Now Toronto

Halloween Kills might be a letdown, but NOW’s got you covered as author and Faculty Of Horror co-host Alexandra West joins Norm, Rad and Glenn to trade scary movie recommendations; in the second segment, Norm talks to writer/director Julia Ducournau about her genre-bending festival favourite Titane. Buckle up.

NOW culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai talks to Danis Goulet about the dystopian thriller imagined in her new thriller Night Raiders, and Norm talks to writer/director Andrew Haigh about bringing a queer perspective to the story of a disastrous 18th Century whaling voyage in his television adaptation of The North Water.

NOW culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai and Hollywood Suite’s Alicia Fletcher join Norm to talk about whether the new Bond and Sopranos movies are worth the agita of sitting in the dark with 200 strangers, and NOW music editor Richard Trapunski discusses the experience of going back to live shows, and rediscovering a missing part of himself in the process.

It’s NOW’s fall preview issue, so Norm and culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai talk to Jabbari Weekes, Tichaona Tapambwa and Vanessa Adams about capturing the authentic experience of Black life in Toronto in the second season of their CBC Gem series Next Stop. And political editor Enzo DiMatteo is here to discuss the fallout of Monday’s federal election.

With NOW celebrating its 40th anniversary this month, Norm reaches out to co-founder Michael Hollett and former senior entertainment editor, Susan G. Cole, as well as Tim Redmond, former executive editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, to talk about how alt-weeklies changed the face of journalism, and what’s coming next. Next, Norm talks to filmmaker Michael Showalter about his new movie, The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, in theatres today after a splashy TIFF premiere on Sunday.

The return of the Toronto International Film Festival gives us an excuse to do a movie-themed episode. Norm and Rad talk to Toronto musician and composer TiKa about StereoVisual, the workshop she’s launching at TIFF to bring more marginalized and racialized people into the field of film composing; Norm also chats with director Albert Shin and producer Igor Djrlača about the weird relevance of Together, the short film they’re bringing to the festival, and then interviews The White Lotus’ Sydney Sweeney about how her new Amazon movie The Voyeurs wants to revive the erotic thriller in all its twisty, kinky glory.

Anti-vaxxers are attacking establishments they perceive as hostile to their cause, sometimes virtually and sometimes in person. Chantecler owner Jacob Wharton-Shukster thinks the advent of vaccine passports could defuse the situation, while NDP leader Andrea Horwath is preparing legislation to protect restaurants from increasingly angry protestors.

Norm and Rad tackle two very different culture stories this week, discussing OnlyFans’ announcement that it will be banning sexually explicit content -- and its subsequent reversal of that position -- with activists Jenna Hynes and Gwen Adora, and then exploring why Ted Lasso fans are griping about the show’s second season with television writer and I Hate It But I Love It co-host Jocelyn Geddie.

Get in, losers, we’re going to the polls! Fatima Syed, freelance journalist andhost of The Backbench, tells Norm what the federal election is and isn’t saying about Canada’s present and future, and Queens Park Briefing’s Sneh Duggal discusses how Ontario is dealing with the increasing public demand to make vaccinations mandatory, and whether the province’s current position that businesses create their own vaccination policies is sending the right signal when the Progressive Conservatives are dealing with their own anti-vaxx issues.

Ontario’s kids can go back to school in September under the province’s latest COVID guidelines, but with the Delta variant driving up cases and kids under 12 still not eligible for vaccination, is that really the best idea? NOW political editor Enzo DiMatteo and Jessica Lyons of the Ontario Parent Action Network join Norm to discuss it, followed by Norm’s chat with actor Nathan Fillion about how James Gunn recruited him for The Suicide Squad.

Welcome to the soft reboot of NOW What: same host, new weekly schedule! First, writer and journalist JP Larocque joins Norm to discuss the frenzy of missteps, cancellations and apologies that have rolled through the media this week, and then culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai catches up with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan about the second season of her Netflix series Never Have I Ever, and how things have changed for her since season 1.

Here’s the second half of NOW culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai’s conversation with Stephanie Hinds, Ainsley Romany, Sharine Taylor, Bee Quammie and Daniel D’Souza about all the other issues people from the West Indian diaspora are dealing with, from cultural tourism to the politics of identity and back again to food. And come back Friday August 6 to experience our new weekly format!

Last year, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival went online due to the pandemic; this year, it’s a food truck festival. NOW culture editor Radheyan Simonpillai talks to Stephanie Hinds, Ainsley Romany, Sharine Taylor, Bee Quammie and Daniel D’Souza about what the pivot means, and whether it’s more important for Toronto to throw a West Indian festival by and for people of the West Indian diaspora, or to reach outside the culture by watering everything down. First of two parts; Part 2 drops Saturday July 31.

NOW editor Kevin Ritchie talks to Svetlana Dvoretsky and Corey Ross of Lighthouse Immersive, producers of Immersive Van Gogh and the brand new experiential magic exhibition Jamie Allan’s Illusionarium, about what they do, how they do it and how the pandemic led them to get even more creative.

NOW associate entertainment editor and longtime theatre critic Glenn Sumi joins Norm to expand on this week’s cover story about the return of live theatre to Toronto’s outdoor spaces -- discussing what’s happening in the city, and how seeing shows again felt like rediscovering muscles he hadn’t used in a very long time.

South African director Jaco Bouwer joins Norm to discuss his new horror movie Gaia, how it handles the ecological dread that’s been running through a lot of horror this year, and how the pandemic both complicated and enhanced the shoot last year.

Ontario enters Step 3 of reopening today, and movie theatres are allowed to operate for the first time since the fall … meaning Toronto moviegoers suddenly have half a dozen very big movies to choose from. Norm’s fellow NOW film writers Radheyan Simonpillai and Glenn Sumi join him to discuss how the last sixteen months have affected their own cinematic habits, and maybe steer you in the direction of a picture that’s worth the ticket price.

On Sunday, Italy beat England in the Euro Cup final, Toronto’s Italian community went wild, and for a few very noisy hours it felt like European football mattered to everyone. And in Toronto, it really does matter to a lot of people … and so does the racist invective thrown by England supporters at their team’s players of colour immediately after the loss. Norm talks to Ainsley Romany, a teacher and soccer coach at the Athlete Institute in Orangeville, and Brendan Dunlop, a sportswriter who’s been covering Euro 2020 for the Toronto Star, about how that impacts Canadian kids from racialized communities dreaming of a future on the pitch.

It’s NOW’s annual beer issue, so staff writer Kelsey Adams assembles Cole Firth of Blood Brothers, Jeff Manol of Muddy York and Jeff Wilson of Wellington for a craft beer panel discussing the merits of experimental versus traditional craft beers. (Content warning: you might get thirsty listening to this one.)

Bay Street Video is the latest longstanding Toronto legacy businesses profiled in NOW associate music editor Richard Trapunski’s Toronto Pillars series, so Norm and Richard talk to product manager Mark Hanson about the store’s history, how it’s survived the pandemic and how physical media is still hanging on in the age of streaming.