What Are You Still Pledging Allegiance To? (S2. Chapter 38)

Late Stage America

Today’s special episode gathers three previously published chapters into one continuous meditation on late-stage life in America: who’s stealing your time, why we obey in advance, and what it means to live inside Late Stage Everything. Who’s stealing your time? Why do we obey in advance? And what does it mean to live inside Late Stage Everything? Originally released separately as Chapters 19, 20, and 21 of Season Two — Late Stage Capitalism: Who’s Stealing Your Time?, Late-Stage Compliance: Why Do We Obey in Advance?, and Late Stage Everything — these episodes form a single arc: from stolen attention, to quiet compliance, to the spiritual weather system we’re all trying to survive. The Tao of Lloyd is also being developed as a solo show, with its world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. To support the production, visit TaoofLloyd.com/donate. For Boston, London, and Edinburgh live show dates, visit TaoofLloyd.com/liveshows. Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/support] 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. No paywalls. Just clarity, chaos, and sacred refusal. Support the show & get bonus episodes: patreon.com/taooflloyd.  link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWFaOHM0ODczck03Yy14bUQxVW56SmpoZC11QXxBQ3Jtc0tuemZNcmRoN25WbW00T0REYl8zSHd4UFlORWpkdXNjYmVpZUlaY3B0ZXpJNkRxaFBUeHNTcWNZbWtrZU84eWx0UTBIQ2hTYXRhU3BvQ1NGN2hvVGljcFlwMkNUczRtM0hzTGdEVjRkcWRtei1SUnN0MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FTaoofLloyd&v=NVzZctZPEAw]

What Are You Still Pledging Allegiance To? (S2. Chapter 38)

What are you still pledging allegiance to? In Chapter 38 of The Tao of Lloyd, Lloyd Dobler takes on American ritual: the Pledge of Allegiance, the anthem, the flyover, the moment of silence, the flag pin, the school assembly, and all the ceremonies we were taught to rehearse before we were old enough to ask what they meant. Using Chapter 38 of the Tao Te Ching as the anchor, Lloyd asks what happens when the deeper thing is gone and only the performance remains.  A Zen-punk meditation on patriotism, performance, obedience, and the rituals that keep a country pretending it hasn’t lost the plot. 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 episode [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/support] 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. No paywalls. Just clarity, chaos, and sacred refusal. Support the show & get bonus episodes: patreon.com/taooflloyd.  link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWFaOHM0ODczck03Yy14bUQxVW56SmpoZC11QXxBQ3Jtc0tuemZNcmRoN25WbW00T0REYl8zSHd4UFlORWpkdXNjYmVpZUlaY3B0ZXpJNkRxaFBUeHNTcWNZbWtrZU84eWx0UTBIQ2hTYXRhU3BvQ1NGN2hvVGljcFlwMkNUczRtM0hzTGdEVjRkcWRtei1SUnN0MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FTaoofLloyd&v=NVzZctZPEAw]

America 250—America Throws Itself a Birthday Party (S2. Chapter 37)

America is turning 250, and Lloyd Dobler is not bringing a casserole. In Chapter 37 of The Tao of Lloyd, America250 becomes the starting point for a darkly funny meditation on patriotism, propaganda, charity, silence, empire, and the difference between celebration and repair. With Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Coinbase — and somehow Cracker Barrel — helping sponsor the national birthday party, Lloyd asks whether America needs fireworks, or whether America needs five minutes of actual stillness. This episode riffs on Chapter 37 of the Tao Te Ching, where the Tao “never does anything, yet through it all things are done,” and asks what might happen if America stopped performing innocence long enough to tell the truth. 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 episode [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/support] 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. No paywalls. Just clarity, chaos, and sacred refusal. Support the show & get bonus episodes: patreon.com/taooflloyd.  link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWFaOHM0ODczck03Yy14bUQxVW56SmpoZC11QXxBQ3Jtc0tuemZNcmRoN25WbW00T0REYl8zSHd4UFlORWpkdXNjYmVpZUlaY3B0ZXpJNkRxaFBUeHNTcWNZbWtrZU84eWx0UTBIQ2hTYXRhU3BvQ1NGN2hvVGljcFlwMkNUczRtM0hzTGdEVjRkcWRtei1SUnN0MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FTaoofLloyd&v=NVzZctZPEAw]

Bonus: The Tao of Lloyd Goes to Edinburgh Fringe

Go Fund me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Tao-of-Lloyd-Goes-to-Edinburgh-Fringe [https://www.gofundme.com/f/Tao-of-Lloyd-Goes-to-Edinburgh-Fringe] Website: https://www.taooflloyd.com/ [https://www.taooflloyd.com/] This is not a traditional Tao of Lloyd episode. There is no Tao Te Ching chapter today. No sorta-kinda guided meditation. No carefully structured spiritual detour through the burning wreckage of American empire. This one is more direct. One year after launching The Tao of Lloyd as a strange little podcast experiment, the show is becoming a live solo theater piece — written and performed by Dennis Trainor Jr. — and heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a full run in August 2026. In this special anniversary episode, Dennis steps out from behind the usual format to talk about how the podcast grew into a stage show, what Edinburgh represents, why this opportunity matters, and why he is asking listeners, friends, and supporters to help fund the next phase. The GoFundMe campaign supports costs connected to Boston rehearsals, travel, London rehearsals and previews, Edinburgh production expenses, marketing, and the thousand small costs that come with getting an independent solo show across the ocean and onto the stage. So yes: this is a transparent donation ask. But it is also a thank-you note, a one-year marker, and a report from the weird little borderland where podcasting, theater, spiritual refusal, Gen X nostalgia, and late-stage everything somehow became one project. If The Tao of Lloyd has meant something to you this past year, please consider supporting the live show. Send a text. Ask a question & I will answer, maybe in a episode [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/support] 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. No paywalls. Just clarity, chaos, and sacred refusal. Support the show & get bonus episodes: patreon.com/taooflloyd.  link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWFaOHM0ODczck03Yy14bUQxVW56SmpoZC11QXxBQ3Jtc0tuemZNcmRoN25WbW00T0REYl8zSHd4UFlORWpkdXNjYmVpZUlaY3B0ZXpJNkRxaFBUeHNTcWNZbWtrZU84eWx0UTBIQ2hTYXRhU3BvQ1NGN2hvVGljcFlwMkNUczRtM0hzTGdEVjRkcWRtei1SUnN0MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FTaoofLloyd&v=NVzZctZPEAw]

The Kids on the Bus (S2. Chapter 36)

Pete Hegseth stood at West Point and gave the graduates a story in which the enemy is legible, the mission is clean, and unity means everyone sings the same song. Lloyd knows that song. He sang it once. On a school bus in 1979, to a girl named Layla who looked out the window and pretended not to hear. Chapter 36 of the Tao Te Ching says the soft overcomes the hard. Lloyd isn't sure he believes that yet. But he's choosing to, for now. 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 episode [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2505793/support] 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. No paywalls. Just clarity, chaos, and sacred refusal. Support the show & get bonus episodes: patreon.com/taooflloyd.  link tree: https://linktr.ee/TaoofLloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWFaOHM0ODczck03Yy14bUQxVW56SmpoZC11QXxBQ3Jtc0tuemZNcmRoN25WbW00T0REYl8zSHd4UFlORWpkdXNjYmVpZUlaY3B0ZXpJNkRxaFBUeHNTcWNZbWtrZU84eWx0UTBIQ2hTYXRhU3BvQ1NGN2hvVGljcFlwMkNUczRtM0hzTGdEVjRkcWRtei1SUnN0MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FTaoofLloyd&v=NVzZctZPEAw]