His huge steel sculptures have graced Black Rock City for decades, then found forever homes in cities, festivals, and private collections around the world. Hear veteran structural sculptor Michael Christian go deep and wide about his Burning Man art, from a Bone Arch to a 65-foot tall tower. He shares about his installation "Down the Drain," a commentary on human alignment or misalignment... or maybe it’s about toilets blowing kisses at each other! He talks with Stuart about the shift from a "lone artist" mindset to community collaboration, and how to get everything done despite a storm or a lost box of bolts. They tinker with the qualities of hubris and humility. They get real about why they keep returning to the collective happening in the dust. How does he follow intuition more than a thesis? How does he discover the meaning of his art only after he has built it? How did ‘out of the box’ thinking become a 30 year career? These questions are answered with more questions in this episode right here.

RootHub (aka Aloha) weaves the core values and shared struggle of building Black Rock City and his work in Hawai‘i. He draws inspiration from the Hawaiian people’s concept of kuleana (responsibility to the land and community). When he’s not building BRC with DPW, or playing music to amplify people’s stories, he’s diverting food waste from landfills and incinerators into much needed, nutrient-dense soil for growing food. He does this through his companies. The names say it all: · Full Circle Solutions Hawaii · Leftover Love Company ("We love your leftovers") Hear how ingenuity learned on the playa—along with a sense of humor—allows him to overcome hurdles and create meaningful change in BRC and in Hawai’i, even with the naive tourists. Through sweet story and song, he shares how to combine innovation with tradition, to lift the stone without lifting the weight of the stone.

He brought theme camps and art installations to Black Rock City, and yes, he DJed! Now he brings the spirit of kindness and collaboration (and Do-ocracy) into creating public policy. He co-founded a Burning Man Regional nonprofit. He directed a cultural arts center. He collaborated on cultural policy for racial equity, social justice, and creative sustainability. He ran the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. He now creates affordable housing through community development projects. He says that nonprofit and public sector work is open source, “so take it, learn from it, use it, adaptively reuse it.” Hear Andie Grace ask him how we can make it work where we live. “When you go to the playa and you're in this decommodified environment, all you have is how you show up... I've learned how to approach community-building through collaboration and kindness, and a real spirit of genuine curiosity. As long as you stay curious, a lot can be possible.”

“I think therefore I am.” ~Descartes John Jennifer adds: I care therefore we are… and you cannot think your way to ‘we’ He is a poet, an architect, and a cultural instigator. He helped create The Museum of No Spectators which includes Burning Man art of snark and social justice, but no velvet ropes. He’s a paradox embracer. In a world of binaries, he asserts that between black and white is not a gradient of gray; between black and white is all the conceivable colors. Hear him philosophize about different styles of art and artists, from avant garde to architecture, from Salvador Dalí to Frank Lloyd Wright. He and Stuart explore how a glittery clothespin alligator and a museum-grade sculpture both share the humanity of the giver. They explore playa art — genre-defying, genre-defining — and the value of both fine art and participatory art at Burning Man. They explore how creative expression went from being seen as a hobby to a human need, and how creative community proliferates. Listen in on their profound and playful chat. 🎙️🔥

She’s a longtime senior leader of the Black Rock Rangers and the principal of the Gerlach K-12 School. Keeper lives year-round in Gerlach, one of the smallest and most remote towns in the US, and the closest community to Black Rock City. In this storytelling episode, she shares her unique perspective on blending the worlds of Burning Man and rural life. She tells the tales of keeping the town’s school open after the local mine closed, transforming it into an all-ages institution of families. She shares about how locals offer a year-round outpost for helping townsfolk and visitors stay safe and thrive. Keeper’s dual roles—Ranger and Principal—are deeply informed by the principles of Gifting, Civic Responsibility, and Radical Inclusion. Woven in is the philosophy of building supportive environments where everyone feels they “belong here.” How? And how does a school that is barely on the map support its kids to be local ambassadors and worldly humans? Hear how now! And in the words of Ranger Keeper (and Bill & Ted), be excellent to each other!

Black Rock City has an airport, a hospital, a post office... and yes, an observatory! For a decade, the Black Rock Observatory has served as a portal to the cosmos, bringing deep space to the desert. Father-and-son Zoom and Robin Newhouse are at the helm of the observatory that houses several telescopes for viewing planets, galaxies, and even our sun. They offer a museum of meteorites that are billions of years old, and they even have custom tarot cards. The Observatory's theme camp serves as an expert nexus: It is home to Space Talks with physicists and professors who are usually only available within academic halls or behind NASA’s walls. And they even have Space Deck tarot cards! They bring these offerings to Burning Man Regional events, festivals, and eclipses worldwide, but they save the observatory structure itself for Black Rock City. Hear them share stories of science and spirituality, and how they garner shared humanity from the cosmic perspective that is viewable through this lens. They explore awe and expand perspective. It’s the hard work of building and running a theme camp made worthwhile in that single moment of cosmic connection. Listen in and look up!

