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/

theheadrobot@gmail.com

https://www.campzoom.org/about

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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.

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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 “Portal Burn" 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 Portal Burn. 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 Portal Burn. 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/

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Episode 38 with Tex Burner (aka Tex Allen) is out now! He first experienced the Black Rock desert in 2006 when he went to 4th of Juplaya. 3 years later he returned to go to Black Rock City in 2009. His first time out he camped with Unicorn Ranch in Illumination Village. The following year he began to volunteer with the Greeters and Arctica. He gave out over 50,000 red clown noses on playa (and wore a red clown nose) for around 7 years on playa until 2017. Since 2017 he has been an integral part and an originator of the Church Of Free Hugs which now has chapters around the US and the world. He talks extensively about the power of (consentual) free hugs to heal and transform. It seems rather simple and small but it is an act that has significant power to heal and transform. I apologize in advance if the levels are a little off in this episode it was my first recording with some new equipment

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1KcaG9pLvA/

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

Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com 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.

Shadow Shorts #1 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 shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com 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 36 with Harley Dubois is out now! In 1988 She was enrolled at the Berkeley Psychic Institute when she found a great apartment in SF at 1907 Golden Gate. Over the next few years she unwittingly held afterparties for Cacophany Society events. In 1990 when the SF park police shooed away Larry Harvey and friends from Baker beach a meeting was convened in her living room to decide what to do with this “Burning Man”. She didn’t take the bait originally in 1990 but after hearing from the “Zone Trip #4” returnees (like her neighbor Miss P Segal) she first hit the Black Rock Desert in 1991. One can argue that Harley and Miss P started the first themecamp. Music was not central to BRC in the beginning, only in 1993-94 did Larry invite Turbo Ted (he ran raves in SF at the time). In 1995 Harley started the Themecamp Placement department. She was instrumental in organizing and professionalizing the Burning Man Project. Currently she serves as the Chief Cultural Officer. Over the years she has come to define her meaning of transformational experience as 4 parts:

1. Meaningful work
2. Being pushed out of your comfort zone
3. Feeling safe/no judgement
4. Presence of ritual/ceremony

Please give this episode a listen, you will learn not just some early history but the inspiring story of one of the founders of BRC.

harley@burningman.org

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Episode 35 with Stuart Mangrum is out now! He has worn many hats over the years, currently known as the host of the Burning Man Live podcast. Start has been a member of the Cacophany society for many years and first hit the playa in 1993. His first year at Black Rock City he was roped into doing the playa’s first newspaper, the Black Rock Gazette which he was the editor of for a few years. In 1995 he started what is arguably the first real themecamp (Tiki camp) that was designed in advance and implemented on playa. He argues that the previous “Christmas camp” was impromptu and kind of mean. After the crazy year of 1996 he pulled back from being part of the event organization and in 1997 while still going joined a part of BRC that was at the time called the “Neigh-bar-hood”. In 2012-13 Larry Harvey needed help with the theme and invited Stuart in to help build a new educational department called the Burning Man Philosophical Center. Together with Caveat Magister they wrote many articles about the nature of Burning Man over the years. Together with others at the Burning Man Philosophical Center he started the Burning Man Live podcast in 2020 which has had 125 episodes aries to date. Please give the show a listen and find out all about the man behind one of my favorite podcasts (I have listened to them all).

https://burningman.org/podcast/

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

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Episode 34 with Dean Barlese is out now! He is an elder in the Piute community who has been going to Black Rock City since 2001. He is involved with Protect Thacker Pass which is a group that wants to preserve sacred land that is a historical massacre site from being destroyed by a lithium mine. Dean says traffic is the biggest impact but he has spent many years among friends at Burning Man. This interview was done with Dean on the phone so I apologize in advance for any extra noises.

https://www.protectthackerpass.org/

Protect Thacker Pass (Facebook)

Please visit shadowoftheman.com for all of the details and links.

Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com 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.