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 | Power of Waiting: Hexagrams 5 and 12
In this subscriber-only episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores one of the most difficult and universal parts of life: waiting.
Drawing from the ancient wisdom of the I Ching, Steenrod examines why nearly 28% of its hexagrams deal with waiting, delay, or obstruction in some form. Focusing on Hexagram 12 — Standstill and Hexagram 5 — Waiting, he explains the profound difference between stagnation and preparation.
When is waiting a trap?
When is waiting nourishment?
When should you preserve your energy… and when should you prepare to cross the great water?
This episod...
Published: Apr 24, 2026Duration: 54s
Season 2 - Episode 15
Shorts | Why You Don’t See Spirits, Demons, or Dragons (And Taoists Say You Can)
Why don’t we see spirits, demons, dragons, and other beings described in Taoist traditions? Are they somewhere else — or are we simply not perceiving them?
In this Living the Tao Short, Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore how assumptions shape reality and how the social mind filters what we experience. The discussion moves through expectation, normalization, and the idea that perception is limited not only by our senses, but by awareness, choice, and energy.
Using memorable analogies — floating beside someone, a dragon appearing on the path, and fish unaware of the giant outside their bowl —...
Published: Apr 21, 2026Duration: 15m 14s
Trailer | Exploring the Qi Sphere
Most people approach qi as something to be gained—more energy, more vitality, more power.
But the reality is more complicated.
In this subscriber episode (1-175) of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the Qi Sphere within the Four Ascendant Sphere framework and the often overlooked truth behind internal development: the ability to accumulate qi is not determined by technique alone, but by behavior.
As practitioners move beyond human-to-human interaction and into direct relationship with the life force itself, underlying weaknesses begin to surface. Without the internal structure to support it, in...
Published: Apr 17, 2026Duration: 1m 10s
Trailer | The Turtle as an Organizing Force
In this subscriber-only episode (1-174), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the turtle as an organizing force within Taoist thought. Beginning with a classic teaching story of a turtle withdrawing beneath a storm, the discussion expands into the turtle’s deeper symbolic and practical roles across Taoist tradition.
The episode examines how the turtle shell became an early tool for extracting order from chaos through divination practices that predate the I Ching, and how its structured form influenced cosmological thinking. Mikel also discusses the ancient Daoist board game Liubo, modeled after the turtle’s undershell, which functioned as both...
Published: Apr 10, 2026Duration: 46s
Season 2 - Episode 19
Shorts | Even a Rock Has Free Will (So Why Don’t You?)
Free will is usually treated as a human question — do we have it, or are we determined? In this Living the Tao Short, the discussion moves in a different direction entirely.
Starting from a Taoist premise that everything is Dao, the conversation explores what that means for equality, change, and the nature of choice. If the Dao neither favors nor disfavors anything, then how does anything happen? The answer leads to a surprising conclusion: choice is the mechanism of change, and choice exists everywhere — not just in human thought.
Along the way, this short episode chal...
Published: Apr 7, 2026Duration: 10m 15s
Season 1 - Episode 173
The Lie of Separation: Why You Already Belong to the Dao
What if the feeling that you’re separate… isn’t real?
In this episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore one of the most powerful illusions shaping modern life—the belief that we are disconnected from nature, from reality, and from the Dao itself.
At the center of this discussion is the concept of the social mind—a framework that creates identity, belonging, and meaning, but also introduces a false sense of separation. As it grows stronger, our natural connection to reality becomes harder to perceive.
This episode explores:<...
Published: Apr 3, 2026Duration: 29m 31s
Trailer | Exploring Humor in Taoism
Does humor always come from pain?
In this upcoming subscriber episode of Living the Tao, we explore a different possibility—one rooted in Taoist thought. Through classical perspective, lived experience, and a story that took nearly a decade to unfold, this episode looks at how humor can arise not from tension or injury, but from clarity.
What happens when expectation is interrupted?
