Q with Tom Power

When Noam Tomaschoff ordered an at-home DNA test on a whim, he didn't expect to learn anything earth-shattering. But before the results even arrived, his parents revealed a secret they had kept for decades: he was conceived via sperm donation, meaning the man who raised him wasn't his biological father. Digging deeper into the results, Noam made another startling discovery — he had more than 35 half-siblings scattered across North America. The Toronto-born actor, writer and director sits down with Tom Power to share how he navigated that identity shock, and how turning the experience into an award-winning musical helped him make sense of it all. Our Little Secret: A True New Musical opens at Toronto’s CAA Theatre tonight.

If you grew up on ’80s and ’90s action movies, you’re probably familiar with Dolph Lundgren. He played the towering Soviet boxer Ivan Drago opposite Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV, He-Man in the original live-action Masters of the Universe, and more recently, he’s been kicking butt in The Expendables franchise. But long before Hollywood came calling, Dolph was a chemical engineering student headed to MIT on a Fulbright scholarship. His entire trajectory shifted when a chance encounter with pop icon Grace Jones pulled him into the whirlwind of New York’s Studio 54. Now, a new documentary, Dolph: Unbreakable, traces his journey from a painful childhood in Sweden to global superstardom. Dolph joins Tom Power to talk about his unlikely path from academia to Hollywood, how he nearly died performing some of his own stunts, and how he managed to channel his severe childhood trauma through martial arts and acting.

Last week, the world said goodbye to Sir Patrick Stewart — the British stage and screen actor best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise. In memory of Patrick, we revisit his 2023 conversation with Tom Power, where he looked back on his extraordinary six-decade career.

For more than 50 years, Marina Abramović has used her own body to push the boundaries of performance art. Now, as she approaches her 80th birthday, she’s preparing to stage her most ambitious — and most autobiographical — work yet, Balkan Erotic Epic. The bold new performance piece draws on ancient Balkan folk rituals to explore sexuality, spirituality, fertility and death. In this candid conversation with Tom Power, Marina details how the project has allowed her to achieve emotional liberation from her childhood in former Yugoslavia, her difficult relationship with her strict mother, and the past she’s still trying to make peace with.

Damhnait Doyle thought her days of making music were behind her. But after facing some personal hardships, an urge to reconnect with her authentic self led her back to songwriting. Now, the Juno-nominated musician and host of CBC Music’s Mornings is embracing the “weird kid” she was 30 years ago when she first broke onto the Canadian music scene with her hit song A List of Things. Damhnait joins Tom Power to talk about her new EP, Bird in Flames, and her simple message for middle-aged women: it’s never too late to get back to yourself.

Holland Taylor (Legally Blonde, Two and a Half Men) has had incredible success acting in hit movies and TV shows — but her transition to the screen was originally intended to bolster her theatre career. In this conversation with Tom Power, Holland shares how she honed her craft under legendary acting teacher Stella Adler, how having ADHD has helped her channel focus into her most intense roles, and why she chose not to meet Matthew McConaughey's mother before portraying her in the new series Brothers.

Documentary filmmaker John Wilson has a very particular way of seeing the world. For his acclaimed HBO series How To With John Wilson, he wandered the streets of New York City with a camera, following his curiosity into some bizarre and unexpectedly moving encounters with ordinary people. Now, he’s released his first feature documentary, The History of Concrete, using a similarly unconventional approach. John talks to Tom Power about how the camera has helped him connect with people in ways he never thought possible, why it was so hard to fund a movie about cement, and how a mundane material led to an unexpectedly spiritual reflection on impermanence.

Ten years after Leonard Cohen’s death, his songs are as alive as ever. In a special remote interview at Hotel2Tango in Montreal — the studio where he helped produce his father’s final albums — Juno-nominated musician Adam Cohen sits down with Tom Power to discuss bringing Leonard’s songs back to the stage on a new tribute tour featuring his 19-year-old son, Cassius. Adam opens up about grief, legacy and the complicated business of remembering someone who never had much time for nostalgia.

In 1989, a young singer from New Brunswick sparked an international frenzy across Quebec and Europe known as "Rochmania." That singer was Roch Voisine, who skyrocketed to fame overnight with his breakthrough hit, Hélène. While the craze was initially written off as short-lived pop hype, Roch has sustained a career in both official languages for nearly four decades. Fresh off his induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, he joins Tom Power to look back on surviving teen-idol stardom, staying grounded through his family life, and why he’s now honouring the legendary Gordon Lightfoot with his latest project, The Lightfoot Sessions.

Saskatchewan’s Tara Gereaux is the author of the novel Wild People Quiet, which was recently shortlisted for the Giller Prize — Canada's most prestigious literary award for fiction. Set in 1946, the book follows a secretary in a small prairie town who’s sacrificed everything to hide her Métis identity and pass as white. Tara joins Tom Power in the Q studio to talk about the book and how it was inspired by her own family history.