A Conversation with John Hope Bryant

John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, civic leader, and one of the nation’s leading voices on financial literacy and inclusive capitalism. He is recognized by Forbes as one of the 250 Greatest Self-Made Americans on the occasion of our nation’s 250th anniversary along with Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Tyler Perry, and Serena Williams. Bryant is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Operation HOPE, the nation’s largest provider of financial empowerment services, and founder and CEO of Bryant Group Ventures which houses his entrepreneurial, investment, and advisory work. Over more than three decades, John’s nonprofit and for-profit enterprises have helped drive more than $5 billion in capital deployment into underserved communities, expanding economic opportunity and strengthening the foundation for inclusive growth. Bryant helped make financial literacy official U.S. policy under two U.S. presidents and inspired the renaming of the Freedman’s Bank Building on the White House campus, honoring President Lincoln’s unfinished work of economic empowerment. He is a TIME Closers honoree, a U.S. News & World Report Top Leader of 2025, and host of the NAACP Image Award-nominated podcast Money & Wealth with John Hope Bryant. Bryant has generated more than 1 billion total video views across social media platforms, including his Straight Talk Live series, reflecting the urgency and resonance of his message in this moment. Bryant is also a bestselling author of seven books, including his most recent book, “Capitalism for All,” released Spring 2026.

Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is co-host of the morning edition of “The Weekend” on MS NOW (7am - 10am) and the New York Times bestselling author of “Yet Here I Am: Lessons from A Black Man’s Search for Home.” At PBS, Capehart serves as a political analyst on “PBS News Hour” and is featured on the popular Friday segment “Brooks and Capehart.” Capehart is a former Associate Editor of The Washington Post, where he served as an opinion writer for 18 years. He was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News (2002-2004) and served on its editorial board (1993-2000). His editorial campaign in 1999 to save the Apollo Theater earned the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.