David Silverman: So That's How That Started Burning Man LIVE podcast

39:58

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’s insights. Hear Marisa and Stuart talk through the leadership structure and community practices that result in the Thunderdome's chaotic harmony of performance, showmanship, and cathartic “consensual violence.” Marisa shares insights gleaned from decades of theme camp operation. Such insights include: · 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 the 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. www.divamarisa.com www.deathguildthunderdome.com journal.burningman.org/author/diva-marisa playaevents.burningman.org/2024/playa_event/48007 https://burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Theme Campers Unite 52:21

26 days ago52:21

52:21

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. Camps and Placement | Burning Man Placement: About Us & Volunteering Camp Support Team | Burning Man De-bureaucratizing Your Burn (Burning Man LIVE 2025) Charlie Dolman · The Dust is in the Details (Burning Man LIVE 2022) Dark Angel of Black Rock & Restoration Destiny (Burning Man LIVE 2020) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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The Gift of Food and Solar Power 55:24

6 weeks ago55:24

55:24

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. BaoChickaWowWow.com GoGridSystems.com Burning Man 2025: Tomorrow Today Burning Man Inspires Sustainable Solutions Worldwide (Burning Man Journal) Net Zero Black Rock City 2022 LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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BRC Art Preview with Katie Hazard 47:22

8 weeks ago47:22

47:22

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. Introducing 2025 BRC Honoraria Art (Burning Man Journal) Black Rock City Honoraria Program ARTery (Art Services) The ARTery Volunteer Teams Katie Hazard (Burning Man Journal) 2025 Art Theme: Tomorrow Today Burning Man Art Installation Archive LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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De-bureaucratizing Your Burn 57:13

10 weeks ago57:13

57:13

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. The Camp Symposium - March 22, 2025 Camps and Placement The Department of Mutant Vehicles 2025 Ticket Info The 10 Principles Bureaucracy (Burning Man Journal) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Rising Sparks - Bridging Burner Generations 42:29

12 weeks ago42:29

42:29

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. We cultivate community-driven spaces where emerging leaders, newcomers, and seasoned Burners can connect, dream big, and contribute to the future of Burning Man—both within Black Rock City and globally. Our mission is to inspire participation, address barriers to entry, and cultivate leadership across generations by providing mentorship, community-driven tools, and creative collaboration opportunities. We are igniting the next generation of artists, leaders, and changemakers by stewarding an accessible, culturally diverse, and evolving Burning Man culture." https://linktr.ee/therisingsparks LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Temple of the Deep - Miguel Arraiz García 43:00

14 weeks ago43:00

43:00

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 burning of the temple in what organically evolved to be a silent Burn. Listen to Stuart talk with Miguel Arraiz García, the lead artist for this year’s “Temple of the Deep.” Hear stories about how a temple is built, from crew selection to fundraising, from chances taken to lessons learned. This poetic and playful conversation exemplifies how this year’s temple is already healing. Miguel says, “We are always looking for the answers above us. I was trying to make something just to look for the answer between us or among us. So it is not that much building a temple, it is more building like a shelter for emotions, a safe space where you can be with people.” Burning Man Journal: Introducing the 2025 Temple www.2025temple.com www.miguelarraiz.com TempleGuardians.burningman.org Renaixement: Burning Man 2016 Burning Man Journal: Tomorrow Today LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Will Heegaard and Footprint Project - From BRC to NGO 49:29

16 weeks ago49:29

49:29

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 Florida, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. He helped in West Africa, in the Philippines, and with the Maui Fires. He helped with the LA Fires. And he taught himself to create power and water from nature while serving as a paramedic in Black Rock City. These adventure stories include laughter and levity in learning. FootprintProject.org BurnersWithoutBorders.org Burning Man Project: Philosophical Center LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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A People's History of Burning Man - Volume 3 59:58

