Storylines

Michelle DuBarry is a Canadian drag icon. She holds the record for the world's Oldest Performing Drag Queen. But at 89 years old and after a year away from the stage during COVID, Russell Alldread, the man behind the makeup, has mixed feelings about his glamourous alter ego. That’s why his chosen family hopes they can help him reconnect with his passion by getting him back into drag. PLUS, In 1938, Gar Yin was just 19 years old when she boarded a boat from Hong Kong to Vancouver. It was during the exclusion years, when Chinese immigrants were barred from Canada. But Gar Yin had something special: Cantonese opera.

In her Peabody-nominated CBC podcast Mic Drop!, Shari Okeke gives teenagers the floor. But over the past year, an epic teenage story was unfolding in her own home. And it all started with laundry. When Shari’s teenage daughters suddenly found themselves in confinement together at the beginning of the pandemic, they couldn’t stand it. Both siblings were struggling with school stress and the fighting between them became constant. The laundry room, accessed through one of her daughter’s bedrooms, became ground zero. Shari feared her daughters were on a collision course for irreparable relationship damage. Then came a diagnosis that changed everything — and cast those laundry emergencies in a new light. PLUS, when Jennifer Warren was a tween-ager in the late 80s, she got a haircut so horrendous, it was nicknamed "The Wedge". Jen interviews her mom and sister about the lasting lore of this not-so-stylish 'do.

Leonard Wilson is an unlikely social media star. For one thing, nobody is really sure how old Leonard is. He’s a senior, that much is clear. He lives on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario. His Facebook dispatches detail his chicken-caring duties, walks around the homestead, and wild animal encounters. Hundreds of fans from as far away as China and Mexico send emails if they don't see a new "Leonard Time" update every few weeks. The other thing about Leonard? He's dog. A 148-pound dog. PLUS, The small town of Bow Island, AB is home to the world's biggest pinto bean. Named Pinto MacBean, the 18-foot high fibreglass legume is just one of SIX statues of big things in the town of less than 2,000 people, including a giant sunflower and the world's biggest putter outside the local golf course. Pan out to the province of Alberta and, according to Doc Project producer Tanara McLean's unofficial count, you're looking at over 100 big things. But why are there so many big things in Alberta, and whose story are they telling?

This year, Alan Gotlib threw a 40th anniversary party. It was held COVID-style — a YouTube livestream, complete with guests, music and an epic speech. But it wasn’t a birthday, or a wedding anniversary. Alan was celebrating 40 years since he first came out as gay, in 1981. Alan didn’t know any other gay people and it was the early days of the AIDS epidemic, with gay panic about to peak. Also, Alan had no idea how to tell his parents, both religious Jewish Holocaust survivors, without being disowned. But he made it through. And that’s cause for celebration. This is Alan’s story: looking forward, by looking back on a life well lived as an out gay man.

When Craig Desson bought his condo in Montreal, he was finally achieving a big life goal of home ownership. But there was a question echoing in his mind. Montreal is on unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka (often referred to as Mohawk). And if Montreal is on unceded territory, can he really own it? Craig and Doc Project host Acey Rowe trace the claim to the land his condo is on back through history, through property booms and busts, from a group of monks who gambled it all away to some dubious cross-planting by one Jacques Cartier -- all the way back to the original inhabitants, for a conversation with Mohawk Council of Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon to hear what he thinks, and what he hopes for the future.

The mbira is a traditional Zimbabwean instrument that looks like a box with metal tongs spread out like eyelashes. It makes music that sounds like wind chimes and waterfalls. Growing up in Zimbabwe, Chaka Zinyemba was taught the mbira was 'bad.' A century of European colonialism had forced the instrument underground, with colonizers branding it as "evil" and "devil music." Chaka never anticipated that he would be a driving force behind the instrument's revival -- a revival that found a groundswell in Western Canada.

In China, farming is often seen as lowly work. It's a life people hope to escape. Yet when university-educated environmentalists Sun Shan and Li Bo immigrated to Canada from China, farming is exactly what they chose to do. Along the way, they've made a place for themselves in Ottawa's farming community. But their career path didn't meet with instant approval from their parents... PLUS, gardening and mental health. Three Edmontonian gardeners who are battling depressive disorder, social anxiety and grief, open up about how their gardens feed their souls and support their mental health.

Allie Jaynes has a successful career as a journalist. She’s travelled the world and speaks five languages. But ask one of Allie’s friends to describe her, and you get the half of the picture: scatterbrained, absent-minded. Flustered. Forgetting her keys, forgetting where her bike’s locked up, taking days agonizing over work assignments that should have taken hours. This is all “very Allie.” Only recently has Allie started to understand what’s causing her struggles. And suddenly, her whole life is starting to make sense.

An episode of two FUN stories from the Doc Project vaults, incase you're needing a dose of joy. First up: When Tom Howell wandered into a shop called "Holy Cow" on Toronto's Queen Street, little did he know his whole paradigm would shift when it came to... towelling. Soon, Tom's love of Turkish towels would have him bursting into song in this documentary-musical. THEN: Upon receiving the gift of a "spurtle" — a traditional porridge-stirring implement — Johnny Spence travels to Carrbridge, Scotland, the home of the World Porridge Making Championships. The prize: the coveted Golden Spurtle.

This past fall, New Brunswick-based trumpeter and composer Nicole Rampersaud took part in a whalesong workshop given by renowned acoustic biologist Katy Payne. In 1967, Katy and her husband Roger Payne were some of the first people to hear recordings of humpback whale song — and the album they released three years later, Songs of the Humpback Whale, became the best-selling environmental album in history. Now Katy is sharing what she’s learned from 50 years of whalesong observation with a group of Canadian musicians, inviting them to learn from and collaborate with whales. PLUS, In Banff, Alberta, people and wolves have a complicated relationship. Wolves been wiped out from the area around the town numerous times over the past 100 years. After a deadly year in 2016, the local wolf pack nearly disappeared. By 2020, the pack was back to eight wolves, but down to six by 2021. What is at the heart of this difficult relationship?