The Shadow Of The Man

Episode 51 with Cab Spates is out now! Meet Cab Spades, a long-time participant in Burning Man and a community leader in Hawaii. Cab talks about his history with the event since 2005, detailing the logistical evolution of the festival from a seamless, low-tech gathering to a complex operation involving massive shipping containers and permanent infrastructure. Cab explains the concept of Buddhist e...

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’...

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 "...

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 h...

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...

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 ....

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...

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 fro...

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 cen...

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 creatin...

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-r...

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 participat...

Episode 39 with Debi “Crackerjack” Mansour is out now! Meet Debbie "Cracker Jack" Mansou r, 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...

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 t...

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 serv...

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 wi...

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...

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, emergenc...

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 l...

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...

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 cyc...

Episode 30 with Metric is out now. Meet Metric , a long-time resident of Gerlach and a pivotal figure in the structural evolution of Burning Man . The conversation traces his journey from a San Francisco sound engineer in the 1990s to the manager of the Black Rock Desert ranch highlights how individual initiative and "hustle" helped transform the event from a transient gathering into a y...

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 fi...

Episode 28 with Monique Schiess is out now. Meet Monique, a pivotal co-founder of AfrikaBurn , the largest regional Burning Man event. The conversation explores the evolution of the burn movement in South Africa, detailing how Schiess and a small group of "renegades" adapted the desert festival model to a landscape defined by extreme economic inequality and a history of activism. A signi...

Episode 27 the Season Premiere is out now. Meet Michael Mikel (aka Danger Ranger)  a foundational figure in the Burning Man community and a co-founder of the Cacophony Society . He details the movement’s origins in the Suicide Club , a 1970s group dedicated to living intensely through urban exploration and absurdist pranks . The narrative traces the evolution of these "experiences beyond the...