Burner Podcast

Based in the Bay Area of California, Priscilla Hernandez (aka DJ Priscilla) is a pillar of the burner community.  She is a resident DJ with the Heavy Petting Zoo, a Burning Man camp and mutant vehicle dedicated to building a community of creative dancers and free spirits. In addition to DJing great sets around Burning Man and Regional events, Priscilla hosts a mini camp within the Illumination Vil...

Born on the South Side of Chicago and based in Seattle, Chris Offutt (aka Black Velveteen) is a pillar of the Pacific Northwest creative community and the founder of the Sage Rites record label. Her musical foundation, built on a childhood range of Motown to Mozart, manifested in a career navigating the cultural textures of San Francisco and Seattle, including her 2011 London-based radio show Prog...

Ben Haldeman is backing up our collective memories across the stars Published [3/31/26] Ben Haldeman  is an engineer, explorer, and the visionary founder of  LifeShip  — designing pyramids filled with DNA archives and cultural time capsules to send to the Moon and beyond. A former early employee at  Planet Labs , Ben left to follow a calling that crystallized during a vision quest through the fore...

Alkaline A068: Shamiran (Camp YOUniversal) 📅 [3/18/26] The Soundtrack to Your Burn In this session, we welcome a true sonic ambassador of the global community. Born in Iran and based in Los Angeles, Shamiran is an artist, musician, and sonic selector who has become a mainstay at Camp YOUniversal , known for their Persian Tea House (designed by the legendary Gregg Fleishman). A community activator...

Burner Podcast Presents: Alkaline A067: Piccaya at Afrikaburn 2025 Welcome to the all new, all different ( but mostly the same same ) Burner Podcast Presents Alkaline — the soundtrack to your burn. Our new season opener welcomes back Piccaya , last featured in episode 90 of Burner Podcast , this time sharing one of his many sets from Afrikaburn 2025 . Piccaya is a sonic traveler and storyteller ba...

A Post-Burning Man 2025 chat with 20-year veteran & camp lead Rand Pate The dust has barely settled, and Arash is still shaking it out of his hair—and maybe out of his brain. In this post-Burning Man 2025 debrief, he sits with Rand Pate , a 20-year veteran and long-time camp lead of Bubble Lounge , to unpack what might have been the roughest year on record. From hurricane-force whiteouts and shatt...

Roadtrip to Burning Man 2025 The Annual Pre-Playa Planner™ It's that time again, kids! The Pre-Playa Planner is the yearly tradition where Arash delegates all the actual research to his way-more-responsible guests. This year's dialed-in crew to help you mentally prepare for your adventures ahead: Esquire , founder of Bubble Lounge Saffron aka Sara Barnett , repping Art Support Services (A.S.S.) in...

And on his seventh Burn, Tyler Williams truly came Home For his first six Burns, musician and professional Las Vegas community builder Tyler Williams attended Burning Man the millionaire way — flying in late, partying big, and heading out before the Temple burn. After the tragic death of his friend and boss, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, Tyler returned to the playa — this time sober and with a deeper...

Anthony Bondi refuses to let Las Vegas's arts history disappear For over two decades, Anthony Bondi has been a living archive of Las Vegas' arts and counterculture movements. From his large-scale tactile installations at Burning Man to his massive independent archive, Las Vegas Arts in Print Media, 1990–2015 , Tony has tirelessly documented the ephemeral and forgotten corners of creative expressio...

Burner Podcast Presents The Dispatch  Joseph Mancuso, better known as Joman, is the producer behind the Burner Podcast theme song, a remix of America's "Horse With No Name." In this Dispatch, Arash and Joman catch up about dance music culture, his move from Denver to Austin, and his latest evolution as a video content creator. From viral bootlegs to Beatport charts, Joman's journey weaves through...

The Dispatch – Episode 002: Rat Lady Guest: Rat Lady Recorded on: 2/28/25 Arash hops on a call with Rat Lady of Mobility Camp to discuss practical ways we can all practice Radical Inclusion by making our Burns more accessible for participants with disabilities—and how to bring that mindset into the default world. Fun takeaway: No one gets to be a sparkle pony, not even at Mobility Camp! We don't h...

The Dispatch – Episode 001: Public Menace Guest: Jonny aka Public Menace Recorded on 2/25/25 Jonny, also known as Public Menace , shook up Reddit with his independent 180-page audit of Burning Man. In the inaugural episode of The Dispatch , Arash and Menace hop on a call to chat about some takeaways. Transparency, Transparency, Transparency Burners are usually 10 years ahead on everything—why not...

