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Description
This is a show about how Burning Man has impacted people, places, and things over time. It is a twice monthly long form interview show with a guest who is invited to tell their story. All of the guests have a history with Burning Man with some going back to beyond the beginning. Shadow Of The Man showcases our guests and allows them to tell their stories in the manner they want and how they see fit to tell it. These are genuine unedited conversations with movers and shakers as well as burners not many have ever heard of. If you are curious about not just what the hell all these people are doing way out in the desert but why they keep coming back year after year, this is the show for you. #burningman #blackrockcity #burningmanpodcast
43 Episodes
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Shadow Shorts #3 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. Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links. Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show. Please rate and review the show on Apple...
Episode 42 with John Law is out now! John goes waaaaay back to being part of the Suicide club in the late 70’s to early 80’s. He is a founding member of the Cacophany Society that gave life to numerous children, namely Burning Man, Santacon, Bay to Breakers salmon run, urban iditarod, Billboard Liberation Front, up to and including modern versions of Cacophany that lives as secret underground societies in San Francisco. This is our longest interview to date and it barely scratches the surface...
Episode 41 with Joshua Martelli is out now! He first encountered Burning Man in the media in the early 2000’s but it took him about 10 years before he was ready to go. In 2009 he was invited by a friend to camp at Camp Zoom (although no one was told he was coming) and made life-long connections there. From 2011-13 he solo camped on the playa before returning to Camp Zoom later. Joshua also revived the Mint 400 offroad race which used to be a Nevada legend decades before. In 2023 he became the...
Shadow Shorts #2 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. Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links. Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show. Please rate and review the show on Apple...
Episode 39 with Debi “Crackerjack” Mansour is out now! Camping with friends she first landed in Black Rock City in 2013. After that first year experience she went back to Rochester, NY and found her local burner community. In 2014 she went to Playa Del Fuego where she started a themecamp called “Crackerjack’s Booty Camp”. She also went to her first upstate NY Regional “POrtalBurn" in 2014 where she set about to volunteer. After that she did an annual “Booty Pageant" and "Crackerjack's Booty C...
Episode 38 with Tex Burner (aka Tex Allen) is out now! He first experienced the Black Rock desert in 2006 when he went to 4th of Juplaya. 3 years later he returned to go to Black Rock City in 2009. His first time out he camped with Unicorn Ranch in Illumination Village. The following year he began to volunteer with the Greeters and Arctica. He gave out over 50,000 red clown noses on playa (and wore a red clown nose) for around 7 years on playa until 2017. Since 2017 he has been an integral pa...
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. Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links. Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show. Please rate and review the show on Apple...
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! He is an elder in the Piute community who has been going to Black Rock City since 2001. He is involved with Protect Thacker Pass which is a group that wants to preserve sacred land that is a historical massacre site from being destroyed by a lithium mine. Dean says traffic is the biggest impact but he has spent many years among friends at Burning Man. This interview was done with Dean on the phone so I apologize in advance for any extra noises. https:/...
Episode 33 with Wolfie is out now! She grew up in Pacifica where she encountered people burning this wooden “Man” on the beach in the early 1990’s. It turns out it was Larry Harvey and early burners replicating their Baker beach experience for a small group back in those early days. Wolfie first went to BRC in 2013 and by her 3rd year she was already a camp lead. She has been a part of Illumination Village (started by Charlie Gattigan around 30 years ago) her entire time going to BRC and now ...
Episode 32 with Kay Morrison is out now! Before discovering Burning Man Kay was involved in the world of protests in Seattle and internationally. She first landed in BRC in 2000 and then camped with the Space Virgins in 2001 (and then Area 47 village). In 2004-5 Seattle started to organize as a Regional group with the first Critical Massive. Kay helped to start Ignition Northwest and became a Burning Man Regional Contact for Seattle, a part she played for 7 years. She then became a member of ...
Episode 31 with Paradox Pollack is out now! Please give it a listen today. He ran away from home and went to San Francisco, almost dying in a fire on the way. Paradox is one of the founders of Cell Space, an iconic event venue in SF where many early Burning Man events were held. He first went to the Black Rock desert in 1991 and was part of Desert Site Works. In 1992 he returned and was part of a 48 hour performance organized by Pepe Ozan that covered the life cycle from conception to death. ...
Episode 30 with Metric is out now. He first went to BRCin 1998 when he worked as a sound engineer in San Francisco. In 1999 he volunteered with the Temple of Ishtar. In 2000 he volunteered with Burning Man and first went to the Ranch. After the first SF Decompression at Club Cocomo he moved out to Gerlach. From 2001-2004 he was Burning Man’s first Ranch Manager. Metric was part of the Man crew from 2001-2019 and from 2004-2019 he was part of the Gerlach/Empire Citizen’s Advisory Board. From 2...
Episode 29 with Diva Marisa is out now. Meet Marisa who first heard about Burning Man as a 12 year old girl living in the bay area by reading about it in a Cacophany Society newsletter. She first hit the playa in 1999 to sing in Pepe Ozan’s opera. Death Guild has been a San Francisco club since 1993, and the themecamp Death Guild/Thunderdome was founded by David King. In 2002 Marisa sang at the first SF decompression and in 2003 she started with Velocity Circus. In 2004 she started working in...
Episode 28 with Monique Schiess is out now. Meet Monique who first landed in Black Rock City in 2004. By 2007 she was co-founding Afrikaburn with Paul Jorgensen. She helped to run Aftrikaburn for 16 years before she was “abruptly let go”. She is currently working on a film about Afrikaburn (see links below). Monique was no stranger to the wild before hitting the playa, she had experience out in the bush in South Africa camping and working as a Ranger. Monique has an incredible story of resili...
Episode 27 the Season Premiere is out now. Meet Michael Mikel (aka Danger Ranger) one of the earliest founding members of Burning Man. He first encountered the Cacophany Society in 1986 and got hooked. In 1988 he showed up at Baker beach at Larry Harvey’s beach burn. In 1990 when the park police shut down the Baker beach “Man burns” Michael helped to convince Larry to bring the Man to the Black Rock Desert for the Cacophany Society’s “Zone Trip”. Michael becomes “Danger Ranger” when he forms ...
Episode 26 the Season One Recap is out now. The inaugural season of the Shadow of The Man show is now over, next week Season 2 will launch with the Season Premiere EP 27 with none other than Danger Ranger! Learn about what happened behind the scenes in Season 1 and get a sneak peek at Season 2 This episode recounts the wobbly but promising beginning of this show and all of the startup problems the show faced. Over time these issues were ironed out and the show started to get more regular and ...
Episode 25 with Caveat Magister is out now! Learn all about Burning Man’s philosopher laureate and his backstory. He first got involved in Regionals before moving to San Francisco where he first went to Black Rock City in 2006. From the beginning he volunteered with Media Mecca eventually becoming staff (which he did for 5 years, over time becoming their volunteer coordinator). In 2010-11 he started to write for the Burning Man Journal where he has written many articles over the years. After ...
Episode 24 with Katy Tahja is out now! Katy first went to Black Rock City in 2012 following her daughter who had been going for 10 years. She thought it would be a one and done trip especially as she uses crutches and it was difficult for her to get around. She found Mobility Camp and got hooked, she has since returned year after year helping to organize the camp. Katy also writes articles about BRC for the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Some of her articles over the years include stories about ...
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