Best Of: Mahershala Ali / Writer Yiyun Li

Mahershala Ali explores the moral complexities of his role in the film *Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother*, where he portrays a contract killer struggling to balance his faith and his sudden, overwhelming responsibilities as a single father. The discussion highlights how the character’s internal conflict and the film’s focus on black Muslim life provide a unique dramatic lens. Writer Yiyun Li reflects on her new novel, *Music Against the Night*, which follows two 18th-century piano prodigies. She explains how the project served as a way to process profound personal grief following the suicides of her two sons. By turning to history and music, she finds a method to mark time and navigate the abyss of loss, distinguishing between the inevitability of sadness and the unhealthy nature of unhappiness.