Living the Tao-A Spiritual Podcast
byMikel Steenrod
ReligionSpirituality
Living the Tao is a spiritual podcast hosted by Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod, lineage holder of the Four Ascendant Tradition. Through practical teachings, doctrinal discussions, and conversations with Morgan, the show explores Taoist philosophy, spiritual cultivation, qi development, emotional resilience, and living skillfully in the modern world. Rather than presenting Taoism as abstract philosophy alone, Living the Tao focuses on practical training and direct experience. Episodes explore meditation, intuition, karma, self-development, wellness, martial arts, and the timeless principles of Taoist practice. 🎧 New full episodes release on the first Friday of each month, with biweekly Living the Tao Shorts offering concise ins...
Episodes(40 episodes)
Trailer | The Legend of Huang Di and the Dragon
A golden dragon descends from heaven. Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, mounts its back and begins to rise beyond the human world. His ministers rush forward, grabbing his robes and clinging to the dragon’s whiskers—but they have not completed the work required to follow him.
In this subscriber-only episode, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod examines one of the most enduring legends surrounding Huangdi. He explores the emperor’s four legendary teachers, the possibility that they were different forms of a single shape-shifting dragon, and the ancient connections between cultivation, medicine, sexuality, alchemy, and immortality.
The episod...
Published: Jul 24, 2026Duration: 1m 4s
Trailer | Lessons From the Swimmer and Water
Confucius watches a man enter the violent waters beneath a towering waterfall and assumes he is trying to die. Instead, the swimmer emerges downstream with his hair loose, singing and completely at ease.
In this trailer for Living the Tao, Episode 1-189, Daoist Master Michael Steenrod introduces the classical story of Confucius and the swimmer at LĂĽliang. The swimmer survives not by overpowering the water or surrendering helplessly to it, but by understanding its movement. He enters with the descending whirl, rises with the current, and refuses to impose himself where cooperation will carry him farther.</p...
Published: Jul 17, 2026Duration: 1m 0s
Season 2 - Episode 26
Shorts | You Can Have Energy and Still Be Powerless
Can you have plenty of energy and still be powerless?
In this Living the Tao Short, Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the difference between Qi and karma. Qi is life energy — the force connected to health, vitality, and the feeling of being alive. Karma, in this teaching, is something different. Karma is the energy of choice.
This episode looks at why some choices fail even when they seem possible, why a person can burn through their available karma trying to force a result, and why big goals are often better approached through smaller successful st...
Published: Jul 14, 2026Duration: 14m 34s
Trailer | Money See, Monkey Do
What if the habits that shaped you were never taught with words?
You watched them. You copied them. Over time, they became part of the mind you call your own.
In this trailer for Living the Tao, Episode 1-188, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod introduces emulation—the natural process behind “monkey see, monkey do.”
The episode explores how the Social Mind is imprinted, whether better models can replace destructive ones, why nature can serve as a teacher, and how gratitude helps build karma.
If emulation helped create the problem, can it also help u...
Published: Jul 12, 2026Duration: 1m 20s
Season 1 - Episode 187
Laozi, Utopia, and the Double Donkey Salute
What would a Daoist utopia actually look like?
A perfect society? A better political system? A sacred rulebook everyone finally agrees to follow?
Not exactly.
In this free episode of Living the Tao (1-187), Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Daoist view of utopia, and why Taoism begins with personal liberation rather than social control. The conversation moves through the Tao Te Ching, Confucianism, Laozi as the fed-up scholar leaving society behind, and the uncomfortable truth that humans may be building machines faster than they are developing wisdom.
Along the...
Published: Jul 3, 2026Duration: 27m 59s
Season 2 - Episode 25
Shorts | Don’t Fight the Storm. Sink Beneath It
In this Living the Tao short (2-25), Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the role of animals in Taoism.
Cranes, deer, cats, turtles, tortoises, three-legged crows, and many-tailed foxes all appear as symbols, teachers, guides, or mythic beings. But the strongest lesson comes from the turtle.
When the storm comes, the turtle does not fight it. It sinks below the turbulence, spends the least energy possible, and rises again when the storm has passed.
This short looks at animals as part of nature, what they can teach us about adversity, and why Taoism...
