Burning Man LIVE

By Burning Man ProjectSociety & Culture Education Arts Philosophy Visual Arts

Burning Man LIVE episodes

October 14 Solar Punks - Badasses of Climate Hope
Watch it on YouTube.
Dystopia is compelling. What’s the opposite? Hope.
Xtina Chu and Corey Johnson talk in Black Rock City about all things interesting with our solar future happening now! They share how in an age of cynicism, optimism is the ultimate punk rock rebellion.
What started as a DIY experiment has evolved into a megawatt array gifting clean-energy to EV art cars and fuel-free theme camps. Meanwhile, back in California, they deploy rapid disaster-relief. They’re rewriting the rules of power, even large-scale event power.
The future doesn’t stink.
Moving away from individualism, they view "self-reliance" as a collective resilience network. They shine a light on the engineering — and cultural engineering — happening now and forever, more and more.
Videography by: Damien Blue, Duncan Rawlinson, and Jamen Percy
Watch it on YouTube.
https://www.solarpunks.club
https://journal.burningman.org/2026/08/black-rock-city/leaving-no-trace/2026-sustainability-update
https://journal.burningman.org/2026/07/black-rock-city/leaving-no-trace/the-race-to-decarbonize-black-rock-city
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
36 min
September 30 Math Mysteries: The Art of Dr Diane Hoffoss
Watch on YOUTUBE.
Watch this adventure (recorded in Black Rock City) about how art is built, and how it finds its people.
Dr. Diane Hoffoss designs, crafts, and finds funding for interactive art in BRC and out in the wide world.
See the art and the conversation with Andie Grace about unsolved problems, lasers, and joy.
“Inspired positivity and joy, bringing all this happiness back. We need that.”
They decode the depth between interactive art, interactive math, and the universe.
They share stories about the art collective ArtBuilds, the nonprofit Makerspace CoLab, and
the Burning Man Regional event YOUtopia... and how Diane's university funded her Burning
Man art as official scholarly research.
Watch all the way to the end for the best part: how building a laser playground in the dust might just solve the mystery of restoring faith in humanity.
www.dianehoffoss.com
Cover Photo: Frank Guthrie
Bio Photo: Ariele Baragona
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
37 min
August 30Jamie Wheal and the Burning Man Mystery School
Jamie Wheal, author of Stealing Fire and Recapture the Rapture, and the viral article The Man WILL Burn!, joins Stuart to unpack the cultural anthropology of peak states.
They explore how Black Rock City serves as a crucible for thriving in the future.
They deep dive into:
Hedonic Engineering: Inducing bliss without cravings, healing without the cringe, and communing without it becoming a cult.

The Culture of Culture: How movements morph, why BRC’s builders are like Navy SEALs, and resetting through radical participation.

Practical Optimism: Letting go of 21st Century normal, and keeping your shit together in the shitshow.
Watch them un-forget how to make that magic anywhere.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Wheal
jamiewheal.substack.com/p/the-man-will-burn
wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Will_Burn
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
1 hr 2 min
August 07 Behind the Scenes: The Man Will Burn: Marian Goodell & Jehane Noujaim
Watch it on YouTube.
No spoilers. This is the making of the docuseries The Man Will Burn. This is the context for what was filmed, who said what, and what got cut; the cameras and the chaos (and the quinoa).
Burning Man Project’s CEO Marian Goodell talks with Jehane Noujaim Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and director.
They share the creative challenge of assembling Burning Man’s story from a mosaic of a million people’s stories. They dive right into the interweaving 35 years of archival footage with the personal journeys of a dozen participants from a dozen places.
Watch Marian and Jehane’s conversation, recorded the day after the premiere at Tribeca. Hit play on the dust and trust of the blank canvas that becomes a city year after year, and a 4-hour film about its start, its false stops, and its proliferating permutations.
burningman.org/documentaries/the-man-will-burn
www.imdb.com/title/tt29033873
wikipedia.org/Jehane_Noujaim
journal.burningman.org/author/marian
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
53 min
July 10Substance Over Splash - Australia's Regional Burns
5 leaders from the 5 Regional Burns of Australia!
They focus on collaboration more than contraptions, connection more than complexity.
Aurora, Tasmania: Lara, aka Squeaky Queen, on the logistics of being an island off an island.

Blazing Swan, Western Australia: Shaz on navigating extreme weather with 3,700 friends.

Burning Seed, New South Wales: Leanna, aka Mama, on restructuring into a member-owned organization.

Modifyre, Queensland: Chau on the bonds built with a 10% annual growth cap.

Underland, Victoria: Marty on trading a "crisis of imagination" for accountability.
These movers & shakers go a mile deep into the dust, the heart, and the deets of Australia’s radical experiments in community.
They acculturate through one on one connections and Burning Pubs.
They embrace Positive Impact more than Leave No Trace.
They aspire to the 10 Principles and the 11th, and even the 12th.
See how this culture takes root, travels, and morphs year-round. Community is built through word of mouth, so that the space they create allows us to show up as our whole human selves.
Open your mind upside down, and laugh along with these larrikins and their playful perceptions.
auroraburn.org.au
www.burningseed.com
blazingswan.com.au
www.modifyre.org
underland.au
burningman.org/global/burning-man-regional-network/australia
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
44 min
June 25Long Live Community Art Spaces - Charlie Gadeken
For decades, Charlie has led some of Black Rock City's monumental works of art. He isn’t just the prolific mind behind iconic pieces like Elder Mother, an illuminated storytelling tree; he’s an architect of human connection.
He co-created and develops:
Illumination Village - an early and long running home-within-a-home at Black Rock City

