When life changes from order to chaos and then to….nothing. We are lost in space. I’m here to report back.

Hi.
There is nothing new we can say about the month of January... or is there?
There are two phrases that came to me in the grey gloom and they are:
1) soft and alive 2) rich and steady
Work with me.
Yours in January solidarity, Laurie and Joshua

What would you be willing to do to find a home for your family?

We start this Pondercast with a field trip to my pond to hear the spring peepers and then head off into an exploration of how our seasons are not sticking to their lane anymore.

Spring is here. Huzzah! Tax time. Whatever. I started thinking about this episode while I was on hold with Canadian Revenue Agency. Let’s think about time and how it comes to us in a 100 different flavours.

Warning: When you ponder time deeply – it turns into space. This will be a journey: forwards and backwards.

Tempus fugit.

Oh boy…spring is almost here!

Let’s celebrate with a Ponderbeat episode – our quarterly collaboration with Killbeat Music! An entire episode of new and about to be released music. Settle in and feast yourself on some fresh music. Thanks to Killbeat!

As always, if you hear an artist you love here – BUY THEIR MUSIC!!

• Kyla Charter - Qwyn
• Jordan Klassen - Ash Wednesday
• Scott Hardware - Summer
• Helena Deland - Swimmer
• Yves Jarvis - Prism Through Which I Perceive
• Katie Tupper - How Can I Get Your Love
• Donovan Woods - Leave When You Go
• Cassidy Mann - Election Night
• The Weather Station - Marsh
• Sam Weber - Money

Ears up!

Laurie, Ty and Joshua

“It's taken us 5 years, but we finally managed to have a robot reading a whole list of curses, followed by a Sun Ra free jazz drum freak out. Great work team, this episode will be DIVISIVE”

– Joshua Van Tassel

Beyond being places where we put stuff to get it out of our way, attics and basements are the perfect metaphor for the stuff in our heads. Both the things we run away from and what we want to return to.

Personally, I prefer attics to basements…but I know there’s something here for everyone.

This episode is a report from deep inside the limbic system of the brain. Also known as the paleomammalian cortex (if you want to get fancy), or the emotional brain. Perhaps you’ve been there before?

Happier New Year! We are all adjusting constantly these days, so taking a look at what it takes to feel secure is a good way to start 2022 here on Pondercast. Is that even possible? We discuss.

Happy solstice, we're re-releasing an episode from our very first season. 

You made it through another November. You are to be congratulated. Why is November so hard? (I can hear you listing reasons). I think it deserves a word all its own: viscerable.

Join me on this ‘romp’ through November and right out the back end of it!

Our quarterly collboration with Killbeat Publicity featuring some of the fall's most exicitng new releases, curated by the discerning and eclectic ear of Laurie Brown.

What happens when you start a conversation with ‘I don’t know’... where do you go from there?

This episode is inspired by a fox, a La-Z-Boy, and an old journal... oh... and words.

We've moved all our guided meditations and grounding thoughts to our new podcast "Ground Level". Search for it wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to keep getting guided meditations. 

More about Ground Level here.

For our first episode of the 5th season - expect some turbulence in the weather! Laurie looks at our emotional response to big weather: wind and rain, thunder and lightning and fog - and Joshua outdoes himself creating a musical electrical storm.

If you’ve been missing The Signal with Laurie Brown on CBC radio – she’s back with Pondercast Radio.

Imagine the experience of radio only on your favourite music streaming provider. If you subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music then Pondercast Radio is within your grasp. Laurie will be publishing a new ‘radio’ show every month filled with new stories and new music – for you to enjoy anytime day or night. Become a supporter of Pondercast on Patreon for as little as $3 a month and we will bring the special late night vibe you remember.

Another quarterly instalment of fresh new music delivered to your inbox courtesy of Pondercast and Killbeat Music!

• Absolutely Free - How to Paint Clouds
• Astral Swans – Spiral
• Andy Shauf - Jaywalker
• Charlotte Cornfield: Drunk on You
• Homeshake - Passenger Seat
• Jasper Sloan Yip - Strange Calm
• KDAP - Wilner’s Parade
• Charles Spearin - My City of Starlings
• Ouri - Ossature
• Cots - Last Sip

This episode is about what happens when the music dies. Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending here.It’s coming back! Only this time around – we have changed.

If music is a language, then colour must be too.

