Episode 48 with Joseph Buchman is out now! He is a former professor and census volunteer, who details his transformative journey within the Burning Man community. The narrative follows his transition from a grieving, skeptical Scout Master to a dedicated participant after a religious-like experience at the Temple helped him heal from a family tragedy involving suicide. Central themes include the healing power of communal art, the logistical complexity of the Black Rock City Census, and the environmental ethics of Playa Restoration (Resto). Ultimately, the source serves as a deep dive into how the event’s Ten Principles, specifically gifting and participation, can fundamentally reorient a person’s worldview and facilitate profound interpersonal reconciliation.

https://thepeopleofearthapologize.com

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Episode 47 with Quest Skinner is out now! Meet Quest Skinner a Black burner and accomplished artist from DC. She first hit the playa in 2015 when her friend Nexus got her to go. She first camped at Imu and then Foam Camp after that. She participated in the playa mentorship program with Steven Raspa and Jeremey Crandell (one of the Man build leads). She now works for Artist Support Services (or A.S.S.) on playa. While she is an artist in DC  she also spends her time building effiigies and temples and various Regional events up and down the East Coast. She was born in Pittsburgh, move to Phoenix, and at 18 joined Up With People for 1 year.

https://www.artbyquest.com/

https://www.instagram.com/quest_skinner?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

https://www.facebook.com/quest.skinner

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

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Shadow Shorts #4 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time.

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

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Episode 45 with Nicholas Powers is out now! He first heard about Burning Man in 1999/2000 but didn’t make it out to the playa until 2002. His first year he camped with friends and caught the bug. But for the next four years he decided to camp solo. In 2011 or 20112 he was part of a people of color (POC) talk/workshop on the playa. After this the second stage of his playa participation was the creation of the POC Camp in 2014 originally with 50 campers. It has continued to endure and grow. Nicholas is a journalist (for 20 years), author, and professor of literature from NYC. In his third phase of participation on the playa he now volunteers with BMIR conducting interviews on the playa.

Black Psychedelic Revolution (one of his books)

https://truthout.org/authors/nicholas-powers/

https://www.instagram.com/thepoccamp/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064328516069

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

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Episode 44 with Erin Douglas is out now! Meet the woman behind the Black Burner Project and some of the most iconic playa art collaborations in recent years. Erin had a background in finance but got burned out by it and took up photography. She first went to Black Rock City in 2017 travelling from Washington DC. A friend had finally convinced her to go and gifted her a ticket and helped out with the complicated cross-country logistics. After experiencing Burning Man for the first time she decided to start the Black Burner Project to help share stories of Black burners on the playa with the intention of increasing diversity on the playa. Her 2nd year she camped with Camp Happy Hour and got the seed of an idea. She set up the first ever group photo of Black burners on the playa by word of mouth and a few dozen showed up to her surprise. She did the group photo again the next year in 2019 and hundreds of Black burners showed up. In 2022 she brought her first art piece, a collaboration where they erected two 30 foot portraits she had taken of Black burners. She has also conducted a number of interviews that are available on her website (link below) and she has also collaborated on some other playa art projects. Erin has taken some of the most iconic photos in the last few years and has a wonderful and inspiring story, please give it a listen.

https://www.erin-sha.com/

https://www.blackburnerproject.com/

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AXDffwVFf/

Instagram: @aphotochick and @blackburnerproject 

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

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Shadow Shorts #3 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time.

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email [email protected] if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, it REALLY helps the show to even appear in search results.

Episode 42 with John Law is out now! John goes waaaaay back to being part of the Suicide club in the late 70’s to early 80’s. He is a founding member of the Cacophany Society that gave life to numerous children, namely Burning Man, Santacon, Bay to Breakers salmon run, urban iditarod, Billboard Liberation Front, up to and including modern versions of Cacophany that lives as secret underground societies in San Francisco. This is our longest interview to date and it barely scratches the surface of what John Law has been up to over the years. Learn all about how Burning Man actually came into being, many threads from many people came together to form what we now know as Black Rock City. John has an incredible story to tell give it a listen today.

ALSO! On Thursday February 5th at the Roxie theater at 6:15 the SF Indie Festival will open their movie festival with the San Francisco premiere of the Santacon documentary. Go to the URL below right now to get a ticket, they will sell out fast. You can also stream it if you can’t make it to SF, check out the URL below. It is an amazing documentary all about the history of Santacon from the same director that made “Class Action Park” about Action Park.

https://sfindie2026.eventive.org/welcome

https://johnwlaw.com/

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email [email protected] if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

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Episode 41 with Joshua Martelli is out now! He first encountered Burning Man in the media in the early 2000’s but it took him about 10 years before he was ready to go. In 2009 he was invited by a friend to camp at Camp Zoom (although no one was told he was coming) and made life-long connections there. From 2011-13 he solo camped on the playa before returning to Camp Zoom later. Joshua also revived the Mint 400 offroad race which used to be a Nevada legend decades before. In 2023 he became the camp lead for Camp Zoom. Joshua has some incredible stories and a lot of thoughtful insights especially when it comes to consent, give it a listen today.

https://themint400.com/

[email protected]

https://www.campzoom.org/about

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email [email protected] if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

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Shadow Shorts #2 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time.

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email [email protected] if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, it REALLY helps the show to even appear in search results.

Episode 39 with Debi “Crackerjack” Mansour is out now! Camping with friends she first landed in Black Rock City in 2013. After that first year experience she went back to Rochester, NY and found her local burner community. In 2014 she went to Playa Del Fuego where she started a themecamp called “Crackerjack’s Booty Camp”. She also went to her first upstate NY Regional “POrtalBurn" in 2014 where she set about to volunteer. After that she did an annual “Booty Pageant" and "Crackerjack's Booty Camp” lived on for 6 more years. She is now on the Board Of Directors for POrtalBurn. She was involved in a Burnal Equinox in Rochester which she took over in 2017, in 2019 they formed a Nonprofit called “Not Your Mom”. Others started another “Burn” called “Cosmic Burn” in 2020 which was invitation only, she helped to organize the 2nd one. In 2021 Cosmic Burn was a themecamp at POrtalBurn. And in late 2021 Cosmic Burn got official Burning Man Regional Status.

Being a burner is so much more than just going to Black Rock City, there is a whole world of global Burners. Debi’s story is one of the first dives into this world, please give it a listen and learn how far Burning Man culture is spreading.

https://portalburn.org/

http://cosmicburn.org/

https://www.notyourmominc.org/

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email [email protected] if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, it REALLY helps the show to even appear in search results.