About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of flexibility in life and its relation to youth, drawing on principles from the Tao Te Ching and the ideas of Sarah Allan.

It is important to be flexible rather than brittle in life, in our families, at work, and when it comes to entire nations. After discussing several recent events in the world news and our lives, we discuss the principle in Tao Te Ching 76 that flexibility is related to youth and life but rigidity is associated with death. In other words, we should bend rather than break as we exist in the wins of time. We introduce but do not fully tease out the thesis of Sarah Allan, that we who are conditioned by Western thought should avoid realizing that nature (and water in particular) does not serve as an illustration for divine and abstract realities, but rather is the root metaphor itself and arguably even the root reality.

People in this episode

Hosts: Stacie Mallinson, Jeff Mallinson

Topics covered

• flexibility
• rigidity
• Taoism
• youth
• nature
• Western thought

Keywords

• flexibility
• rigidity
• Tao Te Ching
• youth
• nature
• Western thought
• Sarah Allan

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tao Te Ching

More episodes of Protect Your Noggin

• Reflections on the Flow of Water · June 27, 2026 · 1h 20m
• How States Use the Fear of Death · April 12, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Are We in Hopeless Times? · April 4, 2026 · 1h 12m
• How to Be Happy according to Aristotle and Lao Tzu · March 20, 2026 · 1h 12m
• Letting Go of Dogmatism · March 15, 2026 · 59 min
• A Taosurfer's Buyer's Guide · March 8, 2026 · 1h 42m

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