Audacity freezing when pressing play (multiple audio files)

[naomikt]

Hello,

I am a teacher using Audacity remotely with my students who are working on a podcast project.
To preface, I have Catalina, so I figured the issues I was experiencing with freezing was a result of this. However, I was working with students today in Zoom and saw that one of my students on Sierra was having the exact same issue I am having.

Does anyone have a fix? Here it is:
Editing ONE audio file at a time works just fine. However, when students import multiple audio files, including music files, this is when we run into issues. The freezing usually happens when we press the play button. It also happens when I try to move the green arrow around to start playing at a different moment in the audio. It happens constantly--not EVERY time we press play but around 80%, meaning constant freezing, debug reports, and having to restart. I've attached a screenshot of the debug report in this message.

Anyone know what's going around? Anyone have a solution?

[naomikt]

To clarify, I am using the most recent version of Audacity: 2.3.3
But eagerly awaiting 2.4.0 in hopes it will resolve this issue.