Q with Tom Power

For decades, Parisa Karimi Molan was banned from singing publicly in her homeland of Iran because she was a woman. But, Parisa found her voice in Canada, and now she’s released her debut album Unveiled. She tells Tom about the secret singing she undertook in her homeland, and what it meant to sing in public for the first time after moving to Montreal.

Scottish actor Peter Capaldi drops by the Q studio to talk about his hit Apple TV police drama Criminal Record. He shares stories from his more than 40 years in acting, and why the secret to it all might just be being yourself. Plus, having just come back from being on the road with his music, Peter tells Tom what it was like to do his first-ever headline tour, and about the punk band he started with former late-night host Craig Ferguson back in the ’70s.

British Columbia’s Ora Cogan just released a new record, Hard Hearted Woman. She tells Tom Power about her spiritual approach to songwriting and what inspired her to write about anti-trans legislation in her new song, Honey.

After being the lead sex work consultant on the film Anora, Andrea Werhun tapped that film’s writer-director Sean Baker to executive produce her new autobiographical hybrid documentary. Modern Whore is part-talking head, part-reenactment and part-slap stick comedy, telling Andrea’s story from student to escort to exotic dancer. She sits down with Tom Power to talk about why she doesn't see herself as a victim or a villain, but rather a member of a community — and service industry — whose voices are rarely heard.

Cadence Weapon, the Edmonton-born, Polaris Music Prize-winning rapper, author and producer is back with his new album, Forager. It’s an exploration of vintage styles and sounds, produced by Toronto’s Junia-T. In the Q studio, Cadence Weapon sits down with Tom to talk about working with Junia-T, incorporating live instruments and how some things are easier for the ones who come after the trailblazers.

In Season 1 of Netflix’s dark comedy Beef, the show’s creator Lee Sung Jin found a winning formula: an escalating feud ignited by a single road rage incident. Now, for its second season, the anthology series is introducing a whole new cast and a fresh conflict set in an elitist country club. But, it’s still a story of how the crushing pressure to succeed pushes people to the extreme. Lee Sung Jin talks to Tom about how his own experience struggling to fit in informed the series, and how a decade of therapy and introspection led to the most authentic screenwriting of his career.

Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe is a Canadian dancer and choreographer who brings First Nations storytelling to contemporary ballet. His new full-length ballet, Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn with Ballet Kelowna, touches on themes of Indigenous fire stewardship, climate change and wildfire management. Cameron spoke with Q guest host Garvia Bailey about cultural burns, creative collaboration and Indigenous representation in contemporary ballet.

At 85, Ringo Starr shows no sign of slowing down. The English musician’s new album Long Long Road is a return to country music — a genre he’s loved since he was a kid. Ringo joins Tom Power to talk about finding country music in Liverpool in the ’60s, returning to the genre now, and the upcoming Beatles biopic featuring Barry Keoghan as a young Ringo Starr.

Canadian writer-director Sophy Romvari’s debut feature film, Blue Heron, follows a Hungarian-Canadian family as they relocate to Vancouver Island in the ’90s, and struggle to deal with the eldest son’s increasingly dangerous behavioural issues. She joins Q host Tom Power to talk about the success of her semi-autobiographical feature, the current state of the Canadian independent film industry, and why she finds making personal work so fulfilling.

American-Canadian actor Jean Yoon, best known for playing Mrs. Kim on the beloved series Kim’s Convenience, is back on stage in a new play. It’s called Dance Nation, and it’s a dark yet funny take on adolescence, girlhood and female rage. Jean sits down with Tom Power to talk about why she walked away from acting in the early days of her career, the complicated legacy of Kim’s Convenience, and the joy of live performance.