Q with Tom Power

Oliver Laxe is the director of the Oscar-nominated film Sirāt, which is up for best international feature (representing Spain) and best sound at this year’s Academy Awards. Set against vast stretches of desert, the film follows a father searching for his missing daughter after she disappears at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. Oliver spent more than a decade making Sirāt, paring t...

After years working behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer, followed by a nearly decade-long hiatus in the corporate world, Koladae made the decision to finally release his own music. But then, a little over a year ago, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He wrote his latest single, Keep Rolling, just two weeks before his surgery. Koladae talks to guest host Garvia Bailey about what this...

Suzy Eddie Izzard is a Tony-nominated actor, stand-up comedian, multi-marathon runner and one-time political candidate. Now, she’s performing a solo adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the CAA Theatre in Toronto, in which she plays all 23 characters. Suzy joins guest host Garvia Bailey to tell us about the challenges of doing Hamlet solo, why she was especially keen to breathe new life into Shak...

Zochi is a Regina-based, Nigerian-born artist who’s just released a new single called What You Want. It showcases her smooth vocals and vulnerable storytelling, diving into feelings of unrequited love. She joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about being honest in her music, how moving to Canada changed her life, and why she’s never giving up on love.

If you’re shocked by a few songs full of dirty words, try watching the news — that’s the challenge laid out by Peaches on her first album in more than 10 years, No Lube So Rude. On the new record, the Canadian electro-punk legend uses her brand of raunchy wordplay and danceable beats to sound off on everything from the reversal of Roe v. Wade to Elon Musk’s Starlink. Peaches joins guest host Talia...

Actor and writer Scott Turner Schofield has spent his career quietly reshaping what transgender visibility looks like on screen. He was the first openly trans actor on daytime television with The Bold and the Beautiful, the first openly trans man nominated for an Emmy, and a consultant on HBO’s Euphoria. Now, after moving to Canada amid rising anti-trans legislation in the U.S., Scott is telling h...

Canadian comedian Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall) is a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan. He’s always had a love of the game — even when it felt like the game didn’t love him back. Now, he’s hosting a new docuseries, Hockey Fanatics, which explores hockey fandom across North America. In the show, Dave visits NHL teams and their biggest and most notable fans, including Wynonna Judd (a Nashville Pr...

Winnipeg-based musician Liam Duncan, also known as Boy Golden, is back with a new record, Best of Our Possible Lives, which can only be described as a balm for the uncertain times we’re living in. He sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about the record, the power of having an alter ego, and why he thinks softness and vulnerability are the countermeasures to grief and suffering.

Award-winning composer Kris Bowers is the man behind the musical scores for films like Green Book, King Richard, The Color Purple, and The Wild Robot, as well as TV series like Bridgerton, Mrs. America, and Dear White People. His latest score is for the new animated movie Goat, which follows a small goat named Will who has big dreams about joining the pros to play roarball — a high-intensity sport...

Canadian jazz singer and pianist Laila Biali recently caused a stir after her album Wintersongs received a Grammy nomination for best traditional pop vocal album, alongside Lady Gaga, Jennifer Hudson, Brandi Carlile and Elton John, Laufey, and Barbra Streisand. She sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey to tell us about the unexpected recognition, and what it was like to go to the Grammys ceremon...

Laura Ramoso is bringing her most personal material yet to her new comedy tour. It’s called The Calm Down Tour, and she’s launching it this month at Just For Laughs Vancouver. Laura is best known for the viral character impressions she posts on social media. Some of her most popular characters — including “German Mom,” “Italian Dad,” and an airline worker named Chiara — have racked up millions of...

Canadian actor and playwright Natasha Mumba has described her debut play, Copperbelt, as an “African Succession.” It centres on the Kasubas, a wealthy Zambian mining family. After the family patriarch falls ill, he summons his adult children home to help run the business. But long-simmering tensions rise and relationships fracture, forcing the family to confront its legacy — and its future. Natash...