What happens when illusion is seen for what it is?
From the playful behavior of Taoist immortals to a practical joke years in the making, this episode examines humor as a...
Published: Mar 27, 2026Duration: 49s
Season 2 - Episode 18
Shorts | The Daoist Answer to Life's Purpose
Does the universe have a specific purpose for your life?
In this Living the Tao Shorts episode (2-18), Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore a question often associated with the Buddhist idea of dharma—the belief that each person has a role or destiny within a larger cosmic plan.
But does Daoism see life that way?
Daoist philosophy offers a surprisingly simple perspective. Human life generally moves in one of two directions: cultivating a reasonably happy and durable life, or exploring the deeper nature of existence itself.
The discussion examines why pe...
Published: Mar 24, 2026Duration: 14m 18s
Trailer | The Legend of Magu, The Hemp Immortal
There is an immortal in Taoist tradition who does not declare her power.
She simply states that she has watched the sea turn into land… three times.
In this episode (1-171), Master Mikel Steenrod examines the fragmented legend of Magu, one of the oldest known immortals in Taoist tradition, and what her story reveals about early Taoist practice, shamanic origins, and the true nature of immortality.
This trailer introduces a deeper exploration into:
The meaning behind Magu’s reference to geological transformation
Why she is known as the “Hemp Immortal” and what that sig...
Published: Mar 20, 2026Duration: 1m 18s
Trailer | Part of One or Part of Many
Is it better to become highly specialized… or to remain adaptable?
Modern society often pushes us toward specialization. We are encouraged to develop a narrow skill, become highly useful, and build our lives around productivity. But Taoist philosophy has long offered a different perspective.
In this episode of Living the Tao (1-170), Master Mikel Steenrod explores an ancient debate that mirrors a surprisingly modern question: the tension between specialization and adaptability.
Beginning with a simple evolutionary example of specialist and generalist species, the discussion moves into classical Taoist ideas drawn from the Zhuangzi, in...
Published: Mar 13, 2026Duration: 47s
Season 2 - Episode 17
Shorts | Dreams vs Taoist Vision
Are dreams the same thing as spiritual vision?
In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-17), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the important difference between dreams and Taoist Vision—two experiences that are often confused but arise from very different processes.
Dreams largely reflect subconscious activity and mental processing. Taoist Vision, however, emerges through meditation and appears at the boundary between sleep and wakefulness. In this threshold state, perception begins to change and the internal world starts to overlap with the external world.
The conversation explores why Vision requires accumulated Qi...
Published: Mar 10, 2026Duration: 9m 47s
Season 1 - Episode 169
Acceptance is Not Surrender
Acceptance is often misunderstood. Many people believe it means giving up, surrendering, or resigning themselves to circumstances they cannot change. In reality, acceptance is something very different.
In this episode (1-169) of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore what acceptance really means and why it plays such an important role in both everyday life and deeper spiritual practice.
Humans are not purely present-moment creatures. We carry our past experiences with us and constantly project expectations into the future. When those projections fail—when reality does not behave the way we expect—it o...
Published: Mar 6, 2026Duration: 28m 26s
Trailer | Power of the Martial Body Sphere
In this episode (1-168), Master Mikel Steenrod explores one of the most misunderstood components of the Four Ascendant Tradition model: the Martial Body Sphere.
In the ancient world, travel meant risk. Banditry was common. Central authority was distant. Periods of famine and collapse brought about cannibalism. In such an environment, physical capability was not recreational — it was necessary.
Why were classical moral figures trained in martial disciplines?
What did it mean to be “capable” in unstable eras?
And why does Taoism refuse to separate the body from spiritual development?
This episode examin...
Published: Feb 27, 2026Duration: 45s
Season 2 - Episode 16
Shorts | Chinese Herbs: Qi Effect or Chemical Effect?
Are Chinese herbs working because of chemistry… or because of Qi?
