Q with Tom Power

Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade is one of the most influential voices in modern Latin music. She tells Tom Power about the life-changing moments that shaped her career — from the robbery that led her to pick up a guitar, her time living in Canada, and how a song she wrote a decade ago became an anthem for anti-ICE protesters. 

Pharis and Jason Romero are a folk/bluegrass duo behind both their Juno Award-winning music and their wildly in-demand banjos. In their workshop in the tiny, remote B.C. town of Horsefly, they make highly sought-after banjos, so coveted there are years-long waitlists for them. Pharis and Jason talk to Tom about raising their little family in the wilderness, the workshop and recording studio where the magic happens, and how a love story that started with music is now raising a sixth generation in a very special place. 

It’s an understatement to say Tatiana Maslany has range. She’s known for playing 17 characters in the 2013 show, Orphan Black. Since then, she’s acted in Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, a couple Broadway plays, and a host of animated projects, horror films and other genre-bending works. Now, she stars in the dark comedy thriller, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, as a mother embroiled in a sex work scam turned murder investigation.

Toronto-born MICO introduces his new song, DREAMBOY, in Q’s recurring New Music segment. His debut album, When the lights turn on, is out June 26.

You might not know the name Annie Mumolo but chances are you have seen her work. She’s co-written films with Kristen Wiig, including Bridesmaids and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Annie has been writing and performing all her life, but it’s her latest breakout role in the HBO show Rooster that’s got people talking. Annie sat down with Tom Power to talk about how much fun she had making that show, what it’s like to act with Steve Carell, and her thoughts on the Bridesmaids phenomenon.  

Country music legend Vince Gill had more than a hundred unreleased songs stock-piled. When the Country Music Hall of Fame star realized that it’s been 50 years since he began his career, it felt like the perfect time to share this music with his fans. Now, he’s in the middle of a year-long project called 50 Years From Home, which involves releasing a new EP every month. He joins Tom Power to talk about what it’s been like to reminisce as all these songs are put out into the world.

If you watched TV in the ’90s in Canada, chances are you’ve seen Heritage Minutes. They are those 60-second dramatizations of Canadian history that would pop up like public service announcements during commercial breaks. From 2012 to 2021, Davida Aronovitch produced them. She has also edited the Canadian Encyclopedia and worked for the Department of Canadian Heritage. All this work inspired her new web series, Pioneer Girl. She tells guest host Garvia Bailey about the satirical show and how it has a lot to say about the way Canada constructs its history.

In the 1880s, journalist Nellie Bly faked insanity to reveal the treatment of women in an American asylum, and how many of the patients were not sick at all, but just trapped in a misogynist system. Now, a new opera is bringing that story to the stage and Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Hannah Moscovitch is the librettist. She joins Tom Power to talk about the Luminato Festival production, and why Nellie Bly’s story still resonates in the 21st century. 

Dan Mintz has played Tina Belcher on Bob’s Burgers for the last 16 seasons and counting. But before there was Tina, Dan worked primarily as a writer and stand-up comedian. This month, Dan is back with his first stand up special in over a decade, Dan Mintz: Well Rounded Entertainer. Dan talks to Tom Power about finding his voice in stand-up, his love of one-line comedy, and what it’s like to voice a 13-year-old girl as a man in his 40s. 

Audrey Hobert got her start co-writing massive hits with her best friend Gracie Abrams. It inspired Audrey to launch her own solo career with her debut album, Who’s the Clown? Audrey joins Tom Power in-studio to talk about writing for others, the moment she realized she wanted to be an artist, and writing songs about struggling with your self-image and learning to love yourself.