The Garage
Burner Podcast
Blender brings Burning Man’s most useful art installation to Black Rock City Published: [10/10/26] A week after Burning Man 2026, Arash sits down in Los Angeles with Brendon O'Halloran, aka Blender, the lead artist behind The Garage. A familiar suburban space transplanted into Black Rock City, the project honors the builders, workers, craftspeople, and laborers whose behind-the-scenes efforts make things happen—often with little recognition. Blender is also proud to announce that no influencer photoshoots took place at The Garage. In fact, many walked right past it as folks assumed it was...
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The Joy of Missing Out on Burning Man
Burner Podcast
A snarky roundtable to comfort listeners in the default feeling FOMO Published [9/1/26] You’ve done a lot of Burning Man! In fact, you’ve done so much Burning Man, that you’ve gotten to the point where you’re actually kinda happy to be sitting this one out and not dealing with all the heat and dust. Maybe you’re feeling a little giddy even, being all super comfy in your pajamas and snuggling with your cats. Maybe you’re even feeling a little guilty about how good it feels? Is this... Are you experiencing the opposite of FOMO? Is this JOMO that you’re feeling?? ...
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So You're Going to Burning Man!
Burner Podcast
Meet your mentors as you embark on your Hero's Journey through Black Rock City Published: 8/20/26 Burning Man is a lot! It's overwhelming even for the veterans. But this particular episode is for the newest additions to our global community; those embarking on their first ever Burning Man. Welcome to your own personal Hero's Journey. In this episode, you'll meet your mentors: Superglue, Magician, and Sam. The guests on this episode are three Burners with years of large-scale camp experience. You may have already left your Ordinary World and Crossed the Threshold by committing to...
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Alkaline: Go South at Spice of Life
Burner Podcast
Burner Podcast Presents: Alkaline The Soundtrack to Your Burn Session A072: Go South Recorded live at Spice of Life Campout outside Sydney, Australia Based in Sydney, Australia, Go South is a melodic house and techno DJ on a single mission: make people melt down on the dance floor, captivating hearts, souls, minds and hips with melodies where resistance is futile. A Pete Tong DJ Academy graduate, Go South is a mainstay of the Sydney club scene and a veteran of Burning Man and Burning Seed, where she's played aboard art cars and camps including Mystic Flyer, Fluffy, Charlie the Unicorn,...
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A Symphony of Steel
Burner Podcast
Mutant vehicle creator Henry Chang on art, engineering, and courage in the face of cruelty Published [8/11/26] Henry Chang can be described in so many ways and they’d all be accurate. Jazz-pianist-turned-electronic dance musician and self-taught mechanical engineer. Or a political scientist turned musician. Or a home builder turned sculptor. While most in Black Rock City recognize his iconic stainless steel creations like Valyrian Steel and the Flux Capacitor, this conversation dives deeper into the overall symphony of art, one of its many expressions being the machines most know...
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Alkaline: Tormenta at Spanky's Wine Bar
Burner Podcast
Burner Podcast Presents: Alkaline The Soundtrack to Your Burn Session A071: Tormenta at Spanky’s Wine Bar Recorded live at Spanky’s Wine Bar, Black Rock City 2025 Based in Berlin, Germany, Shirin — aka Tormenta — is a regular in the European burn scene, including NoWhere in Spain. In 2025, she made her first trip to Black Rock City, where her playa initiation came complete with storms, mud, and cancelled gigs. Fittingly, tormenta means “storm” in Spanish. This set was recorded at the iconic Spanky’s Wine Bar in BRC 2025: music for pleasure, self-determination, and moving like you...
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Alkaline: DJ Priscilla on El Pulpo Magnifico
Burner Podcast
Based in the Bay Area of California, Priscilla Hernandez (aka DJ Priscilla) is a pillar of the burner community. She is a resident DJ with the Heavy Petting Zoo, a Burning Man camp and mutant vehicle dedicated to building a community of creative dancers and free spirits. In addition to DJing great sets around Burning Man and Regional events, Priscilla hosts a mini camp within the Illumination Village theme camp where she holds daily ‘Learn to DJ’ classes on playa during Burning Man to help aspiring DJs learn the art of mixing. This session was recorded on the El Pulpo mutant vehicle...