In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts, Daoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the difference between nutritional value and essence value — and why two foods that look identical on a label may affect your energy very differently.
You’ll hear:
How Qi is absorbed from both food and environment
Why some herbs function biochemically like natural drugs
What “essence” means in Taoist herbal theory
Why heavily processed foods may leave you energetically depleted
A revealing...
Published: Feb 24, 2026Duration: 7m 49s
Trailer | Power of the Social Sphere
What is power?
In this episode (1-167) of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod challenges the modern assumption that power means dominance or control. Instead, he reframes power as something far more fundamental: the ability to make a decision and see it reach fruition.
This teaching focuses on the first of the Four Ascendant Spheres — the Social Sphere — the domain of language, persuasion, money, politics, and what classical Daoists referred to as the “red dust.”
Why does poetry move people more than reason?
Why does external spiritual identity fail to create real tra...
Published: Feb 20, 2026Duration: 38s
Trailer | I Ching Dyad: Beginning and Folly
I Ching Dyad: Beginning and Folly
Subscriber Episode Preview
Most failures don’t happen at the end.
They happen at the beginning.
In this preview of a subscriber-only episode, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod examines two closely linked hexagrams from the I Ching: Difficulty at the Beginning and Youthful Folly.
These two states describe what happens when structure is trying to form — and when we don’t yet understand what we’re dealing with.
In the full episode, he explores:
The two ways a beginning collapses
Why im...
Published: Feb 13, 2026Duration: 42s
Season 2 - Episode 15
Shorts | Think or Feel?
We’re often told to “think for ourselves.”
But what if that’s only half the story?
In this Living the Tao Short (2-15), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores a deeper and often forgotten form of freedom: learning to feel for yourself.
Drawing from Taoist practice and ancient cultural understandings of purpose, this short looks at how joy, harmony, and meaningful relationships emerge when the internal relationship with the self comes into balance. Rather than being shaped by pain, habit, or expectation, Taoist practice offers a way to re-craft the self—beyond conflict and toward qui...
Published: Feb 10, 2026Duration: 11m 12s
Season 1 - Episode 165
Good, Evil, and the Power of Neutrality
Are good and evil moral absolutes — or are they something else entirely?
In this episode (1-165) of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod presents the Daoist view of good, evil, and neutrality as energetic positions, not moral judgments. Rather than focusing on right and wrong, Daoism examines how actions affect energy, probability, and personal power.
This conversation explores why Daoism was never designed as a social or moral control system, how karma functions energetically rather than morally, and why neutrality may offer the greatest potential for influence and change.
Topics include:
...
Published: Feb 6, 2026Duration: 31m 24s
Trailer | A Table in Your Mind
In this trailer for Living the Tao – Episode 1-164, Mikel Steenrod introduces a traditional Taoist mind-training drill drawn from the oral tradition.
The exercise begins with a simple image: a group of people seated comfortably around a table, discussing what the outdoors is like. A door stands nearby. Everyone knows it leads outside. Anyone could open it. Yet no one does.
From this setup emerges a deeper exploration of comfort, consensus, direct experience, and why truth is often discussed rather than encountered. This episode does not offer conclusions or doctrine. Instead, it presents a tool—one...
Published: Jan 30, 2026Duration: 35s
Season 2 - Episode 14
Shorts | Shaking Off the Red Dust: Taoism's Answer to The Vision Quest
Many cultures have a tradition of the vision quest. In Taoism, a related practice is known as Biguan.
In this short episode of Living the Tao, Master Steenrod explains Biguan as a retreat from the social mind—the accumulated pressure of identity, expectations, and unconscious influence often described metaphorically as “red dust.”
This is not an extreme or monastic practice. Biguan, especially for lay practitioners, is about withdrawing from influence without abandoning life. Even small, intentional separations can restore clarity and help us choose what we bring back into daily living.
A concise reflec...
Published: Jan 27, 2026Duration: 6m 10s