The Flaming Lotus Girls - the all-volunteer, women-led art collective

The Box Shop - a collaborative workspace and art studio of 23 years and counting
Tune in as Charlie shares his artistic journey with Andie Grace. They explore the evolution from flame-thrown wind-sail paintings to steel trees of addressable LED leaves.
But this isn’t about him.
The Box Shop, home to hundreds of metalworkers, large-scale sculptors, and multimedia artists, has birthed thousands of artworks and taught countless volunteers to wire and weld. After 23 years, it’s facing displacement due to gentrification. Charlie shares the gritty details of reinventing this creative sanctuary into a nonprofit in a new location.
Hear why making beautiful things with friends matters more than maximizing shareholder profit, and why hands-on community hubs bring belonging as an antidote to modern loneliness and greed.
https://www.charlesgadeken.com
https://boxshopsf.org
https://www.flaminglotus.com
https://www.illuminationvillage.org
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
39 min
June 04OTHERWORLD - Vancouver Island's Regional Ripple Effect
Watch it on YouTube.
What do you get when you mix 3,200 Burners, a lush Canadian forest, and a summer fire ban? Oh, and an event theme that is literally just the word... MOIST.
Wander through the woods of Otherworld, one of British Columbia’s rapidly growing Regional Burns. Coordinators of creative chaos Jax and Zephyr share what it takes to conjure Burning Man culture in the Pacific Northwest
How to acculturate festival consumers with sacred and profane initiations

How to land an epic effigy show using theatrics when under a summer burn ban

How to have Black Rock City closer to home
If you’re headed to the playa, or wrangling a Regional, or just here for the fuckery of a good inside-joke, this is how to do culture differently, and have fun along the way.
Watch it on YouTube.
https://otherworld.ca
https://burningman.org/global-events-groups
https://burningman.org/burning-man-regional-network

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
44 min
May 15 Serious Play - Isabel Behncke
Watch it on YouTube here.
What happens when Burner behavior goes under the microscope? Sociologists, ecologists, and economists have been on this show. Now we’re looking at this culture through a new lens: primatology.
Isabel Behncke is an evolutionary biologist and a Burning Man Project Board Member. From tracking bonobos in the jungle to observing humans on playa, she shares her groundbreaking research on ritual and play.
In this mind-expanding conversation, she and Stuart explore:
🏕️ "Dunbar's number" and how camp size matters
🦍 The evolutionary purpose of play for young and old
🤝 How risk, trust, and vulnerability build true community
🎁 The ancient, radical act of giving without expecting anything back
If you’re a social science fan, a camp lead of dynamic humans, or just a lover of wild stories about bonobos, humans, and other animals, get ready to understand your own playful nature!
Watch it on YouTube here.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Behncke
burningman.org/about-us/who-we-are/board-of-directors
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5,000_Years
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
56 min
April 28 The Borderland: Trust Creates Worlds
This culture started in dust and ephemerality. We build metropolises of art and fire, then we leave no trace. How do we translate that inspiration into a rhythm for everyday life? What happens when a temporary autonomous zone puts down roots?
The Borderland is Scandinavia's largest and longest running Burning Man Regional event. It’s "working out loud" culture fosters radical trust, allowing the community to create its own world where no one is in charge.
The community also crowd-funded land that serves as the permanent home for their Regional event, and year-round collaborations of all kinds.
How does the Borderland commit to the risk and reward of community buy-in?
How does trusting that someone will have the answer lead to resiliency?
How do the 10 Principles balance aspects of Scandinavian culture differently than US culture?
Hear Andie set it up, then Stuart talk with Liselotte Norman and Hampus Lindblad.
Hear about the act of letting go to stay together.
Photo: Annie Locke Scherer
talk.theborderland.se/main
burningman.org/global-events-groups/burning-man-regional-network
alversjo.land
burningman.org/global-events-groups/burning-man-regional-network/sweden
burningman.org/global-events-groups/find-a-burning-man-event
www.alscherer.com/the-temple-of-tokamak
cobudget.com
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
45 min
April 01Camp Symposium Highlights: Let's Build it Together
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/irkEajUVRgI
Most people in Black Rock City live together in placed camps (theme camps), the most unique aspect of this unique event. BRC has 1400 camps.
Theme Camps = Communal Effort + Intimacy + Self-Expression
Theme campers 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 the participants. It’s an art. It’s a science.
Andie Grace: Senior Producer in the Philosophical Center
Andrew Lowe: Senior Software Developer, Burning Man Project
Bryant Tan (aka Level Placerman): Head of Placement for BRC
Christopher Breedlove: Director of Civic Engagement / BWB Camp Lead
Marian Goodell: CEO of Burning Man Project
Michael Vav: Technical Producer in the Philosophical Center
and a keen crew
Fowler of Gate

Magpie of Gate

Neon Glimmer of PEERS

Papa Bear of Placement

Razzmatazz of Placement

Rex on the Radio of DMV

T-Fire of Bureau of Erotic Discourse

Vesper Bell of the Camp Support Team

Wild Wes of Burners Without Borders
Hear about the seen and the unseen, from behind the scenes to the obscene.
Hear the Burners who create and integrate these interactive passion projects that are the heart of Burning Man events.
Camps and Placement | Burning Man
Placement: About Us & Volunteering
Camp Support Team | Burning Man
Burners Without Borders
Green Theme Camp Community
Gate, Perimeter & Exodus
Department of Mutant Vehicles
PEERS: Placement’s Exploration & Engagement Research Squad
Bureau of Erotic Discourse
WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/irkEajUVRgI
LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG
1 hr 6 min

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Meet those who make Burning Man happen, beyond the desert and out in the world. Artists, activists, and innovators. Builders and Burners, freaks and fools. Burning Man floats on a sea of stories, and…