Burner Podcast
Independently produced by a revolving team of volunteers and Hosted by founder (mr)Arash, Burner Podcast is the longest running traditional audio podcast in the extended international community of Burning Man. Focused on year-round Burner consciousness and topics of intracultural interest, explore 140+ episodes at burnerpodcast.com/previous-episodes.
Burner Podcast host Arash Afshar is an Iranian-American SoCal-based professional photographer and community builder. Connect with him directly at mrarash.com/hello.
Follow instagram.com/BurnerPodcast and facebook.com/burnerpodcast for wildly irregular updates.
- Update frequency
- every 25 days
- Average duration
- 138 minutes
- Episodes
- 166
- Years Active
- 2014 - 2025
Episode 45: To Build a Temple
Arash gets into the back story of all the blood, sweat and tears that went into building the YOUtopia 2016 Temple with Martin and Katie. Topics covered include what goes into building things, how com…
Episode 44: God in Drag
Arash sits with community organizers, Adam and Kara, to wax philosophic about all things gender including how it relates to sexuality, the transgender journey, the flaws of binary thinking and the in…
Episode 43: Post-Burning Man 2016 Roundtable
Arash chats with three seasoned veterans about the 2016 Burn on a variety of topics including bike theft, the evolving culture of an expanding city and the White Ocean scandal. Also, Fred wears a red…
Episode 42: Burning Man 2016 Pre-playa Planner
Arash gathers the Burner Podcast team to share their recommendations for what you should check out at the Burn this year. Pretty much one can remember what their official title is.
Episode 41: Perky Parts
Arash uses the podcast as an excuse to travel to Orange County to get drunk with the Perky Parts crew. Topics covered include what it’s like to attend the Burn with a priest, lessons learned from g…
Episode 40: Shangri-Lawless
Arash follows the tribe as they gather in Coachella, connect with the Super Kids and end up on playa. The crew also shares some wisdom about creating a village and lessons learned from fundraisers.
Episode 39: Halcyon. Finally.
John Halcyon tells Arash all about his rise to fame from the early days of the internet, the experiences that inspired the development of Hug Nation as well as how his adventures with Bat Country lea…
Episode 38: West Coast Weekender
Arash sits down with the team behind the event and they get into the backstory of how United by Bass, Siesta, The Deep End and I’ll House You joined forces to tap into San Diego’s House Music scene i…
Episode 37: The Maker Movement
In the first segment of this episode, Arash talks to veteran Burner/Maker Dave Cox about his decade long history with the Maker community. In the second segment, we get some background information …
Episode 36: From Black Rock to White House
Arash visits Russell’s creator, Lindsay, and follows his life story from childhood through his discovery of the Burner community and finishes with a nail-biting climax as he takes the Electric Giraff…
Episode 35: Lee Reynolds
Arash follows Lee’s journey through competitive sports, the House music scene and the explosion of Desert Hearts. Lee might be the “World’s Most Interesting Man.”
Episode 34: The Black Company
Arash and The Black Company get into the history of the camp and discuss the similarities and differences between the Renaissance Faire and the Burner communities. They also get into community politi…
Episode 33: Triptych
Arash and the Triptych kids go through their crew’s history, the formation of their camp, the challenges they’ve faced in the past year and their future plans. Arash’s car gets towed.
Episode 32: Regional Network 101
Arash visits Burning Man headquarters in San Francisco and sits with Iris to discuss the Regional Network and the upcoming Global Leadership Conference (GLC). It takes all his willpower not spend the…
Episode 31: Scientists in the Dust
Arash joins the CTO and Datamancer of 3Scan in San Francisco to discuss how they cultivate burner culture in the office and their next-level work in microscopy and biotech. We also get the full story…
Episode 30: Dusty Poon Saloon
Three of DPS’s founders bring some whiskey to the studio and tell Arash about the camp’s humble origins, philosophy and atmosphere. Arash tells them about chakras.
Episode 29: Lovers Without Borders
Greg Young and Amanda Joy school Arash on a variety of options available to people on how to experience love and partnership. Arash tries more desperately than usual to sound like he knows what he’s …
Episode 28: An LA Burn Story
Los Angeles’s sensational Regional Contact guides Arash through the LA Burn scene, the history of LA’s decom and sheds some light on the region’s recent permitting challenges. She also shares her a…
Episode 27: Love, Light and Lithium
Producer Meg, Regional Contact Fin and Arash chat about depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder, child molestation, medication and other mental health topics... And somehow…
Episode 26: Entering Black Rock City
Knotty Boy drops by the studio to talk with Arash about Burning Man Gate’s build, logistics and all that goes into getting Burners out of the default world and into Black Rock City. Also discussed: B…