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Philosophy
**Burning Man LIVE**

Meet those who make Burning Man happen, beyond the desert and out in the world. Artists, activists, and innovators. Builders and Burners, freaks and fools. Burning Man floats on a sea of stories, and the Burning Man LIVE podcast is a plucky little boat with a microphone.

Latest Episodes:

Math Mysteries: The Art of Dr Diane Hoffoss Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

Watch on YOUTUBE.

Watch this adventure (recorded in Black Rock City) about how art is built, and how it finds its people.

Dr. Diane Hoffoss designs, crafts, and finds funding for interactive art in BRC and out in the wide world.

See the art and the conversation with Andie Grace about unsolved problems, lasers, and joy.

“Inspired positivity and joy, bringing all this happiness back. We need that.”

They decode the depth between interactive art, interactive math, and the universe.

They share stories about the art collective ArtBuilds, the nonprofit Makerspace CoLab, and

the Burning Man Regional event YOUtopia... and how Diane's university funded her Burning

Man art as official scholarly research.

Watch all the way to the end for the best part: how building a laser playground in the dust might just solve the mystery of restoring faith in humanity.

www.dianehoffoss.com

Cover Photo: Frank Guthrie

Bio Photo: Ariele Baragona

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Jamie Wheal and the Burning Man Mystery School Aug 30, 2026

Show notes

Jamie Wheal, author of Stealing Fire and Recapture the Rapture, and the viral article The Man WILL Burn!, joins Stuart to unpack the cultural anthropology of peak states.

They explore how Black Rock City serves as a crucible for thriving in the future.

They deep dive into:

Hedonic Engineering: Inducing bliss without cravings, healing without the cringe, and communing without it becoming a cult.
The Culture of Culture: How movements morph, why BRC’s builders are like Navy SEALs, and resetting through radical participation.
Practical Optimism: Letting go of 21st Century normal, and keeping your shit together in the shitshow.

Watch them un-forget how to make that magic anywhere.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Wheal

jamiewheal.substack.com/p/the-man-will-burn

wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Will_Burn

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Behind the Scenes: The Man Will Burn: Marian Goodell & Jehane Noujaim Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

Watch it on YouTube.

No spoilers. This is the making of the docuseries The Man Will Burn. This is the context for what was filmed, who said what, and what got cut; the cameras and the chaos (and the quinoa).

Burning Man Project’s CEO Marian Goodell talks with Jehane Noujaim Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and director.

They share the creative challenge of assembling Burning Man’s story from a mosaic of a million people’s stories. They dive right into the interweaving 35 years of archival footage with the personal journeys of a dozen participants from a dozen places.

Watch Marian and Jehane’s conversation, recorded the day after the premiere at Tribeca. Hit play on the dust and trust of the blank canvas that becomes a city year after year, and a 4-hour film about its start, its false stops, and its proliferating permutations.

burningman.org/documentaries/the-man-will-burn

www.imdb.com/title/tt29033873

wikipedia.org/Jehane_Noujaim

journal.burningman.org/author/marian

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Substance Over Splash - Australia's Regional Burns Jul 10, 2026

Show notes

5 leaders from the 5 Regional Burns of Australia!

They focus on collaboration more than contraptions, connection more than complexity.

Aurora, Tasmania: Lara, aka Squeaky Queen, on the logistics of being an island off an island.
Blazing Swan, Western Australia: Shaz on navigating extreme weather with 3,700 friends.
Burning Seed, New South Wales: Leanna, aka Mama, on restructuring into a member-owned organization.
Modifyre, Queensland: Chau on the bonds built with a 10% annual growth cap.
Underland, Victoria: Marty on trading a "crisis of imagination" for accountability.

These movers & shakers go a mile deep into the dust, the heart, and the deets of Australia’s radical experiments in community.

They acculturate through one on one connections and Burning Pubs.

They embrace Positive Impact more than Leave No Trace.

They aspire to the 10 Principles and the 11th, and even the 12th.

