Burning Man LIVE

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Stanford Professor and social psychologist Brian Lowery talked with Stuart in Black Rock City to reimagine the myth of the self-reliant individual.

From the power of connection to the dangers of modern isolation, and the erasure of "third spaces" in the default world, Brian breaks down the social science of flourishing community.

They explore how the friction-filled uniqueness of Burning Man amplifies how deeply we impact one another.
· Radical Self-expression: How much is it just about you, or for (and from) the community?
· Radical Self-reliance: Is it a delusion? What does it look like to create city-sized reliance?
· Gifting: non-transactional gifts are magical, sure. What about the gifting we’re doing when we’re just being?

It’s a perspective-shifting conversation on how we work with our original programming in this new world, and own the impact of interactions to prevent and reverse a lonely world.

Watch and hear how much of who you are may be just a rolling compilation of the people you know.

Watch on YouTube.

https://www.brianloweryphd.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Lowery

https://www.knowwhatyousee.com/podcast

https://www.ted.com/speakers/brian_s_lowery

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Watch it on YouTube.

Dystopia is compelling. What’s the opposite? Hope.

Xtina Chu and Corey Johnson talk in Black Rock City about all things interesting with our solar future happening now! They share how in an age of cynicism, optimism is the ultimate punk rock rebellion.

What started as a DIY experiment has evolved into a megawatt array gifting clean-energy to EV art cars and fuel-free theme camps. Meanwhile, back in California, they deploy rapid disaster-relief. They’re rewriting the rules of power, even large-scale event power.

The future doesn’t stink.

Moving away from individualism, they view "self-reliance" as a collective resilience network. They shine a light on the engineering — and cultural engineering — happening now and forever, more and more.

Videography by: Damien Blue, Duncan Rawlinson, and Jamen Percy

Watch it on YouTube.

https://www.solarpunks.club/

https://journal.burningman.org/2026/08/black-rock-city/leaving-no-trace/2026-sustainability-update/

https://journal.burningman.org/2026/07/black-rock-city/leaving-no-trace/the-race-to-decarbonize-black-rock-city/

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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.

https://www.dianehoffoss.com/

Cover Photo: Frank Guthrie

Bio Photo: Ariele Baragona

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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

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

wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Will_Burn

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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

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29033873/

wikipedia.org/Jehane_Noujaim

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

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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.

https://auroraburn.org.au/

https://www.burningseed.com/

https://blazingswan.com.au/

www.modifyre.org

https://underland.au

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

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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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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

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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

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens

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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

https://talk.theborderland.se/main/

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

https://alversjo.land/

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

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

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

cobudget.com

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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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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."

https://retro-futurist.com

https://spacemansam.substack.com

https://www.obtainiumworks.net

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

https://www.youtube.com/@spaceman.sam.coniglio

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George Paap, a pioneer of the Burning Man Regional network, talks with Andie Grace.

He founded Burning Flipside in Texas, the first-ever Burning Man sanctioned event beyond the desert. What inspired him? Black Rock City 1997. He found freedom there, and it sparked a lifelong mission.

Hear his adventures of building a culture from scratch, and why, as a futurist, he believes Burners are steady & ready to handle the societal shifts ahead.

• Collaborating to create local community without a blueprint
• Celebrating Burning Man culture is a backstop for a polarized world
• Finding resilience under pressure in the art of radical integrity

"Don't wait. You have to jump in and do it. You can't wait for something to happen. You’ve gotta provide the motivation... the inspiration... the vision, and bring people along." — George Paap

BURNING MAN LIVE ON YOUTUBE

https://www.burningflipside.com

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

https://www.trippingly.net/burning-man-musings/tag/George+Paap

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There’s a world of civic hacking where "making cool stuff" meets "making useful stuff."

Hear tinkerers, gearheads and other makers share about the inventions that won them Burners Without Borders Civic Ignition Grants. These grants are little sparks that fire up the next level of open-source technology for all of our community, and for all the world.

Colin Jemmott and MJ Brovold of YOUtopia, the San Diego Regional event, share about their low maintenance light source that’s sturdy, solar-powered, and buildable by anyone. They're also building a huge steel pop-up book!

Sam Smith and Squirtle of SOAK, the Portland Regional event, share about their deployable solar shade pavilion made of star-shapes and scissor linkages. Trash eating robots are involved, and 3D printed ‘precious plastic’ art.

This is not about the party. This is about practicing for a future where we won't need to poison the planet to self-express.

These stories are a recipe:

• One part ‘for the love of it’ spirit
• One part skills we already have

Blend until smooth.

Enjoy what new ideas can happen when we all put our heads together.

burnerswithoutborders.org/2025-regional-event-grant

https://www.luxcapacitor.art/

https://sdyoutopia.com/

sdcolab.org

https://www.precipitationnw.org/burnon

https://soakpdx.com/

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Insightful. World-Building. Spit-take inducing.

Mark Day’s videos serve as a digital gateway for many thousands of Burners, capturing that blurry edge where the default world ends and the playa begins.

From his early days building tripper trappers and doing stand up comedy, to his controversial tinkering with AI art (think Dalmatians made of donuts), Mark has put 10,000 hours into his “24 Hours at Burning Man” videos.

