The PAUSE

Radio show and podcast providing sanctuary for the wild ones. Ari hosts 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.

Latest episodes

18 November 2025

Break-In Remix, Unresolved

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.

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06 November 2025

BONUS: More Smoke from Coffee County

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.

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30 October 2025

Interview with Laurence Faber, Knoxville Creator of Deli(cious)

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?"

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50:07

23 October 2025

Dumbo: The Light Feels Radioactive (S2E13)

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.

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16 October 2025

Mittelschmerz (S2E12)

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.

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01:00:04

09 October 2025

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade (S2E11)

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.

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