Ascent Radio

12/31/2024

🥂 We’re starting a new tradition! 💜🎉

As we wind down the year here at Ascent, we want to take a look back at the 10 albums that inspired us most in 2024. 👏✊

The records that truly moved us. 🫶

These 10 records (plus a few honorable mentions!) are the ones that we kept coming back to -

Over, and over, and over. 💫

Our ✨Album of the Year ✨ is ‘s Please Don’t Cry. It is an absolutely gorgeous, brilliant, confessional masterpiece of an album. Rapsody’s most raw, vulnerable and fierce yet in her already elite catalog. 🎤✊💜

It. Is. Everything! 🔥

Our other nine - in no particular order - are as follows: 👇

‘s Mahashmashana, the gorgeous new release from the veteran singer-songwriter

(Brittany Howard)’s beautifully eclectic What Now

’s soulful stirrings on Small Changes

Dark Matter, the triumphantly vulnerable return of

‘s masterful celebration and reclamation of the Black roots of country music, Cowboy Carter

& ’s spirited, boom-bap masterpiece, The Auditorium Vol. 1

Bright Future, ’s gorgeously vulnerable sophomore solo release

’s beautifully witty and profound Observations From a Crowded Room,

The absolutely lovely latest release, The Healing, from the extraordinary

And our honorable mentions!: ✨

Ndegeocello - No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
- A La Sala
(Leyla McCalla)- Sun Without the Heat
- Still + Bright
& - The Confidence of Knowing

Our deepest gratitude to ALL of these artists for the amazing audibles you offered up to us this year! 🙏👏🫶

To vibe with us over the , 🥂🎉💜download the free Ascent Radio App 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill or Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C: 

blocks via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/wireless-headphones-leaning-on-books-T3mKJXfdims

Warren Wong via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/kMRMcUcO81M

12/23/2024

🎄🎅🏽 We hangin’ in there, y’all? 🤪😬🫣🥹

Whether it’s holly, jolly, merry and bright ✨🎁... or messy, complicated, annoying or sad, 😢we feel you. 

Whether you’re ABOUT it,⛄️ or you just CAN’T,😣 or somewhere in between,🧣

Christmas is all the things - and we’re here for it. 💞

Our 🎄🎁 Yuletide Vibes ❄️🧤 playlist has got you covered. 

This is not your mom’s 🤶 Xmas mix... (well, at least not totally - gotta mix in a bit of of the nostalgia, for realzies.) ❤️💚

From quirky and irreverent, to contemplative and cozy, Yuletide Vibes is here to see you through. 🫶

Merry Christmas (or not!) from us here at Ascent. 🎄🎁🎅🏽

May your holiday be everything you need it to be. 🙏

To vibe our collection of funky and cozy, winter and holiday tunes (for all the feels), download the free Ascent Radio App 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill or Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

AscentRadio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C: Arten Knit via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/white-snowman-with-red-and-green-christmas-baubles-BYGc9YpkAMo?

12/21/2024

🕯️Happy Solstice, beloved friends. 🌙❄️🙏💜

In the stillness of midwinter, 
In the darkness and quiet reflection,
May you find warmth,
May you find solace,
And may the promise of light’s return
Wrap your spirit like a cozy blanket. 🫶

Here’s one of our favorite Solstice tunes,

“I’m Not My Season (Solstice version)” by Robin Pecknold and the

“And I move lightly in the dawn
Try to, lightly ever on the lee

And though I like summer light on you
If we ride a winterlong wind
Well, time’s not what I belong to
And I’m not the season I’m in.”

To sit with this gorgeous reflection, and our ✨❄️Let’s Be Honest🧣🍂 collection of other cozy, wintery and holiday tunes (for all the feels), download the free Ascent Radio App 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill or Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

AscentRadio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C: Eysau Etsub via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/lit-candle-in-hand-j3R9C-Xqe1w?

11/27/2024

Our tables are a reflection of the kind of world we want to live in. 💜🌎🌻🕊️

As you gather this week,
If you gather this week,
May your table(s) be a place of
Warmth,
Inclusion, and
Safety.

May they be a place of
Welcome,
Kindness, and
Honesty.

May they be a place of
Thoughtfulness,
Curiosity, and
Learning.

May they be a place of
Joy,
Laughter, and
Wonder.

May they be a place of
Justice,
Mercy, and
Resolve.

Resolve to continue in the work of creating a world together that is
More tables, and
Less walls.
Less exclusion.
Less judgment.
Less bigotry,
Violence,
And war.