Published: Jun 30, 2026Duration: 15m 29s
Trailer | Exploring the Tao Sphere
In this trailer for the subscriber-only episode (1-186) of Living the Tao, Master Steenrod introduces the Tao Sphere, the highest sphere in the Four Ascendant Sphere system.
The Tao Sphere is not an escape from ordinary life. It contains the Social Sphere, the Martial Body Sphere, and the Qi Sphere. To approach it, a practitioner must bring the whole self into relationship with the Tao.
This episode explores balance, avoidance, self-love, the limits of the social mind, and the difference between prayer and invocation.
Available now for subscribers on Supercast.
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Published: Jun 26, 2026Duration: 1m 2s
Trailer | I Ching Hexagrams: Pushing Upward and Increase
In this subscriber-only episode of Living the Tao (1-185), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod continues his study of the I Ching with Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward, and Hexagram 42, Increase.
Both hexagrams point toward action, but they do not describe the same kind of movement. Pushing Upward is steady ascent: small efforts, proper support, and the presence of the “great person.” Increase is sudden opportunity: thunder, wind, favorable change, and the need to act before the moment passes.
Master Steenrod examines the classic pronouncements, images, and line meanings of both hexagrams, while also challenging the modern idea that succ...
Published: Jun 19, 2026Duration: 58s
Season 2 - Episode 24
Shorts | The World Before Social Mind (When Magic Still Worked)
What was the world like before social mind became the dominant force shaping human experience?
In this Living the Tao Short (2-24), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores a question that sits at the intersection of Taoist doctrine, history, and esoteric practice. According to the tradition, there was a time when the influence of social mind was far weaker, allowing human beings to access levels of capability, awareness, and spiritual development that seem nearly impossible today.
Along the way, Master Steenrod discusses the relationship between social mind and the disappearance of magic, the loss of what...
Published: Jun 16, 2026Duration: 12m 17s
Trailer | What is Death?
In this trailer for the subscriber episode “What Is Death?”, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod introduces a deeper Taoist examination of life, death, fear, and return.
Rather than offering a simple comfort story, this episode asks what death actually is. Master Steenrod explores life as ordered differentiation, death as movement back through chaos, and the Taoist idea of return through Pu, Hundun, Hexagram 24, and the caterpillar’s transformation.
The full subscriber episode also enters more advanced territory, including meditation as the loosening of fixation, the story of the self, and what happens when deep practice approaches the ed...
Published: Jun 12, 2026Duration: 59s
Season 1 - Episode 183
What Meditation Really Is (And Why It Might Not Be Worth It)
What is meditation, really?
In this episode (1-183) of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores meditation from a classical Taoist perspective. Rather than focusing on posture, breathing, or techniques, he examines the deeper principle behind all meditative practice: the mind acting upon the mind.
Along the way, Mikel discusses the influence of the Social Mind, why most people live according to maps they did not create, and how meditation can help a person gain greater ownership of their own experience. He also explains why meditation is not always comfortable, how it can uncover...
Published: Jun 5, 2026Duration: 37m 3s
Season 2 - Episode 23
Shorts | Shocks Add Up Like Concussions (Here’s Why)
Most people think stress comes from big problems. Taoism suggests something different.
In this free Living the Tao Short (2-23), Master Mikel Steenrod explores how sudden changes—whether they seem good or bad—place demands on the body and mind. Using weather as a starting point, he explains why rapid shifts can drain our reserves, disrupt our balance, and gradually affect both quality of life and longevity.
A beautiful warm day in the middle of winter may feel wonderful, but your body still has to adapt. The same principle applies to life itself. Stressors often arri...
Published: Jun 2, 2026Duration: 10m 38s
Trailer | The Moon and the Toad
Before the Jade Rabbit became the dominant symbol of the moon, another creature occupied the lunar imagination of ancient China—the mysterious Three-Legged Moon Toad.
In this subscriber-only episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores one of the oldest and most overlooked symbols associated with Yin. Beginning with the children's tale of Jip Jip, the moon toad who gradually consumes the moon before laying an egg and beginning the cycle anew, the discussion expands into classical Taoist symbolism, lunar mythology, fertility, regeneration, and the evolution of religious storytelling.
Along the way, listeners wi...
