notifications. Lloyd uses the Tao Te Ching to navigate machine-learning hype, Gen X dread, and the possibility that enlightenment may just be your brain in airplane mode. A Taoist meditation on clarity in late-stage everything.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Do...

Lloyd reads the Tao Te Ching while Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus accidentally explains America with a hive mind. Featuring alien RNA, RFK Jr–level confusion, sci-fi absurdity, and a guided meditation on becoming the empty center; a Taoist field guide to individuality and cosmic teamwork.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, your reluctant middle-aged dissident. No ads. N...

Send us a text

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taooflloyd/membership

New to Season 2? Behind on a few episodes? Need a long exhale?
This is your on-ramp.

About Season 2: 

Lloyd Dobler is back, reimagined in an unauthorized sequel to the film Say Anything, as a middle-aged dissident with a podcast and a political axe to grind. Like the Tao Te Ching, Season 2 of The Tao of Lloyd unfolds across 81 chapters. But where Lao Tzu offers timeless wisdom in a few spare lines, season 2 of th...

A rediscovered 2011 letter from Diane Court kicks off a guided-meditation crisis. Lloyd turns to Chapter 10 to sift through memory, softening, relationships, Gen X nostalgia, and the parts of himself that once believed in things like tenderness and courage. A Taoist deep dive into self-reflection, heartbreak, and emotional archaeology.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, your reluctant mi...

Burnout meets spiritual wisdom as Lloyd tries to follow the Tao’s advice to “step back” while TikTok insists you “go the f home.” From Black Friday chaos to yoga calamity to a Diane Court breadcrumb, he tackles unclenching, trauma alphabetizing, and resisting a culture that treats exhaustion as a patriotic duty.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from...

Lloyd channels the Tao Te Ching, Bruce Lee, and Standing Rock to figure out how to stay fluid in a country addicted to certainty, shouting, and weaponized confidence. A Taoist survival guide to softness, resilience, and not cracking like a ceramic mug dropped on concrete.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, yo...

Lloyd holds Chapter 7 up to New York and accidentally walks into a borough-wide spiritual awakening involving Zohran Mamdani, a bureaucratic bull, and a matador with excellent timing. A Taoist meditation on revolution, clarity, compassion, activism, and the rare moment when capitalism finally blinks.

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Ge...

A cryptic Taoist passage meets an AI-fueled attention storm, and Lloyd tries to loosen his grip without dropping the entire plot. Between tech hype, political theater, spiritual commentary, and soft rebellion, he explores whether small human softness can survive a system designed to monetize your nervous system before breakfast.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, your re...

Lloyd attempts to meditate inside late-stage America, also known as a 24-hour anxiety carnival sponsored by lobbyists. With Lao Tzu whispering calm on one shoulder and W. B. Yeats muttering doom on the other, he searches for one breath that isn’t manufactured by crisis. A Taoist riff on clarity, culture, mindfulness, and why everything seems to be screaming all the time.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for la...

Lloyd peers into the Tao’s “bottomless well” and finds a Gen X protest romantic and a confused boombox philosopher staring back. From The Sound of Music’s antifascist nuns to Reagan-era greed, he follows the Tao Te Ching through nostalgia, social justice, and democracy’s questionable taste in role models. A meditation on softness, memory, and what might’ve happened if America ever let gentleness win a single round.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-pun...

Lloyd Dobler tackles “effortless action” by immediately trying way too hard at it. Using the Tao Te Ching as a loose compass, he wanders through activism, Audre Lorde, Greta Thunberg, and a polka-dot–dress middle finger with more moral clarity than Congress. This episode blends philosophy, guided meditation, spiritual commentary, and political commentary into a Taoist survival guide for resisting spectacle without losing your courage or your sanity.

From the edge of empire and the center of self — this is The Tao of Lloyd.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episod...

Lloyd opens Chapter 2 determined to practice wu wei, only to discover that letting go is hard when the algorithm keeps sending push alerts about ICE hiring sprees. This Taoist meditation–philosophy–political commentary mashup follows Lloyd as he tries to stay human inside a system that delights in monetizing his cortisol. Taoism, tech culture, Gen X panic … now in one convenient episode

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te C...

