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Description
Why do people go to Burning Man year after year, some for decades? Isn't it all a big party or is there more to it than that? The Shadow Of The Man show explores the impact and influence Burning Man has had on people over time in their own words. New long form interviews from a wide range of participants come out weekly. You will hear from the founders to key volunteers to regular participants. No one person has the answer to what Burning Man is all about but by listening to these series of interviews you get a clue to the glue that binds all of these diverse people (from all over the world) together. Everyone who has been says Burning Man has changed their lives, are you curious to hear what that is all about? #burningman #blackrockcity #burningmanpodcast
50 Episodes
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Episode 50 with Naomi Most is out now! Meet Naomi Most who relates her early, unscripted solo adventures—such as her first trip in a Jetta that broke down—to her later involvement in more organized camps like the "Human Car Wash" and the experimental performance art scene at Thunderdome. Central to their discussion is the concept of serendipity, where Naomi explains how the festival’s environment fosters intuitive discovery and unique human connections that are difficult to replicate in defau...
Shadow Shorts #5 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Meet Sigardona, a Russian-born Californian who progressed from a curious first-time attendee to a camp leader managing a unique underwater photography installation. Their conversation highlights the deep social bonds formed through shared adversity and the way the "playa" inspires participants to think outside the box in their daily lives. His story explains the lasti...
Episode 48 with Joseph Buchman is out now! He is a former professor and census volunteer, who details his transformative journey within the Burning Man community. The narrative follows his transition from a grieving, skeptical Scout Master to a dedicated participant after a religious-like experience at the Temple helped him heal from a family tragedy involving suicide. Central themes include the healing power of communal art, the logistical complexity of the Black Rock City Census, and the en...
Episode 47 with Quest Skinner is out now! Meet Quest Skinner, a multi-talented artist and "poly-camperous" burner who shares her transformative decade-long journey at Burning Man. The conversation centers on Skinner’s evolution from a first-time attendee in 2015 to a vital leader in Art Support Services, where she now utilizes her expertise in fabrication and logistics to help artists realize massive projects amidst the harsh desert elements. She emphasizes the importance of community resilie...
Shadow Shorts #4 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Meet an Australian attendee named Mel, who talks about the concept of personal recalibration, exploring how Black Rock City's surreal, Mars-like landscape and commitment to artistic expression allow adults to rediscover a lost sense of childlike curiosity and play. Mel highlights the importance of immediacy, using the metaphor of an approaching storm to illustrat...
Episode 45 with Nicholas Powers is out now! Meet Nicholas Powers, a professor and reporter who details his decades-long journey through Burning Man. His story follows Powers’ evolution from a "lone wolf" seeker to the founder of a people of color camp, highlighting how the festival acts as a catalyst for human solidarity and deep psychological healing. Central to their discussion is the idea that the harsh desert environment—particularly during the recent "mud burn"—strips away superfici...
Episode 44 with Erin Douglas is out now! Meet Erin Douglas, the visionary creator of the Black Burner Project. The conversation traces Douglas’s evolution from a hesitant first-time attendee in 2017 to a prominent community leader who uses portraiture and storytelling to increase the visual identity and inclusion of people of color at Burning Man. Central to her story is Douglas’s transition from a career in finance to one in creative photography, a shift that culminated in her landmark 2022 ...
Shadow Shorts #3 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Meet Angelina to explore how Burning Man fosters profound personal growth. Angelina describes how the event allowed her to reclaim her creative identity through fire dancing and art, providing a necessary emotional balance to her highly analytical professional life. A central theme of the discussion is the shift in perspective from impossibility to empowerment, ...
Episode 42 with John Law is out now! Meet John Law, a foundational figure in the San Francisco underground art scene. He is here to promote an upcoming documentary about SantaCon, while simultaneously tracing the cultural lineage that connects the Suicide Club, the Cacophony Society, and the early years of Burning Man. Law emphasizes that these movements were rooted in a philosophy of creating one’s own culture through collaborative, non-commercial, and often transgressive experiences. He off...
