Now Toronto

This week’s podcast was so packed we had to break it into two episodes. In this one, Norm talks to Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland about their new documentary series BLK: An Origin Story, and then checks in with Last One Laughing Canada players Colin Mochrie and Andrew Phung about their experience on Prime Video’s reality endurance series. 

For this week’s Sound Of Toronto Right Now issue, NOW editor Radheyan Simonpillai talks to TikTok rapper Akintoye about coming up, finding his voice, building a brand and being absolutely, one hundred percent himself through all of it.

Building onto his cover story this week, Norm talks to Arnold Pinnock, Annmarie Morais, Marsha Greene, Charles Officer and RT Thorne – the creative team behind the new CBC drama The Porter – to explore the genesis of the show and what it means to them to have made it. The Porter premieres on CBC and CBC Gem Monday (February 21) at 9 pm ET. 

With NOW’s annual Love and Sex issue on the stands this week, Norm and NOW’s managing editor Glenn Sumi invite Colin Asuncion, Haley McGee and Bee Quammie to expand on their conversations about what it’s like to be single and dating with COVID still making everything extra complicated.

You might have heard about the trucker convoy that came to Ottawa last weekend. In fact, you probably heard so much about it that you didn’t notice the other, arguably more legitimate assemblages that happened in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday. In this episode Ahmad Jarrar of the GTA Palestinian Movement and Mskwaasin Agnew of the Salt River First Nation tell Norm why they feel their respective events were overlooked by the Canadian media.

Norm talks to Guled Abdi, Tim Blair, Vance Banzo and Franco Nguyen about the third season of their sketch series, and how they’ve levelled up the comedy and the commentary – even enlisting Paul Sun-Hyung Lee from Kim’s Convenience to confront CBC cancelling Trickster.

This is the time of year when NOW’s Love Your Body issue comes out. But we’re not doing that any more; after seven years, the landscape of body positivity and self love has changed. Ramona Leitao and Radheyan Simonpillai talk to four of our previous Love Your Body subjects – designer and human-rights activist Biko Beauttah, author and relationship coach Leisse Wilcox, model and TV personality Mina Gerges, and musician and composer TiKA – as well as Sabrina Maddeaux, who pitched and created NOW’s first Love Your Body issue, to talk about what it was, what it did and what we’re doing now. 

NOW’s managing editor Glenn Sumi is really feeling the loss of live comedy in this latest lockdown cycle, so he reached out to three very funny people – Tricia Black, Keith Pedro and Matt Wright – for a conversation about how their approach to making people laugh has evolved, or even changed entirely, over the last couple of years.

It’s 2022! We’re locked down again! But if you’re looking for a new show to watch, there’s Run The Burbs, the new sitcom from Kim’s Convenience breakout Andrew Phung. In this companion podcast to his NOW cover story, Norm talks to Andrew, co-creator Scott Townend and writer/star Rakhee Morzaria about their charming new sitcom, and where they’re planning to take it in its first season.

David Fincher: Mind Games author Adam Nayman discusses his new book, the connective tissue between films like Zodiac and Gone Girl, the genius behind Fincher’s casting when wielding Ben Affleck’s public persona, and why we can’t stop comparing the Fight Club director to Paul Thomas Anderson. Plus, thoughts on Anderson’s latest movie Licorice Pizza. 

NOW’s Holiday Movie Special is on the stands, summing up the year in film. And in this companion podcast, Norm talks to Oscar-winning producer J. Miles Dale about how he and Guillermo Del Toro saved their new film Nightmare Alley when COVID shut it down halfway through production. He also interviews Joanna Hogg, writer/director of The Souvenir Part II, his pick for the best film of 2021.

In this week’s issue, NOW associate editor Richard Trapunski takes stock of the year in music; for this companion episode, he’s joined by fellow music writer Melissa Vincent to talk through the highlights, the breakouts, the surprises … and the relief that came from being able to see performers back on stage where they belong.

This week, NOW rolled out its list of the year’s best shows, so Norm and fellow critics Kevin Ritchie, Ramona Leitao, Radheyan Simonpillai and Glenn Sumi assemble to discuss why we picked what we picked, and why we ranked them where we did.

The 2022 Grammy nominations were announced on Tuesday, and some of the names on the Recording Academy’s list were a little surprising: Louis CK, Marilyn Manson and Dave Chappelle are all up for awards, despite their current status as cultural pariahs. Music editor Richard Trapunski and culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai join Norm to discuss what it all means.

Norm and NOW music editor Richard Trapunski talk to journalist and author Corey Mintz about his new book, The Next Supper: The End Of Restaurants As We Knew Them, and how problems like underpaid employees, toxic work culture and untenable delivery-app fees won’t go away with the return of indoor dining. In fact, they might get worse.

In the wake of the fatal crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival last weekend, Norm and NOW music editor talk to Janet Sellery, the chair of Event Safety Alliance Canada, about the preparation that goes into events of this scale, and what can happen when things go wrong.

With the countdown underway to our next municipal election, NOW news editor Enzo DiMatteo joins Norm to consider the field of potential contenders, the departure of potential progressive candidate Joe Cressy, and whether John Tory is planning to run for a third term as mayor … and what happens if he doesn’t. You can read more from Enzo at nowtoronto.com/news .

It’s Halloween, so Norm talks to Alexandra West and Andrea Subissati -- narrators of NOW’s Haunted Toronto audio tour -- about their Faculty of Horror podcast, which released its 100th episode this month. And then filmmaker Edgar Wright discusses the ghosts that haunt his new movie Last Night in Soho, which opens in theatres today.

Happy Halloween! Faculty Of Horror hosts Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West are your guides to the city’s spookiest sites in this audio companion to NOW’s Hidden Toronto: Haunted Edition. Best enjoyed after dark.

The Toronto International Festival Of Authors is underway, so Norm checks in with Giller-nominated author Jordan Tannahill on his Humber Master Class about writing for the stage, the conversation he’s having with author Christy Ann Conlin about transcendence and the generational conflict that’s rolling through Canada’s literary community. Then, Norm talks to Denis Villeneuve about how the director’s long-awaited adaptation of Dune tries to push back against the colonial subtext of Frank Herbert’s novel.