Black Rock City. We sometimes call it an unnatural disaster zone. We cooperate, survive and thrive in one of the harshest environments. Each year we iterate new ways, and we do it all because we want to. 

Black Rock City attracts people who are resourceful, or it turns them into people who are. 

The resilient burner community does disaster relief well. The nature of most residents of Black Rock City is reflected right there in the 10 principles: Radical Self-Reliance, Communal Effort and Civic Responsibility.

Here in the US, the State of Texas is home to Flipside, the first and longest-running Burning Man Regional Event. Texas froze in February. Very unusual. A series of devastating winter storms collapsed the power grid and the water system. The burners of Austin Texas were some of the first to respond with mutual aid in their community. 

In this episode Kate Ludlow, Stephanie Vyborny and Clovis Buford share their stories of resourcefulness and support, and a Frito Pie party amid the chaos!

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It’s true. Really. The United States has an Institute of Peace. It’s also true that they partnered with Burning Man Project to create a new podcast called Culturally Attuned, about how we can all work effectively across our world’s cultural divides. 

That podcast complements USIP’s online, self-paced course on Cultural Synergy. Stuart talks with the Executive Director of the Institute about cultivating the skills to do good work in a diverse world. 

They share an episode featuring Kim Cook, Burning Man Project’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. 

The title of that episode is: Stay in the circle: Patient listening can connect across cultures

https://burningman.org/culture/partnerships/

https://www.usip.org/culturally-attuned

https://www.usip.org/academy/catalog/cultural-synergy

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Andie talks with artists Fab 5 Freddy and Rachel McCrafty about diversity in and around the Burning Man world. Rachel is the executive director of ACE Makerspace in Oakland and Freddy is a hip-hop pioneer, filmmaker and a board member of Burning Man Project. 

They discuss tokenism, bridge-building, and how people with open sensibilities can widen the path for those who have not felt welcomed before. In the same way that a forest fire creates space for biodiversity, we as a community have the opportunity to intentionally reinvent our shared culture, on and off the playa.

burningman.org/culture/diversity-radical-inclusion

thecraftyavenger.com

fab5freddy.com

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Operating far outside the lines of what he calls the “humanitarian-industrial complex,” freelance culture hacker and FreeSpace founder Mike Zuckerman goes into refugee settlements around the world, and works with their citizens to create spaces that better serve their communities.

While the NGOs wrung their hands over how to deliver aid in the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuck spent most of 2020 on the ground in Uganda, with the people of Nakivale, a refugee settlement of 120,000 near the Tanzanian border.

Together they built civic spaces including an amphitheater, a library, a radio station, and a Virtual Reality room in a shipping container, which they used to connect Nakivale to the Burning Man online multiverse.

Zuck brings lessons from Black Rock City to other temporary spaces around the world, helping displaced persons overcome “agency deprivation disorder” and reclaim their innate powers of self-reliance and self-expression.

mikezuckerman.com

freespace.io

opportunigee.org

to.org

wearealight.org

ourhabitas.com/rise

burningman.org/culture/burning-man-arts/grants/global

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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 Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and the cast of Star Wars, we hosted a HOLIDAY SHOW (non-denominational) in front of a live online pseudo-studio audience. 

Stuart and Andie entertained guests:

• Santa Zero - originator of the now-infamous SantaCon phenomenon
• Mrs. Claus - founder of Burning Man’s first-ever theme camp, Christmas Camp
• Tubatron and his Flaming Tuba performing a Hanukkah song
• Reverend Billy and Savitri D of the Church of Stop Shopping

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,” and how the Cacophony Society is so Kumbaya now, in our final episode of 2020.

Reminisce with us, and celebrate and speculate.

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

Cacophony Society: Santasm, Santacon, Santarchy, ad nauseum

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

Why People Dress Funny at Burning Man (2003)

Peter Doty Obituary (San Francisco Chronicle)

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Does Burning Man really trigger transformative experiences, and if so, what does that look like? Stuart and behavioral scientist Kristen Berman go deep on the psychology of change, and what that looks like in Black Rock City and beyond. Can participating in a Burning Man event really make you more generous, more tolerant, more civic-minded? What’s the role of the 10 Principles in all of this, and how important is the physical environment of Black Rock City?  

