EP 52 Shadow Shorts #6

Shadow Shorts #6 is out now! Recorded at BRC in 2025 participants were challenged to explain BM‘s impact in 5 minutes or less. Each Shadow Short is one person’s story, please enjoy this short story of how Burning Man has impacted and influenced people over time.

Meet a long-time attendee named Papa Smurf who explains his profound personal transformation fostered by the Burning Man community. The conversation highlights how the event serves as a catalyst for growth, helping the guest transition from a shy "wallflower" to a confident individual who successfully navigated recovery from alcoholism with the support of sober-friendly networks. While the spectacle of the art initially draws participants in, the narrative emphasizes that the lasting human connections and sense of belonging are what truly "seal the deal" for attendees year after year. He explains the enduring social impact of the festival, illustrating how the communal spirit persists even in the face of challenging conditions like heat and rain.

Please visit https://shadowoftheman.buzzsprout.com/ for all of the details and links.

Email shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com if you want to be a guest or if you have any concerns about the show.

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Transcript

Before we start, I would like to ask your help to do two things. First, tell a friend or two who you think might like the show. And second, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The more reviews the show gets, the more likely it will even appear in search results. Thank you, and now on to the show.

They make the trek out to Burning Man for a week and a day. After a lot of work, oh, there's a lot of play. Party party drama, drama, drama. b****, b****, b****. Year after year, they come back to scratch that itch. They all say their lives have been changed. After many years, lives have been rearranged. That changes what this show is all about. You'll see the impact. of burning up and out. So sit back, relax, and cancel all your plans. These are the stories about the shadow of the man.

Hello and welcome to the Shadow of the Man Show. I am your host, That Andy. This is a Shadow Shorts episode recorded at Burning Man 2025. You can tell because of the background sounds. Okay, I have to apologize in advance for the variable sound quality. The microphones are quite sensitive and it picked up some noise from handling and occasionally the speakers allowed the microphone to drift away while speaking. Uh the sound might be more variable than the studio recordings, but the stories are fantastic. Please enjoy.

So, I'm Papa Smurf. I'm from the Seattle area. been to Burning Man since 2015. Um I took a you know I only missed the two Mudburn years been coming consistently.

You went to the Renegade?

No, I didn't go to the Renegade. 

Okay.

I did. Those are the only two years I missed. We did a little we did a little celebration at my friend's cabin for those years. You just like eight of us.

So what keeps you coming back all these like 10 years?

I really like the community and the people that are out here. I have some of my best friends and closest people that I hang out with. I've met through the burn and through Burning Man and like this really is I found my my group of people. Um

was this people you met like before Burning Man and then like they all came with you or is it like a three Burning Man you met?

A combination of those. Some people that I met, you know, the people who took me to the burn and then people that I met through them and then other folks that I've met on BIA like the two people that I'm here with right now

are part of my roommates's fire troop. And so, you know, just just all those kind of connections that you have to people.

What?

Yeah, they're awful. They want you to know that.

That's the best kind of

I think that they're pretty all right, but they think they're awful.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just like if you keep coming back like year after year, I mean, it's got to be something pretty special, right? And it's like these awful friends are sound pretty nice.

Yeah, they are pretty nice. Um, yeah, I think I've really grown a lot through coming to the man. I used to be much more of kind of a you know, quiet, shy person, wallflower.

And the first camp that I came with was a bar camp. So, just sitting working the bar.

Yeah.

You don't get to see much of the city, but you every the city comes to you.

The city comes to you. Yeah. Um, and so like that really helped me kind of, you know, open up, break out of my shell, get more comfortable with just chatting with strangers, trying the, you know, unknown and that sort of thing. Like five years ago, I never would have sat down and done this podcast.

Yeah. being recorded would have you know terrified me been like the worst thing ever.

But so then when you went back home to the rest of your life I mean like how's it impacted the rest of your life rather than like outside the default?

