The Shadow Of The Man

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...

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 start...

Episode 24 with Katy Tahja is out now! She is a long-time burner and organizer for Mobility Camp , a service-oriented community in Black Rock City. The discussion centers on radical inclusion , highlighting how the camp provides essential infrastructure—such as wheelchairs, repair services, and accessible art tours —to ensure that individuals with disabilities or injuries can fully participate in...

Episode 23 with Lisa Scheinkopf (AKA Sassy Cat), an Arizona-based Burning Man veteran and Regional Contact . The conversation traces Sheinkopf’s evolution from a first-time attendee in 2011 to a community leader who manages the "Ignited States" theme camp, which provides interactivity through lighthearted events like "mimosas and bad parental advice." A significant portion of t...

Meet Torria Lee (AKA Luscious Blue) as she reflects on nearly two decades of participation in Burning Man and its regional spin-offs. The conversation traces Torria’s evolution from a newcomer in 2006 with the touch-positive Snuggle Town camp to a seasoned veteran involved in ambitious projects like the Pipes of Passion art car and the Bubbles and Boobs camp. Central to their discussion is the tra...

Meet Adriana Roberts , a long-time fixture of the Burning Man community who published the event’s prominent alternative newspapers, Piss Clear and the BRC Weekly . The conversation traces Roberts’ thirty-year history with the festival, beginning in 1993 , and explores her evolution from a participant creating small zines to an independent journalistic voice challenging the event's official or...

Meet Megs (aka Meghan Rutigliano), a longtime Burning Man staff member who discusses the profound personal and professional transformation sparked by the event. The conversation moves from her initial "mind-exploding" visit in 2005 to her thirteen-year career within the organization, where she eventually helped manage its global regional network . Throughout the interview, Rutigliano hig...

Meet Athena Demos, who discusses the evolution of BRCVR , a social virtual reality platform now known as Burner Sphere . Demos details her transition from a long-term Burning Man regional organizer in Los Angeles to a pioneer of digital communal efforts born out of the 2020 pandemic BRC cancellations. She emphasizes that while physical structures may be absent, the Ten Principles —specifically com...

Meet Dan Miller , an original pioneer of Burning Man who has attended every gathering since the inaugural 1986 bonfire on Baker Beach . Miller provides a firsthand historical account of the event’s evolution from a small, radical self-expression ritual among friends to a massive, organized city in the Black Rock Desert . He details his technical role in building and rigging the iconic wooden effig...

Meet Inani Schroinger , a long-time participant who reflects on the evolution of Burning Man culture from the late 1990s to the present. The conversation moves through his early years performing in Pepe Ozan’s burning operas , his time on the DPW and Resto crews , and his eventual leadership in creating the Manticor effigy during the 2021 "Renegade Burn." Central to the text is a critiqu...

Check out episode 16 with Xina Ocasio exploring the transformative power of the Burning Man community . The dialogue moves from Acasio’s initial immersion in rave culture and interactive art to her pivotal role in organizing the first Austin-based village at BRC in 2002. Central to the narrative is her experience of radical self-expression , specifically how the festival provided a safe liminal sp...

This episode of the Shadow of the Man Show features a conversation with a long-time burner known as Nurse , who recounts her extensive history with the Burning Man festival beginning in 1997 . The discussion explores the evolution of the event from its early, less regulated days at Hualapai Playa to its current massive scale, highlighting the transition of her camp, Motel 666 , into an unregistere...

Meet the veteran Burning Man participant from the UK known as Yoms . The conversation explores how Yoms transitioned from an outsider to a deeply committed community leader after a serendipitous encounter with a television broadcast about the event in the late 1990s. Central to the narrative is Yoms’s extensive work in bridging the desert culture with the outside world , specifically through his r...

Meet Patrice Mackey, a long-time Burning Man participant known as Chef Juke , who reflects on thirty years of history and evolution within the event. The conversation transitions from his 1994 arrival at the playa , a time of extreme simplicity when the "Man" stood on the ground and only a handful of cars were present, to his current role managing internal tech support and writing reject...

Welcome to Episode 12 with Amy Bunker , a prolific long-time participant in the Burning Man community . The conversation serves as a professional and personal retrospective, detailing Bunker’s journey from a hesitant first-timer in 2001 to a central figure in the regional network and various operational departments . She explores how the event’s principles of immediacy and gift culture transformed...

Welcome to the first show of 2025 featuring Beth From the show Accuracy Third ( https://accuracythird.com/ ). They are a podcast about Burning Man, or "an oral history of Black Rock City", and they first started their show about 9 years ago. It's a great show and I encourage you to check it out. Meet Beth, a long-term Host for the Accuracy Third podcast, to explore the evolving cult...

This episode of The Shadow of the Man podcast features an interview with Playa Pete , a veteran burner preparing for his thirtieth consecutive year at the Burning Man event. Pete shares his origin story from 1995, recounting how a chance meeting with founder Michael Mikel (Danger Ranger) led to his long-standing role printing official apparel for the organization and the DPW (Department of Public...

In this episode we speak with Tony “Coyote” Perez , a foundational member of Burning Man’s Department of Public Works (DPW) . The conversation serves as a historical retrospective, detailing Coyote’s evolution from a disillusioned San Francisco musician to the City Superintendent responsible for designing the Black Rock City grid . Central to the narrative is the pivotal transition in 1996 , when...

Welcome to Episode 8 with Jennie Kay. Learn about Jenny Kay, a long-time contributor to the Burning Man community , who explores how her conservative evangelical upbringing paradoxically prepared her for leadership within a radical counterculture. The conversation moves from her childhood in Michigan to her pivotal role in organizing regional Burning Man events in Monterey, highlighting her transi...

Our guest today is the long-term Burning Man contributor Andie Grace , known as Action Girl, about her extensive history within the organization and the evolution of the global burner community . AG details her trajectory from a "rank newbie" in 1997 to becoming a central figure in the Regional Network and the lead voice of the Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter, highlighting how the event tr...

Today's guest is Nati Goldman , an influential figure in the Israeli Burning Man community and a founder of Midburn . The conversation explores Goldman’s personal evolution from a seeker of "party culture" to a philosophical advocate for the ten principles, specifically emphasizing how radical inclusion requires a difficult, conscious shift from egoism to altruism. Goldman recounts...

Meet Otto von Danger , a veteran builder and Marine who offers a gritty, behind-the-scenes perspective on the evolution of Burning Man . Moving away from the typical "hippie" narrative, Otto describes his decades of involvement as a professional job rather than a spiritual pilgrimage, highlighting his technical role in constructing the iconic "Man" and elaborate installations l...

This episode we talk with Tia Coleman , a long-term Burning Man participant and leader who has served as a Regional Contact for Las Vegas since 2004. The conversation traces Coleman’s history with the event from her first trip in 1998, exploring how her background in theater and the arts drew her to the desert for authentic self-expression . As a member of the Meta Regional Committee , she explain...

This episode is all about your host, THAT Andi. You are taken from his beginnings in suburban New Jersey to Manhattan, Vermont, San Francisco, and then wind up in Hawaii. You will learn all about how he first went to Burning Man in 1996, started the Hawaii Regional group (Ka Pilina), started the Regional Information Center, started CORE, retired, and has been getting dragged back into the orbit of...

Meet George Pap, a foundational figure in the Burning Man community who served as the first regional contact and helped establish the oldest regional burn in Austin, Texas. The conversation captures Pap’s personal evolution from a solo traveler at the 1997 event to a community leader who transformed his passion for "tiki fest" parties into Burning Man Texas (later Flipside) , an event th...