Burning Man LIVE

Thunderdome has been part of Black Rock City for 25 years. Marisa Winter has led it for most of that time. One need not experience it to benefit from the wisdom of a high-profile, high-intensity theme camp. Marisa and Stuart talk through the leadership structure and community practices that result in Thunderdome's chaotic harmony of performance, showmanship, and cathartic “consensual violence.”  M...

Most people in Black Rock City live together in placed camps, aka theme camps, the most unique aspect of this unique event. BRC has 1200 camps. At the intersection of Communal Effort, Self-Expression, and Immediacy, theme camps gift a uniquely decommodified ‘third place’ of offerings and ambiance. At this annual symposium, staff and volunteers share how they gift their interactive camps to partici...

Solar power is simple now, thanks in part to Burners who gift the power of the sun. The Burners in this episode also gift steamed rolls with savory fillings, called bao — so much delicious bao. The theme camp “Bao Chicka Wow Wow” has been a part of Black Rock City for a decade. Its campmates share the prosperity of bao with artist groups, volunteer teams, and participants lucky enough to find thei...

Explore the magic monuments of Black Rock City 2025. Katie Hazard, Director of Art, leads the selection, placement, and installation of artwork,  and she leads Burning Man's art grant selection committees.  The ARTery is in the center of Black Rock City, slightly offset like the human heart. It’s the epicenter of art support for nearly 400 art pieces, from towering sculptures to immersive environm...

Legend whispers of a time when Burning Man was a lawless Eden, a fiery playground of unbridled do-ocracy; no rules, just pure creative chaos. But as Black Rock City has grown into a thriving metropolis, so has the need for structure. We've gone from jokey forms for an ‘artistic license’ to complex permit obligations. We’ve gone from giving ourselves permission to taking on a system that can feel o...

Mutant vehicles! Theme camps! Art experiences! It all emanates from the community… overlapping circles of people who are everywhere between being newcomers and seasoned, local and global, young and old. Andie Grace talks with next-gen Burners Taylor Andrews, Kat Ebert, Mani Senthil, and Whitney Wilhelmy about how to find your crew like you never thought possible. They break down barriers and clear...

Hundreds of people create the temple in Black Rock City. It’s a community intent on creating a work of art that is a space for people to grieve and revive. For the first few years of Black Rock City we didn't have a temple. Now, people can't imagine living without it. Each year, participants create messages, tributes, and altars for who and what they want to release. The event culminates with the...

Disasters happen. Communities come together to recover and rebuild. Governments and NGOs help however they know how.   Will Heegaard sees every disaster as a chance to build back greener. His non-profit provides power and water from nature. · power from the sun – instead of gas generators · water from the air – instead of plastic water bottles He helped with disaster relief from hurricanes in Flor...

Back again by popular demand: more tales from Burning Man’s oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and talk with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it. Hear stories of early technology on the playa, in Silicon Valley, and on the internet.  · Andie Grace, aka Actiongrl, interviews from the vantage of having co-created Burning Man’s world of communications, from Me...

He is a celebrated author, entrepreneur, leadership maven, and a founding Board Member of Burning Man Project. He’s a serial contributor to the culture and the cause. In this episode, Chip and Stuart explore how to use the 10 Principles to make conversations interesting and how a description of Black Rock City always becomes a riddle. They resist the urge to quiz newbies on the 10 Principles, whil...

Burners often speak about the work it takes to prepare their art, art car, or camp for Black Rock City, but for many, it doesn’t end there. A project sparked in the desert or at Regional Events can take on a life of its own, continuing year-round in surprising ways. What happens when a camp or mutant vehicle takes a break from Black Rock City? After all the Communal Effort devoted to their playa p...

Tom Price co-founded Burners Without Borders, Black Rock Solar, and a company that gifts clean-burning kitchens to people in Kenya. Tom talks about the weather, specifically hurricanes, and how Burners Without Borders started and grows despite extreme circumstances because Burners are extreme! Tom’s tales of adventure include paperwork pranks and ad hoc Cajun catharsis. If Burning Man is a permiss...

Academics from everywhere experiment, collaborate, and even interpret our stories of "This one time at Burning Man." In this episode, Stuart talks with people from Burning Nerds, an annual gathering of academics in Black Rock City. They keep it light, though; not too many unnecessarily fancy words.  Dr Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä describes the technique used by the Burning Man Project that gives more pow...

