Shadow Of The Man

Episode 33 with Wolfie is out now! She grew up in Pacifica where she encountered people burning this wooden “Man” on the beach in the early 1990’s. It turns out it was Larry Harvey and early burners replicating their Baker beach experience for a small group back in those early days. Wolfie first went to BRC in 2013 and by her 3rd year she was already a camp lead. She has been a part of Illumination Village (started by Charlie Gatti...

Episode 32 with Kay Morrison is out now! Before discovering Burning Man Kay was involved in the world of protests in Seattle and internationally. She first landed in BRC in 2000 and then camped with the Space Virgins in 2001 (and then Area 47 village). In 2004-5 Seattle started to organize as a Regional group with the first Critical Massive. Kay helped to start Ignition Northwest and became a Burning Man Regional Contact for Seattl...

Episode 31 with Paradox Pollack is out now! Please give it a listen today. He ran away from home and went to San Francisco, almost dying in a fire on the way. Paradox is one of the founders of Cell Space, an iconic event venue in SF where many early Burning Man events were held. He first went to the Black Rock desert in 1991 and was part of Desert Site Works. In 1992 he returned and was part of a 48 hour performance organized by Pe...

Episode 30 with Metric is out now. He first went to BRCin 1998 when he worked as a sound engineer in San Francisco. In 1999 he volunteered with the Temple of Ishtar. In 2000 he volunteered with Burning Man and first went to the Ranch. After the first SF Decompression at Club Cocomo he moved out to Gerlach. From 2001-2004 he was Burning Man’s first Ranch Manager. Metric was part of the Man crew from 2001-2019 and from 2004-2019 he w...

Episode 29 with Diva Marisa is out now. Meet Marisa who first heard about Burning Man as a 12 year old girl living in the bay area by reading about it in a Cacophany Society newsletter. She first hit the playa in 1999 to sing in Pepe Ozan’s opera. Death Guild has been a San Francisco club since 1993, and the themecamp Death Guild/Thunderdome was founded by David King. In 2002 Marisa sang at the first SF decompression and in 2003 sh...

Episode 28 with Monique Schiess is out now. Meet Monique who first landed in Black Rock City in 2004. By 2007 she was co-founding Afrikaburn with Paul Jorgensen. She helped to run Aftrikaburn for 16 years before she was “abruptly let go”. She is currently working on a film about Afrikaburn (see links below). Monique was no stranger to the wild before hitting the playa, she had experience out in the bush in South Africa camping and ...

Episode 27 the Season Premiere is out now. Meet Michael Mikel (aka Danger Ranger) one of the earliest founding members of Burning Man. He first encountered the Cacophany Society in 1986 and got hooked. In 1988 he showed up at Baker beach at Larry Harvey’s beach burn. In 1990 when the park police shut down the Baker beach “Man burns” Michael helped to convince Larry to bring the Man to the Black Rock Desert for the Cacophany Society...

Episode 26 the Season One Recap is out now. The inaugural season of the Shadow of The Man show is now over, next week Season 2 will launch with the Season Premiere EP 27 with none other than Danger Ranger! Learn about what happened behind the scenes in Season 1 and get a sneak peek at Season 2

This episode recounts the wobbly but promising beginning of this show and all of the startup problems the show faced. Over time these issues ...

Episode 25 with Caveat Magister is out now! Learn all about Burning Man’s philosopher laureate and his backstory. He first got involved in Regionals before moving to San Francisco where he first went to Black Rock City in 2006. From the beginning he volunteered with Media Mecca eventually becoming staff (which he did for 5 years, over time becoming their volunteer coordinator). In 2010-11 he started to write for the Burning Man Jou...

Episode 24 with Katy Tahja is out now! Katy first went to Black Rock City in 2012 following her daughter who had been going for 10 years. She thought it would be a one and done trip especially as she uses crutches and it was difficult for her to get around. She found Mobility Camp and got hooked, she has since returned year after year helping to organize the camp. Katy also writes articles about BRC for the Anderson Valley Advertis...

Episode 23 with Lisa Scheinkopf (AKA Sassy Cat) is out now!. She first went to Black Rock City from her home base in Arizona in 2011 where she caught the bug for burning. Later on she helped to run the themecamp “Cat World” and later another called “Ignited States”. She has been a part of the Arizona Burn (Seguaro Man, 4th weekend of April each year) since 2015. Lisa helped to organize “Ignite” in Phoenix in 2019 and became a Burni...

Meet Torria Lee (AKA Luscious Blue). She is a veteran black burner from Portland who’s first experience with the Burning Man world was SOAK in 2005. A year later she first hit the playa, camping at Snuggletown at Black Rock City in 2006. In later years she was part of a mutant vehicle group called the Pipes Of Passion as well as volunteering with the Post Office. I first met Luscious Blue in 2006 when she camped across the street f...

Meet Adriana Roberts. She is one of the longest attending burners who first hit Black Rock City in 1993. In 1995 she started one of the very first “papers” on the playa called Piss Clear which she and friends ran for years (until 2007). After taking a little time off from Piss Clear she started a new playa publication called the BRC Weekly in 2010 which ran for a number of years before recently ending in 2023. In 2008 Adriana start...

Meet Megs (aka Meghan Rutigliano) who grew up in the East Coast and Midwest and first went to Burning Man in 2005 from Chicago. She helped the late, great Burning Man legend Tom Laporte record BMIR commercials. In 2007 she moved to San Francisco and applied for a job on a whim with the Burning Man Project as a receptionist. In 2008 she was hired, not as a receptionist but to help out with the Regional Network. She helped to lead th...

Meet Athena Demos who started her Burning Man career in 1999 by immediately stripping naked and running off on a mobile viking ship that went off to go help raise the Man. She didn’t remember where her camp was so over the next few days the playa provided for her until she was able to find and return to her friend who brought her there. A few years later she helped organize the first LA Decompressions then became one of the first R...

Meet Dan Miller, Larry Harvey’s roommate and the longest participating burner. Dan was part of everything from before the beginning. Dan and Larry lived together from 1981 - 2000, and only after they moved in did the realization occur that they had met earlier in 1978 at a raku (a kind of pottery that involves “burning” pottery in fires) multi-day campout at Pescadero beach. This campout would become the earliest inspiration for La...

Meet Inani Schroedinger one of the geniuses and instigators behind the Burning Man Philosophical Center on Facebook and on the playa. He first hit Black Rock City in 1998 and started off by volunteering with Pepe Ozan and did many things on the playa including helping to build the Man base. He has quite the interesting story and journey to Burning Man. He has a lot of stories to share, we only covered a fraction of them, he will ha...

Check out episode 16 with Xina Ocasio. She is a trans woman from Austin, Texas who first encountered the world of Burning Man by getting involved with Burning Flipside. After volunteering with this pioneering Texas Regional event she later made it to the playa, and in her first trip to Black Rock City she organized one of the first villages! She is an amazing woman with an incredible story. She is also part of a band you should che...

Join us today for a conversation with the one and only Nurse (aka Jess Bobier). She has been burning since Andie Grace and her first hit the playa together in 1997. Nurse has been to BRC around 25 times and has been a fixture as a volunteer at Media Mecca for many years. She has a lot of interesting insights into the inner workings of the "Project" and a lot of great stories. And if you hadn't noticed she is a very g...