Political figures feature prominently in this year’s lineup, which includes Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, who will be interviewed by the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, a frequent critic of the administration.

“I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation,” Remnick said in a phone interview.

“The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesn’t do,” he added. “You can’t jump on and off the record.”

David Hogg, a student who survived the shooting in Parkland, Florida, this year and has since become a leading critic of gun policies, will take part in a conversation about activism with Harry Belafonte and police-reform advocate Brittany Packnett.

The New Yorker’s journalists will also interview actors Jim Carrey, Emily Blunt and Maggie Gyllenhaal and other cultural heavyweights, including writers Haruki Murakami and Zadie Smith. Janet Mock, the writer and transgender-rights activist, will be interviewed by theater critic Hilton Als.

Other guests include actor John Krasinski, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, late-night host Jimmy Fallon, artist Kehinde Wiley, comedian Bo Burnham and musician and filmmaker Boots Riley.

Musicians, including Kelela, Miguel and Kacey Musgraves, will give interviews accompanied by musical performances.

While many among the festival’s guests have been written about in the pages of The New Yorker, audiences at the festival “get to be in the middle of the spontaneity of a conversation in the way that a written piece, despite its virtues, doesn’t offer,” Remnick said. “The possibility of fireworks is there.”

Tickets go on sale to subscribers Thursday and to the general public Friday at festival.newyorker.com.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Gabe Cohn © 2018 The New York Times