About this episode
Shadow Shorts #18 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 Mariah, who describes how the event replaced her rigid lifestyle with a newfound sense of emotional openness and service. A central theme of the conversation is Zendo peer support, a sanctuary where volunteers assist attendees navigating difficult emotional or psychedelic experiences. By highlighting these personal stories of transformation and community care, the program aims to document the "shadow" or lasting influence the festival leaves on its participants' lives.
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Shadow Of The Man — EP 88 Shadow Shorts #18. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
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. More reviews the show gets, more likely it will even appear in search results. Thank you, and now on to the show. The show is all about. You'll see the impact of burning bad 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 mic is on the screen. The sound might be more variable than the studio recordings, but the stories are fantastic. Please enjoy. Hi, my name is Mariah. I am a singer. I am a singer. I am a singer. I am a singer. I am a singer. Hi, my name is Mariah, and I am from Santa Cruz.
I have been burning for three years, or this is my third year. I am really loving it. And gosh, the impact of burning man. Imagine someone who was very regimented and structured and decided, okay, let me check this burning thing out and coming out of it totally changed. So would you bring Hummity up from your first burning man? Oh my gosh, an openness, open heart, service, sharing. I was always about the heart and sharing, but so much deeper level. Did you, your first burning, just come by yourself? Did you come with a group? I was actually involved with Sendo. So doing the Sendo volunteering and again being able to be a service there. And doing that for the past two years, this is the first year. Do you, do any of the regional staff?
I know Santa Cruz has a pretty vibrant one. They do. I actually have not been involved very much for that. Yeah, if anything, if it was with this unscrisse or something like that. Yeah. So you guys are telling me more about Sendo? Like what do you do with them? So let's peer support for people who are having a difficult experience, emotional experience or psychedelic experiences. So there is this safe place, it's now part of the Rangers' flavor. Where people can just come without questions being asked about their name or whatever. And just get the support that they need. And where do you reenter the environment and the more balanced way? Is that part of what you do in the rest of your life too? Or is it just a kind of a barrier? I do that kind of support without psychedelics.
And being here just gives me much deeper experience with people who are having really out there experience. Yeah. And do you see yourself coming back here again and again? So far. Yeah, whatever. I wasn't planning on coming this year and about a month ago, something pulled me and said, yeah, we're doing it. So Sendo, is that like what keeps you coming back? Big part of it, yes. But also just the spirit here. You walk around everybody's friendly, checking in with each other. And it's just such a fun, creative experience. It's a lovely. Cool. Well, thank you so much. I'm going to want to play with you. Thank you.
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 at gmail.com. You can also follow shadow of the man on social media at Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, 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 gotta 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. Thank you.
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