Now Playing: June 2022

Our June edition of Now Playing features Broadway musicals and tasty recipes—all from our awesome contributors.

Casey Mulligan Walsh

In March, I saw Hamilton on Broadway with my husband, and since then the soundtrack is my go-to background music at home. There isn’t a cut I don’t love, but over and over I come back to “Unimaginable,” whose layered lyrics about grief and forgiveness hit me full force as I sat in the theater—and still do. I’ve added it to my Have a Good Cry playlist. Sometimes that’s just what I need, music that takes me apart and puts me back together, changed, lyrics that go deep to places I can’t otherwise reach. Little else does that for me as well as the perfect song.

Renny Gong

I’ve been cooking a lot this summer. It’s the first time I’m living without my parents or a college dining plan. I call my mother sometimes to ask for the recipes she used to make when I was a kid. Real simple stuff—hong shao rou, garlic vinegar cucumber, stir fry noodles—stuff that would take 2 minutes to explain. But sometimes she takes 15 or 20 minutes, going into every ingredient, every brand of soy sauce, every regional way to cook the dish. We both know what’s really going on—it’s just a way for us to hear each other’s voices, talk to each other without talking about what’s really troubling us. After I make the meal, I text her a picture of the food and she sends me a thumbs up emoji. To make hong shao rou, I recommend Pearl River Bridge Mushroom Flavored Superior Dark Soy Sauce.