Recorded in Black Rock City, you can hear the grainy gravitas of their voices... For decades now, Jon Sarriugarte, Kyrsten Mate, their daughter and their team build mobile art. From a meter maid cart turned space shuttle, to a custom copper retro fire snail on wheels, their creations make up part of BRC's moving landscape. They built a trilobite to ride, a gilded golden zeppelin car, and a noir submarine buggy. Then there are the Serpent Twins. Back in 2011, when the playa glowed with now outdated EL wire, these 50-foot long slithering dragons rippled with color from a touch of their LED skin. What about this green insect rocket? Project: EMPIRE returned to BRC with more sights, sounds, and stories. It’s a NASA spaceship and a giant bug, a bewildering blend of art, engineering, and a delightfully conspiratorial backstory… On playa we tracked down Jon and his daughter Zolie who has been Burning her entire life. They shared stories of the absurd early days, and the adventure of navigating the desert in a two-ton masterpiece. We talked about bringing radical self-reliance to the default world, and the mechanics of a legacy built, piece by painstaking piece, in the name of art.

Hear the stories of the art and artists. Black Rock City hosts 400 artworks from around the world. This episode features 12 of them, and this year’s Temple. This is a sonic journey of artist's recordings and chats with Burning Man Project's Director of Art, Katie Hazard. Desert Arts Preview is your chance to step behind the scenes and listen to the process of creating interactive, collaborative, community-built artworks. This episode explores: · The Sphinx Gate - Mareesa Stertz & Tania Abdul · Sinksphere - Scott (Scottysoltronic) Whitaker · Afterlife Reincarnate - Adrian (Blitzy) Tay · Resilience - Whitney Webb · Moonlight Library - James Gwertzman (Moonlight Collective) · Desert Air Oasis: BreathCore 7 - Elnara Nasirli (MXNZM) · One Tin Soldier - Mark Deem (Misfit Toy Crew) · Black Rock City Chicken Ranch - Rob Brown, Alysha Cypher, & Aviva Kinoko · Disco Snail - Alyssa Oliveira (Alpine Artists Collective) · DROP - Auli Uiboupin · Pillar of Po Tolo - Antwane Lee (Solar Shrine Collective) · Rose Wonders - Thomas Dambo · Temple of the Deep - Miguel Arraiz

REMASTERED FOR 2025: Our most popular episode of all time. Listen in as longtime Burners talk about the dynamic aspects of thriving in Black Rock City: mental, physical, material, and relational.Andie, kbot, Molly, Stuart, and Vav explore: · socks secrets · FOMO variants · saying yes and saying no · giving and accepting help · No Friends Monday · and much more and other and new! Featuring cameos from longtime Burners: Anjelika, Chef Juke, Crimson Rose, DA, Dave X, Halcyon, KJ, and Lulu Lurine. They discuss doing it all, doing it right, and doing it wrong, as access to being real. Don’t just pack. Prepare. Here’s how to have BRC overwhelm you in a good way.

Zander was the executive director of The Long Now Foundation, dedicated to long term thinking. He also helped build their library, a book club for the end of the world, with all the titles we would want to rebuild civilization, if needed. He is one of the brains behind the 10,000-Year Clock, designed to tick off the years, and chime the centuries. He’s now co-creating the future of the web at Automattic. He and his team are bringing a library to Black Rock City, to the World’s Fair pavilion under The Man. It’s a refreshing opposite. Like his theme camp inside a refrigerator truck NOT being hot, this library is about NOT being burnt. It’s an ephemeral manual for civilization. We the participants will choose what books to save from burning. Zander shares stories on the effects of books, websites, and rituals, as well as Burning Man’s past, present, and future.

AI is a context changer, a shaker upper, and a force multiplier to what our human minds can do. Andie says that AI is a major philosophical shift in humanity, and when this kind of thing happens, the first people she goes to are artists and academics. Andie and Stuart talked with a few artists and academics about their AI infused art coming to Black Rock City. They share their dreams and nightmares, and how to 'go beyond.' · Chad Elish — Verse-O-Matic · Kate Greenberg, Deva Temple, Eric Vicenti — "Out the Other" · Dr Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä, Kiana Kaiser, Michael Zeltner — Burning Stories & Burner AI This is transforming personal stories, creating unique dialogues between humans and the machines that reflect us, the good, the bad, and the ugly… and the beautiful… and the surprising. Here is how artists conjure creativity and empathy using AI at Burning Man, a home for art to push against and learn from.

Kevin Kelly is a leading thinker of the digital age. The founding editor of Wired Magazine, he helped produce the Whole Earth Catalog, and an early internet pillar called the WELL. He is a journalist, an artist, and a longtime member of the Burning Man community. He is a radical optimist. The future is a construct of the collective imagination. We see utopian stories as too pie-in-the-sky. We have a morbid curiosity for dystopian stories. What’s in between? Iterative improvement. Protopia. Delve into this conversation on cultural narratives, the transformative potential of AI, and the context shift into lifelong-learning.