See how this culture takes root, travels, and morphs year-round. Community is built through word of mouth, so that the space they create allows us to show up as our whole human selves.

Open your mind upside down, and laugh along with these larrikins and their playful perceptions.

auroraburn.org.au

www.burningseed.com

blazingswan.com.au

www.modifyre.org

underland.au

burningman.org/global/burning-man-regional-network/australia

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Long Live Community Art Spaces - Charlie Gadeken Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

For decades, Charlie has led some of Black Rock City's monumental works of art. He isn’t just the prolific mind behind iconic pieces like Elder Mother, an illuminated storytelling tree; he’s an architect of human connection.

He co-created and develops:

Illumination Village - an early and long running home-within-a-home at Black Rock City
The Flaming Lotus Girls - the all-volunteer, women-led art collective
The Box Shop - a collaborative workspace and art studio of 23 years and counting

Tune in as Charlie shares his artistic journey with Andie Grace. They explore the evolution from flame-thrown wind-sail paintings to steel trees of addressable LED leaves.

But this isn’t about him.

The Box Shop, home to hundreds of metalworkers, large-scale sculptors, and multimedia artists, has birthed thousands of artworks and taught countless volunteers to wire and weld. After 23 years, it’s facing displacement due to gentrification. Charlie shares the gritty details of reinventing this creative sanctuary into a nonprofit in a new location.

Hear why making beautiful things with friends matters more than maximizing shareholder profit, and why hands-on community hubs bring belonging as an antidote to modern loneliness and greed.

https://www.charlesgadeken.com

https://boxshopsf.org

https://www.flaminglotus.com

https://www.illuminationvillage.org

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OTHERWORLD - Vancouver Island's Regional Ripple Effect Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Watch it on YouTube.

What do you get when you mix 3,200 Burners, a lush Canadian forest, and a summer fire ban? Oh, and an event theme that is literally just the word... MOIST.

Wander through the woods of Otherworld, one of British Columbia’s rapidly growing Regional Burns. Coordinators of creative chaos Jax and Zephyr share what it takes to conjure Burning Man culture in the Pacific Northwest

How to acculturate festival consumers with sacred and profane initiations
How to land an epic effigy show using theatrics when under a summer burn ban
How to have Black Rock City closer to home

If you’re headed to the playa, or wrangling a Regional, or just here for the fuckery of a good inside-joke, this is how to do culture differently, and have fun along the way.

Watch it on YouTube.

https://otherworld.ca

https://burningman.org/global-events-groups

https://burningman.org/burning-man-regional-network

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Serious Play - Isabel Behncke May 15, 2026

Show notes

Watch it on YouTube here.

What happens when Burner behavior goes under the microscope? Sociologists, ecologists, and economists have been on this show. Now we’re looking at this culture through a new lens: primatology.

Isabel Behncke is an evolutionary biologist and a Burning Man Project Board Member. From tracking bonobos in the jungle to observing humans on playa, she shares her groundbreaking research on ritual and play.

In this mind-expanding conversation, she and Stuart explore:

🏕️ "Dunbar's number" and how camp size matters

🦍 The evolutionary purpose of play for young and old

🤝 How risk, trust, and vulnerability build true community

🎁 The ancient, radical act of giving without expecting anything back

If you’re a social science fan, a camp lead of dynamic humans, or just a lover of wild stories about bonobos, humans, and other animals, get ready to understand your own playful nature!

Watch it on YouTube here.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Behncke

burningman.org/about-us/who-we-are/board-of-directors

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5,000_Years

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens

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The Borderland: Trust Creates Worlds Apr 28, 2026

Show notes

This culture started in dust and ephemerality. We build metropolises of art and fire, then we leave no trace. How do we translate that inspiration into a rhythm for everyday life? What happens when a temporary autonomous zone puts down roots?

The Borderland is Scandinavia's largest and longest running Burning Man Regional event. It’s "working out loud" culture fosters radical trust, allowing the community to create its own world where no one is in charge.