Kristen Berman is a behavioral scientist who’s explored human behavior at Duke University, at Google, with her consulting firm Irrational Labs, and at Burning Man’s Black Rock City event. She’s the author of Keeping Up With the Joneses at Burning Man and the co-author of Hacking Human Nature for Good. And of course, she’s got a great TEDx talk.

https://kristenberman.com/

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Fly Ranch is in the middle of nowhere, and yet it's the center of the universe for many bugs, birds, animals, and, uh, thermophiles. 

Down the road from the dry lake bed that hosts Black Rock City, Fly Ranch is 6 square miles of hot springs, ecosystems, and a unique variety of life, from wildflowers to wild horses, antelope and mountain lions, eagles, and cicadas.

Stuart and Logan talk with Dr. Lisa Beers (aka Scirpus) about her work as the Burning Man Land Fellow for Fly Ranch, and all the life, death and artifacts on the 600 acres of the Fly Ranch.

Dr Scirpus explores the flora, fauna, and everything else she finds at "Fly." When not smelling the sagebrush, she manages the Environmental Compliance team for the Burning Man event, and studies wetland ecology throughout the world.

In this charming conversation, Scirpus reminds us that fairy shrimp are real, and scorpions are real, and she lets Stuart believe that jackalopes are real, but not squirrelopes. Logan's not buying it either. Platypuses, though? If you’ve never met one, how can you really know?

And you haven’t tasted mezcal until you’ve had a botanist tell you how bats pollinate the cactus.

flyranch.org/

https://www.instagram.com/fly_ranch/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/flyranch

https://medium.com/beyond-burning-man/writers-emerging-at-fly-ranch-reflection-3da8da91d3e

https://medium.com/beyond-burning-man/burning-man-project-2020-environmental-sustainability-report-df757260c9c5

https://lagi2020flyranch.org/

https://journal.burningman.org/author/scirpus/

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The Burning Man figure started it all and has stood at the center of Black Rock City for decades. Many myths and legends of its origins have been passed down through the years. It can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. We took a deep dive with the earliest builders of the Burning Man to chart the evolution and decode the mythology. We also spoke with members of the current team that bring the figure to life year after year. We explore the craftsmanship of the build, the rituals of the crew's process, and the secret details that make the Burning Man sculpture so unique. 

https://burningman.org/timeline/

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Culinary excellence in a temporary city in the dry desert? Oh yes, and some decadent offerings too. Andie and Vav rebroadcast a delicious episode about culinary camps at Black Rock City from the podcast “Food Wine & the Culinary Mind.” It’s a montage of interviews from theme camps that gift the perfect food at the perfect time and place. The perspectives on creativity, community and cuisine bring us back to what it’s like to be together in the dust. 

Mat Schuster interviews “fascinating culinary badasses” at the most recent Black Rock City, and it’s about more than just food; featuring Black Rock Bakery, Bao Chicka Wow Wow, Feed the Artists, Awful’s Gas & Snack, Midnight Poutine, Dust City Diner, Lovin’ Oven, and Abstininthe.

Food Wine & the Culinary Mind: Culinary Camps of Burning Man

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What is it like to walk around Black Rock City as a staff member and an academic in participant-observer mode? These tales are of BRC at the turn of the century, and the study of ineffable experiences, ending with old school stories of the organic formation of BRC’s support services, and a healthy respect for law enforcement. 

Andie and Logan talk with Sheila Hoover, the Associate Dean of Libraries at Texas Tech University, and Duane Hoover, Professor of Practice, specializing in negotiation and organizational behavior. At BRC, Duane (Big Bear on the radio) ran the Black Rock Rangers and the Law Enforcement Agency Liaison Team for 15 years.

Sheila and Duane co-authored several research projects on Burning Man through a lens of organizational development, cultural principles, and values such as reciprocity, intrinsic reward, and “radical inclusion of self.”

BONUS: Hear a Texan recite a bit of Shakespeare!

https://scholars.ttu.edu/en/persons/sheila-hoover

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/rawlsbusiness/people/faculty/management/duane-hoover/

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