What’s on your iPod? Annie—Anniemal, M.I.A.—Arular, LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene, David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Stevie Wonder, Fischerspooner, Supreme Beings of Leisure. I have a “book-on-tape” of Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (and So Can You!). [And] I love Ella and Louis—it’s the perfect music to listen to when I’ve been awakened at 4 a.m. to go to a birth.

Cutting-edge or cacophony? Cutting-edge—I used to date a DJ who spun mostly boompty, house, old funk, even a little techno—maybe I liked his vinyl more than I liked him?

What’s the best music to deliver a baby to? People who are birthin’ should listen to Ben Harper or U2 because it’s soft, beautiful music that fills your heart with hope. What better way to come into the world? I had a client who gave birth at home in front of her 52” TV that blasted the Country Music Channel—to each their own.

Guilty pleasure time: If we jacked into your shuffle, we’d be surprised to hear… Ice Cube—The Predator. I love “When Will They Shoot?” Yeah, I know, not your typical white middle-class lady fare. I’m probably not his target audience, but his visceral proclamation of the discrimination and racism he encounters is really poetic. It gets me.

Your favourite song of all time is... It changes. I fell for my husband during a meteor shower on the Skagit River, so for a while it was Coldplay’s “Yellow.” When we got married it was Iron and Wine’s “Naked as We Came.” Now I just love “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s.

You wouldn’t be caught dead listening to… John Tesh or David Hasselhoff. They should have stuck to Entertainment Tonight and Knight Rider, respectively.

If you could hang out with any musician—living or dead—who would it be? Tom Waits in a smoky bar, Bono when I want to feel self-satisfied, Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong because they were the greats. Edith Piaf because I’m a hopeless romantic. Nina Simone just because her voice makes me cry and laugh at once.

If there were a soundtrack to your life it would be… It would probably just end up a single track, “The Girl from Ipanema,” on a loop.

—Erica Gehrke