Published: Jun 1, 2026Duration: 1m 21s
Trailer | The Sun and the Crow
In this episode of Living the Tao, Master Steenrod explores the ancient myth of the Fusang tree, the ten suns, and the mysterious three-legged crow that became one of the great symbolic images of East Asian spirituality.
Beginning with the ancient legend itself, the episode examines how the Sun Crow myth evolved from early shamanic and mythological roots into Taoist cosmology, esoteric symbolism, and qi theory. Along the way, the discussion explores the meaning of the sun as a source of yang, the symbolic role of the black crow within the blazing sun, and why Taoist traditions...
Published: May 23, 2026Duration: 1m 2s
Season 2 - Episode 22
Shorts | Did Ancient Daoists Discover Keto First?
Is there really a “Daoist diet”?
In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-22), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores one of the most misunderstood subjects in Taoist practice: food restrictions, dietary cultivation, and the purpose behind them. Rather than rigid rules or moral prohibitions, traditional Daoist approaches to diet were often based on observation, experimentation, longevity, and energetic outcome.
The discussion explores:
The real meaning of the ancient Bigu diet
Why some Daoist traditions reduced grain consumption
The relationship between food, herbs, and Qi
How Daoism historically approached experimentation and fringe practices
The infl...
Published: May 19, 2026Duration: 9m 53s
Trailer | Your Personal Bedrock, Your Personal Gifts
In this subscriber episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the “bedrock” beneath Taoist cultivation and asks a deceptively simple question: What should a person actually build within themselves?
The discussion examines the original meaning of Wu Wei beyond passivity, the dangers of spiritual status-seeking, and the Taoist concept of Ling — the subtle spiritual presence tied to harmony, karma, nature, and authentic development.
The episode also explores how natural gifts emerge from one’s substrate, why some people unconsciously suppress their own development, and why community interaction plays such a critical role in spiri...
Published: May 15, 2026Duration: 47s
Trailer | Feathers, Thunder, and Liberation
In this special trailer for Living the Tao Episode 1-178, Master Steenrod explores the ancient Taoist symbolism of feathers, thunder, and liberation.
What does it mean to shake off the “red dust” of the world? Why were feathers associated with transcendence, freedom, and the feathered immortal? And how did older Taoist traditions understand thunder as a force capable of breaking emotional and spiritual obstruction?
Blending traditional symbolism, esoteric concepts, and oral teaching methods, this brief preview introduces one of the more atmospheric and reflective episodes of the series.
Feathers, Thunder, and Liberation — available now on...
Published: May 10, 2026Duration: 51s
Season 1 - Episode 179
Manifestation in Taoism: Why Invocation — Not Desire — Shapes Reality
What does Taoism say about manifestation? And why doesn’t Taoism actually use that word?
In this episode of Living the Tao, we explore the Taoist concept closest to manifestation: invocation. Rather than wishing for outcomes, Taoist practice focuses on directing choice and karma within a universe shaped by probability. The discussion looks at why some changes are easier to bring about than others, why small outcomes often succeed where large ones fail, and how energy limits what can be created.
We also explore the Taoist view that the universe is equal but not fair, wh...
Published: May 8, 2026Duration: 25m 36s
Season 2 - Episode 21
Shorts | Consistency Won’t Make You Successful—Here’s What Will!
Is consistency really the key to success?
In this Shorts episode of Living the Tao (2-21), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod examines one of the most common ideas in modern self-improvement—and challenges it from a Taoist perspective.
Through a discussion on repetition, flexibility, and human behavior, this episode explores:
The limits of discipline when it becomes mechanical
The importance of adaptability in achieving meaningful outcomes
The philosophical contrast between structure and responsiveness
And the deeper question of what success actually means
Blending practical insight with classical Taoist thought, this episode offers a different wa...
Published: May 5, 2026Duration: 12m 41s
Trailer | Wangziqiao and the Crane
What if everything you were trained to become… wasn’t enough?
In this subscriber-only episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the ancient story of Wangziqiao—a Zhou-era prince who mastered the refined arts of order and discipline, only to walk away from them in search of something deeper.
After years of training in the mountains, he is given a simple object—a whistle carved from the bone of a crane. One breath, and the heavens answer. A crane descends. He mounts it and vanishes into the West.
This episode goes bey...
Published: May 1, 2026Duration: 1m 7s