May your table(s) honor our
Sacred,
American Indigenous People(s), 🧡🪶
Elevating and centering their
Lives, stories, and a
Commitment to stand with and for
Our fellow Native persons, as well as with
All other oppressed,
Unseen and
Marginalized peoples
Throughout the world, in their
Sufferings and struggle, taking up
Their cause, their
Fight(s) for freedom,
Justice, and
Equality, holding up
Especially those suffering and
Terrorized in zones of
Conflict,
Colonization, and
Humanitarian crisis.

Shalom/Salam to all. 🙏

And Happy Thanksgiving.

To listen along to our Tables playlist, a mix of gratitude, love... and food, on air NOW thru Friday, November 29th, download the free Ascent Radio App (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill or Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm!

AscentRadio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



P/C: Patrick Fore via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/photo-of-orange-squash-beside-potted-succulent-plants-hoxqcGUheeo?

11/27/2024

We were all in need of a GOOD surprise, yea? 👀🪄

New bars from were pure GIFT tho, right?! 🎤🔥😮‍💨👏

We can’t quit it! 🎧

What do y’all think? 🤩

Favorite track yet?

Let us know in the comments! 👇

New cuts from coming SOON on the station. 🙌

AscentRadio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉

To tune in with us, download the free Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻



📸 P/C:

Karsten Winegeart via Unsplalsh: https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-in-black-jacket-standing-near-brown-wooden-shelf-NZMZxCyfrXg

11/22/2024

New Michael Kiwanuka is EVERYTHING, y’all. 👀🔥🎵💜🙏

We’re obsessed. 🎧👏

It’s the album we all need, right now. 🥹 Hits every feel. 💞 Elevates the spirit. Soothes the soul. 🫶 His trademark grooves and exquisite songwriting have returned to us in full form. 🎤🎸🎹

And they couldn’t have come at a more timely moment. 🙏

Make sure you sit with immediately. Keep it on repeat!

Tracks will be on the station and in our rotation ASAP. 👍

AscentRadio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉

To tune in with us, download the free Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻



📸 P/C:

Karsten Winegeart via Unsplalsh: https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-in-black-jacket-standing-near-brown-wooden-shelf-NZMZxCyfrXg

11/14/2024

Mavis out here inspiring us all and showing us the way…

👏💜🙏

Back at it!

11/07/2024

Got a song that’s getting you through? 🎵🎧💜

We’re putting a playlist together for all of us who are heavy hearted. 💔 Angry. Disillusioned. 😩 Weary. Scared…

And we want your help. 🫶

If you’ve got a song that’s hitting the right feels for today, would you share it with us in the comments? 🙏

Let’s grieve together. 💞

Let’s let music be a salve for our weary spirits. 🎵😔🫶

We’ll be spinning some we have on hand, and adding your selections as we see them. 🎧

We’re in this together, friends. 💞

Know you are loved.

Know you are not alone. 🫶

To heal along with us, download the free Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Tran Toan via Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/man-sitting-on-red-leather-sofa-beside-white-concrete-wall-sd3mQXHf_kM?

11/06/2024

Reflections from the day after…

In the feels with you. 💔😢🙏

Be gentle to yourselves today. 💞

Root yourselves in the things that are unchanging. 🫶

Love you. 💜 We will carry on. ✊

11/05/2024

It’s here... 🗳️🇺🇸

It’s all the feels. 🫶😬😔🙏

We are with you, dear friends. 🎧💜

Please take care out there today.

Whatever comes, whatever we wake up to tomorrow, whatever our new reality becomes:

We shall overcome. ✊

We are in this together. Hands held. Arms open. 🫶

No matter the results, we continue on in pursuit of justice. In pursuit of equality. In pursuit of peace, love, and understanding. ✌️

In pursuit of a world that elevates and embraces everyone. 💜

In pursuit of a world free from tyranny, bullying, colonizing, imperialism, war, militarism, greed, hatred and bigotry. ✊

In moments like we are in today, music is a balm. 🎵🎧

If you haven’t been tuned in already, we’re spinning our “We Shall Overcome” 🗳️🫶 election playlist all day and all night. Songs for freedom, equality, and peace.

We’re here with you. We’re here for you. And we’ve got the tunes to carry your spirit through.

Much love to all of you. 💜🙏

To feel along with us, download the FREE Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-toothbrush-with-the-word-vote-written-on-it-2i7Dn2uMEQE?

