Burning Man LIVE

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

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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

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

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Thousands of people volunteer each year in Black Rock City, for days, weeks, or months. Add to that the volunteers at the many Regional events around the world and it’s more than can be counted on fingers and toes. 

Why do we volunteer?

Is it because we feel we received a gift and we want to pay it back, or pay it forward?

Is it the meditation of hard work in a hard place adding a dimension to our experience?

Is it the chance to do something different, for a pixel pusher to build an object, an engineer to cook for artists, a project manager to manage a different kind of project?

The answer seems to be YES.

We interviewed a few longtime citizens of Black Rock City about why they volunteer with the Greeters, with DPW, and with the Man Base to hear the stories of Topless Deb, Tamsin, Ruin, Terra, and a guy named Fuckyeah.

Listen to the stories of Topless Deb, Tamsin, Ruin, Terra, and a guy named Fuckyeah.

https://burningman.org/event/participate/volunteering/teams

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Burning Man doesn't make itself. The people who share their time and treasure, they create this weird wonder. Each of these people have stories about how Burning Man influenced their lives and how their lives influenced Burning Man. 

The Flaming Tuba Guy is one of these people. His name is David Silverman aka Tubatron. Andie Grace talked with him about how his animation career started, how his musical career started, how the Mansonian Institute started, how his career with The Simpsons started, and how that influenced his involvement with Burning Man and vice versa. He also volunteers at BRC with the DPW at the Man Pavilion. 

They recorded this at Burning Man and you can hear in their voices the phonic patina of the playa. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Silverman_(animator)

https://x.com/tubatron

David shares more of his story in Episode 27 from 2020: 

https://burningman.org/podcast/holiday-special-santacon-from-home

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Allow us to introduce you to the people who called the Black Rock Desert “home” way before we did. This is your backstage pass to the original Burners of the Great Basin: The Pyramid Lake Paiute. 

Strap in for a road trip that's part history lesson, part cultural exchange, and essential listening for when you wonder, "Who lived here before we showed up in tutus?"

We're not just passing through, we're digging deep with…

• Billie Jean Guerrero: Director of the Pyramid Lake Museum
• Mervin Wright: Environmental Manager
• James Phoenix: Former Chairman
• Steven Wadsworth: Current Chairman
• Dean Barlese: Elder and Spiritual Leader
• "Double D": A tribal member at at the Golden Spike Ceremony

Find this episode wherever podcasts prevail, and on YouTube: 

Helpful links:

A Message from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe to All BRC Citizens 2023 (Burning Man Journal)

Donate your leftover, non-perishable food to the Pyramid Lake Paiute. Drop it off at Bunny’s Tacos in Nixon! Here are Google Map Directions from playa to Bunny’s. 

Camp or recreate at Pyramid Lake. Buy a permit here.

Volunteer at the Pyramid Lake Visitor Center and Museum. Help build out the new medicine garden or improve the museum’s new haba (traditional Paiute shade structure). Contact Billie Jean Guerrero at [email protected]

Donate to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Stop by the Pyramid Lake Museum and Visitor Center. You can donate in person! Gifting! 

You can also write to the Tribal Secretary at [email protected] with which program, department, or tribal office you’d like to direct your donation.

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Marian Goodell, CEO of Burning Man Project, talks with a lively audience as part of Robot Heart’s Residency in Oakland, California. She is joined by Candace Locklear (aka Evil Pippi), Erin Douglas of the Black Burner Project, and Robot Heart’s Justin Schaffer and Satya Kamdar.

It’s casual. It’s layered. It’s a room of Burners.

What constitutes culture jamming? Where does Burning Man bridge the divide to bring people together? How have pillars of our culture evolved from awkward beginnings?

They swap stories about the perks of unbranding. They joke about gifting and regifting, and the spectrum between talismans and swag. They go off the rails into how mainstream culture plays with Burning Man tropes.

Then they go beyond making a party in the desert, out into the world, to the Regional Network as a living embodiment of ‘Each One Teach One.’ They show how collaboration creates the community. They explore actually active inclusivity, and the question “Who are we?”

www.theother51weeks.com

Marian Goodell: Burning Man Project Board of Directors

Black Burner Project

The Future of Burning Man (video version on youtube) 

Burning Man LIVE: The Evolution of Robot Heart

Burning Man LIVE: Candace Locklear on Culture Jamming and Welcoming

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Take a trip through the puzzle of porta-potties at a free-range event, highway happenings, and the new news about prep. This is deeper than “What is MOOP?” This is the ART of Leaving No Trace.