Everywhere?  Regional events actively align with Burning Man's 10 Principles. 85 official events happen in 30 countries, with collectively more participants and more art grants than the original Nevada event. After 25 years, the combined regional presence is huge, diverse, and evolving, and it all started in one place: Black Rock City. Whether you're Burning in New York or New Zealand, all backroa...

Thousands of people volunteer each year in Black Rock City, for days, weeks, or months. Add to that the volunteers at the many Regional events around the world and it’s more than can be counted on fingers and toes.  Why do we volunteer? Is it because we feel we received a gift and we want to pay it back, or pay it forward? Is it the meditation of hard work in a hard place adding a dimension to our...

Burning Man doesn't make itself. The people who share their time and treasure, they create this weird wonder. Each of these people have stories about how Burning Man influenced their lives and how their lives influenced Burning Man.  The Flaming Tuba Guy is one of these people. His name is David Silverman aka Tubatron. Andie Grace talked with him about how his animation career started, how his mus...

Allow us to introduce you to the people who called the Black Rock Desert “home” way before we did. This is your backstage pass to the original Burners of the Great Basin: The Pyramid Lake Paiute.  Strap in for a road trip that's part history lesson, part cultural exchange, and essential listening for when you wonder, "Who lived here before we showed up in tutus?" We're not just passing through, we...

Marian Goodell, CEO of Burning Man Project, talks with a lively audience as part of Robot Heart’s Residency in Oakland, California. She is joined by Candace Locklear (aka Evil Pippi), Erin Douglas of the Black Burner Project, and Robot Heart’s Justin Schaffer and Satya Kamdar. It’s casual. It’s layered. It’s a room of Burners. What constitutes culture jamming? Where does Burning Man bridge the div...

Take a trip through the puzzle of porta-potties at a free-range event, highway happenings, and the new news about prep. This is deeper than “What is MOOP?” This is the ART of Leaving No Trace. It’s part of the Burning Man ethos, and it’s why Black Rock City is the world's largest Leave No Trace event. Now nearly 100 other Burning Man events around the globe adhere to this attitude, this mindset. I...

Burning Man culture brings people together across all kinds of divides, yet we’re seeing an uptick of intolerance toward art and experiences in our community. The default world is often divided by ideology, religion, and politics. Could that division seep into this culture that aspires to welcome everyone? How can we navigate the turbulent waters between, say, Radical Self-expression and Radical I...

Tony “Coyote” Perez may be the best at thriving (and not dying) at Burning Man. He is the Black Rock City Superintendent, the Burning Man OSHA Instructor, and the 26-year Burner whose job it is to put himself in harm's way and then get out of his own way! Sit in on a chuckling conversation between Stuart and Coyote. They put the wisdom in wise-crack. It’s not because they’re so smart; it’s because...

400 works of art don’t just appear as if in a desert mirage. Well, they do, but not without a lot of people, tools, and funds. Planners are planning. Makers are making. Art grants are granting! Crews all over the world are creating installations for Black Rock City.  Katie Hazard, Director of Burning Man Project’s art department curates some artist's tales for us. Hear their stories in their voice...

“While there are many beloved mutant vehicles out there, El Pulpo, in both of its incarnations, is the most ‘beloved.’”  ~Chef Juke, Communications lead for the Department of Mutant Vehicles El Pulpo Magnífico is a 28-foot tall giant octopus, a demented windup toy, a mobile kinetic sculpture with articulating legs, eyes, and mouths. It spews fire from its extremities and has been stealing the lime...

Back by popular demand, more stories from Burning Man's oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and talk with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it. Stuart and Andie remember to remember the most memorable parts. Here’s a fresh batch: Chris Radcliffe, artist, con artist, prankster, and shadow founder of Burning Man (perhaps), shares stories of how the Cacophony So...

Burners from around Europe gather to teach and learn and to conjure ideas for the future. Burning Man’s 7th European Leadership Summit just happened, and we recorded some conversations for you. Passionate people from the corners of Europe share with Stuart and kbot what they get from Burning Man culture and what they gift back to it. Hear a cultural spice drawer of stories about how they persevere...