“This American Life” host Ira Glass, actor Kyle MacLachlan, author Naomi Klein and Jamaican author and Booker Prize winner Marlon James are among the dozens of guests who will give talks at this year’s Chicago Humanities Fall Festival, the nonprofit organization announced Tuesday.
The festival, running from Sept. 14 to Nov. 14, offers events throughout the city and features a wide array of conversations from notable local and international artists, musicians, politicians, authors, talk show hosts and comedians. The fall lineup also travels to three different Chicago neighborhoods, including Pilsen.
“What makes this season different is that it’s not a season that’s organized around a single issue,” said co-creative director Lauren M. Pacheco. “It’s organized around questions, questions about democracy, questions about memory, identity, creativity and community.”
The Chicago Humanities Festival offers events throughout the city and features a wide array of conversations from notable local and international artists, musicians, politicians, authors, talk show hosts and comedians. Here, Bob Odenkirk chats with Tim Meadows at the fest in 2022.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Pacheco, the first-ever Latina co-creative director of the festival, said in a recent interview that she hopes audiences walk away from this year’s programming thinking about how artists don’t simply respond to culture: They help us understand it.
Curating the Chicago Humanities Fall Festival isn’t just about finding “remarkable” speakers, Pacheco said. Along with co-creative director Michael Green, the two worked to create a lineup that makes meaningful connections between ideas, people and places.
Each festival season, Chicago Humanities hosts immersive community days. This year’s “Hub Days” take place in Pilsen on Sept. 26, Evanston on Oct. 4 and Hyde Park on Nov. 7, plus a partnership with the National Museum of Mexican Art, which will host several events at its campus at 1852 W. 19th St.
Pacheco said this season leans into Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations to inform Pilsen Day with public art tours to spotlight the neighborhood’s rich street art and murals. Architecture photographer and writer Will Quam, of Brick of Chicago, will lead walking tours of the neighborhood that day at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Music historian, photojournalist and curator Ramón Hernández will also speak at the museum that morning. As the late icon Selena Quintanilla’s former photographer, he’s partially responsible for the rise of Tejano music, Pacheco said.
“We’ll talk a little bit about his legacy and the archives that he’s built through his photography,” she said. “We’re [also] bringing in a few representatives from the Chicano Camera Culture exhibition that’s currently on display at the Cheech Marin Center in Riverside, California.”
That talk will include curator Elizabeth Ferrer, Chicago photographer Diana Solís and School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor Deanna Ledezma.
This year’s fall fest programming includes several standalone events, starting with a concert with musician Susanna Hoffs at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Sept. 14. Authors and labor organizers Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor will appear at First United Methodist Church on Sept. 18, and “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” actor Kyle MacLachlan speaks at the Athenaeum Center on Sept. 30.
And in case you’re looking for more lore from the set of David Lynch’s cult classic, the Old Town School of Folk Music will host other actors from “Twin Peaks” in November. Ray Wise (who played Leland Palmer), Michael Horse (Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill) and Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran/Brennan) will appear alongside the show’s executive producer Sabrina S. Sutherland.
Chicago Humanities members can buy tickets now, but they will go on sale to the general public later this week, according to a press release. For more information and the full lineup, visit chicagohumanities.org.
Here are highlights of 2026 Chicago Humanities Fall Festival:
Sept. 17 A conversation with author Sarah Longwell and political strategist David Axelrod at the First United Methodist Church
Sept. 22 Jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli at the Old Town School of Folk Music
Oct. 4 Chicago native and comedian Jeff Garlin at Cahn Auditorium
Oct. 12 Author of “Simple Too” and chef Yotam Ottolenghi at Athenaeum Center
Oct. 15 Chicago’s own Third Coast Percussion with composer Jlin at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Nov. 7 Trans scholar and professor Susan Stryker in conversation about her new book, “Changing Gender” at Ida Noyes Hall
Nov. 7 “How to Save a Constitutional Democracy,” hosted by Peter Sagal with University of Chicago law professors Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg at University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
Pilsen Day on Sept. 26 features photographer Merrick Morton at the National Museum of Mexican Art, plus Jamaican author Marlon James and Emily St. John Mandel at Thalia Hall. Cultural historian, vinyl record collector and Los Angeles-native DJ Ruben Molina will entertain at the National Museum of Mexican Art.
Northwestern Day on Oct. 4 features a talk and sing-along with famed comedian Eric Idle, of British comedy troupe Monty Python, and bestselling author John Green, fresh off his adult fiction debut, at the Cahn Auditorium in Evanston.
University of Chicago Day on Nov. 7 features a night of comedy and storytelling with “This American Life” host Ira Glass and writer Etgar Keret at the Athenaeum Center in Lake View.