Natalie MacMaster is a virtuoso Canadian fiddle player from Cape Breton who’s brought traditional East Coast music to the rest of the world. She was nine when she got her first fiddle, but she felt like she already had nine years of experience at that point because she had been surrounded by fiddle music from the time she was born. Now, Natalie has released a new memoir, I Have a Love Story, which...

Lifelong best friends and creative partners Jay McCarrol and Matt Johnson began their careers making the viral web series-turned-TV show Nirvanna the Band the Show. Now, they’ve adapted that project into a feature film, fittingly titled Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. During the Toronto International Film Festival back in September, Jay and Matt sat down with Tom Power to discuss the film, t...

Veteran actor Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Twin Peaks) has entered a new phase of her career, earning acclaim for her recent performances in the drama Dìdi and the comedy The Wedding Banquet. In her latest film, Montréal, ma belle, she plays an immigrant woman who represses her sexuality for the sake of her husband and children. Joan joins guest host Garvia Bailey to tell us what drew her to the r...

Wally Baram isn’t afraid to overshare. That’s how she carved out a successful career in stand-up comedy, TV writing (What We Do in the Shadows, Shrinking), and acting (Overcompensating) all before turning 30. Now, she’s back on the road doing stand-up with a stop at Just For Laughs Vancouver. Wally joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about her early days as a stand-up comedian, what it was like...

This week, Canadian R&B musician Aquakultre (a.k.a. Lance Sampson) releases his new album, 1783. The title refers to a pivotal year for Afro-Nova Scotians: after the American War of Independence ended, thousands of Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia seeking new homes. Lance traces his own family lineage back to those early settlers. He joins guest host Garvia Bailey to discuss the stories...

About a decade ago, Canadian musician Teagan Johnston was just getting her start in Toronto’s music scene. As her career began to gain momentum and her circle of musician friends grew, she found herself wrestling with some unexpected emotions. She was thrilled to see her peers succeed, but she also started to wonder whether she truly belonged, and if it would ever be her turn. Those conflicting fe...

After more than 30 years on screen, Katherine LaNasa is finally having a breakout moment with her Emmy-winning role on The Pitt. But the road wasn't easy. As she was preparing to take on the hit medical drama, she was also undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Katherine sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey in the Q studio to talk about that health scare, her hard-fought early years as an acto...

On his new album Pray for Me, Toronto-based R&B singer RAAHiiM straddles the line between his religious upbringing and a musical style that feels true to who he is. He talks to guest host Garvia Bailey about the breakout year he’s had since being named Apple Music Canada’s Up Next Artist, and how he honours both his family roots and his creative identity through his music.

Last year, a movie called My Father’s Shadow made history when it became the first Nigerian film to be officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Set over the course of a single day in Lagos in 1993 (a day that happens to be one of the most catastrophic in Nigerian history), the film follows two young boys who join their father on a trip to the city so he can collect his paycheck. The story...

Thirty years ago, a modest Canadian documentary called Project Grizzly turned into an unlikely cult classic, winning over high-profile admirers such as Quentin Tarantino. Directed by Peter Lynch, the film follows Troy Hurtubise — an unconventional metalworker and amateur inventor who survived a near-fatal grizzly bear attack as a young man. Determined to face a grizzly again, Troy sets out to buil...

Award-winning actor Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves, Killers of the Flower Moon) is returning to the stage in a new theatre production called Witch. It follows a woman named Elizabeth who’s ostracized by her community after being branded a witch. But when the devil comes to town looking for souls, it’s Elizabeth who refuses to be bought while others give in right away. Tantoo sits down with gu...

The 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games start today and Canadian figure skater Elladj Baldé is representing Canada in a new way — as a special contributor on CBC. Elladj started skating at age six and, like many budding athletes, grew up dreaming of Olympic glory. But as a young Black man, he didn’t always see himself reflected in the world of figure skating, and that started to impact how he felt a...

For years, Tanya Tagaq has dazzled the Canadian music scene with a blend of sounds that span throat singing, trip-hop, dance, rock and classical music. But back in 2018, she surprised us with a different type of project: a novel called Split Tooth. Now, Tanya is reimagining parts of that novel in a new stage show called Split Tooth: Saputjiji. Not only that, she’s mashing it up with a new album se...