The Women Of Ill Repute

John Moore is the thinking person’s thinking person. As the affable yet acerbic host of Moore in the Morning on radio station Newstalk 1010, he gets up at an ungodly hour to keep Toronto informed and entertained. John is also a dear and longtime friend to Wendy and Mo, so we put the host in the guest chair to talk about all things to do with friendship: how to make them, how to lose them, what mat...

Not a lot of chuckles when you are kidnapped by the Taliban and thrown in a hole. And then you write a book about the girls stolen and raped by Boko Haram. But we laughed anyway. Mellissa Fung talks about her life, her new book, women’s fears, and ultimately finding joy. No one wants to be defined by their worst experience, we talk about learning to be a survivor and not just a victim. Mellissa Fu...

Jeanne Beker has done it all, most of it on TV. Rock ‘n roll, fashion, and now, breast cancer. Unfortunately, Mo and Wendy know too much about the latter. Jeanne offers lessons on how to be super upbeat. We share tales until we realize we could do a whole show about hair! Mostly we talk about Jeanne’s many closets and her treasured pieces. She also spills about that time in the bathtub with a famo...

The great outdoors is overrated, says Ivy Le, a comedian and podcaster from Austin, Texas. Ivy, a self-admitted indoorswoman, took on camping, and then hunting, as a sort of exercise in reverse colonialism. Ivy is Asian, you see, as well as a bisexual Buddhist mom with allergies, and she couldn’t see herself, or anyone like her, in a tent in the woods with a gun, ready to butcher and eat whatever...

Stephen Marche: SmartypantsIs the world gonna end? Are computers gonna take over? Stephen Marche says he’s written lots of cataclysmic novels and columns about everything from the end of the monarchy to a new Civil War in the U.S. But he’s in love with Artificial Intelligence, thinks it’s like Hip-Hop; the next era of creativity. Marche admits optimism is kinda weird for him, but he thinks humans...

Everyone loves a drag queen, right? Well they did, thanks to the emergence of Pride, artists like RuPaul, and the success of shows like Canada’s Drag Race, dragging drag out of the back room and into the limelight where the queens love to shine. But lately there’s been a shift in support, with anti-gay protestors storming libraries to decry Drag Queen Story Hour, a program intended to gently and h...

Everyone asks her the same question: what happened? Amanda Marshall was at the top of her game in the late 90’s, selling millions of albums and sold-out concert halls and then … she disappeared. Except she didn’t really. It was a business decision as much as anything, but now she’s back with a new album and a new sense of purpose, but that same powerful, gut-wrenching voice and that truly amazing...

How do you remain an expert wine taster while watching your intake? A lot of spitting, obviously, although Natalie MacLean’s career is nothing to spit at. Natalie, who was gifted with an uncanny ability to pair wine with food, built her reputation on a hugely popular newsletter, but then came divorce, depression, defamation and yes, drinking too much. She tells us all about it, as well as what win...

Jody Vance calls herself a Mama Bear. Don’t mess with her. If she wants something, like hosting her own prime-time sportscast, she goes for it. The first woman ever in that role. But when a stalker came after her, then her son, online, she was devastated. Attacking her was one thing, but her kid, no. Mo and I both were told to not engage, it’s the price of doing business. Now Jody has taken the gu...

He's a middle aged white guy, backed by Disney, who makes dad jokes on the internet ... with an edge. Amidst all the hatred on social media, Brittlestar actually makes people feel better, or at least laugh at the things that don't. We had a lot of fun with Stewart Reynolds, which is what his mom calls him when he's in trouble. Brittlestar’s videos are watched by hundreds of thousands and he made t...

Jen Sookfong Lee makes no apologies: she’s a superfan. That’s the name of her latest book, a deeply personal compilation of essays on how her life has been touched and affected by the likes of Anne of Green Gables, Princess Diana, Amy Tan, sensitive white boys like John Cusack, the Biebers, the Kardashians and, inevitably, Gwyneth. The truth is these icons resonate with all of us, even Wendy, who...

Beverley is not retiring. Beverley McLachlin was told in grade 8 that she wasn’t very alert. That she probably wouldn’t amount to much. Ha! She went on to become the chief justice of our Supreme Court, the first woman in that role. All justices are told to step down at 75, so she has now taken up writing thriller novels. Oh, and a bit of lawyering. You should hear what she says about the Notorious...