📅  2/29/2025 The importance of physical community spaces has never been greater. In this episode, we dive into the story of CoLab, San Diego's maker space —where it started, what it took to get to where it is now, and why spaces like this are essential for the future of our communities. The go-live day of this episode marks CoLab's 11th birthday! CoLab's lease began on March 1, 2014 —making it th...

Burn Perimeter Dispatch from the LA Fires In this episode, we take a very personal look at the devastating LA fires, Burners stepping up to help, and the way our community shows up in moments of crisis. Today's episode features a conversation with Burner Podcast regular Dr. Kim Perkins and her husband Ranger Philtopia , both Black Rock Rangers, as they reflect on their experience living just aroun...

Arash reconnects with Halcyon for a lively and candid conversation about Burning Man 2024. In this episode, they kick off by reflecting on Burner culture at large and frustrations with the growing toxicity in online spaces like the Facebook group. From there, they dive into some favorite art pieces, highlights from the playa, and a bit about attendance. They also chat about e-bikes and why having...

The Annual Pre Playa Planner™ For this year's annual Pre Playa Planner, Arash joins Dusty Bottoms, Fantastic Sam, Nikki Darling in Long Beach, CA to geek out about all things Burning Man 2024. As always, this is the episode where Arash outsources all the real work to the his guests. The group chats about art projects we're eager to see, dance floors we love and experiences we're looking forward to...

A collection of voices recorded at Burning Man 2016 Cabina Exuro was a Burner Podcast-sponsored art project designed by Ramiro Martinez Jr. that went to Black Rock City in 2016. Externally, it appeared as a triambic icosahedron sculpture, adorned with intricate laser-cut patterns and LED lights. Upon closer inspection, participants discovered an entryway that transported them into a 1940s-era radi...

An Ego Can't Build a Temple Glitter Kitty embraces community and shadow work in her vision for Burning Man 2024's Temple of Together Lebanese-bred and Brazil-born Caroline Ghosn learned to place a high value on deep connections from an early life lived in a larger variety of cities than your average childhood. The "activist entrepreneur" became Glitter Kitty in 2015 and has brought to the playa th...

Ten Years: A Burner Podcast Memoire Arash reflects on a decade of Burning Man, the Burner community and Burner Podcast Arash recorded the interview portion of the very first episode of Burner Podcast before attending his first Burning Man. With the transformative nature of Burning Man baked into the show, Arash reflects on a decade of growth, adventure and community. Unlike any previous editions o...

Scientifically Proven Quantum Manifestation? Dr. Kim Perkins and Arash talk spirituality and science For the first new episode of 2024 Arash welcomes back one of the Kims (from episode 140) for a fun conversation about the intersection of spirituality and science. In addition to holding the honor of being Arash's previous housemate, Dr. Kim Perkins is an organizational psychologist with a PhD in p...

Episode 148: Christmas in Vegas A Dispatch from Las Vegas with Snarky Santa Arash gets to know a different side of Las Vegas with Randy Winsett AKA Snarky Santa. A father, anarchist, cancer butt kicker and host of Shouting Fire's SIR Radio, Randy brings a mix of deep insight and irreverent humor to this episode, serving as the de facto co-host for Arash's Las Vegas adventure. In a conversation at...

Episode 147: Sarge's Orders Torrey Pines Smith of Sextant fame goes full tech bro Join Arash for a delightful reunion with Torrey Pines Smith, affectionately known as Sarge from Sextant camp. Life's taken some turns for Torrey since his last appliance on Episode 72. He's embraced being family man and launched into entrepreneurial life with his startup, Endiatix. From the dust of BRC to shaping a v...

Episode 146: Black Astronaut Kamal X on love, rage and photography Dive into the world of photographer Kamal X. In this episode, host Arash sits down with Kamal in after as showing of one of his pieces to discuss his powerful book, "Black Astronaut," a culmination of three years of deep work capturing America's chapter of protest. Kamal shares his experiences of global travel and how these adventu...

Episode 145: Stupider Than Burning Man Bat Country blazes a trail of mischief through Black Rock City Gather for a summit with the infamous Bat Country, a camp that emerged from the dust and has grown into a global community. Arash is joined by Handful, Begley, and Kip as they embark on a journey back to their crew's beginnings, from the Mad Max-esque early days of Burning Man to the current LED-i...

Episode 144: The Burn You Need The Super Official Post Burning Man 2023 Official Recap with Halcyon Mud Man, Raining Man, Mud Burn or whichever other remix of the name you're into, it is pretty much collectively agreed that Burning Man 2023 was a doozy! Arash and Halcyon reunite for their annual post Burning Man recap. Topics include the privilege of getting to attend Burning Man, dealing with mud...