Lloyd Dobler kicks off Season 2 by opening the Tao Te Ching and immediately committing a cosmic foul: trying to podcast the un-podcastable. What follows is a guided meditation held together with duct tape, a philosophy podcast trapped inside a political commentary podcast, and a Gen X attempt at staying human while democracy performs its mid-autopsy. If you want Taoism, mindfulness, satire, and spiritual commentary delivered through a 1990s fever dream, press play.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao...

Lloyd Dobler is back. Older, grayer, and still trying to meditate through a coup.
In Season 2 of The Tao of Lloyd, the Gen-X dissident and accidental anti-guru starts over—using the Tao Te Ching as both the lens and the light to find stillness in Trumplandia.

Eighty-one chapters. Two episodes a week. Tuesdays and Fridays. 

One middle-aged dissident trying to remember how to breathe in a collapsing empire.

You can’t binge the Tao Te Ching like it’s Squid Game.
Join Lloyd for Season 2 of The Tao of Lloyd—where sac...

Send us a text

https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd

In Side B of Be Kind, Rewind, Lloyd Dobler revisits Episodes 6–10 of The Tao of Lloyd. From Trump’s obituary to Diane Court’s Palantir reveal, from Cobain vs. Lao Tzu to Trump’s Museum of Lies, to life inside the Department of War era—this is the midseason recap and pledge drive special. A mixtape of grief, satire, and refusal, stitched together with honesty, heartbreak, and a solidarity jar appea

Support the show

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfL...

Send us a text

Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TaoOfLloyd

Welcome to Side A of Be Kind, Rewind. This is the midseason checkpoint: Episodes 1–5, revisited with Lloyd’s commentary, regrets, and the occasional new rant. New listeners—this is your catch-up tape. Long-time listeners—you’ll hear the backstory behind the mixtape. And yeah—it’s also pledge week. Support the show on Patreon to keep the tape rolling.

Support the show

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd

link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd<...

The Department of “Defense” just dropped the act and rebranded as the Department of War. Not a glitch, not Orwellian doublespeak—just truth in advertising. In this episode, Lloyd Dobler guides you through a sort-of meditation that uses breath like a crowbar, prying open myths about defense, empire, and silence.

Seven affirmations. One loud monkey mind. And a reminder that kindness, refusal, and joy are stronger than any budget line item.

Sit down, breathe, and join Lloyd as he finds stillness in hostile conditions—and maybe slips a crowbar into the hinges of empire while he’s at...

Lloyd Dobler tours Trump’s “Museum of Lies,” where history gets rewritten and propaganda poses as public service. Then he flips the tape into a guided meditation on memory, purpose, and resistance using the four sacred questions: Who am I, what do I want, what is my purpose, and what am I grateful for?
A fast, funny mix of political satire, meditation, and Taoist clarity.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for la...

What happens when Kurt Cobain's punk-rock manifesto collides with Lao Tzu's Taoist wisdom? In this episode of The Tao of Lloyd, Lloyd Dobler leads a sorta guided meditation for anyone caught between raw rebellion and calm detachment.

Through breath, affirmations, and a little monkey-mind mischief, Lloyd explores what it means to "hate your enemies, save your friends, find a place, speak the truth" — while asking how we balance rage with compassion, noise with silence, and protest with peace.

It's part mixtape, part meditation, and all Lloyd: equal doses of humor, nostalgia, and reflection from the ed...

Lloyd Dobler gets an unexpected email from Diane Court and immediately spirals into equal parts Gen X heartbreak, existential dread, and political clarity. Side A unpacks the shock of hearing from an old love who may now work for the machine. Side B flips into a sort-of guided meditation for anyone who’s ever been ghosted, disappointed, or quietly horrified by who their high school ex grew up to be.
Part nostalgia, part political commentary, part meditation you definitely weren’t ready for.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Lloyd Dobler writes Donald Trump’s obituary, turns it into a death meditation, and then accidentally drifts into Buddhist wisdom about Gaza, grief, and the ex you definitely shouldn’t text. Expect the Five Remembrances, a monkey mind doing cartwheels, and a reminder that impermanence applies to everything.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, your reluctant middle...

Lloyd Dobler drops a full-volume Gen X manifesto for the Trump Era. Equal parts sacred refusal, spiritual punk rock, and cultural roast, this Gen X manifesto dismantles the myth of counterculture, calls out rebellion-as-brand, and asks how the hell we’re supposed to “be water” when everything’s on fire.

