Explore every episode of the podcast The PAUSE Podcast - Sanctuary for the Wild Ones

The Season Three finale brings together two people whose practices appear very different.

Jessica Wan is an opera singer, a coach, and the creator of The Ampersand Manifesto. She has spent years exploring how the many parts of a human life can nourish one another rather than compete with one another.

Our second guest, writer Joel Beverly, has spent years listening in a different register. His journey eventually carried him around the world, but one of the deepest discoveries he shares has nothing to do with geography. It has to do with silence. Not silence as emptiness, but silence as readiness.

While Jessica listens through song, Joel listens through stillness.

One teaches us that a voice can become a gift.

The other reminds us that silence can become one.

Discover the benefits of participation in making creative culture within community. Listen to two conversations in one episode.--Cohegent's Sue Spolan on meeting Artificial Intelligence (AI) where you can grow as a person and artist followed by Nief Norf's Alex Dally on cultivating Experimental Music where you can expand your palette of listening.

Elysia Mann is a visual artist, printmaker, weaver, educator, and environmentalist with a distinct voice emerging from her sense of place in Knoxville and the New Creative South. In our most recent book review conversation with Ari, she shares her views on Immediacy, Anna Kornbluh’s most recent publication.

Born in Slovenia into a family devoted to crystal glass making, Maja Roy is now a Knoxville sommelier and wine travel guide who leads a creative ritual of wine appreciation and engagement. Through a transformational experience with biodynamic viticulture, she walks us through her studio kitchen and into her story.

Angela Hill is a choreographer, dancer, social worker, somatic therapist, and she also is the current president of Circle Modern Dance of Knoxville. In this conversation, Angela roots her leadership in the core values of community, inclusivity, and healing following a brief story of the ritual of life and death by Ira Orchin, a frequent contributor to the podcast.

Shakti Ma Michelle, creatress of Shakti Buffalo yoga, wants us to wake up to our creative nature. She relays her personal story as a yoga teacher today who spent many years as an artist in the theater of the absurd in New York City. While Larry Bilker shares his response to the interview with Cat Maguire on human-machine interactions, Noah Frere recaps his experience at the recent Big Ears Festival.

Not for the machines, definitely for us. Leading proponent of creative sovereignty, Cat Maguire shares her story as a dancer, choreographer, educator, and movement analyst working at the forefront of human-movement-machine interactions. As a creative counterpoint, Sarah Ledbetter shares a story of her vision of where humans and machines play together.

Not only was Big Ears a big hit this year, but Ari found the small niches of music that needed to be shared. From Gwenifer Raymond's self-taught guitar virtuosity, Deantoni Park's Technoself tracks, Small Medium Large (SML)'s triumphant new jazz sound, Cecile McLorin Salvant's sumptuous new-torch songs, Orcutt Shelley Miller's rocking jams, Miriam Elhajli's poignant songs and chants, Kishi Bashi's pop violin tunes, Cleo Reed's stirring soul songs, and Wu Fei's technical bravado on the guzheng, this episode will help you attune to the magic of Big Ears Festival.

Ari and friends share their Top 10 lists of artists they want to experience during the annual Big Ears Festival 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Despite rampant FOMO associated with this singular festival, Dan Talley, Emmy Carter, Ira Orchin, Amos Oaks, Ruth Horton, and Richard Goldstein defy the odds and overcome the obstacles.

In this episode of 'The Pause: Sanctuary for the Wild Ones,' Knoxville artists Jill Frere and Elysia Mann share unique narratives that blend personal journeys with storytelling. Jill delves into her recent explorations of multiple meditation paths, reflecting on the profound experiences and challenges they bring, especially as a new mother. Meanwhile, Ari humorously recounts his trip to Mexico City highlighting the unexpected physical challenges of high altitudes, from dried mucous membranes to a sudden awareness brought by slowed paces. Elysia then shares a book review of a cult classic from 1992. These narratives intertwine shared meditation, cultural exploration, and personal growth, offering an insightful journey through the ordinary and extraordinary.

Sarah Ledbetter who has been with us twice before joins us again embodying and extending a new improvisational storytelling container. An original story is followed by two retellings with unscripted prompts changing place and tone. In the first half of this episode I provide the prompts for Sarah as storyteller, and in turn Sarah provides these prompts to me as storyteller.

Becki Grace grew up in Maryville TN just outside of Knoxville. She is a therapist, singer songwriter, radio show host, and activist. In this episode we explore her relationships with family, music, songwriting, partnership, and most poignantly grief--and how love helps us heal from loss. We are also joined by the collaborative voices of Emmy Carter, Jill Frere, Noah Frere, and Sue Spolan, with direction by Elana Fishbein.

Ari welcomes relationship back into the creative space of the listener community. Disappointment is reframed as spoken word poetry and reconsidered as a pivotal resource toward healing and renewal.

