Burning Man LIVE

Mutant vehicles! Theme camps! Art experiences! It all emanates from the community... overlapping circles of people who are everywhere between being newcomers and seasoned, local and global, young and old.

Andie Grace talks with next-gen Burners Taylor Andrews, Kat Ebert, Mani Senthil, and Whitney Wilhelmy about how to find your crew like you never thought possible.

They break down barriers and clear pathways through an initiative called “Rising Sparks” which demystifies BRC and Regional events, and guides Burners to get more from the magic.

They explore the art of participation:

• seeing the sweet spot between being unmoored and overdoing it
• balancing of survival and self-expression
• finding fresh takes on mentorship

Hear how they claim their place and shape the future.

"Rising Sparks is a grassroots collective fostering intergenerational collaboration, connection, and cultural continuity within Burning Man.

We cultivate community-driven spaces where emerging leaders, newcomers, and seasoned Burners can connect, dream big, and contribute to the future of Burning Man—both within Black Rock City and globally.

Our mission is to inspire participation, address barriers to entry, and cultivate leadership across generations by providing mentorship, community-driven tools, and creative collaboration opportunities.

We are igniting the next generation of artists, leaders, and changemakers by stewarding an accessible, culturally diverse, and evolving Burning Man culture."

https://linktr.ee/therisingsparks

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Legend whispers of a time when Burning Man was a lawless Eden, a fiery playground of unbridled do-ocracy; no rules, just pure creative chaos. But as Black Rock City has grown into a thriving metropolis, so has the need for structure. We've gone from jokey forms for an ‘artistic license’ to complex permit obligations. We’ve gone from giving ourselves permission to taking on a system that can feel overwhelming.

How can we better balance radical self-expression with the necessities of a city? How can we purge bureaucracy, or are all those old rules essential for safety and sustainability?

This episode delves into the "agonizing reappraisal" within the Burning Man Project, a movement to streamline processes and discard red tape.

Stuart explores the dusty trail from Black Rock City's anarchic origins to the sign marked 2025. He talks with Louder Charlie, the Operations Director of the whole place. He also talks with Chef Juke of the DMV Council, and Level Placerman, Manager of the Placement team.

Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenesters who are preserving the unique magic while navigating the complexities of growth, and how they ensure that the spirit of creation remains accessible to all.

Is it possible to balance the wild heart of Burner culture and the grown-up practices of a city? We’re about to find out.

The Camp Symposium - March 22, 2025

Camps and Placement

The Department of Mutant Vehicles

2025 Ticket Info

The 10 Principles

Bureaucracy (Burning Man Journal)

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Burning Man culture brings people together across all kinds of divides, yet we’re seeing an uptick of intolerance toward art and experiences in our community. The default world is often divided by ideology, religion, and politics. Could that division seep into this culture that aspires to welcome everyone?

How can we navigate the turbulent waters between, say, Radical Self-expression and Radical Inclusion? How do we walk the line between free speech and hate speech? How do we keep our global community together in times of outright war?

Listen in on a roundtable discussion about concerns that don’t have easy solutions. A few folks explore how the act of conversation changes what might otherwise seem controversial or divisive:

• Stuart Mangrum is Burning Man Project’s Director of the Philosophical Center so he directed some philosophers to center around a microphone to discuss.
• Caveat Magister debated and discussed Burning Man philosophy, then wrote books about it.
• Kay Morrison is a veteran Black Rock City artist, active in the Global Network, and a Burning Man Project board member.
• Steven Raspa is Associate Director of Community Events for Burning Man Project, and a co-founder of the Regional Network Committee.

This conversation concerns art, yes, and behavior — as participants, as people. It’s about being open-minded and open-hearted, even when it’s difficult to do. What is a safe space? What is a brave space? How can jackassery be respectful? What’s with all the questions? Tune in for the answers that lead to more questions.

burningman.org/about/10-principles

Turn Your Life Into Art with Caveat Magister (Burning Man LIVE)

Kay Morrison and the Overall Wonderment Quotient (Burning Man LIVE)

Remember How to Burning Man with Steven Raspa (Burning Man LIVE)

Stuart Mangrum’s Serious Philosophy of Shenanigans (Burning Man LIVE)

LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Back by popular demand, more stories from Burning Man's oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and talk with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it.

Stuart and Andie remember to remember the most memorable parts. Here’s a fresh batch:

• Chris Radcliffe, artist, con artist, prankster, and shadow founder of Burning Man (perhaps), shares stories of how the Cacophony Society would prank the media and how the Black Rock Desert drove up his fears, then dispelled them. He also hints at the larger-than-life impact of the Billboard Liberation Front.
• Candace Locklear, aka Evil Pippi, a perturber and social experimenteer (new word) shares how she helped Burning Man manage the mainstream media in the late ‘90s. She also talks about cutesy culture jamming as a scary clown.
• Summer Burkes was the DPW's media liaison. She sees the early days of Black Rock City as the love child of comically aggressive punk rockers and air-kissy techno industrialists, and she embraces their uneasy peace.
• Steve Heck brought 88 pianos to Burning Man in 1996, stacked them in a tall circular “piano bell.” People beat it into a cacophonous soundscape until he burned it. That was after he almost died wandering the desert. Then he cleaned it up, and did it the next year, and the next year, and taught the BRC teams the art of packing and moving big stuff.
• Dr. Hal Robins is a beloved Renaissance Man of stage and story, a Cacophonist, an Uber Pope of the Church of the Subgenius, and a mellifluous philosopher of sesquipedalians. He shares about the inventiveness and serendipity of Burning Man and why it matters in the world.

Part 1 of this series: burningman.org/podcast/a-peoples-history-of-burning-man

journal.burningman.org/category/philosophical-center

burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center

www.cacophony.org

The What Where When Guide is here.

The 1996 Helco commercial is here.

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Tom Price co-founded Burners Without Borders, Black Rock Solar, and a company that gifts clean-burning kitchens to people in Kenya.

Tom talks about the weather, specifically hurricanes, and how Burners Without Borders started and grows despite extreme circumstances because Burners are extreme!

Tom’s tales of adventure include paperwork pranks and ad hoc Cajun catharsis. If Burning Man is a permission engine, giving people agency in their lives, he says the lesson of Burning Man is finding out what is too much and then finding the sweet spot.

Note: The company names they joke about in this episode are NOT sponsors, because if we don't have Decommodification, we don't have Burning Man!

Burners Without Borders

Black Rock Solar

Tom Price: Burning Man Journal

Burning Man LIVE: Tom Price and the Benefactor’s Dilemma (2022)

Burning Man LIVE: Creative Solutions to Mass Destruction (2020)

TEDx Black Rock City: Tom Price: Beyond Burning Man (2011)

ecosafi.com

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