It's absurd.
It perturbs.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! (And boy has it been a year!)

Following in the footsteps of show-biz luminaries like Stephen Colbert, Jon Stuart, and the cast of Star Wars, we hosted a (non-denominational) holiday show in front of a live online pseudo-studio audience in 2020.

Broadcasting from their snowed-in virtual holiday cabins, Stuart and Andie entertained guests:
· Santa Zero - originator of the now-infamous SantaCon phenomenon
· Mrs. Claus - founder of Burning Man’s first theme camp, Christmas Camp
· Tubatron and his Flaming Tuba playing a Hanukkah song (David Silverman)
· Reverend Billy and Savitri D of the Stop Shopping Choir

And it wouldn’t be the holiday season without Caveat Magister selling us on Decommodification.

Join us for 
· how Krampus cramps us
· how COVID is an 8-foot-tall dominatrix
· how “Gifting” is so close to “Grifting” 
· how the Cacophony Society is sooo Kumbaya

in the 5th anniversary of our Holiday Special that is indeed SPECIAL.
 

Portland SantaCon 1996 / “You’d Better Watch Out”

santarchy.com/youd-better-watch-out-portland-santacon-96/

Cacophony Society: Santasm, Santacon, Santarchy, ad nauseum

talesofsfcacophony.com/santasm-santacon-santarchy-kringle-klot-etc-ad-nauseum/

Tubatron (aka David Silverman)

burningman.org/podcast/david-silverman-so-thats-how-that-started

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping 

wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverend_Billy_and_the_Church_of_Stop_Shopping

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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 tree of bones 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 Michael 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.

https://www.michaelchristian.com

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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.

roothub.com

leftoverloveco.com

fullcirclesolutionshi.com

burningman.org/black-rock-city/infrastructure/dept-of-public-works

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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.”

thirdwaycreative.com/team

watershedcommunity.org

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“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. 🎙️🔥

form4inc.com/person/johnmarx

museumofnospectators.com

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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 Rangers

If you’re curious about Ranger learnings, check out the publicly available Ranger Conflict Resolution and De-escalation Training on Burning Man Hive.

gerlach.washoeschools.net

Ranger Takes Gerlach School from Remote Town to National Stage (Burning Man Journal)

Class Trip to Black Rock City (Burning Man Journal)

burningman.org Gerlach Black Rock Station

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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!

www.blackrockobservatory.com

youtube.com/@Black-Rock-Observatory

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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.

formandreform.com/empire-of-dirt

www.jonsarriugarte.com

projectempire.org

oilpunk.com

20 Years of Mutant Vehicles (Burning Man Journal)

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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

Desert Arts Preview 2025 (burningman.org)

Desert Arts Preview 2025 FULL LENGTH (YouTube)

Temple of the Deep (Burning Man LIVE podcast)

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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.

Black Rock City 2025

Burning Man Journal

John Craigie (YouTube)

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