During this unexpected pause between seasons of our show, Ari breaks into a mix of an earlier episode. Despite the disruptive nature of break-ins, Ari marks each break-in as a meme of cultural production within a mycelial network of ecological intelligence. In less fancy terms, you are invited to revisit the past in a new framework of unity over division. Disappointment pervades the emotional timbre of this mix, while Ari and Ash fly in their own rather than shared orbits of radio improvisation.

Found deep in the cutting room, Ari Ash and Aim's investigative journey to Coffee County rises again. Slightly awry, their search for clues to the mysterious death of the mayor leads them to Old Stone Fort State Archaelogical Park and the site of intersectional historical narratives including burial mounds from the Cherokee and a gun powder mill from the Confederacy.

Ari pauses to explore the kitchen of Potchke Deli and its streamlined operations through the fascinating lens of its creative visionary. Why have so many residents of and visitors to Knoxville been asking, "Is this a miracle? Can this be true? Where did this come from?"

Season Finale - Ash unearths the crux of Ari's conflict with neighbor Ron which leads to his exodus to the neighborhood of Martin. Unfortunately more conflict surfaces within the religious orientation of his family of origin.

Mittelschmerz (s2e12) is one-sided, lower abdominal pain associated with ovulation. German for “middle pain,” Mittelschmerz occurs midway through a menstrual cycle. Similarly Ari and Ash have to move through Knoxville’s narrow channels with pain, including a blunt interrogation by Ash of Ari’s experience visiting Israel in 2009 for his daughter’s bat mitzvah, or rite of passage, leading to an exodus from his starter home.

Despite a successful day as preacher, Ash unexpectedly takes Ari the church layman to Knoxville's First Creek for a teaching he will never forget. Fortunately Ash has a lot of biblical lessons for Ari to learn. Unfortunately Ari loses his handle on his emotional support water bottle in the creek under the bridge. As he chases it downstream, Ash loses her own water beside the bridge above the creek. Read lemonade as urine.

In a roar of unresolved power dynamics, Ari and Ash follow a trail of kudzu vines onto a steep incline of echo under the I-40 overpass. Fortunately they feel a moment of solidarity in the discord of dark sounds. Unfortunately they hear this place is not a home but rather a tombstone in the southland. To be continued.

While Ari and Ash entertain the wild sides of prayer and manifestation, Ash reveals she's lost one of their friends to freedom and ASMR. Unfortunately Ari drags Ash back to a manifestation when she had pasties on her tongue. Fortunately Ash shares a story of her soulful journey in nature as prayer. Ari struggles to be present in the face of religious conversation until Ash provides him a gift to free him from tyranny and oppression.

Join me as we pause to consider how travel and transformation recombined to guide those longing to connect not consume being with earth.

Ari Ash and Aim order coffee in a drive-through in Coffee County. While Ash experiences fear with the police, Ari becomes the land and insists on his boundaries being respected. Aim believes Ari when the flag on the flagpole is undersized. Ash falls for the golfing monkey in the window without a tooth.

Unfortunately, Ari and Ash conduct a funeral for a friend. But fortunately, it also becomes a celebration of life. Unexpectedly Ash remembers her middle school years as a tech bro in Virginia Beach. Fortunately, Ari gets in touch with his remorse and opens up to Ash that he's open to change.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Ari, Ash, and Aim set out to investigate the unresolved death of the mayor from 2024. Ari learns to kiss his ash goodbye as Ash goes from sound nerd to sign seer. While Aim remembers Smoky and the Bandit and the Dukes of Hazzard television shows, Whack takes them all back to 2022 in search of more clues.

Ash trashes Ari and Aim about lawns and lawnmower friends on their drive around Knoxville following an investigative journalism field research trip. While Aim fesses up to her secret motivations, Ari discloses many years of grief and grievances with residential living with a lot of rules. Unexpectedly Ash sides with one of America's great foreign ambassadors who just so happens to enjoy colonizing the land in and around Ari's former home in Pennsylvania. Fortunately Aim the gifted Sparrow photographer sees Ari's perspective and clarifies his dilemma. Unfortunately the conversation turns heated and downright menacing as a villain is born.

Flooding alert!! Not your typical flood waters. This is the new kind of Southern Appalachian flooding that happens in Knoxville and beyond. It's part of the flooding of the new Creative South. Ari and Ash are right on this floodplain of public service announcements (PSA). More PSAs than your puritanical ears will be able to respond to. Stimulation like you’ve never felt before. There are numerous ways to identify and voice how you may begin to conceive of this flood in The PAUSE. They're like you are--engaging, interrogating, exchanging--opportunities to play in the abundance of water and unrest.

