Thanks to all for bringing their energy and mastery to produce a set of clues with some real oomph. Since, like Jackie Weaver, I have the authority to pick the winner, here goes:
As always I look for silky smoove surfaces and clever wordplay. I liked these a lot:
tyke 3 and jono 5, nice "pow + queen" clues with rather different takes on "POW"
mprs 8 and paul 11, nice double defs
fieryjack 16, nice container
tyke 20, clever sound-alike
marty 27, very nice (although the PR reference would probably go over the head of anyone outside this group)
jono 29, nice acrostic coupled with biting political commentary
Jostling for space on the podium are:
aristo 4 for capturing the spirit of every academic meeting that has ever convened
jono 7 for the nice subtractive anagram (and for including an anagrind for what's subtracted!)
mattrom 15 because I never would have thought "power" would yield a Spoonerism
But this week's gold goes to paulh for the clever and depressingly topical 22:
Energy wore off after start of pandemic (5)
Nice one, paulh. To the prizes:
Longish but informative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sjo1B3j_JM
Music bonuses:
Power trio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCc00pX_pFA
Some reggae, mon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ1PfaqdsgE