Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Dr. Rachel Laryea , which was live-streamed on June 26, 2026.
Dr. Rachel Laryea is a thought leader who specializes in race and money, ethical entrepreneurship, and social good.
After cutting her teeth on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, she went on to receive her dual Ph.D. in African American Studies and Sociocultural Anthropology at Yale University. Her ethnographic research aims to understand nuanced forms of Black participation in capitalist economies.
Dr. Rachel is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Research Fellowship award, and she received an honorable mention from the Ford Foundation for her research.
She has held Adjunct Professor appointments at NYU Stern Business School, and worked as a racial equity investment strategist and Asset Wealth Management researcher at JPMorgan Chase. Dr.
Rachel is the founder of Kelewele, a lifestyle brand based in Brooklyn, New York, that creates bespoke African travel experiences and vegan, plantain treats. Kelewele has partnered with The James Beard Foundation and Black Entertainment Television (BET), and has been featured in several global publications and media platforms, including The New York Times, Forbes, MarketWatch, and CBS.
She is the recipient of the Ghana UK-Based Achievement (GUBA) award. During this episode, we talked about Dr.
Laryea’s book, Black Capitalists: The Blueprint For What Is Possible (Crown Publishing Group, 2025). To many, the term “Black Capitalists” is oxymoronic.
Black people were the labor force that built the infrastructure of American capitalism through the violent enforcement of legalized slavery, so they cannot, and should not, aspire to be the beneficiaries of it. But Wall Street professional and Yale-educated anthropologist Dr.
Rachel Laryea poses a provocative question: What if there was a way to thrive within capitalism without diminishing someone else’s life chances through exploitative practices? There is—and Black Capitalists are showing us how.
Told through Dr. Laryea's own compelling narrative—growing up the child of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ghana and rose to the Ivy League and on Wall Street—with original on-the-ground reporting and rigorous historical analysis, Black Capitalists challenges readers to reconsider who gets to be the beneficiary of capitalism and reckons with the responsibility that comes with using the tools of our imperfect economic system to advance social good.
To learn more about Dr. Laryea and her work, please visit .
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