Q with Tom Power

Canadian hip-hop pioneer k-os is back with his first new album in more than a decade, BLackneck. It was funded by longtime fan Drake, who wanted to give his early musical hero the freedom to make a “classic k-os record.” Joining Tom Power in the Q studio, k-os shares the unlikely story behind the album, and explains why, after two decades breaking musical boundaries, he’s still determined to do things his own way.

Shiv Carver grew up listening to her family play Irish rebel songs. Today, she’s channeling that rebellious spirit with her own band, Shiv and the Carvers. Discovered at Toronto’s legendary Sneaky Dee’s and quickly earning the endorsement of Bif Naked, the exciting new punk rock band has just released their debut album, Always Watching. Shiv joins Tom Power in the Q studio to talk about the record, her Northern Irish roots and how she formed a band through roller derby. Plus, she sets up the story behind the band’s new track, Screens, which is an anthem for anyone who can't stop doomscrolling.

Nearly 40 years ago, Ann-Marie MacDonald shook up Canadian theatre with Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), an irreverent comedy that flipped the script on two of Shakespeare’s most tragic heroines. But when she first penned it, she wasn’t thinking about love, tragedy or even comedy — she was out for revenge against Shakespeare's "cry-and-die" roles for women. Now, Canadian Stage is remounting the production in Toronto with Ann-Marie starring in the lead role as Constance Ledbelly. She joins Tom Power in the Q studio to reflect on the groundbreaking play, what it took to champion its controversial lesbian kiss in the 1980s, and what it feels like to step back into the role of Constance for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Teagan Johnston is a multidisciplinary singer-songwriter with a knack for writing evocative, beautiful lyrics. She’s toured North America, Japan and Europe, and even performed at director David Lynch’s private nightclub in Paris. Teagan joins Tom Power to talk about her new album, Big Time, and what it took to make it entirely on her own terms. She shares how themes of identity and family shape her lyrics, how teaching kids music helped her fall back in love with making it, and the dream that inspired her song Take Me to the Trailer.

Forget the crooked nose and the bubbling cauldron. For her new Crave series YAGA, award-winning Canadian playwright and director Kat Sandler turns Slavic folklore upside down, reimagining the mythical witch Baba Yaga as a complex, sexually liberated woman who turns the tables on bad men. The eight-part murder mystery series is an adaptation of Kat’s celebrated play of the same name. She sits down with Tom Power to talk about reclaiming the narrative of the crone, channeling overlooked female rage into a TV anti-hero, and what it took to bring her hit stage play to the screen alongside stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Hudson Williams. YAGA is streaming now on Crave.