The PAUSE
Radio show and podcast providing sanctuary for the wild ones. Ghosts Ari and Ash co-host a loosely scripted, surreal radio parody exploring cultural production in alignment with ecological intelligence in the multiverse of Knoxville. As visual, environmental, and musical artists, Ari and Ash practice emergent strategies experimenting with radio as art medium. Featuring improvised interviews, stories, and music, The PAUSE is both poetic and humorous inquiry into the sound of our voices in relation to the times and place we inhabit.
Lawnmower Friends (S2E5)

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.<...
I Need Us to Slow Down (S2E4)

Flooding alert but 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. And Ari and Ash are right on this flood of public service announcements (PSA). They are numerous ways to identify and voice how you may begin to conceive of The PAUSE. They're like you are--engaging, interrogating, exchanging--opportunities to play in the abundance of water and unrest.
More with Mo Squito (S2E3)

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.
Live from Knoxville, It’s Thursday Afternoon (S2E2)

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 for a Glass Ear (S2E1)

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.
The Name is Pause, Right?

sound sample // mixed by ari, voices by ash and ari and addair, recorded at Radio KCM studio, Knoxville
Back from the Prairie in Prayer (S1E13)

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.
Tuesday Teaser > Back from the Prairie in Prayer

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

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.
Tuesday Teaser: Part Two > Walkin' with Whack (S1E12)

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.
Wild Walkin' with Whack (S1E11)

Ari pauses with Whack walking and gets mixed up in themes of singularity vs. duality, creativity vs . kinship, stuffing vs. dressing, bird of crows vs. bird of parrots.
Part Four: Interview with David Shea, Compos(t)er of Decomposed Cultural Production

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?
Part Three: Interview with David Shea, Compos(t)er of Decomposed Cultural Production

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?
More Residue of Pleasure (S1E10)

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.
BONUS Clip: Previously with the Piss Ant

For Patreon and Substack subscribers only, unless you have a special code or you like smoking flower with piss ants between runs.
Residue Roulette (S1E9)

Tons of fun in Knoxville sun. Ari and Ash role play anger apathy and everything in between due to some incompetence of cross-country sports 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.
Part Two: Interview with David Shea, Compos(t)er of Decomposed Cultural Production

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?
Chrysopoeia (S1E7)

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.
Whack Invades Your Feed--Major Announcement

Just in! Whack has flown the coop and between beers and cigs, she's got something you don't want to miss.
Interview with Sparrow, Photographic Eye of an Artist

Pause with Sparrow (aka Aimee) Knoxville-based photographic artist who invests in visual storytelling--documentary style--by immersing in the imagery of playful relationships.
Interview with David Shea, Compos(t)er of Decomposed Cultural Production

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?
The Residue of Pleasure (S1E8)

Ari and Ash compile clips from the first three episodes from Season One highlighting the developing relationship between them.
Previewed: Interview with David Shea, Compos(t)er of Decomposed Cultural Production

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?
Pause Again Go There In Situ with Sarah Ledbetter

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.
French Version: Field Notes to The PAUSE episode "Shh Whack"

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.
Field Notes to The PAUSE episode "Shh Whack"

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.
Shh Whack (S1E6)

Ari and Ash randomize the preamble. Whack gets a promotion. Iron John initiates the youngster to the perils and pleasures of the golden well. The chatbots set hard limits and enforce forbidden parrot flower pasties. Ash riffs on moss and mushrooms in the face of cities and buildings.
Interview with Jill Frere, Mover of Wild Adventure

Join us as I pause with Jill Frere, movement artist, yoga teacher, Buddhist, and community activist among other talents, who previews her current dance work in the Shadows & Light show at the Knoxville Museum of Art this Saturday, 7 June 2025 at 7:00 PM eastern.
Interview with Sarah Ledbetter, Wild Weaver of Webs

Sarah Ledbetter is a highly creative and insightful somatic therapist as well as movement artist and writer currently based in Nashville, originally from Memphis. Our wild conversation offers glimpses into the delicate relationship between nature and our natures.
Subversive (S1E5)

Ash restates the original 2024 poetic essay of The PAUSE as an invitation from the present tense expressing more spontaneity in the face of an unstable table. The show was recorded on Friday, 23 May 2025 but aired on Radio KCM on Thursday, 29 May 2025 during the waxing crescent Strawberry Moon.
Interview with Davis Saul, Tales of the Desert Mouse

Davis Saul is on a spiritual journey toward a more authentic way of being, nontraditional in terms of modern values, traditional in terms of more ancient values. He shares a recent story of being swindled and the impact on him along his journey.
John's Cage (S1E4)

Ari and Ash delve into the cultural construction of the cage. What would have happened if the parrot Whack was also forced to cohabitate with Iron John. Ari opens up for the first time publicly about the traumas of his two grandmothers and devotes to something big.
Sun Heart Breath Meditation with Jabbarah

Excerpted from the initial interview of The PAUSE--Jabbarah guides us through the Sun Heart Breath meditation.
Embryonic (S1E3)

Ari and Ash discover the studio has been re-wilded. The Plastic Parrot transforms into the Painted Parrot. The Prince loses his prized possession. The caged Iron John negotiates a deal with the Prince for his freedom. The Prince chooses to leave the kingdom and go on an adventure with Iron John. The King and Queen deal with the crisis of their missing child.
Unresolved (S1E2)

Ari and Ash delve deeper into the forest of Iron John narrative. Plastic Parrot enters the radio station studio. The spirit of Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum movement practice, surfaces. The pool is drained in the forest of the story of the narrative. Hide 'n' Seek played.
Interview with Maura Manzo, Yogi of Ambler

I share wild time with Maura Manzo, a yogi, business leader, community activist, and founder of Camaraderie Yoga, in the suburban Philadelphia town of Ambler, Pennsylvania
Interview with Stephen Otis, When Spider Weaves Delight

Knox Forest School co-founder, teacher, and environmentalist, Stephen Otis and I share wild time re-envisioning creativity, education, nature, and story sharing.
Rebirthing Iron Jane (S1E1)

Invoking the mythopoetic journey of deconstructing the Grimm Brothers' Iron John ("Der Eisenhans") into Iron Jane via an ecologically disruptive and co-creative inquiry into story, commentary, music, and more.
Interview with Jabbarah, Changer of Names

Learn what's wild with Andrea Jacobson and her recent name change to Jabbarah. Learn why and what's important about changing names. Learn and practice her version of the Sun Heart breath to bring more universal balance.