11/05/2024

Just dropped off our ballots… 🗳️🫶

This is my plea for all of us… 🙏💜

10/30/2024

🎃 Oh my gourd!!! 🎃 That’s right, friends, it’s BACK! Our annual “A Little-Stitious” Halloween playlist is on air NOW for all your creepy festivities!! 👻👹☠️😈👽 A quirky, slightly spooky and ghoulishly fun blend of Halloween and Halloween-adjacent tunes for your Halloween shenanigans!! 

🎃 Have a safe and dreadful holiday, y’all! 💀

To party with us, 👻 download the FREE Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Kenny Eliason via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/two-skeleton-near-white-concrete-building-with-string-lights-at-daytime-A59lWOrZVnw?

10/14/2024

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day, friends! 🪶🧡🌾🦅🌻🌎

To celebrate and honor the beautiful voices, stories, wisdom and culture of indigenous peoples today, both ancient and contemporary, we’re featuring tunes by brilliant native artists, front-and-center, all day long! 🫶

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about setting the record straight. 

May we ALL join hands in the pursuit of truth-telling and seeking justice, alongside our fellow Native peoples, in reverence, awe and profound appreciation of their beauty, power and resilience in the face of incomparable injustice, violence, and oppression.

To tune in with us download the FREE Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C: Jamie Handley via Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/elaijFnaBMg

10/11/2024

Happy , loves! 🤩🏳️‍🌈🎉🫶👏

We got the tunes about it. 🎧🌈🎶☺️

We’re spinning all tunes - by ***R artists, icons and allies - all day long! 🤩

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤

Whether you’re coming out today, you’ve been out for years, or you’re still working through your process, we celebrate our beloved and beautiful 🏳️‍🌈 community today! 🫶

Well... on the real, we celebrate EVERY day. ✊🌈

But TODAY we call upon everyone to join, elevating and amplifying the profound and enormous courage and strength it takes share our truth. 💜🥹

TODAY we celebrate the valiant act of coming out. ✊🌈

We are heroes. 🤩

We make the world a better, safer and more beautiful place! 🫶

So let’s celebrate about it already. 🙌

To party with us, download the FREE Ascent Radio app 📱 (available in both the Apple and GooglePlay stores), our Alexa skill or Google command, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm! 💻

is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Jakayla Toney via Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-blue-and-white-stripe-polo-shirt-lying-on-yellow-bed-eGxhtNjeM_M

09/15/2024

September holds all the vibes! 🪇🫶🍁💜

We’re talking a cozy, unique blend of tunes celebrating 🌵🌺 Hispanic and Latin American heritage and culture, songs centering the seriousness, care and concern for those of us in the depths of 😔🫶 mental health battles or walking alongside loved ones in their critical moments, 💙💜🩷 Pride jams for those of us celebrating the beauty of bisexuality this month, as well as the most tasty 🍂☕️ fall and autumn tunes sprinkled in as the air grows cooler, the days a littler shorter, the leaves begin to get crispy, and those fall and Halloween decorations re-emerge. 🎃

All the love to our incredible 🌺 Latino/a/e/x community! We celebrate your vibrant and inspiring stories, vibes, icons and voices, leading us toward a more beautifully diverse and inclusive world! 🪇💃🏽

All the love to those of us wrestling in the depths. 🫶😔 Know you are loved, and wanted and SO beautiful. 💜🙏 Let’s build a better world together. And if you’re struggling right NOW, please call or text the first friend or loved one in your phone, or the su***de prevention lifeline at 988 (available for help, by call or text, 24/7.)

All the love to those of us celebrating our 💙💜🩷 bisexuality and allowing the world to see and understand that love is love! 🏳️‍🌈

And all the love to you as you snuggle up with a cozy blanket, tasty bev and favorite record to usher in the fall. It’s just the most lovely and we’re here for it! 🍂🎃☺️

To tune in with us download our free Ascent Radio app 📱 (available for both Apple and Android devices), our Alexa skill or Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm!

Ascent Radio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Fili Santillan via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/smiling-woman-u-Vxh9NDEBc?

Dev Asangbam via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/_sh9vkVbVgo?

Michal Turkiewicz via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/XrdYJL50g2s?

Oliver Hihn via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/Fd3NFkSLkzs?