Yeah, like that stuff has carried forward. Um I'd say one of the biggest impact on the rest of my life is I used to be a really hardcore alcoholic

and it was my Burning Man community and people that really helped me get sober. Like having them around and available for me as I sobered up. And then also just this community has been one of the most accepting of sobriety. You know, people offer you a drink, you say no. There's no questions. There's no no quizzing. It's just, oh, okay, like we got some non-alcoholic.

Exactly. You know, you want

There's actually an entire like alcohol freak. I mean, I know there's like a Facebook group with like alcohol-free burners and like

Yeah, I'm in a a burners without booze group. Um I trying to remember if it's a local one. Um I think it might just be a local one, but Yeah, there's like there's a lot of us, a lot of sober folks out here. Um, but you don't feel super, you know, out of place. So, you know, honestly, like this year, my brother and I, it's like we've been completely like alcohol free the first time since we started going in night six, you know, and I'm having like a wonderful, wonderful time.

It's nice when you wake up and you actually remember the art that you saw yesterday.

Yeah. You can wake up and you're just like, I feel great. You know what it feels even better than that? It's like you see someone who's been w all night long, they're just like, uh, be like, "Good party."

Like, "Hello, I'm doing like some coffee."

Yeah.

Well, let me give you a a recipe that uh for excellent alcohol-free drink. It's my favorite. Uh well, because I I'm from Hawaii, right? And so, we have these like Hawaiian like drinks. So, uh it's like a powdered either guava or like like passion fruit. And so, you make up into this like juice. Um so, pack a cup full of ice like you put in your either passion fruit or guava juice. a little squirt of lime, like a little plastic lime thing. Uh uh I also sometimes put like this little honey ginger syrup in and then Yeah. And then just like top it off with like soda water. Mix it up.

That's best drink you've ever had.

No, that sounds fantastic. I was drinking almost that uh yesterday. We had basically that except with red guava juice instead of

I got to tell you, it's nothing red. Sorry. Red grapefruit.

Grapefruit juice. Yeah. Yeah. But it's nothing like guava juice in the morning. Don't know if I've had it in the morning, but I'll have to give it a try.

Yeah, give it a try. Better than this.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, what's what can I flip this on to you and ask like what's the impact of the burn been on you? You said you've been coming since '9s.

What keeps me coming back? Yeah. It's what I call the connections. It's like uh Yeah. It's kind of what I've been finding through doing all these interviews is just that people kind of like they get hooked by like the art and the inspiration and then they get what seals the deal is like the connections with like community of people. So, yeah. And that's actually part of the reason why I even do this show. It's just like, you know, it's like the shadow of the man. Like, what is the shadow of the man? Like, what's it to you, you know, just unprompted just to get people? And it's funny because people always keep coming back and saying things like

Yeah, it it really is like the art, the stuff people bring is all amazing and it's what draws Yeah. It's the hook. It's what draws us here.

But then you see the people and you're like, "Oh s***." Like actually, you know, during the rain being stuck We had five people piled into a minivan the other night just like weathering the storm

and it was fantastic. Like it was a great time.

Um we all, you know, were dying of heat and all that sort of stuff, but like there was no art. There was no nothing. It was just the the community.

Yeah.

All right. Well, we're a little over our time, but uh thank you very much.

Yeah. Thank you very

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcast. Spotify or wherever you listen. The more reviews the show has, the more likely it will even appear in search results. Also, please tell a friend and share this show with anyone that you think might like it. Word of mouth reaches quite far, especially in the Burning Man community. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to shadowofthemanpodcast@gmail.com. You can also follow Shadow of the Man on social media at Facebook Instagram, Blue Sky X, and YouTube. The links for all of these are available at shadowoftheman.com. Feel free to use any of these social media accounts to provide any feedback you might have. Your thoughts on the show are greatly appreciated. Thank you and see you soon for a new episode of The Shadow of the Man.

Thank you for listening to this latest show. We have to make another one. So going to go. Don't worry. For next month we already have one in the can. Very soon you'll be listening to a new Shadow of the Man.