Learn between the turns with Mo Squito as Ari seeks common ground in community with Stephen playing another flying friend; Sarah whacks another gestalt poem; Ash pulls a rabbit out of the hat and dashes for another gone rogue collective publication; whispers and whiskers begin to circulate around unauthorized Pause merchandise in advance of a new segment dedicated to voicing the call of the wild from an emergent political conflict around land use and zoning moratoriums as well as a flooding water spirit named Amani.

Deep within the multiverse of radio, conflict is reimagined as a dynamic creative force of emergent play and growth, living in the multitude of voices and characters living inside of us and among us. Listen and sense when not saying anything can be as provocative as animating your imagination through improvisation.

Season Two Premiere, broadcasted live on Thursday, 31 July 2025, Ari and Ash reunite after a month-long summer break. Ari shares his musical work-in-progress with Emmy Carter and Ash gets emotional around the precious. Despite a long hiatus from the studio, they manage to get their butts to sing, literally. Then metaphorically in the form of chanting to their ancestors of visual art. Worth listening to every surprise that comes in this episode.

sound sample // mixed by ari, voices by ash and ari and addair, recorded at Radio KCM studio, Knoxville

Whack leads Ari down the path of no return. The woods weep creepy heaps of powerless promises. Parrots profess portentous popcorn while Ash perpetuates profuse profundity on the tour with The Black Lilies as Ari produces poetic prompts passed down from the prairie in prayer.

Whack deeply apologize for these creepy heaps of powerless promises. Parrots profess portentous popcorn. Ash perpetuates the tour with The Black Lilies while Ari produces poetic prompts perpetuated passed down from the prairie in prayer.

Ari shares how to pray with food as Whack honors her ancestors' sacred recipe. Walk on the wild side of the goddess within any head of cabbage. Listen and groove with the incredibly generous soundtrack by Moby, provided for the world to enjoy and feel.

Fortunately the full episode will air on Thursday, 17 July 2025 > Unfortunately you will have to listen online at www.radiokcm.com or on-demand at: thepause.alitu.com to hear the whole story, actually the second half of the whole story, which fortunately is not the end of the story, but just the beginning.

Ari pauses with Whack walking and gets mixed up in the hair of themes of singularity vs. duality, creativity vs . kinship, and bird of crows vs. bird of parrots.

How does cultural cross-disciplinary production comes down to listening? How does styrofoam teach us how we can relate to trash? How can we reconnect to the disparate parts of our self and our external environments?

How does cultural cross-disciplinary production comes down to listening? How does styrofoam teach us how we can relate to trash? How can we reconnect to the disparate parts of our self and our external environments?

Heck, trash is trash. Listen. You know who you are. You like the dirty pleasures of it all. You know, like, sometimes you are driving down the road in Knox County and you see a farmhouse to toss your Walmart bag full of empty pork rinds. Yup, the one by the creek. E'erbody can screw themselves. I ain't gonna follow any rules, 'specially when no one's looking.

For Patreon and Substack subscribers only, unless you have a special code or you like smoking flower with piss ants between runs.

Hot fun in the Knoxville sun. Ash expresses her anger caused by some incompetence by a so-called advocate while Ari discusses Rage Becomes Her book by Soraya Chemaly. Then, Ari and Ash role play anger apathy and everything in between cross-country sports and legal advocacy. Fortunately St. Cheech and St. Chong distract our hosts while Whack weirdly wanders wildly off mic into a Wrastle Match. Unexpectedly, in the first ever game of Residue Roulette an orange cone and some street gravel get into a shouting match which leads to an earache which leads to parental abuse.

How does cultural cross-disciplinary production comes down to listening? How does styrofoam teach us how we can relate to trash? How can we reconnect to the disparate parts of our self and our external environments?

Ari and Ash fish for gold inside their anatomies. Ash shares her tales of nipple milk while Ari shares his tales of liquid gold plus secret recipe for his Trinity tincture.

Just in! Whack has flown the coop and between beers and cigs, she's got something you don't want to miss.

Pause with Sparrow (aka Aimee) Knoxville-based photographic artist who invests in visual storytelling--documentary style--by immersing in the imagery of playful relationships.

How does cultural cross-disciplinary production comes down to listening? How does styrofoam teach us how we can relate to trash? How can we reconnect to the disparate parts of our self and our external environments?

Ari and Ash compile clips from the first three episodes from Season One highlighting the developing relationship between them.

How does cultural cross-disciplinary production comes down to listening? How does styrofoam teach us how we can relate to trash? How can we reconnect to the disparate parts of our self and our external environments?

Ari and Sarah go there, again. They deepen their conversation around creative process and what place means in today's world of safety and risk, loose and contained.

Whack hacks Field Notes to The PAUSE. Two unnamed voices from a remote sector of the multiverse explore the forest of the "Shh Whack" episode of The PAUSE radio show.