09/10/2024

55 days to … 🗳️🗽🇺🇸

The countdown continues! ✊💜☺️

Our ✊🎶 is the achingly gorgeous, “Ain’t No Reason,” by the great Brett Dennen -

“Prison walls still standing tall
Some things never change at all
Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all
Keep on building bombs, gonna drop them all

Working your fingers bare to the bone
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul
Like a lung, it’s filled with cold
Suffocating slow

The wind blows wild and I may move
The politicians lie and I am not fooled
You don’t need no razor or a three piece suit
To argue the truth

They air on my skin in the world under my toes
Slavery stitched to the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go
Love I try to follow

Love will come, set me free
Love will come, set me free, I do believe
Love will come, set me free, I know it will
Love will come, set me free…”

💪🎶🎧

Our tunes go out to all of you hard at work mobilizing in your communities, ushering us toward a better world - 👏🌎

95 songs for , , and collective . 🎶✊💜

95 songs counting us down to the , dedicated to dismantling systemic injustice, white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, homophobia, corporate greed, militarism, genocide and colonialism in the United States - and beyond.

We’re all in this together! ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿

Let us keep applying the pressure on our candidates. Addressing our concerns. Crying out for for all and all living things.

Let us keep listening. Learning. Leaning in. 💜

Let us keep pressing on! 🫶

To ponder with and “Ain’t No Reason,” once per hour with us today, download our free app 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill, our Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm!

Ascent Radio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Mohammed Ibrahim via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/RFByqAGwhmI?

09/05/2024

60 days to … 🗳️🗽🇺🇸

The countdown continues! ✊💜☺️

Our ✊🎶 is the impeccable commentsry of, “Dear God 2.0,” by hip hop legends, The Roots -

“Dear God, I’m trying hard to reach you
Dear God, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes, it’s so hard to believe it...
But God, I know you have your reasons
(Uh huh)

They said he’s busy hold the line please
Call me crazy, I thought maybe he could mind read
Who does the blind lead?
Show me a sign please
If everything is made in China, are we chinese?

And why do haters separate us like we siamese?
Technology turning the planet into zombies
Everybody all in everybody’s dirty laundry
Acid rain, earthquakes, hurricane, tsunamis

Terrorist, crime sprees, assaults, and robberies
Cops yellin’ stop, freeze
Shoot him before he try to leave
Air quality so foul, I gotta try to breath
Endangered species
And we runnin’ out of trees…”

💪🎶🎧

Our tunes go out to all of you hard at work mobilizing in your communities, ushering us toward a better world - 👏🌎

95 songs for , , and collective . 🎶✊💜

95 songs counting us down to the , dedicated to dismantling systemic injustice, white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, homophobia, corporate greed, militarism, genocide and colonialism in the United States - and beyond.

We’re all in this together! ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿

Let us keep applying the pressure on our candidates. Addressing our concerns. Crying out for for all and all living things.

Let us keep listening. Learning. Leaning in. 💜

Let us keep pressing on! 🫶

To vibe with and “Dear God 2.0,” once per hour with us today, download our free app 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill, our Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm!

Ascent Radio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Clay Banks via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-large-crowd-of-people-holding-up-signs-2LEKXzFNitA?

09/05/2024

61 days to … 🗳️🗽🇺🇸

The countdown continues! ✊💜☺️

Our ✊🎶 is the legendary social commentary of, “Pastime Paradise,” by the incomparable Stevie Wonder -

“They’ve been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They’ve been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise

They’ve been wasting most their time
Glorifying days long gone behind
They’ve been wasting most their days
In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise

Tell me, who of them will come to be?
How many of them are you and me?

Dissipation
Of race relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutation
Miscreation
Confirmation to the evils of the world…”

💪🎶🎧

Our tunes go out to all of you hard at work mobilizing in your communities, ushering us toward a better world - 👏🌎

95 songs for , , and collective . 🎶✊💜

95 songs counting us down to the , dedicated to dismantling systemic injustice, white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, homophobia, corporate greed, militarism, genocide and colonialism in the United States - and beyond.

We’re all in this together! ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿

Let us keep applying the pressure on our candidates. Addressing our concerns. Crying out for for all and all living things.

Let us keep listening. Learning. Leaning in. 💜

Let us keep pressing on! 🫶

To lament with and “Pastime Paradise,” once per hour with us today, download our free app 📱 (available for both Apple and Android), our Alexa skill, our Google action, or stream via our website: www.ascent.fm!

Ascent Radio is: Music for a Better World. 💜🌈✊🇵🇸🍉



📸 P/C:

Mohammed Ibrahim via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/RFByqAGwhmI?