I’ve changed, you’ve changed, the climate has changed. If we aren’t all experiencing a sea change moment right now - I’m not sure when that moment might be.

Chances are, if you live in Canada, you have already seen some snow this season….but..have you had a perfect snowfall yet?

What would wipe your slate clean?

Always more complicated than hellos, goodbyes are both an ending and a beginning.

The world is coming out of hibernation…and so are we. This episode is about all kinds of new beginnings - first hellos - and the art of making an entrance.

Let’s get together again. (That feels so good to say.)

What’s in a name?

This episode started with seeing ‘June’ painted on a side of a car door. And things kind of took off from there...

We humans can make such joyful sounds. Yet we have been pretty quiet lately. Time to turn the volume up again.

This is an episode to kickstart us back into the world of people. And we will do it through sound - one of Pondercast’s best things.

[Listening Party]

Bring on the new music! It’s time for our quarterly Ponderbeat, our collaboration with Killbeat Music to bring you 10 fresh new tracks that we love.

This episode declares an end to overthinking! An end to the way our minds circle back - again and again - to the same old things!

This episode is an ode to a spring night I recorded outside sitting beside a pond filled with spring peepers. Lots of sound in this edition of Pondercast. A very welcome sound.

If this past year has taught us anything, hopefully it’s how to let go of expectations and deal with the reality in front of us.

How are you sleeping?

Chances are you have a list kicking around your place right now. Maybe a
shopping list – or a ‘to do’ list? Do you make a list of pros and cons when
faced with a big decision? We humans love our lists because they offer a
placebo effect to the complex chaos of our world.

There is a serious undertow to creativity. It always feels like there is some risk involved. Like a dream that might turn dark at any moment...

This weekend is the full moon and in February it’s called the snow moon... the last full moon of winter... my two favourite things: the moon and snow!

Living in a transitional state... between one thing and another...

So, let’s talk about other people. It’s been a year since we’ve been pulled apart from some people and locked up with other ones.

I miss strangers, I miss the opportunity to be kind to them. And...I regret the moments when I pulled back from offering kindness and help to the people I know.

Let’s talk about how we feel about other people now...a year in.

I have been pondering plexiglass. All those rectangles separating us from the rest of the world. It’s got to have an effect. Like a window - those plexiglass sheets put a frame around our daily outings into the world. Is it changing us?

I’ve been looking for a measured, middle way to get through this pandemic...and I believe moderation will help me see it through.

Here's a second look at our live show recorded in 2019 on the winter solstice featuring some amazing tunes!

Nothing like having your life completely upended by a pandemic to give you a real look at the habits that rule your world.

Time for the quarterly music episode that Killbeat Music and Pondercast collaborate on.

• Gord Downie - Away Is Mine
• Luka Kuplowsky - Do I Have to Be
• Braids - Here 4 U
• Steven Wilson - KING GHOST
• LAL - End of This World Together
• Yves Jarvis - Emblem
• Edwin Raphael - Mild Sanity (feat Juletta)
• The Weather Station - Robber
• Charles Spearin, Josefin Runsteen - Breathing With You, With Me
• Matthew Cardinal - May 7th

To help recreate that special feeling boarding an overnight flight that delivers you to a new place in the world.

Pondercast is taking a high dive this fall for our 6th season.
Our new motto: Expect the unexpected...unexpectedly.
This episode is our first step to a new, more immersive, embodied experience for you.
Climb the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia lighthouse with me..and dive down into the cold waters of
The Bay of Fundy.
An antidote to that all too familiar ‘back to school’ feeling.

How many of us have wished for ‘one more room’ during the pandemic?

As we turn our homes into offices and classrooms and spend so much more time at home..the idea of ‘a room of one’s own’ has new importance.

This episode is about what it means to have a space we can call our own.

There are many kinds of heartbreaks that life throws at us. Today’s episode covers a few different flavours.

Having our hearts broken is not something we can avoid...life is like that. They must be there to teach us something. Can we get better at having our hearts broken? Is that possible?

If you are soaking in a broken heart at this moment, or if your last broken heart was years ago..this episode will perform some amateur exploratory surgery on your tender heart. Fun!

We have had plenty of time during covid to contemplate our relationship with our beds. So that’s where we head for this episode.

The weirdest back to school feeling ever.

Let’s mull it over together, while we cling to the end of summer in our second annual outdoor nighttime Pondercast, at a cottage by the edge of Lake Huron.