Episode 41 with Joshua Martelli is out now! Meet Joshua Mortelli, who explores the deep intersections between Burning Man subculture and his professional life as an off-road race promoter. The conversation details Mortelli’s evolution from a "digital burner" studying online forums to a seasoned theme camp leader for a collective known as Camp Zoom, emphasizing the importance of year-round community and ancestral creative draws. Central to the dialogue is the concept of knowledge transfer, as ...
Shadow Shorts #2 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Meet Jonathan who discusses his transition from a long-time observer to an active participant and first-time volunteer for emergency services. Their dialogue highlights the logistics of radical self-reliance, as Jonathan travels from Hawaii with minimal gear to participate in the event's rituals of renewal and catharsis. Ultimately, the episode illustrates how the cul...
Episode 39 with Debi “Crackerjack” Mansour is out now! Meet Debbie "Cracker Jack" Mansour, a dedicated leader in the regional Burning Man community. The conversation explores the tension between Black Rock City purists and those who find deep meaning in smaller events, ultimately arguing that being a "burner" is defined by embracing the culture and ten principles rather than geographical location. Mansour recounts her transformation from a sheltered background to a "neurospicy" community lead...
Episode 38 with Tex Burner (aka Tex Allen) is out now! Meet Tex Allen, a longtime member of the Burning Man community who shares his journey from a "weird kid out of suburbia" to a prominent performance artist. The conversation explores the transformative power of presence and radical gifting, specifically through Tex’s two major long-term projects: distributing over 50,000 clown noses to bypass social barriers and founding the Church of Hugs to foster human connection. Tex describes how thes...
Shadow Shorts #1 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time. This episode features Liz, who reflects on her seventeen-year history with Burning Man. The conversation highlights how the event serves as a sacred, collaborative space that fosters human connection, gender fluidity, and ...
Episode 36 with Harley Dubois is out now! In 1988 She was enrolled at the Berkeley Psychic Institute when she found a great apartment in SF at 1907 Golden Gate. Over the next few years she unwittingly held afterparties for Cacophany Society events. In 1990 when the SF park police shooed away Larry Harvey and friends from Baker beach a meeting was convened in her living room to decide what to do with this “Burning Man”. She didn’t take the bait originally in 1990 but after hearing from the “Zo...
Episode 35 with Stuart Mangrum is out now! He has worn many hats over the years, currently known as the host of the Burning Man Live podcast. Start has been a member of the Cacophany society for many years and first hit the playa in 1993. His first year at Black Rock City he was roped into doing the playa’s first newspaper, the Black Rock Gazette which he was the editor of for a few years. In 1995 he started what is arguably the first real themecamp (Tiki camp) that was designed in advance an...
Episode 34 with Dean Barlese is out now! Meet Dean Barlese, a Paiute elder, to explore the complex relationship between the Burning Man festival and the indigenous community whose ancestral lands host the event. Barlese reflects on the historical growth of the gathering since 1990, noting how it has transitioned from a small nuisance to a source of mutual support through solar projects, emergency funding, and cultural exchanges like the land blessing ceremonies. However, the dialogue also hig...
Episode 33 with Wolfie is out now! Meet Wolfie, the current mayor of Illumination Village, an established and art-focused camp at the Burning Man. The conversation explores her decades-long history with the event, beginning with a chance encounter with the festival's founders at a beach burn in the 1990s and evolving into her sophisticated role as a community leader. Wolfie details the logistical complexities of managing a large-scale village on the Esplanade, emphasizing the shift from ...
Episode 32 with Kay Morrison is out now! Meet Kay Morrison, a long-time Burning Man organizer and founding board member of the nonprofit Burning Man Project. The conversation traces Morrison's journey from her roots in non-violent direct action protests to her accidental discovery of the festival in 2000, illustrating how her background in activism shaped her appreciation for the event’s gift economy and communal values. They discuss the evolution of the culture, specifically the rise of regi...
Episode 31 with Paradox Pollack is out now! Meet Paradox Pollock, an artist and performer who reflects on the experimental origins of Burning Man. Pollock describes his early involvement with Desert Site Works, a collective that staged deeply immersive, 48-hour rituals on the Nevada playa long before the event became a mainstream phenomenon. These performances, which explored the human life cycle from conception to death, served as the foundational creative blueprint for the large-scale opera...
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