EP 91 Shadow Shorts #19

Shadow Shorts #19 is out now! Recorded at UnSCruz in 2026 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 veteran participant known as Dr. Slide who talks about the transformative power of radical self-expression and the importance of building a gift-based community that exists beyond the main desert festival. The discussion emphasizes the growth of regional burning networks in areas like Santa Cruz and Oakland, illustrating how these local gatherings serve as vital spaces for liberating the spirit and fostering human connection. Dr Slide describes how the movement’s values of inclusion and togetherness can reshape a person's life and professional outlook over many years.

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Transcript

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They make the trek out to Burning Man for a week and a day. After a lot of work, 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 have been rearranged. That changes what this show is all about. You'll see the impact of Burning Man 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 UnSCruz 2026. That's the Santa Cruz regional burn for those of you who might not know it. I learned quite a lot from recording out in the play in 2025. And uh over the year, I've gotten a lot more familiar with the equipment. So, the audio quality should be clearer and a lot less variable. The only variable I couldn't remove was the loud sound camera. That was It wasn't that close, but it was quite loud. The guests do come out quite clear, and the music just helps to set the scene. Please enjoy.

My name's Dr. Slide. I got my name from Burning Man 2025. I went down the slide.

Well, where are you from?

And I am from Santa Cruz, California. I've been burning since 2012.

And what's impacted me was just how so many people got together to be weird and and Santa Cruz would keep it weird and I loved it. We went to um the hall, the Portuguese hall where we had the first decompression in 2012. It was amazing, fun, energetic. People were laughing, people were in costumes, people were free. And in my profession, that's what I look for in living. liberating your spirit, your mind and forming a community of togetherness and that's what impacted me continuing that form of community building and liberating.

So yeah, I mean is that that what keeps you coming back like all the time?

All the time.

Yeah.

And being able to say, "Hey, I want to be your friend. Let's all be friends and

and join this community where you get to exchange and not worry about money

and What you do is just give give your a little special some magic that you might have a little sense of yourself.

Beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. And you go out to uh Black Rockck City in the desert.

I do. I'll be going again this year. I'm really excited.

Yeah. Do you volunteer at all?

I volunteer. Uh I do my best.

Yeah. And did you start like going to like unscrews events or or you start by going to to

I've been doing cruise events. Uh probably maybe 2014.

Uhhuh.

After 2012 when I went to the first burn.

Oh, so you went to to Black Rockck Desert first.

I went to the first Santa Cruz regional in 2012.

Oh, 2012

at the Portuguese Hall right next to Costco. Yeah, it was

Wow.

It was pretty amazing. And our

So, how long have you been coming on now? It's been 14 years or something.

14 years. Yeah.

Wow.

And I used to have a little event that I would promote Burning Man and Burning Man events. It was fun.

Oh, really?

I had a really fun time.

What was your event?

It was called Beats, Boats, and Bevies. And we did that from 2012 to

2020 until somebody else took over.

Ah.

And

that's a time of transition.

It's a time of transition, right? Like double over. But out of that, I got to meet a lot of people and spread the word about the community and people.

And what are you doing now? Was it like in the community or

now? I took a little break for the last four years and I'm coming back and hopefully that it comes strong and we form new bonds and new connections

and we keep spreading the word of community.

Yeah. Um have you is this your first time back at Eds?

This is my first time back in four years. Okay.

Since it's been here and I'm really excited to be here.

I have hadn't seen what it was like and I wanted to see the vibe in San Bonito. Um, Santa Cruz was a really special location. I'm hearing a lot of good news about San Bonito.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, are you It sounds like you're pretty active with the Santa Cruz uh community.

Oh. Uh, yes. In a lot of ways, it's just we just keep expanding

and spreading the word and including a lot of people who want to be a part of it. Young, old,

and everyone in between.

And there like there's like the South Bay burners, there's like Monterey,

there's Silicon Valley, there's South Bay burners. There's Oakland burners. I hope everybody comes check out all the Oakland Burning A events. Um I went to the Oakland decompression this past fall after the burn. Beautiful location, a lot of good um venues, a lot of good bars, a lot of good um connections with Oakland. And it really gives Oakland a really good experience to experience the burner burning community.

Yeah.

How does Oakland event. I'm sure it's not like

Well, they just started this year to introduce Burning Man community into Oakland South. I think I think that would be I don't know.

Yeah.

Little North Bay at Oakland.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not also not everything is like a multi-day festival. There's like, you know, like workshops and

there's workshops, there's um art, there's um installations, there's community talk. talks. It really gets everybody introducing to the idea

of what Burning Man is and who the people are.

All right. Well, uh, thanks for the interview.

Thank you so much.

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