Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud

CBC Radio

Every day, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud brings you the most urgent, joyful, captivating discussions in all of arts, pop culture, and entertainment. Commotion is where you go for a thoughtful and vibrant chat working through the big culture stories.

  • 25 minutes 22 seconds
    Does Get Millie Black get Jamaica right?

    Commotion guest host Ali Hassan is joined by culture critics Sharine Taylor, Danae Peart and Jovanté Anderson to discuss HBO's new Jamaica-set crime series Get Millie Black, and the way the show centers trans and queer Jamaican people. Plus, film critic Teri Hart talks about how Dwayne Johnson's new Christmas comedy, Red One, pulled in a record breaking 50 million views on Prime Video after a disappointing box office run.

    24 December 2024, 5:10 am
  • 25 minutes 15 seconds
    The big stories in fashion that shaped 2024

    Fashion writers Danya Issawi, Joan Summers and Gianluca Russo look back on the year in Fashion, from John Galliano’s dolls, Charli XCX’s Brat summer and Zendaya’s red carpet moments for Challengers and Dune: Part II.

    23 December 2024, 3:10 pm
  • 27 minutes 49 seconds
    The winners and losers of pop culture in 2024

    As the year winds down, Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Niko Stratis and Rad Simonpillai chat with host Elamin Abdelmahmoud about the pop culture highs and lows of 2024.

    20 December 2024, 5:10 am
  • 38 minutes 21 seconds
    How YouTube is changing kids TV, and why authors are still boycotting the Giller Prize

    Increasing numbers of young viewers are abandoning traditional kids TV shows in favour of creator-produced online content. The Wrap’s TV reporter Kayla Cobb explains the impacts of this shift on both children and the entertainment industry at large. Plus, the ongoing protests against the Giller Prize, this country’s most prestigious literary award, has sent shockwaves through CanLit. Elamin speaks to Noor Naga. She's one of many authors who've boycotted the Giller Prize. She talks about what changed in 2024.

    19 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 25 minutes 11 seconds
    Balatro and the highs and lows of gaming in 2024, and Jamie Foxx's Netflix special

    2024 was a year of highs and lows for the video game industry. There was a labour strike, mass layoffs and controversies around diversifying the gaming world. There were also long-anticipated new releases from big franchises and surprise indie successes from smaller developers. Culture writer Jonathan Ore and podcast host and producer Camille Salazar Hadaway join guest host Ali Hassan to talk about how the past year played out in the video game industry. Plus, comedian and culture critic Ashley Ray discusses Jamie Foxx’s new Netflix standuup special 'What Had Happened Was…' and the online reaction to it.



    18 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 25 minutes 10 seconds
    Canadian music in 2024 and who ruled our playlists

    Music journalists Rosie Long Decter and Natalie Harmsen reflect on the year in Canadian music, highlighting the artists, albums, and trends that defined the sound of Canada in 2024.

    17 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 25 minutes 35 seconds
    Snoop Dogg teams up with Dr. Dre again, and why The Brutalist is getting awards season buzz

    With the release of the album ‘Missionary’ - the first full-length collabo between Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, music critics Mastermind and A. Harmony join Elamin to review the new release, and how it holds up to the duo’s classic album collaborations - ‘The Chronic’ and ‘Doggystyle.’ Plus, 'The Brutalist' has been nominated for seven Golden Globes and critics are calling it a ‘New Great American Masterpiece.’ But is it really? Radheyan Simonpillai joins Elamin to talk about 'The Brutalist'. 

    16 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 28 minutes 3 seconds
    What Hawk Tuah and the tradwife trend tell us about the internet in 2024

    It’s been a year on the internet. A pygmy hippo in Thailand captured our hearts, a model taught us how to make Cocoa Puffs from scratch, a woman turned a word-on-the-street interview into a media empire — and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Elamin is joined by culture critics Samantha Cole, Jackson Weaver and CT Jones to look back on everything that went down online this year. 


    13 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 25 minutes 11 seconds
    The potential consequences of the Jay-Z allegations, and the TV adaptation of Interior Chinatown

    With news of a lawsuit accusing Jay-Z of raping a 13 year-old girl after an awards show more than two decades ago along with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Elamin is joined by culture critics Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Rania El Mugammar. They'll discuss the allegations, the online response, and discuss how we might hold space for believing those who come forward with these types of claims, while considering other factors that might sway our moral compass. Plus, Jen Sookfong Lee chats with Elamin about Interior Chinatown, a new show based on the award-winning novel by Charles Yu, and whether the book’s metafictional premise works on screen.

    12 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 31 minutes 56 seconds
    One year after the Buffy Sainte-Marie investigation, what has changed for Indigenous artists?

    It’s been just over a year since the CBC show The Fifth Estate aired its documentary about Buffy St. Marie, raising questions about her claim to Indigenous ancestry. In this group chat, we explore what's shifted in Indigenous art and music in the past year or so. Our guests are - Marc Meriläinen, an Ojibwe musician and producer who runs a record label called Meriläinen Music. He’s also created a program that aims to verify the identity of Indigenous musicians. And Michelle Cyca, a freelance Journalist and a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6. She has done lots of reporting and writing and thinking about false claims of Indigenous ancestry and how they should be handled.  


    11 December 2024, 4:40 pm
  • 26 minutes 6 seconds
    The online reaction to the suspect in the insurance CEO killing, and Interstellar is back in theatres

    Moments after we learned that Brian Thompson, the head of a healthcare insurance company, had been shot in midtown Manhattan – the internet was full of speculation about the suspect’s motives. What we did not see coming were the memes or the look alike contests that were held in New York over the weekend. Internet culture reporters Miles Klee and Rebecca Jennings join Elamin to talk about it all. Plus, this past weekend, one of the top-grossing films at the box office was the 10th-anniversary theatrical re-release of Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar, a film that was met with a mixed reception upon its initial release in 2014, but has since come to be seen as one of the Oppenheimer director’s most important films. Vulture film critic Bilge Ebiri explains why the film is resonating more strongly today than 10 years ago.


    10 December 2024, 4:40 pm
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