The PAUSE -- Podcast of the New Creative South

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 Festiva...

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.

Big Ears was big this year, but Ari found the small niches of music that he fell for. 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...

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 Cit...

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 dir...

The PAUSE kicks off its third season with two on-location interviews -- one with Virginia Sexton of Sheboygan, Wisconsin and then the follow-up interview with Laurence Faber of Potchke Deli of Knoxville, Tennessee. I am joined by the collaborative voices of Emmy Carter, Sue Spolan, Jill Frere, and Charles Bauers.

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 timb...

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 exod...

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...

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 f...

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.