With detours through John Lennon, Reaganomics, protest nostalgia, and Taoist clarity, this episode becomes a mixtape/meditation combo for anyone who grew up weird, stayed honest, and still remembers how to say no to empire.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a epi...

Is Superman too woke for America? Or is America just too asleep?

In this episode of The Tao of Lloyd, our favorite boombox-wielding dropout-turned-anti-guru takes aim at Fox News, MAGA outrage, and the performative freakout over David Corenswet’s Superman daring to show empathy.

SIDE A: A Mixtape Molotov Cocktail for the Snowflakes Who Fear Empathy

A high-flying, red-caped rant against fascist snowflake meltdowns, where Kellyanne Conway meets Orwell and Trump’s sealed Epstein file gets name-checked in a kangaroo court.

SIDE B: A Guided Meditation for When Superman gets...

The Boombox Guy Grows Up: Lloyd Dobler Returns as Middle-Aged Meditation Teacher

"The Tao of Lloyd" Imagines What Happened to the Say Anything Icon After 35 Years

Boston, MA – What happened to Lloyd Dobler after he got on that plane to London? The new satirical podcast The Tao of Lloyd answers that question by imagining the beloved boombox-wielding romantic from Say Anythingas a middle-aged spiritual teacher offering "sort-of guided meditations" for modern anxiety. Created and performed by Boston-based writer and critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe performer Dennis Trainor Jr., the podcast picks up Lloyd's story de...

You wake up, open your phone, and immediately get slapped in the face by whatever fresh nonsense “that effing guy” cooked up overnight. Before you lose a single brain cell to the scroll, Lloyd Dobler hijacks your morning with a 10-minute sorta-guided meditation.

He walks you through breath, stillness, and existential comedy while asking four sacred questions:Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? What am I grateful for?
Lo-fi vibes, Zen side-quests, political clarity, and the boombox guy trying very hard to keep your nervous system from filing a comp...

A guided meditation for the spiritually curious and chronically distracted. Hosted by Lloyd Dobler, this 10-minute session blends Buddhist affirmations, Taoist wisdom, and monkey mind meltdowns wrapped in a Gen X mixtape vibe. It’s meditation for overthinkers—one beautifully glitched breath at a time.

Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode

Support the show

ABOUT / The Tao of Lloyd is a Zen-punk mixtape for late-stage everything—blending Tao Te Ching meditations, Gen-X philosophy, and anti-fascist satire from Lloyd Dobler, your reluctant middle-aged dissident. No ads. N...

Lloyd Dobler breaks down Trump's bombing campaign against Iran, tracing 70 years of American intervention from the 1953 CIA coup to today's "Operation Midnight Hammer." Featuring a satirical Department of Defense recruitment ad, an open letter to Trump, and spiritual wisdom from the Tao Te Ching on how to hold both donuts and democracy in a time of empire.

Show notes / Link mentions:
Full transcript and sources available at TheTaoOfLloyd.com

Website http://www.taooflloyd.com

facebook https://www.facebook.com/TaoOfLloyd
instgram https://www.instagram.com/taooflloyd/
twitter/ X...

Lloyd Dobler is back with a second transmission from the edge of empire.

This time: a Marine deployment in LA, ICE raids rebranded as campaign optics, and a meditation session repeatedly interrupted by the fascist news cycle.
From Sunset and Alvarado to Arjuna and Krishna, Lloyd navigates sacred refusal with a mixtape of riot gear, Ram Dass, and radical love.

It’s spiritual resistance for the doomscroll age.
Not just civil disobedience—Zen and the art of shutting down empire.

Chapters include:
• The Battle for LA
• How to Medit...

Lloyd Dobler returns! older, sharper, and trying to stay human in the Trump 2.0 era.
In this debut episode of The Tao of Lloyd, he explores sacred refusal as a survival strategy, weaving together Zen philosophy, Gen X perspective, and cultural critique. From ICE raids to Project 2025, WarGames nostalgia to Ram Dass reflections, Lloyd examines what resistance looks like when the world feels upside down.
Part meditation, part mixtape, and part political self-defense, this episode introduces the tone, humor, and defiant stillness that shape Season 1.

🎧 Subscribe at TaoOfLloyd.com
✊ Support the show, sign up fo...