Suzette Mayr thinks happy endings are important, (not that kind of happy ending). She just won the Giller Prize for The Sleeping Car Porter and tells us why it was so important and so difficult to tell the story of being a Black gay man in Canada 100 years ago. Suzette tells us about what it was like for her the first time in a lesbian bar, what happened to Rockhead’s Jazz Bar in Montreal, and why...

What is normal anyway? We may have spent our childhoods trying to fit in, but now being a “normie” is an insult. When Jonathan Torrens moved to L.A., surrounded by buff guys in v-necks, he realized his future was not as a Brad Pitt stud. He says he’s quirky, we think he’s funny. He’s been a white rapper on ‘Trailer Park Boys’, a Quebecker who “Lévesque’s” his hair on ‘Shoresy’, all deeply offensiv...

Lauren Hough is living a remarkable life. Author of a collection of essays called “Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing”, Lauren causes us to consider what IS the hardest thing? Growing up in a doomsday sex cult? Joining the Air Force and almost getting court-martialed? Going to jail? Traveling around the country in a van with her dog? Being a 6 foot lesbian? We caught up with Lauren, all jet-lagged fr...

Women talk, they say, but do we really? So much of the female - or even the human - experience is caught up in shame: shame about our bodies, our feelings, our, well, our “unmentionables”. Enter Cynthia Loyst and Josie Dye, two (almost) shameless women who dare to tackle the messy, silly and sexy topics you won’t find anywhere else. Cynthia and Josie’s “Unmentionables” podcast has launched to grea...

Bif Naked is so many things: rock star, activist, tattooed lady … survivor. How Beth Torbert, the daughter of missionary parents adopted in India, came to be Bif Naked, the artist we know today, is a story of courage and resilience. Born in secrecy, hidden away in a mental hospital, a victim of abuse, addiction and then breast cancer, Bif found her way, and she tells us her story, or stories, beca...

He says he’s written more books than he’s read, but Roz Weston wrote a bestseller. A Little Bit Broken is a deeply personal memoir about growing up in a small town with a loving family, yet still being compelled to make bad decisions. Addiction, self-harm, promiscuity - all followed Roz from Acton to New York to Toronto, where he eventually found a way to make it better. We talk about the best and...

Laugh? I thought I’d cry. Why do comedy and depression go hand in hand? They often do, and Jessica Holmes says that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We talk about supportive husbands, surly teenagers, hosting corporate events from home, punching up (and down), Celine Dion, joining and leaving the Mormon Church, and just what the hell is normal anyway? Jessica Holmes is a Canadian actress, comedian a...

Cindy Blackstock wants to fix things. She has fought for Indigenous kids to be treated with the same respect as everyone else. Which means better care and much more funding. And then we talk about why “Pretend Indians” are so infuriating. Very serious stuff. But change is happening. She radiates with hope, and is proud to be seen as a Woman of Ill Repute! We talk about destroyed childhoods and res...

You think YOU’re busy? Zabrina Douglas is a nurse, a mother of five AND a Juno nominated stand up comic. How does she do it all? With a lot of help from family, but one role informs the others. Not only are kids an endless source of material, but it turns out that humour can be helpful and healing in health care too. Come spend some time with this fun and lovely woman. Topics include crazy Jamaica...

Kathleen Wynne got so worked up about the John Tory story (stepping down as Toronto mayor re: affair with staffer 38 years younger) she spilled her guts about an inappropriate affair when she was 21, and he, uh, wasn’t. She just told her kids before it was published. Kathleen tells us why the Tory story matters, and why life in modern politics is so tough on women politicians like Jacinda Ardern a...

The Badass of Badasses Ann Medina says “The CBC fired me, and now they’re honouring me?”.  Yup, as they should. Medina was a foreign correspondent back when it was “revolutionary” for a woman to be in the field.  She tells us how talking to people about their lives was what mattered most, how she never worried about it being a man’s job, about why she got dumped, and how to solve all the problems...

Canada may not have the best health care system on the world, but it’s better than most. That’s largely due to people like Dr. Danielle Martin. Read her bio for all her achievements, but just know that we have a fearless advocate for making things better. Just watch her take down a U.S. Senate Committee. We talk about all the problems: wait times, expensive drugs, and how to find a family doctor (...

Are all geniuses rebels? Steve “Spaz” Williams changed movie history creating the first realistic monsters in James Cameron’s Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park. Now the big new doc “Jurassic Punk” reveals how he refused to play the game, got ignored at the Oscars, got pissed in more ways than one, and maybe found contentment. On our podcast we talk about it all as we get a tour of his beautif...