Burner Podcast

For our first messy, bairly duct-taped together show, it only felt right to have a chat with Brady: A man who has been a quiet force behind transforming San Diego's little decompression to the full-on regional burn it is today. Arash and Brady also talk politics, Facebooks and Texas.

Burner Podcast Episode 1: Brady Mahaney, OG Community Leader

Arash and Thanasi chat about TED Talks, community building tactics and the differences between New York burners and Southern California hippies.

Episode 2﻿: Thanasi Glavas, Community Organizer

Arash and Aliss get tipsy and discuss the emotional process of changing one's self, the business of life coaching and not quitting film production even after all your stuff gets jacked in Egypt.

Episode 3: Aliss Wang, Life Coach and Filmmaker

Powered only by her will and cough drops, Nicole talks to Arash about Burning Man bureaucracy, turnkey camps, playa politics and what exactly constitutes a "burner."

Episode 4: Nicole Hickman, Regional Contact

Taz talks to a very nervous Arash about crashing a satellite into the moon to create a new crater, fire safety and the regret that comes with spray-painting one’s entire naked body on the playa.

Episode 5: Taz, SDCAP Board Member, Technologist

Arash gives Marc a lot of jealous side-eye because of his awesome radio voice while they chat about fire-spinning safety, sky-diving into Black Rock City and that feeling of invincibility you get after your first burn.

Episode 6: Marc Leglise, Sky Diver & Fire Spinner

Arash and Jake fan the flames of a budding bromance with talks of theghostdiaries.com, atheism and robot sex. Plus Arash may or may not totally perpetuate a lie about Jake.

Episode 7: Jake Anderson, Writer & Filmmaker

Arash and Hill talk about her painting, the spiritual side of artistry and all kinds of other artsy fartsy stuff. And if that's not enough to make you gag, Arash gets all super woo woo about all the magical crap that happened surrounding the recording of this episode.

Episode 8: Hill Young, Artist

Lisa Dewey fights for the title of “most woo woo guest” as she talks to Arash about the spiritual side of health, her experiences as a death doula and the status of women, both in and out of the Burner community. Also, Arash attempts not to be all whiny about his ex-girlfriend. 

Episode 9: Lisa Dewey, Energy Medicine practitioner & Death Doula

Sean Natural Nash sits with Arash to talk San Diego’s burner home, colab, as well as some Rangering stories and his adventures with Rainbow Family. Arash also attempts to get some dating advice from Natural, who is a married man.

Episode 10: Sean 'Natural' Nash, Community Leader & SD colab Co-manager

Mikey and Arash move through some of the backstory of San Diego’s techno scene, the rise of Desert Hearts and Wu Tang Clan. Yeah that last bit was a surprise to us too.

Episode 11: Mikey Lion

Camber and Arash talk consent, gay polyamory and how nice people in Portland are. There is also a beautiful moment of shared tears followed promptly by Arash whining about his ex again. 

Episode 12: Camber Hollywood, Portland Burner and SD Board Member

Payam, Jake and Eoghan show up to Arash’s studio and proceed to get wasted. At some point, Arash remembers to hit record and something that might be called an “interview” is conducted about the history, culture and execution of Electric Poncho.   

Episode 13: Electric Poncho Event Leads Jake, Payam and Eoghan

Fully prepared for Arash’s cheap red wine offering, Jenn sneaks good white wine into the studio as the two discuss Jenn’s life, adult giftedness and all that goes into performing as part of the Fire Conclave.

Episode 14: Jenn Giddens, San Diego Fire Conclave

Ell Kay flies all the way down from Vancouver with the sole purpose of talking to Arash about the art of cooking, the Canadian burn scene and the joy of being a recovering vegan. Ell Kay had no other reasons to come to San Diego. We swear.

Episode 15: Ell Kay

Arash and Tom talk about all that went into creating one of the most talked about pieces of art on the playa, the Black Rock Observatory. They also get into what’s happening in the coming year including doing more of whatever the hell you want and the Carl Sagan connection.

Episode 16: "Major" Tom Varden, Black Rock Observatory

Curt takes Arash through his upbringing in San Diego, not being a fan of camping, the art of going against the construct and his experiences with the more challenging aspects of volunteerism. Arash then whines about being hazed.

Episode 17: Curt Benedetto, Entrepreneur & 2013 CORE Project Co-lead

YOUtopia, San Diego’s regional Burn which takes place in October, has been described as “Burning Man 15 years ago in a jungle setting.” Arash, Bob and Jake get into all the things YOUtopia including art, Native American tribal council politics, event logistics, previous years’ lessons learned and oh so much more geekery. 

Episode 18: YOUtopia 2015 Co-leads, Bob & Jake

Career Counselor and Uli Baba & the Horny Thieves Camp Lead, Kim Eisenberg, sits with Arash to talk career counseling, professional inspiration and theme camp planning logistics. The final third of the show is all about Consent Culture and plays like a pilot for the Kim and Arash Morning Hour.

Episode 19: Kim Eisenberg, Career Counselor and Uli Baba & the Horny Thieves Camp Lead

Producer Meg sits in as Dr. Brown (a.k.a. Kingsley) swings by the studio to cling beers with Arash and tell the story of his lifelong relationship with psychedelics, culminating with his MAPS funded research of ibogaine and its potential for treating drug addiction. Arash predictably screws up the acronym in the intro.

Episode 20: Dr. Thomas Kingsley Brown, Researcher at MAPS

Independently produced by a revolving team of volunteers 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.

This Soundcloud channel also shares Burner content and other podcasts from the extended Burner Podcast family including Into The Fire Podcast hosted by Super Suz, Build To Burn Podcast hosted by Scott Froschauer and more! (Not that much more but more, nonetheless.)