Martha Stewart with Soledad O’Brien

April 26, 2025

For more than four decades, Martha Stewart has helped make everyday living a little easier, more beautiful, and more inspiring. From crafting the recipe for your favorite frittata to pioneering an eponymous lifestyle empire, her influence has touched millions of homes across America. Whether running a multi-million-dollar company or gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 81, Stewart stands as a testament to the power of reinvention. In conversation with award-winning broadcast journalist and producer Soledad O’Brien, Stewart will share stories and lessons learned from every era of her life, from her early ambitions to her triumphs over adversity. No chapter will be left unexplored. 

Format: Conversation with Audience Q&A

Martha Stewart is the founder of the first multi-channel lifestyle company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, as well as an entrepreneur, bestselling author of 99 lifestyle books, and Emmy award-winning television show host. Her magazines, television shows, books, and home products reach more than 100 million devoted fans every month. She and her talented staff provide trusted information on all aspects of everyday living: cooking, entertaining, gardening, home renovating, collecting, organizing, crafting, healthy living, holidays, weddings, and pet care.

Stewart was raised in New Jersey in a family of six children. She developed her passion for cooking, gardening, and home-keeping at an early age. Upon graduating from Barnard College with a degree in history and architectural history, she became a stockbroker on Wall Street, where she gained her early business training.

In 1972, Stewart moved to Westport, Connecticut, and founded a successful event and catering business. Her elegant recipes and unique visual presentation later became the basis for her first book, “Entertaining,” published in 1982.

Stewart’s business sense and creative vision provided the framework for launching her namesake company in 1996. The company’s portfolio has since grown to include the award-winning properties Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings, and marthastewart.com. Her nationally syndicated television programs, “Martha Stewart Living” and “The Martha Stewart Show,” earned 18 Emmys over 19 years.

Stewart pioneered bringing beautifully designed, high-quality products to the mass market with Martha Stewart Everyday products at Kmart. Today, her branded products can be found in tens of millions of homes and thousands of retail locations. The Martha Stewart brand offers a robust range of products created for or in collaboration with numerous retail partners, including Macy’s, Amazon, Staples, QVC, iGourmet, Barrie House Coffee Roasters, Wayfair, California Closets, Marley Spoon, Wine Insiders, and Canopy Growth.

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien,” a Hearst political magazine program seen in 95% of the country, and is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports. In May 2023, she was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. 

O’Brien has a national impact through her op-eds, social media, speeches, and books, including her critically acclaimed memoir, “The Next Big Story,” and her 1.3 million followers on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. She has given congressional testimony on media disinformation and has anchored shows and specials on CNN, MSNBC, NBC’s “Today Show,” Nat Geo, BET, ABC, and CBS.

Soledad O’Brien Productions’ most recent projects include the Peabody Award-winning documentary “The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Peacock, and the multi-part series “Black and Missing,” which won the Independent Spirit and NAACP awards and streams on HBO. Other productions have appeared on Discovery Plus, CNN, BET, PBS, and other networks. She works with major foundations, like Ford and Gates, to produce impactful documentaries on topics, such as hunger, race, and education.

O’Brien is the recipient of four Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards, four Gracie Awards, two Cine Awards, and an Alfred I. DuPont Award. In 2011 she founded the PowHerful Foundation, which has helped dozens of young women attend and graduate college, and connects them with thousands of others through regional mentoring conferences.