Andie Grace talks with this unique content creator to explore thresholds and multitudes. They discuss how to capture the moment and also experience it. They dive head first into the touchy subjects of consent, the ethics of documentation, and how “acculturation is an everybody thing.”

He shares his sociology of being a Greeter in BRC. He talks creative process. He brings clever curiosity to open-ended self-expression and the freedom to be your favorite version of yourself.

https://journal.burningman.org/author/mark-day/

https://www.youtube.com/markdaycomedy

https://www.instagram.com/burner_videos

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It's absurd.
It perturbs.
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 Stephen Colbert, Jon Stuart, and the cast of Star Wars, we hosted a (non-denominational) holiday show in front of a live online pseudo-studio audience in 2020.

Broadcasting from their snowed-in virtual holiday cabins, Stuart and Andie entertained guests:
· Santa Zero - originator of the now-infamous SantaCon phenomenon
· Mrs. Claus - founder of Burning Man’s first theme camp, Christmas Camp
· Tubatron and his Flaming Tuba playing a Hanukkah song (David Silverman)
· Reverend Billy and Savitri D of the Stop Shopping Choir

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”
· how the Cacophony Society is sooo Kumbaya

in the 5th anniversary of our Holiday Special that is indeed SPECIAL.

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

http://santarchy.com/youd-better-watch-out-portland-santacon-96/

Cacophony Society: Santasm, Santacon, Santarchy, ad nauseum

http://talesofsfcacophony.com/santasm-santacon-santarchy-kringle-klot-etc-ad-nauseum/

Tubatron (aka David Silverman)

https://burningman.org/podcast/david-silverman-so-thats-how-that-started/

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverend_Billy_and_the_Church_of_Stop_Shopping

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His huge steel sculptures have graced Black Rock City for decades, then found forever homes in cities, festivals, and private collections around the world.

Hear veteran structural sculptor Michael Christian go deep and wide about his Burning Man art, from a tree of bones to a 65-foot tall tower.

He shares about his installation "Down the Drain," a commentary on human alignment, or misalignment... or maybe it’s about toilets blowing kisses at each other!

He talks with Stuart about the shift from a "lone artist" mindset to community collaboration, and how to get everything done despite a storm or a lost box of bolts.

They tinker with the qualities of hubris and humility. They get real about why they keep returning to the collective happening in the dust.

• How does Michael follow intuition more than a thesis?
• How does he discover the meaning of his art only after he has built it?
• How did ‘out of the box’ thinking become a 30 year career?

These questions are answered with more questions in this episode right here.

https://www.michaelchristian.com/

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RootHub (aka Aloha) weaves the core values and shared struggle of building Black Rock City and his work in Hawai‘i. He draws inspiration from the Hawaiian people’s concept of kuleana (responsibility to the land and community).

When he’s not building BRC with DPW, or playing music to amplify people’s stories, he’s diverting food waste from landfills and incinerators into much needed, nutrient-dense soil for growing food. He does this through his companies. The names say it all:

· Full Circle Solutions Hawaii

· Leftover Love Company ("We love your leftovers")

Hear how ingenuity learned on the playa—along with a sense of humor—allows him to overcome hurdles and create meaningful change in BRC and in Hawai’i, even with the naive tourists.

Through sweet story and song, he shares how to combine innovation with tradition, to lift the stone without lifting the weight of the stone.

https://www.roothub.com/

https://leftoverloveco.com

https://fullcirclesolutionshi.com/

burningman.org/black-rock-city/infrastructure/dept-of-public-works

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He brought theme camps and art installations to Black Rock City, and yes, he DJed!

Now he brings the spirit of kindness and collaboration (and Do-ocracy) into creating public policy.

He co-founded a Burning Man Regional nonprofit.

He directed a cultural arts center.

He collaborated on cultural policy for racial equity, social justice, and creative sustainability.

He ran the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.

He now creates affordable housing through community development projects.

He says that nonprofit and public sector work is open source, “so take it, learn from it, use it, adaptively reuse it.”

Hear Andie Grace ask him how we can make it work where we live.

“When you go to the playa and you're in this decommodified environment, all you have is how you show up... I've learned how to approach community-building through collaboration and kindness, and a real spirit of genuine curiosity. As long as you stay curious, a lot can be possible.”

https://www.thirdwaycreative.com/team

https://watershedcommunity.org/

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“I think therefore I am.” ~Descartes
John Jennifer adds:
I care therefore we are… and you cannot think your way to ‘we’

He is a poet, an architect, and a cultural instigator. He helped create The Museum of No Spectators which includes Burning Man art of snark and social justice, but no velvet ropes.

He’s a paradox embracer. In a world of binaries, he asserts that between black and white is not a gradient of gray; between black and white is all the conceivable colors.

Hear him philosophize about different styles of art and artists, from avant garde to architecture, from Salvador Dalí to Frank Lloyd Wright.

He and Stuart explore how a glittery clothespin alligator and a museum-grade sculpture both share the humanity of the giver.

They explore playa art — genre-defying, genre-defining — and the value of both fine art and participatory art at Burning Man.

They explore how creative expression went from being seen as a hobby to a human need, and how creative community proliferates.

Listen in on their profound and playful chat. 🎙️🔥

form4inc.com/person/johnmarx

museumofnospectators.com

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