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Alkaline A069: Black Velveteen on the ¡AXOLOTL!
Burner Podcast
Born on the South Side of Chicago and based in Seattle, Chris Offutt (aka Black Velveteen) is a pillar of the Pacific Northwest creative community and the founder of the Sage Rites record label. Her musical foundation, built on a childhood range of Motown to Mozart, manifested in a career navigating the cultural textures of San Francisco and Seattle, including her 2011 London-based radio show Progressions in House. This session, recorded at sunrise on ¡AXOLOTL! Art Car, Burning Man 2024. Black Velveteen first appeared on Burner Podcast with the closing set for Episode 88 (Post Burning...
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Burner Podcast: From Earth With Love
Burner Podcast
Ben Haldeman is backing up our collective memories across the stars Published [3/31/26] Ben Haldeman is an engineer, explorer, and the visionary founder of LifeShip — designing pyramids filled with DNA archives and cultural time capsules to send to the Moon and beyond. A former early employee at Planet Labs, Ben left to follow a calling that crystallized during a vision quest through the forests of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. In this conversation, Arash and Ben look past technical specifications to explore the existential heart of why we document ourselves as a...
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Alkaline A068: Shamiran (Camp YOUniversal)
Burner Podcast
Alkaline A068: Shamiran (Camp YOUniversal) 📅 [3/18/26] The Soundtrack to Your Burn In this session, we welcome a true sonic ambassador of the global community. Born in Iran and based in Los Angeles, Shamiran is an artist, musician, and sonic selector who has become a mainstay at Camp YOUniversal, known for their Persian Tea House (designed by the legendary Gregg Fleishman). A community activator and human rights activist to the bones, Shamiran can usually be found on playa with the sound and production team for Distrikt and coordinating Woman Life Freedom events in the default world. If she...
info_outlineTen Years: A Burner Podcast Memoire
Arash reflects on a decade of Burning Man, the Burner community and Burner Podcast
Arash recorded the interview portion of the very first episode of Burner Podcast before attending his first Burning Man. With the transformative nature of Burning Man baked into the show, Arash reflects on a decade of growth, adventure and community. Unlike any previous editions of the show, this milestone episode features a solo scripted memoire by the host in six chapters: The Call, The Refusal, The Road, The Abyss, The Change and The Return.
Recorded in Las Vegas, NV, April of 2024
Additional recording at Proper Concept Studio in Long Beach, CA, March 2024
Closing set by Christian Goodell
soundcloud.com/christiangoodell
soundcloud.com/bureauofhindsight
Hear the full set at https://on.soundcloud.com/SPr4s5jrrVXqNB4d7
Recorded at Burning Medellin on 2-9-24 at Heard From in El Poblado, Medellin, Colombia
Executive Producer Patrick Dylan Riley (ra.co/dj/patrickdylan)
Read the compendium to this episode: Sometimes Just [censored] It
About Burner Podcast:
Independently produced by a revolving team of contributing producers and hosted by founder ‘Mister Arash’, Burner Podcast is the longest running traditional podcast in the global Burning Man community. Focused on year-round Burner consciousness and topics of intracultural interest, explore a decade’s worth of conversations at burnerpodcast.com/previous-episodes.
DJ sets featured on Burner Podcast can be found here: soundcloud.com/burnerpodcast/sets/burner-podcast-closing-sets
Follow instagram.com/BurnerPodcast and facebook.com/burnerpodcast for wildly irregular updates.
Burner Podcast host Arash Afshar is an Iranian-American SoCal-based(ish) professional photographer, writer and community building addict. Send him love or hate mail directly at mrarash.com/hello and follow his writing on Substack at yesterdayiwasclever.com.
For bookings and inquiries, contact Arash’s management at properconcept.us/contact-us