Black Rock City's soundscape is a wild ride from Afro-punk to Zydeco. This episode explores the why and how of two styles: the thumping electronic dance music that makes BRC a DJ's Mecca the anything-goes improv of jazz, a dusty mirror to the Burner spirit Stuart, a self-proclaimed EDM newbie, gets a crash course from a DJ in the know. He chats with a legendary DJ about how Burning Man transmogrifies DJ culture into something utterly unique. It’s a refreshing deep dive for aficionados! Then, Allie spins the radio dial through BRC's sonic smorgasbord and tunes into jazz. For decades, the Playa Jazz Cafe has been hosting live musicians in a dreamy, pop-up club. Camp lead and "hack” jazz musician Neil Kelly shares stories of serendipity, alchemy, and in-the-moment vibes of jazz at Burning Man. What's the harmony between a big-name beat-dropper and a jazz flow pro? BRC magic cannot be bottled without a loss of taste and potency. You just gotta be there.

Leo is a pioneering light artist, bringing teams and tech together to activate buildings, bridges, and bastions. He started Burning in 1994, founded Disorient camp, and is part of Black Rock City every year. Here he shares his journey from crafting a single beacon at his tent to leading monumental art projects that reshaped skylines. He illuminated the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the historic bridges of London, and projects everywhere from NYC to Tokyo. Join Leo and Stuart on how the open-source innovation of BRC impacts the default world. Leo shares his process for conjuring tech, from customizing LED fixtures to coding sequences. He describes how artists can engage with their communities outside of their comfort zones. He tells stories of the convening power of photons as an artistic medium, as a digital campfire for all. Hear him flip the switch, and stay until the brilliant end.

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.” Marisa shares insights gleaned from decades of theme camp operation, like · Letting people make non-permanent mistakes allows them to own the lessons · Prioritizing community is never the wrong answer · Making hard decisions ASAP attracts quality people · How to schedule your crying day! Listen in on their laughter, and tolerate the cringe stories (that prove Thunderdome is not cosplay), and you will be rewarded with the inspiration and institutional knowledge of the infamous Death Guild Thunderdome.

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 participants. There’s an art and a science to it. These highlights are about the art of it. · Bryant Tan (aka Level Placerman): head of Placement · Andie Grace: Producer in the Philosophical Center · Charlie Dolman: Director of Event Operations · DA (aka Dominic Tinio): Environmental Restoration Manager · Harley K Dubois: Founder & Chief Cultural Officer · Stuart Mangrum: Director of the Philosophical Center and a keen crew of Placement Team volunteers: · Bravo · Cosmic · Governess · Hepkitten · Huntress · KGB · Razzmatazz Hear how it started, how it’s going, and how Burners create these unique and interactive passion projects.

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 their camp or their pop-up “restaurant row,” all powered by custom solar kits. David Hau (Chairman Bao), Marcus De Paula (Next Level), and their campmates also refined their solar systems to power a charging station for EVs and e-Mutant Vehicles. They share their learnings with neighboring camps, the Temple Builders Guild, and us right here in this episode. This is how to wean off gas generators, or bring more power to your offerings at BRC, your Regional event, your home, or even the collapse of civilized civilization. This conversation is lively and informative. It’s a feel-good story set for foodies and those of us growing into gifting and solar energy.

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 environments. Before these art projects are sourced, crafted, and assembled with everything from hot glue to heavy equipment, they are first conceptualized by artists and engineers. Burning Man’s Honoraria project grants 76 of these art projects about half of the funding they need, a total of $1.3 million. Katie and Stuart explore how to foster accessibility and agency in artist groups. They describe some of the installations coming this summer, from interactive Sphinxes to a sphere of sinks, from a lost troll of sustainability to a fire-spinning pigeon. Some of the experiences include: · an inflatable black cloud from Ukraine · an Indigenous deer destined for ceremonial land · an Afrofuturist pillar with an ancient modern secret · a screaming booth that displays visual reactions to sound · a woman with a merry-go-round crown, jump rope dreadlocks, and swing earrings Listen in on this sonic journey of how Burner art is co-created and curated, and how BRC’s surreal skyline is taking shape.

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 overwhelming. How can we better balance radical self-expression with the necessities of a city? How can we purge bureaucracy, or are all those old rules essential for safety and sustainability? This episode delves into the "agonizing reappraisal" within the Burning Man Project, a movement to streamline processes and discard red tape. Stuart explores the dusty trail from Black Rock City's anarchic origins to the sign marked 2025. He talks with Louder Charlie, the Operations Director of the whole place. He also talks with Chef Juke of the DMV Council, and Level Placerman, Manager of the Placement team. Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenesters who are preserving the unique magic while navigating the complexities of growth, and how they ensure that the spirit of creation remains accessible to all. Is it possible to balance the wild heart of Burner culture and the grown-up practices of a city? We’re about to find out.

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 pathways through an initiative called “Rising Sparks” which demystifies BRC and Regional events, and guides Burners to get more from the magic. They explore the art of participation: · seeing the sweet spot between being unmoored and overdoing it · balancing of survival and self-expression · finding fresh takes on mentorship Hear how they claim their place and shape the future. "Rising Sparks is a grassroots collective fostering intergenerational collaboration, connection, and cultural continuity within Burning Man."