EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

In this episode of EQUALS, Crismar Lujano, reflects on how media ownership and global powers shapes which stories are told about Latin America and global south at large. She explains how the framing of economic and political crises is often determined by whose interests – financial, political or otherwise – are at stake. She explains how economic hardships and insecurity is contributing to the rise of the far right and challenges progressives to offer a more hopeful vision of the future.

Crismar makes a strong case for direct collaborations for journalists and researchers from global south, to reclaim knowledge and amplify local perspectives. She encourages people to question who owns the media outlets they rely on, whose voices are heard and how this influences the narratives.

Tune in for a clear look at why who tells the story shapes what is heard and what it would take to change the narrative.

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This week Finance Ministers from across the world will attend the IMF–World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, and Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s boss has called on governments to implement swingeing cuts to their spending and increase costs of basic goods- known as austerity measures. As governments face an increasing debt crisis and rising global tensions these cuts are presented as unavoidable. But is this true?

In this episode, Isabel Ortiz, one of the world’s leading experts on austerity, examines how this has become a global norm, harming billions of ordinary people. She explains how policies presented as technical reforms are in fact deeply political, benefiting the rich, deepening inequality, shifting the burden onto ordinary people and fuelling growing public anger.

She explains how the IMF and national governments in drive austerity, why the claim that there is no alternative is a lie, and what other choices could look like. From taxing the rich and tackling illicit financial flows to restructuring debt and investing in essential public services, Ortiz suggests practical alternatives to policies that leave so many people paying the price.

Time to fight back against austerity!

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The rise of the far right, and of fascism is all around us, all over the world. It is vitally important now more than ever to learn from history, from the rise of the far right in the 1930’s, what attracted people to fascism, and how people organised to fight back.

90 years ago, in East London, fascists mobilised to march through a very poor Jewish area. At Cable Street, tens of thousands of people from different communities stood together and refused to let them pass. This confrontation is today known as the Battle of Cable Street.

At the same time, the Republicans were fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and many young people from Cable Street went on to fight in Spain.

This week, historian David Rosenberg and campaigner Dolores Long, whose father fought in Spain, explore what made that antifascist resistance possible. They join Max Lawson and Maaza Seyoum to connect Cable Street and the fight against fascism in Spain to what is taking place today all over the world, with the rise of far-right politics and increased racism, especially towards migrants.

Together they examine how far right movements attract support across social classes and reflect on the need for solidarity across communities and the importance of working-class history and political education.

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We are back! EQUALS Season 9 is officially here.

And we’re starting with a massive question: Is neoliberalism dead?

To answer it, we are thrilled to welcome back one of the world’s greatest economists on inequality and globalization, Branko Milanović, to discuss his groundbreaking latest book, The Great Global Transformation.

In this season premiere, we pull back the curtain on:

The Changing Global Economic Order: Why the old-world order is giving way to a new doctrine of "national market liberalism," blending market economics with far-right nationalism.

The Extraordinary Concentration of Capital and Income: The shocking underlying data showing how cash income from property is hyper-concentrated in the hands of the few.

The Rise of a New Global Elite (Homopluteia): A look at the unique, workaholic class who are simultaneously rich through capital and highly paid through their labor—and how their strict view on meritocracy shapes modern inequality.

The Hidden Link to International Conflicts: How extreme inequality historically pushes powerful countries toward zero-sum geopolitics and imperial expansion.

We also dive into how artificial intelligence is poised to drastically pivot income inequality, why the economic ideology of the 1990s managed to disguise itself as mere "common sense", and Branko’s thoughts on establishing an International Panel on Inequality.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope and on LinkedIn.

This is Branko’s second appearance on EQUALS. If you missed his first incredible insights, listen to the previous episode here.

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Following our conversation with Olivier De Schutter on A Roadmap to End Poverty Beyond Growth, this episode concludes our two-part series exploring bold roadmaps for a just and sustainable future.

Too often, climate breakdown and economic inequality are treated as separate crises. But what if they're two sides of the same problem, and one cannot be solved without confronting the other?

In this episode of EQUALS, Nafkote Dabi and Max Lawson speak with Anmol Somanchi, Moritz Odersky, and Cornelia Mohren from the World Inequality Lab about the Global Justice Report, an ambitious blueprint for building an economy that delivers shared prosperity while keeping global warming within planetary boundaries.

We explore the report's most radical proposals, including a Global Justice Fund financed through progressive global wealth and income taxes, with wealth tax rates of up to 20% for billionaires and top income tax rates of up to 90% for the world's highest earners. The authors argue that these measures could dramatically reduce extreme concentrations of wealth, progressively bringing an end to the billionaire class while financing investments in clean energy, healthcare, education, and sustainable development around the world.