19 weeks ago59:58

59:58

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 Media Mecca to this very podcast. · Brian Behlendorf - technologist and open-source software pioneer. He developed Burning Man’s online presence and connected people through the Venn diagram of luminaries from SFRaves to Wired Magazine to the Apache Software Foundation. · David Beach - designer, creative director, and instigator of the impossible with early dynamic content on the web. He helped create Burning Man’s first live streaming and web presence. · Scott Beale - documentarian, founder of Laughing Squid, subculture super-connector of various tentacles of the meta-scene. · Stuart Mangrum - zinester, cacophonist, billboard liberator, Minister of Propaganda, Director of the Philosophical Center, publisher of the first on-site newspaper of Burning Man (the Black Rock Gazette), and always in the same place at the same time as Burning Man’s media experiments. Andie Grace Brian Behlendorf David Beach Scott Beale Stuart Mangrum Laughing Squid: Burning Man 1996 Netcast dispatch2023.burningman.org journal.burningman.org/philosophical-center burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center Burning Man Live: A People’s History of Burning Man - Volume 2 Burning Man Live: A People’s History of Burning Man - Volume 1 LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Chip Conley - Unexpected Gifts 46:27

21 weeks ago46:27

46:27

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, while they also say that Burners should not take themselves too seriously. They try on the notion that nothing matters and everything’s humorous. They make sense of big ideas like collective effervescence, emotional equations, and the need for aesthetics and beauty. They talk about a deep diversity of ritual gatherings around the world, and the influence of the global community emanating from Regional Burns. They tell stories about all this and more, and somehow it all flows. wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Conley chipconley.com www.meawisdom.com LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Burning without Going to Burning Man 53:09

23 weeks ago53:09

53:09

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 project, do they even know how to stop? Apparently not... and the world benefits. kbot and Stuart speak with people who pressed pause on producing in Black Rock City, only to put their time, imagination, and heart into projects that build a better world. Leon & Patrizia of New York Dangerous discuss how their resource rescue nonprofit fosters a ‘pay it forward’ form of altruism. Leo & Catarina of Jaguara share how their mutant vehicle has become a vehicle for education and expression in Columbia. Zoe (aka “Jeff”) of Camp Starbarf tells how a year off for her camp spawned a voter support initiative and a punk rock band! Their stories share a theme: the 10 Principles (and playa-born fortitude) inspire their year-round endeavors. https://nyd.nyc https://jaguara.co StarBarf (instagram) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Tom Price - From the Playa to the Planet 50:18

25 weeks ago50:18

50:18

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 permission engine, giving people agency in their lives, he says the lesson of Burning Man is finding out what is too much and then finding the sweet spot. Note: The company names they joke about in this episode are NOT sponsors, because if we don't have Decommodification, we don't have Burning Man! Burners Without Borders Black Rock Solar Tom Price: Burning Man Journal Burning Man LIVE: Tom Price and the Benefactor’s Dilemma (2022) Burning Man LIVE: Creative Solutions to Mass Destruction (2020) TEDx Black Rock City: Tom Price: Beyond Burning Man (2011) ecosafi.com LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Burning Curiosity - The Study of Burning Man 58:01

27 weeks ago58:01

58:01

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 power to the people. Bryan Yazell and Patricia Wolf of the University of Southern Denmark use Flash Fiction in BRC to develop a new subgenre of sci-fi called climate fiction (‘cli-fi’), stories that are less dystopian, even less utopian, more protopian (fancy word) — not good or bad, but progress. Professor Matt Zook of the University of Kentucky extols Black Rock City's unique aspects, from temporality to being a place apart. He and Stuart explore the interplay between digital and physical spaces, and what about community actually makes it good. Then Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä returns with how the Burning Stories project, now in its 6th year of tracking tales, is a cultural repository and is training a gifted AI on how Burners be Burning. jukkapekka.com sdu.dk/en/persons/yazell sdu.dk/en/persons/pawo geography.as.uky.edu/users/zook burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center/academics regionals.burningman.org/european-leadership-summit burning-stories.com kk.org/thetechnium/protopia sdu.dk/en/publications/enacting-hopeful-climate-futures-at-burning-man-2024 Bjørn S. Cience - Founding Board Member at Institute of Performative Inquiry LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Burning Man is Everywhere 36:00

29 weeks ago36:00

36:00

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 backroads lead back to BRC. We called a bunch of the Regional leaders to see how things are going out in their other homes away from home. We heard from Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, and even the far-flung realms of Texas and Kentucky. Play this mixtape of people sharing stories from everywhere in the world. regionals.burningman.org And here's a related episode from 2022: burningman.org/podcast/burning-man-is-not-a-place LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG…

Burning Man LIVE

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Volunteer Voices 44:22

31 weeks ago44:22