The Modern Taoist

Ancient wisdom. Modern problems. Real life.
Join Taoist teacher and veteran broadcaster Kit Mann for The Modern Taoist Podcast, where 2,500 years of Taoist philosophy meets the challenges of living in today's world. No mystical promises, no spiritual shortcuts, and no pretending life is always peaceful. Just honest conversations, practical wisdom, and a fresh perspective on what it means to be human.
Three shows every week. One ancient philosophy. A whole new way to look at life.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming, and for a lot of people that means eight weeks of too many events, too much spending, family tension and not enough sleep. In this Weekend Check-In, Kit Mann looks at holiday stress before it starts and gives you a simple way to get ready now.
Through the story of Carol, who hosts Thanksgiving for twenty-two people every year and spends it in tears in the pantry, Kit shows how holiday chaos builds out of small tasks left to pile up. He draws on Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching, “Do the difficult things while they are easy,” and turns it into a thirty-minute plan you can use this weekend: protect two days, cut one tradition nobody would miss, and pick the one sentence you will use when family drama starts.
Practical Taoist philosophy for holiday anxiety, family stress, burnout and slowing down during the busiest time of the year.

What are you afraid of, underneath the spiders and the public speaking? In this episode of The Modern Taoist, Kit Mann looks at four kinds of fear that run people’s lives: fear of the unknown, fear of what other people will do, fear of loss, and fear of failure. He traces each one back to the same root, which is control.
Kit talks about a study where people found waiting on an uncertain outcome more stressful than knowing a shock was coming. He also brings in a mechanic who has kept his business plan in a kitchen drawer for eleven years, a dad who keeps refreshing his teenager’s location app, and a daughter learning to stop correcting her mother, who has dementia. He draws on Chapters 29, 71 and 74 of the Tao Te Ching and on wu wei, the Taoist idea of action that does not force. With those, he lays out a practical way to handle anxiety, worry and overthinking: name the fear, sort what is yours from what is not, take one action, and use your breath to calm the body.
In the listener question, Jimmy in Fort Collins asks how you can live in the present when you have kids heading to college and retirement to plan for. Kit explains where planning ends and worry begins, and what Lao Tzu says about it.
Taoism, the Tao Te Ching and Taoist philosophy for modern life, with practical tools for fear, anxiety and letting go of control.

In Chapter 8 of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu uses water to show how the Tao works in everyday life. Water nourishes everything without trying. It settles in the lowest places. It never forces. And everything flows toward it anyway.
Using the Stephen Mitchell translation, this episode walks through the six instructions at the heart of Chapter 8 — how to live, think, handle conflict, lead, work, and show up for your family — and connects each one to situations people actually face: the manager who controls instead of trusts, the argument that turns into a negotiation, the parent who pushes too hard and wonders why their kid stopped talking to them.
If you have ever felt like you are working harder than the results justify, or that the more you push for something the further away it gets, Chapter 8 is the chapter for you.
Part of the Tao Te Now series on The Modern Taoist — a modern, conversational walk through the complete Tao Te Ching, one chapter at a time.

Grounding is having a moment. Wellness culture calls it earthing. NIH researchers have been studying it. And the Taoist tradition has been practicing it for three thousand years.
In this weekend check-in, Kit explores what it actually means to feel the earth beneath your feet — what the science is starting to confirm, what qigong has always known, and why rooting downward is the one thing most people skip when they are trying to feel more present.
No equipment. No technique. Just ten minutes and bare feet.
The Modern Taoist is a podcast about ancient Taoist philosophy and its practical application to everyday life. New episodes every Tuesday, with weekend check-ins every Friday.