The Art of the Profile

"On October 26, 2025, the New Yorker staff writers Larissa MacFarquhar, Rebecca Mead, Ian Parker, Kelefa Sanneh, and Michael Schulman joined the executive editor Daniel Zalewski onstage at the 26th annual New Yorker Festival, a weekend of conversations, screenings, performances, and more. The Festival, which is the magazine's signature event, was held in New York City and brought together leading voices in literature, film, comedy, television, politics, and medicine."

"Larissa MacFarquhar has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. She has written about child-protective services, the battered-women's movement, dementia, and hospice care, and her profile subjects have included Barack Obama, Noam Chomsky, and Hilary Mantel, among many others. She is the author of " Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help." Before joining the magazine, she was a senior editor at Lingua Franca and an advisory editor at The Paris Review."

"Rebecca Mead joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 1997. She has profiled many subjects, among them Lin-Manuel Miranda, Margaret Atwood, Jesse Armstrong, and Mary Beard. She is the author of several books, including " My Life in Middlemarch," a New York Times best-seller, and " Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return." She has served as a McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton University and was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, in 2020."

On October 26, 2025, five New Yorker staff writers and the executive editor appeared onstage at the 26th New Yorker Festival in New York City. The Festival ran as a weekend of conversations, screenings, performances, and more, bringing together leading voices in literature, film, comedy, television, politics, and medicine. Larissa MacFarquhar has been a staff writer since 1998 and has written about child-protective services, the battered-women's movement, dementia, and hospice care; she authored Strangers Drowning and previously worked at Lingua Franca and The Paris Review. Rebecca Mead joined as a staff writer in 1997, has profiled numerous cultural figures, authored several books, served as a McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. Ian Parker contributed his first piece in 1992 and became a staff writer in 2000. Kelefa Sanneh and Michael Schulman participated as New Yorker staff writers onstage with the executive editor.

Read at The New Yorker