Death is universal, but it remains one of the least spoken about aspects of life. Sitting down with Aubrey Thamann and Kalliopi Christodoulaki, the editors of Beyond the Veil: Reflexive Studies of Death and Dying, we explore how grief, mortality, and memory shape our personal and collective lives. We explore the deeply personal and profoundly cultural dimensions of death: how communities ritualize dying and remembrance, how grief reshapes our sense of self, and how researchers grapple with their own mortality in the course of their work. Thamann and Christodoulaki remind us that studying death is not an abstract exercise—it's an act of reflexivity that brings us face to face with what it means to be human. Together, we ask pressing questions: What can grief teach us about resilience and connection? How do cultural practices around death shape our collective memory? Also, why is it so important to talk openly about death and dying?