Christopher Guest Talks with Ariel Levy

On October 24, 2025, the actor and director Christopher Guest took the stage for a discussion with the New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy, as part of The New Yorker’s 26th annual 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.

Christopher Guest is a director, an actor, and a musician. His films include “The Big Picture,” “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” “For Your Consideration,” and “Mascots.” He has also appeared in “This Is Spinal Tap,” “The Long Riders,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” and “Night at the Museum 2.” He has won an Emmy Award for his work with Lily Tomlin and a Grammy Award for the song “A Mighty Wind,” from the film of the same name.

Ariel Levy joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008. Her subjects for the magazine have included the South African runner Caster Semenya; the artist Lisa Yuskavage; Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that brought down the Defense of Marriage Act; and the drug ayahuasca. Levy won a National Magazine Award in 2014 for her essay “Thanksgiving in Mongolia.” She is also the author of the New York Times best-seller “The Rules Do Not Apply,” and the host and the co-creator of the podcast “The Just Enough Family.”