The community also crowd-funded land that serves as the permanent home for their Regional event, and year-round collaborations of all kinds.

How does the Borderland commit to the risk and reward of community buy-in?

How does trusting that someone will have the answer lead to resiliency?

How do the 10 Principles balance aspects of Scandinavian culture differently than US culture?

Hear Andie set it up, then Stuart talk with Liselotte Norman and Hampus Lindblad.

Hear about the act of letting go to stay together.

Photo: Annie Locke Scherer

talk.theborderland.se/main

burningman.org/global-events-groups/burning-man-regional-network

alversjo.land

burningman.org/global-events-groups/burning-man-regional-network/sweden

burningman.org/global-events-groups/find-a-burning-man-event

www.alscherer.com/the-temple-of-tokamak

cobudget.com

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Camp Symposium Highlights: Let's Build it Together Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/irkEajUVRgI

Most people in Black Rock City live together in placed camps (theme camps), the most unique aspect of this unique event. BRC has 1400 camps.

Theme Camps = Communal Effort + Intimacy + Self-Expression

Theme campers gift a uniquely decommodified ‘third place’ of offerings and ambiance.

At this annual symposium, staff and volunteers share how they gift their interactive camps to the participants. It’s an art. It’s a science.

Andie Grace: Senior Producer in the Philosophical Center

Andrew Lowe: Senior Software Developer, Burning Man Project

Bryant Tan (aka Level Placerman): Head of Placement for BRC

Christopher Breedlove: Director of Civic Engagement / BWB Camp Lead

Marian Goodell: CEO of Burning Man Project

Michael Vav: Technical Producer in the Philosophical Center

and a keen crew

Fowler of Gate
Magpie of Gate
Neon Glimmer of PEERS
Papa Bear of Placement
Razzmatazz of Placement
Rex on the Radio of DMV
T-Fire of Bureau of Erotic Discourse
Vesper Bell of the Camp Support Team
Wild Wes of Burners Without Borders

Hear about the seen and the unseen, from behind the scenes to the obscene.

Hear the Burners who create and integrate these interactive passion projects that are the heart of Burning Man events.

Camps and Placement | Burning Man

Placement: About Us & Volunteering

Camp Support Team | Burning Man

Burners Without Borders

Green Theme Camp Community

Gate, Perimeter & Exodus

Department of Mutant Vehicles

PEERS: Placement’s Exploration & Engagement Research Squad

Bureau of Erotic Discourse

WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/irkEajUVRgI

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Burners in Space! Meet Spaceman Sam Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

Remember that whiteout in deep playa? That prepared you for a NASA mission to space, maybe.

Andie Grace talks with Samuel M. Coniglio, aka Ranger Cosmonaut, and Spaceman Sam. He isn't just a ten-year Black Rock Ranger and a veteran of the legendary Neverwas Haul (that three-story Victorian house on wheels)...

He’s a writer, inventor, and futurist who worked on the Space Shuttle and the ISS. From his Zero-G cocktail glass, to his book about making offworld living worth living, he studies creature comforts in extreme environments.

Stuart Mangrum opens the show with a look at the Lunar Codex, an ambitious project placing the art of 50,000 Earthlings (including Burners!) into permanent archives on the Moon.

Then, Sam and Andie spacewalk into why "civilizing a barbaric situation" is a human need, whether its serving fancy tea in a mud storm, or grilling chicken on a space station.

Hear about radical self-reliance, orbital infrastructure, and why—if we’re going to Mars—we’d better bring decent coffee… and a bucket.

"Burning Man is just like going to Las Vegas on Mars. You have to learn how to live on Mars first before you enjoy the parties. It’s survival first, party second… The Burning Man org learned we have to have toilets, roads, and support systems. NASA probably should learn from you guys."

retro-futurist.com

spacemansam.substack.com

obtainiumworks.net

nss.org/book-review-creature-comforts-in-space

youtube.com/@spaceman.sam.coniglio

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