The New Yorker Festival Unveils 2026 Lineup, Featuring Conan O’Brien, Mariska Hargitay, Mahershala Ali, Hannah Einbinder and More

The New Yorker Festival, the magazine’s annual “celebration of culture and ideas,” is happening this year Oct. 23-25 in New York City — and it has tipped the celeb-stocked lineup of speakers for the 2026 edition.

The event’s confirmed speakers include: Conan O’Brien, Parker Posey, Aaron Sorkin, Gloria Steinem, Dr. Becky, Colson Whitehead, Pixies, Ethan Hawke, Hannah Einbinder, Cole Escola, Mahershala Ali, Elizabeth Strout, King Princess, Min Jin Lee, Isabel Wilkerson, Michael Douglas, Mariska Hargitay, Ben Lerner, Wynton Marsalis, Benito Skinner and Atsuko Okatsuka.

Conan O’Brien will be the featured headliner, sitting down in conversation with New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick. Others in the entertainment biz scheduled to appear include:

• Screenwriter, director and playwright Aaron Sorkin in conversation with the New Yorker’s Tyler Foggatt
• Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns speaking with Michael Luo
• Actress Parker Posey paired with Michael Schulman
• Comedian and actor Benito Skinner, who will sit down with Schulman
• Actress and comedian Hannah Einbinder in conversation with Rachel Syme
• Actor, producer and director Mariska Hargitay, who also will be interviewed by Syme
• Actor Mahershala Ali speaking with Vinson Cunningham
• Actor Matthew Broderick in conversation with Naomi Fry
• Actor and producer Michael Douglas in conversation with Ariel Levy
• Actor and filmmaker Ethan Hawke, speaking with Emily Nussbaum
• Comedian, actor and writer Cole Escola in conversation with Julian Lucas

Musicians set to perform at the 2026 New Yorker Festival are alt-rock darlings Pixies, who will talk with Amanda Petrusich; trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, speaking with Nick Trautwein; and singer-songwriter King Princess, sitting down with Amanda Petrusich.

Notable authors who will speak at the festival include Colson Whitehead, Min Jin Lee, Elizabeth Strout, Ben Lerner, Valeria Luiselli, Tessa Hadley, Colm Tóibín, Ann Patchett and Louise Erdrich.

The festival will feature roundtables including live recordings of the New Yorker’s “Critics at Large” culture podcast featuring Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry and Alexandra Schwartz, and the “The Political Scene” podcast, featuring Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer and Evan Osnos.

Panels will include “The Future of AI,” featuring the New Yorker’s Jill Lepore, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Andrew Marantz and Joshua Rothman, and “Portraits in Power,” a discussion about interviewing and investigating some of the world’s most powerful people, with the magazine’s Isaac Chotiner, Clare Malone, Jane Mayer, Lawrence Wright and Daniel Zalewski.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation (MCF) philanthropic organization, an official sponsor of the festival, will host a panel conversation on the politics of freedom, featuring scholars and activists. In addition, Autograph Hotels for the second consecutive year will host the festival’s VIP party at the historic Algonquin Hotel, where the New Yorker’s founders gathered to lay the groundwork for the magazine more than a century ago.

Tickets for all events will go on sale Wednesday, Sept. 2, with special discounts available to New Yorker subscribers (at newyorker.com/festival).