Burning Man turns 40 this year, and its changed dramatically since the first event in San

Francisco. The first gathering drew a couple dozen people who gathered to burn an 8-foot wooden effigy at Baker Beach to celebrate the summer solstice. Four decades later, it’s a multi-million dollar operation that every August draws more than 70 thousand people to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. A new HBO documentary called “The Man Will Burn” looks at the staying power of the massive pop-up commune and the struggles to maintain its founding values. We’ll talk with the directors and one of the producers for the series.

Guests:

Jehane Noujaim, co-director, HBO’s “The Man Will Burn”

Vikram Gandhi, co-director, HBO’s “The Man Will Burn”

Muriel Soenens, series producer, HBO’s “The Man Will Burn”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a historian who teaches a class called “The History of Information,” Stanford professor Thomas Mullaney has spent decades thinking about the unreliability of archival materials in understanding the past, subject as they are to decay, disorder and obsolescence. But it wasn’t until his own father died and he scrambled to preserve the evidence of his life that he decided to write a personal history of information about how we disappear from the historical record and from the world. We talk with Mullaney about his new book, “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information.”

Thomas Mullaney, professor, Stanford University; author, “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The University of California system is considering requiring SAT or ACT scores in admissions again, after more than 3,000 faculty members signed open letters in favor of bringing back the test requirement. Professors say their students have fared worse in math since the UC system did away with a standardized testing requirement in 2020. Many of the nation’s most selective universities have already reinstated the exams after a pandemic pause, but a 2019 lawsuit — which argued the SAT and ACT discriminate against disabled students and measure race and wealth more than academic aptitude — had limited the UC system’s ability to restore the tests. We’ll discuss the debate and hear from you: Should the UCs bring back the SAT and ACT?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peptides are everywhere in the healthcare zeitgeist. On social media, you’re likely to encounter an influencer claiming that injecting or ingesting peptides can improve your skin, build muscle,
increase focus or help you lead a longer and healthier life. Peptides are short chains of amino acids that are fundamental building blocks in protein and our bodies make them naturally. While some synthetic peptides like insulin and GLP-1s are widely used and approved, the off market use of other peptides have raised concerns among scientists. We’ll talk about the promise, dangers and hype of peptides.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A coalition of 12 states, including California, has filed a lawsuit to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. California Attorney General Rob Bonta argues the merger of the two entertainment “behemoths” would lead to higher prices, lower quality and less content for consumers. Meanwhile the federal Justice Department, which has already approved the merger, says it believes the deal won’t hurt competition. Bonta joins us to explain the multistate effort seeking to stop the merger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A landmark bipartisan federal housing bill became law this weekend. The package includes 56 initiatives, regulatory tweaks and reforms designed to improve housing affordability nationwide — and local housing policy experts say it could have a material impact on the Bay Area’s affordable housing crisis. We’ll learn more about the local impacts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court ruled last month that the Trump administration could eliminate temporary protected status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria, a decision that affects some 350,000 people who had been living and working legally in the United States for years — and leaves even more immigrants in legal limbo. We’ll talk to an immigration reporter who’s been following the case, an ACLU lawyer who represents TPS holders, and a Bay Area man who moved to the U.S. from Honduras as a toddler who’s now in a precarious legal situation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is one of the most unequal states in the country with extreme disparities between people living in poverty and those at the top of the income spectrum. Given the visibility of the problem, with homeless encampments and multimillion dollar houses populating our landscape while the middle class shrinks, UC Berkeley professors Cristina Mora and Tianna Paschel set out to find out why Californians are “aware of inequality but not incensed about it.” They interviewed 136 Californians in the state’s “precarious middle class” — people who were getting by, but barely – and surveyed thousands more for their book, “Normalizing Inequality: How Californians Make Sense of the Growing Divide.” We’ll talk with Mora and Paschel about why income inequality is on the rise in California, and the perils of accepting it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has shattered the tournament’s attendance record, with over 6 million fans showing up for matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada. The tournament has delivered for international visitors, pairing big games with viral moments of tourists trying American foods like Texas barbeque and ranch dressing for the first time. But President Trump’s intervention reversing a U.S. player’s suspension may have soured some enthusiasm for Team USA, with some spectators calling out FIFA corruption. John Green and Daniel Alarcón, hosts of “The Away End” podcast, preview what to expect from the final week of the World Cup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the Iran war occupies domestic headlines, Russia’s war in Ukraine has entered its fifth year. As the Trump administration retreats from peace negotiations and Ukraine’s drone strikes reach deep into Russia, European allies are scrambling to fill the security vacuum. We’ll discuss the state of the war and how it has changed the face of modern conflict, U.S. policy, and NATO’s future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices