Q: The Podcast From Cbc Radio

<p>Hailing from Saskatoon, Katie Tupper didn’t have a big queer community to help her find herself. Now, she’s embracing her bisexuality, and singing soulful songs about the kinds of love she always wanted. Katie Tupper sits down to talk to Tom Power about bi erasure, and how fans are responding to her music.</p>

<p>The Phoenician Scheme is Wes Anderson’s latest feature film. And if you are a fan of deadpan screw ball humour, meticulously shot and edited behind a colour pallet of muted earth tones, you will not be disappointed. But for his thirteenth feature film, Wes is leaning a little more into action and even violence to tell his new father daughter comedy. He joins Tom Power to talk about the evolution of his singular way of telling family stories.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Christopher Stowell is the new artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet – Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. He’ll speak with Tom about why ballet is his “family business,” his career as a principal dancer and ballet leader, and what the future holds for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.</p>

A few years ago, the cartoonist and writer Gabrielle Drolet developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It kept getting worse over time, and as Gabrielle searched for a diagnosis, she also had to find new ways to make art. Her new memoir “Look Ma, No Hands” is the story of an artist coming to terms with disability, adapting to the unexpected, and ultimately learning to express herself again. Drolet joins Tom Power to talk about those experiences that informed her memoir. Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Whenever life got tough, Savannah Ré’s mom always used to quote a specific, motivational verse from the bible. Those words have now inspired Savannah’s new album, “Formed.” She tells Tom Power about the creative turn she’s taken on her new record, and the risks and rewards that come with going independent. Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Turning 70 this year, legendary punk-rocker turned MTV Icon Billy Idol is back with his ninth studio album. “Dream Into It” reflects his life and career, with songs documenting his early days, his massive breakthrough, his drug addiction, and finally his rebirth. He tells Tom Power about why he’s looking back now.Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Dawn Macdonald is a poet based in Whitehorse, Yukon whose 2024 debut poetry collection “Northerny” takes an honest, raw and unsentimental look at growing up and living in Canada’s North. Now, “Northerny” is the winner of this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize, Canadian First Book Prize. Dawn tells Tom Power about growing up off the grid without running water or electricity and her relationship with the natural world. Plus, she’ll read a poem from her collection titled “Wasp Summer.”Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

After over a decade away from the spotlight, Canadian singer Melanie Fiona is back with an EP. “Say Yes” is her first record since she won a Grammy for her 2012 album,  “This MF Life”. She tells Tom Power how her intense burnout and time off was a gift from god, and why her EP is about saying yes again after all these years of saying no.

When Bear Witness and Tim “2oolman” Hill of The Halluci Nation watched wrestling as kids, they had to look past stereotypes and tropes to find Indigenous heroes in the ring. Now, their new EP “Path of The Baby Face” uses wrestling to tell a more empowering story. The music duo tell guest host Talia Schlanger about their collaboration with wrestling icon Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Plus, they discuss the ways they support and care for each other.

Wiz Khalifa just dropped his latest album ‘Kush + Orange Juice 2,’ the sequel to his 2010 mixtape that introduced him to the world. Khalifa joins Tom to talk about his early days as a hip-hop artist, why he’s never cared about being a celebrity, and what important lessons he learned from Snoop Dogg. 

The Alberta folk singer-songwriter Sister Ray is known for writing songs about heartbreak and sadness. But they decided to try something different with their new album “Believer”— their latest record is all about love and connection. Ella Coyes of Sister Ray tells Tom Power about how “freeing” it is to write about joy, how growing up around Métis art influenced their love of music, and why they think the embarrassing parts of being human is what connects us most. 

In Sook-Yin Lee’s film, “Paying For It,” a couple whose romantic attraction is waning decide to open up their relationship. While Sonny explores dating, her introverted boyfriend, Chester, opts to hire sex workers. The story is based on Sook-Yin’s real-life former relationship with Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, who released a bestselling graphic memoir of the same name in 2011. It reflects on intimacy, connection, the rights of sex workers, the boundaries we put around relationships, and Toronto in the ‘90s. Sook-Yin joins Tom Power to talk about the movie and what she learned in the process of making it. Plus, she discusses her early work as a MuchMusic VJ, and how she struggled to deal with the slow cultural shift from alternative music to boy bands.

Amy Millan from the band Stars is back with her first solo record in fifteen years. Millan tells Tom how her album “I Went To Find You” was inspired by the loss of her father at five years old. Plus, she tells the story behind her new song “Make Way for Waves.”

You might not remember every song on the radio from 2007, but if you were anywhere near a club or dancefloor, you might remember the electronic duo Justice. Their debut album, with that glowing cross on the front, was impossible to ignore. Justice redefined electronic music for a new generation, and became one of the most influential acts of their time. The members of the band, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, join Q guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about what’s changed since then, why they’re not interested in nostalgia, and what it takes to keep making great music as you get older. 

Jennifer Archibald is one of North America’s busiest and most in-demand choreographers. At the end of May, she’ll debut her first piece for the National Ballet of Canada called “Kings Fall,” one of nine world premieres that she’ll go on this season. Archibald tells Tom Power about the commonality between chess and her journey in choreography and the ‘documentary ballet’ genre she’s become known for. 

Hanorah is a singer-songwriter from Montreal who’s opened for Mavis Staples, and grew up listening to Etta James and Joss Stone. On her latest EP “Closer Than Hell,” Hanorah moves beyond her early soul influences and explores a new voice. Hanorah tells Tom about surprising herself when she began songwriting, why she’s happy she didn’t win “La Voix” (the Quebec version of “The Voice”), and shares what inspired her new song “Barbed Wire.”

Courtney B. Vance is known for playing men of power and purpose — from Johnnie Cochran in “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” to Uncle George Freeman in “Lovecraft Country,” Vance now takes on Cobra Bubbles in the live action remake of Lilo & Stitch. He joins Tom Power to talk about the emotional depth of Bubbles in the new remake, how growing up as a Black actor in Detroit during the 1967 uprising shaped him, and why he didn’t watch a single video of the late Johnnie Cochran before playing him in "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story."

Sarah Levy comes from a pretty funny family. Her dad is the comedy legend Eugene Levy, her brother is Dan Levy, and all three of them were on the Emmy-winning show “Schitt's Creek.” But Sarah says the funniest one of them all is her mom, who’s also the person in her family who’s had the biggest influence on her comedy. Sarah joins Tom Power to talk about stepping out of the shadow of “Schitt's Creek” to carve her own path with “SurrealEstate,” which is now in its third season. If you like this conversation, check out Tom’s interview with Sarah’s brother, Dan Levy.

What happens when you let go? Dan Mangan found out when he stopped trying to make the best record of his career — and he ended up with one of the best records of his career. The Juno-winning singer-songwriter says it all goes to show that surrendering control might be the key to making something great. Dan sits down with Tom Power to tell us how a trip into the woods laid the foundation for his new album, “Natural Light,” and why he wrote a song about letting your kids know you love them no matter what they do. If you enjoy this conversation, take a listen to Tom’s chat with Max Kerman of Arkells.

In 2021, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner got everything she’d ever wanted: her memoir “Crying in H Mart” became a surprise New York Times bestseller, and her band’s breakthrough album “Jubilee” received multiple Grammy nominations. But all of that success came at the cost of her mental and physical health, so she moved to Seoul to regroup. Now, Japanese Breakfast is back with a new album, “For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women),” which explores that time in Michelle’s life. She sits down with Tom Power to talk about the grief that shaped her, the moment she realized she needed to walk away from it all, and how moving to Seoul helped her find her voice again.