Q: The Podcast From Cbc Radio

K-Pop is one of the biggest musical genres around the world right now, but KPop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang has been into it long before it was cool. Now, her movie isn’t just one of the biggest films of the summer – its music also charted near the top of the Billboard Global 200. Maggie Kang speaks with Q guest host Gill Deacon about making female characters who aren’t afraid to be goofy, what she learned from working at DreamWorks, and how the song “Golden” from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack was really hard to write.

Kingston, Ontario has long been a hotbed for up-and-coming bands. Now indie-rock outfit Tiny Horse is making their mark. Ciara Roberts and Rae Corcoran, two of the four bandmates, join guest host Garvia Bailey in the Q studio to talk about how they unexpectedly found themselves writing songs together, how they see the recording studio as an instrument, and the inspiration behind their new single “Islands.” 

After working as a youth counsellor, Canadian rapper TOBi has continued to uplift people through his motivational lyrics. Now, TOBi is releasing his new album Elements No. 2, which has been five years in the making. Q guest host Garvia Bailey talks to TOBi about how he learned to be vulnerable in his songwriting, why he writes for Black boys just like him, and how his work with social services influenced his worldview.

Singer-songwriter Ada Lea needed a break from music: she was physically exhausted from tour, and she was mentally stuck in a circle of overcriticizing her own songs. But after taking some time off, she’s found a multitude of paths to rekindle her creativity. Ada Lea tells guest host Gill Deacon about her new single “Bob Dylan’s 115th Haircut”, her songwriting community, and why she feels like the goal of the music industry is at odds with the goal of the artist.

Fortune Feimster’s Netflix comedy special, “Crushing It,” dives into stories from her life, like being her mother’s stand-in husband and going from a shy kid to a funny kid. This summer, she was honoured at the Just For Laughs comedy festival for her work on the Handsome Podcast with fellow comedians Tig Notaro and Mae Martin. Tom Power spoke with Fortune about her Netflix special, how her family taught her to laugh through trauma, and the moment she realized she wanted to be a comedian.

It’s been decades since girl groups ran the music industry, but the Vancouver-based hip-hop R&B group NADUH thinks it’s time for them to have a renaissance. Since the release of their debut EP, NADUH has been self-producing their own music, and touring non-stop. Larisa Marie and Taraneh from NADUH spoke with Q guest host Garvia Bailey about how the group came together, how they write as a collective, and their new single ‘redlight’.

A few years ago, Mustafa released his critically acclaimed EP, “When Smoke Rises,” which chronicled the deaths of loved ones from his community of Regent Park in Toronto. So when he sat down to write his debut album, “Dunya,” the Juno-winning musician and poet wanted to explore other things, like love, faith and his relationship with God. Then his older brother died. Mustafa sits down with Tom Power for a wide-ranging conversation about his latest album, the devastating loss of his brother and why Toronto no longer feels safe for him.

It’s not easy to adapt a classic of contemporary literature into an epic TV series, but that’s exactly what Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has done with “Washington Black,” the Booker Prize-shortlisted novel by Canadian author Esi Edugyan. Set in a steampunk reimagining of the 19th century, the story follows a young boy named George Washington Black who is born on a Barbados sugar plantation. His globetrotting travels take him on a journey around the world, including Virginia, Halifax, and even the Arctic. For this project, Selwyn wore many hats, including creator, executive producer and showrunner. He joins guest host Garvia Bailey to tell us how “Washington Black” mirrors his own journey as a Guyanese immigrant, and how the theme of resistance was his guiding North Star to making the novel shine on screen.

With viral hits like “Pretty Girl Era,” LU KALA has proven that she might just be the next big Canadian breakthrough artist à la Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen or The Weeknd. Her catchy songs about loving yourself and knowing your worth have amassed millions of streams all over the internet. Back in May, on the heels of her new EP, “No Tears On This Ride,” LU joined Tom Power to tell us her story, how she became more confident after being bullied as a kid, and what it felt like to see Serena Williams and her daughter lip sync to her music.

Kat Sandler is an award-winning Canadian playwright, screenwriter and director who’s known for her way with words and her wild imagination. She was just a kid when she fell in love with the story of “Anne of Green Gables,” so it was a dream come true when the Stratford Festival — one of the most renowned theatre festivals in North America — asked her to reimagine the story for their 2025 program. Kat joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about her acclaimed adaptation of this beloved Canadian story.

When Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient) was six years old, her father, a Royal Navy pilot, died in service. Then her mother remarried another Royal Navy pilot, who also died in service when she was 11. Now, the Oscar-nominated British actor is playing a character inspired by her twice-widowed mother in a new film called “My Mother's Wedding.” It’s also Kristin's directorial debut. She joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about the film, the unreliability of memory, and how she got her big break thanks to Prince.

d'bi.young anitafrika knows that it takes a lot of nurturing and mentorship to become an artist of any kind. They credit their mom, the pioneering dub poet Anita Stewart, with inspiring their passion for storytelling. Now, d’bi is celebrating a major milestone as a playwright, performer and director. Their “Sankofa Trilogy” is in its 20th year. The three solo plays of the trilogy follow three generations of Jamaican women from their experiences of growing up to motherhood. Ahead of the anniversary stagings of the plays, d’bi is doing a little experiment — they’re putting on the plays as multi-cast productions to test out new ways to tell these stories. d’bi sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about 20 years of “The Sankofa Trilogy,” getting their start in theatre in “Da Kink in My Hair,” and how they bring Black stories to the Canadian stage.

Acclaimed Canadian folk singer-songwriter Dana Sipos just dropped a new love song devoted to her friends. It’s called “Soft Feeling” and it’s her first new music since 2021. Dana joins guest host Garvia Bailey to tell us what inspired the track and why we need more love songs that celebrate the intimacy of friendship.

Ebonnie Rowe is a champion for Canadian women in music. As the founder of Honey Jam — Canada’s first artist development program for female musicians — she’s helped launch the careers of Nelly Furtado, Jully Black, Haviah Mighty and more. Ebonnie joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about being appointed to the Order of Canada and creating a “neverending sisterhood.”

About a decade ago, Anjulie found huge success writing catchy pop songs that were all over Canadian radio and MuchMusic. She won a Juno Award, she was writing songs for the likes of Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson, and there was a bidding war between some of the biggest labels in the world who were desperate to sign her. But then, at the height of her success, Anjulie walked away from music to focus on healing some internal wounds she’d been avoiding. Now, she’s re-emerged as a more centered version of herself — and with that comes a new sound and a hit single. Earlier this year, Anjulie sat down with Tom Power to share her story.

The Toronto-based DJ and producer BAMBII melds electronic music with her Caribbean roots — but the path to making her own songs hasn’t been clear cut. First, she started her own rave series as a way of getting better at DJing while also hearing the music she wanted to dance to. From there, she learned how to produce her own music. In 2023, she released her debut EP, "Infinity Club,” which won electronic album of the year at the 2024 Juno Awards. Now, she’s back with her follow-up, “Infinity Club II,” which digs deeper into her songwriting, production and world-building. BAMBII joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about her new EP, growing up in Toronto as an only child, and what it’s like to navigate the music industry when you’re Black and queer. 

Tired of her blindness being seen as tragedy, Toronto theatre maker Devon Healey designed an immersive stage show to take audiences into her experience. The production, “Rainbow on Mars,” is based on her own journey into blindness at age 21, and it features a cast of performers with varying levels of vision. Devon sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about reframing blindness as an invitation to relate to each other more intimately, and to become more comfortable with uncertainty and exploration.

The hit series “Severance” managed to knock “Ted Lasso” out of its place as the most-watched show on Apple TV+. That’s partly due to its unique premise, which explores a nightmarish experiment to enforce work-life balance by splitting a person’s consciousness into two. There’s the you that goes into work (your “innie”) and the you that lives outside of work (your “outie”). A few months ago, actors Tramell Tillman and Zach Cherry — also known as their characters Mr. Milchick and Dylan G. — sat down with Tom Power to discuss all things “Severance.”

You never know who you might meet at a Canadian gas station. Back in March, AHI sat down with Tom Power to tell us how a chance encounter at a truck stop in Thunder Bay inspired him to pursue music full-time. He also sets up a song off his new album, “The Light Behind the Sun.”

Back in 2023, Debby Friday won the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for her debut album, “Good Luck.” When she sat down to write her next record, it would’ve been easy to stick with what worked the first time, but instead, Debby made a conscious decision to do things differently. The result is her most ambitious album yet, “The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life.” From dance floor bangers to intimate ballads, Debby joins Tom Power to take us inside the emotional and artistic journey behind her new record.