Black Rock Desert

At least I think so.

Isn't he the kind of legendary character who found so much gold somewhere out here? Over in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Yeah, a place called Port Hopeful? That's right.

The original Alkali Mike had been the skipper of a sailing ship.

And that is the end of my note.

Another final thing is that Burning Man is happening this week in the Black Rock Desert.

And I'm not going to be there, but I know a lot of people who are.

I like showers too much.

So Burning Man is this, I'll call it like an arts and culture event in the middle of the desert.

Black rock desert in Nevada, in America.

And everything gets shipped in.

There's heaps of news articles, YouTube videos on it.

In the calf roping, in the buckaroo world, I have run in with two guys, Hank Angus and John DeLong.

And we're on the Black Rock Desert, way west of Winnemucca, where I come from in that country.

And we're pushing a bunch of cows here, gathering cows there, and had them kind of started where we wanted them to go.

And over here, they look, and there's about 200 head of Mustang mares and colts and some studs.

They would stuff it full of people as an offering to the deities, and they would set it on fire.

and so larry harvey this um this guy from san francisco uh decided we ought to do that on the beach so on the summer solstice he and one of his buddies got together they built themselves a little wicker man they invited a few dozen people out and they set it on fire and that was the beginning of this was 40 years ago um eventually within a few years they got kicked out of san francisco because it was getting too wild and crazy so they moved into the black rock desert where they are

too wild and crazy for san francisco that should tell you something

it must have been out of control and uh you know What's happening in the desert in Nevada, the Black Rock Desert, is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is a global movement.

They themselves identified as a global cultural movement.

Over

in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Yeah, a place called Port Hopeful? That's right.

The original Alkali Mike had been the skipper of a sailing ship before he got the lust for gold back in the last century.

And I'll give you a clear example of this, Bradley.

I was just out in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for Burning Man.

And a lot of people think it's just a bunch of hippies, fringe weirdos, go out to the desert, take mushrooms, and do pagan rituals.

The people who go there are some of the most powerful people in the world, some of the wealthiest people in the world.

Hey there, and welcome once again to Strange Planet.

Every year, a city rises from the dust of Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

There are towering sculptures, pounding music, spectacular costumes, and tens of thousands of people seeking something they can't find back home.

Then, beneath the desert sky, they set a giant wooden man on fire.

It is essentially Silicon Valley, but it's Silicon Valley without the kind of moral trappings that still remain if you live in the United States of America, even in San Francisco.

right so if you imagine what would these people running these big technology companies do if there were no more moral constraints no more concern about law and morality and public scrutiny that's basically what burning man is so it's often described as a festival or as a temporary city i think a movement would be a more accurate description It's global in scope.

You know, what happens in the Black Rock Desert is kind of, they call it the mothership, but it's part of a global movement that aims to transform the entire world.

And its own co-founder, probably the most important co-founder, Larry Harvey, specifically talked in multiple instances about how they hoped that this new culture, this new world they were building... would eventually supplant what's left of the old one.