It’s part of the Burning Man ethos, and it’s why Black Rock City is the world's largest Leave No Trace event. Now nearly 100 other Burning Man events around the globe adhere to this attitude, this mindset. It’s an ongoing quest to leave less and less of a trace. As the principle is written, it invites us to leave spaces in better shape than we found them.

The 75,000 citizens of BRC pick up after themselves. It’s miraculous. And we can do more.

Those of us who take on the challenge, we see it as a process, a practice, a stretch goal. We look at ways to get closer to that zero point. Each of us is at a different point on the LNT learning curve. The next level is to develop techniques to do it collectively. It is a set of behaviors to be cultivated.

In this episode, we talk with some of the unsung heroes: 

• blue: DPW Logistics & Project Manager of Recycle Camp
• Barbarella: Resto’s Highway Clean-Up Manager
• DA: Playa Restoration Manager
• Hazmatt: Associate Director of BRC Business Operations

We look at what gets left behind, so we can grok our cumulative impact, and make a better choice, a better cascade of choices, to teach good citizenship. Plus, eh, there may be a few poop jokes.

There’s an old saying in Black Rock City: “It was better next year.” Let’s leave no trace so that there will be a next year.

burningman.org/about/10-principles

Recycle Camp

2023 MOOP Map

DA on Restoration Destiny (Burning Man LIVE)

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Burning Man culture brings people together across all kinds of divides, yet we’re seeing an uptick of intolerance toward art and experiences in our community. The default world is often divided by ideology, religion, and politics. Could that division seep into this culture that aspires to welcome everyone?

How can we navigate the turbulent waters between, say, Radical Self-expression and Radical Inclusion? How do we walk the line between free speech and hate speech? How do we keep our global community together in times of outright war?

Listen in on a roundtable discussion about concerns that don’t have easy solutions. A few folks explore how the act of conversation changes what might otherwise seem controversial or divisive:

• Stuart Mangrum is Burning Man Project’s Director of the Philosophical Center so he directed some philosophers to center around a microphone to discuss.
• Caveat Magister debated and discussed Burning Man philosophy, then wrote books about it.
• Kay Morrison is a veteran Black Rock City artist, active in the Global Network, and a Burning Man Project board member.
• Steven Raspa is Associate Director of Community Events for Burning Man Project, and a co-founder of the Regional Network Committee.

This conversation concerns art, yes, and behavior — as participants, as people. It’s about being open-minded and open-hearted, even when it’s difficult to do. What is a safe space? What is a brave space? How can jackassery be respectful? What’s with all the questions? Tune in for the answers that lead to more questions.

burningman.org/about/10-principles

Turn Your Life Into Art with Caveat Magister (Burning Man LIVE)

Kay Morrison and the Overall Wonderment Quotient (Burning Man LIVE)

Remember How to Burning Man with Steven Raspa (Burning Man LIVE)

Stuart Mangrum’s Serious Philosophy of Shenanigans (Burning Man LIVE)

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Tony “Coyote” Perez may be the best at thriving (and not dying) at Burning Man. He is the Black Rock City Superintendent, the Burning Man OSHA Instructor, and the 26-year Burner whose job it is to put himself in harm's way and then get out of his own way!

Sit in on a chuckling conversation between Stuart and Coyote. They put the wisdom in wise-crack. It’s not because they’re so smart; it’s because they’ve made every mistake and then asked why and how. 

This is not a list of tips and tricks—those are in the Survival Guide. This is a refreshing penumbra of practices held by the one who is having the most fun.

They debunk fallacies such as "The Hero Factor" and "The playa provides."

They share stories about curious topics, including: 

• The culture of safety (Becoming involved in your own rescue)
• Situational awareness (Choosing to immerse into your new world)
• Serious self-care (and caring for your people)

You may find that the challenges of your campmates and your camp build (and camp strike) become easier, simpler, and special-er (new word). You may just find that you banish bad luck. 

journal.burningman.org/author/tperez

burningman.org/news/books-about-burning-man/built-to-burn

burningman.org/about-us/staff/TonyCoyotePerez

survival.burningman.org

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