ABOUT THE TAO OF LLOYD

What if Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything grew up, got political, and invited you on a spiritual quest?

The Tao of Lloyd imagines Lloyd as a middle-aged dissident broadcasting mixtapes of sacred refusal and midlife mischief from the burned-out cassette deck of the multiverse straight into the algorithmic hellscape of late-stage everything.

The show blends Taoism, meditation, Gen-X cultural memory, and political satire into a calm-but-unruly listening experience. No enlightenment required. Just presence, humor, and a refusal to confuse compliance with wisdom.

Season 1 unfolded as a ten-episode arc exploring quitting, refusal, and spiritual resistance in the Trump 2.0 era, laying the groundwork for the longer Tao-by-Tao journey that follows.

Season 2 (October 2025 – August 2026) takes one chapter of the Tao Te Ching at a time and uses it as a spiritual Molotov cocktail tossed through the Overton Window so, together, we might loosen its hinges before it turns into a prison door.

ABOUT THE CREATOR

The Tao of Lloyd is written, voiced, and produced by Dennis Trainor Jr., a Boston-based actor, writer, and producer with an activist background.

His documentary about Occupy Wall Street, American Autumn, was praised by The New York Times as “calm and smart, offsetting its stridency with discussion, music, even humor, while issuing a call to arms.”

He is also the writer and performer of the Edinburgh Fringe hit Manifest Destiny’s Child, which The Scotsman called “a refreshingly self-aware and honest perspective,” noted for blending political satire with deep cultural critique.

As an actor, recent credits include Loyd in JOB; Henry Wilcox in The Inheritance (Elliot Norton Award winner for Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Production); and Mr. Daldry in In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) —all at SpeakEasy Stage. Other recent work includes How I Learned to Drive (Elliot Norton Award nominee – Outstanding Lead Actor); Macbeth, Let the Right One In, and The Merchant of Venice with Actors’ Shakespeare Project; and The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew with Shakespeare & Company. Additional appearances include New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Company One, Lyric Stage, Soho Rep, The Flea, and The Kraine.