The conversation also wrestles with the inevitable criticisms. Is such a transformation politically possible? Can societies move beyond an economic model built on endless growth? And how do we build public support for climate action that improves people's lives rather than asking them to bear the costs of a crisis they did little to create?

Guests

Anmol Somanchi is an Indian economist, researcher, and PhD candidate at the Paris School of Economics. He is the Global Justice Coordinator at the World Inequality Lab.

Moritz Odersky is an economist and research fellow at the World Inequality Lab.

Cornelia Mohren is an economist, Environmental Coordinator at the World Inequality Lab, and a PhD candidate in Economics at Sciences Po Paris.

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For decades, governments have measured success with GDP growth. But even with years of economic expansion, poverty persists, inequality is growing and climate crisis is worsening.

In this episode, we speak with Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, about his groundbreaking roadmap to end poverty without relying on endless GDP growth. Drawing on years of country visits and a global collaboration involving hundreds of economists, academics, unions and civil society organizations, Olivier argues that governments have become trapped by an obsession with growth at the expense of people's wellbeing.

Together, we unpack why rising GDP hasn't stopped inequality from deepening, how extreme wealth concentration is undermining democracy, why "business-friendly" policies often leave people behind, and what a post-growth economy focused on meeting human needs could actually look like.

Join us for a conversation that challenges one of the biggest assumptions in economics and offers a bold vision for a fairer future.

This is the first episode in a two-part EQUALS series exploring some of the most ambitious ideas for building a fairer and more sustainable future. Next, we'll examine the World Inequality Lab's groundbreaking Global Justice Report, speaking with members of the team behind the report about their bold proposals to transform the global economy and confront inequality, climate change and global injustice.

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For many Indigenous communities, inequality is not simply about income or opportunity. It is about power, representation and land.

In this episode, Nafkote Dabi and Max Lawson speak with Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, a Widjabul Wia-bal woman, climate justice advocate, and one of Australia's leading campaigners for First Nations rights.

Drawing on her experience working across Indigenous justice, refugee rights, and climate advocacy, Larissa explores how structural racism continues to drive economic inequality for Indigenous peoples, not only in Australia but around the world.

From the fight to reclaim January 26 as a day of truth-telling, to the growing influence of far-right politics, climate negotiations, and the challenge of building genuinely community-led movements, Larissa explains why inequality cannot be separated from questions of race, history, and power.

The conversation also examines what meaningful inclusion really looks like, why Indigenous peoples are rights holders rather than stakeholders, and how building broad coalitions for justice may be essential to confronting today's intersecting crises.

If we want a fairer economy, Larissa argues, we must first reckon with the systems that continue to exclude those on the frontlines of inequality.

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What happens when basic public goods become a private, paid for service, education becomes a profit-turning treadmill and meanwhile millions live in chronic insecurity?

In this episode Max and Grazielle interview renowned economist Guy Standing, exploring his argument that the privatization of public goods or what he calls the “plunder of the commons” has produced a new global class, the Precariat, and fuelled rising inequality.

Guy explains why a basic income is a matter of common justice, freedom, and security, which are human rights. He further dives into his most recent book that describes how private equity and financialization have transformed schools and universities into profit machines, and why restoring the education system with slower, ethical, democratic learning matters for society.

From privatized education to the future of basic income, this episode is a timely conversation about inequality, insecurity, and what it will take to build systems that serve people instead of profit.

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This week on EQUALS, we explore “Muskism” — the growing power of tech billionaires and what it means for democracy, inequality, and the future of society.

Authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue that Elon Musk is not just a billionaire entrepreneur, but a sign of a deeper transformation in capitalism, technology, and political power.

From AI and social media to electric vehicles, digital infrastructure, and government dependence on private tech companies, the episode asks what happens when essential systems are controlled by a handful of corporations and billionaires.

We discuss the rise of “sovereignty as a service,” the growing influence of Big Tech over public life, and whether societies can reduce their dependence on tech monopolies while building more democratic alternatives.

Later in the episode, Hana Ivanhoe joins the conversation to unpack who loses most in this new tech order — and what it would take to reclaim power in an increasingly unequal digital world.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope, Bluesky and on LinkedIn.

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In this episode, Adam Hanieh explains why crises like war, financial shocks, and pandemics don’t stay where they start. They move through the structures of the global economy.

He explains how the effect of the Middle East war is going to move beyond borders through energy prices, food prices and security and consequently high cost of living, hitting the poorest of the population the hardest. Drawing on the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Adam shows how these shocks consistently deepen inequality, hitting the most vulnerable hardest.

He unpacks the central role of the Gulf countries in global supply chains, from oil and gas to fertilisers and industrial materials, and how disruptions in the region can drive inflation, strain food systems, and raise the cost of living worldwide.

The conversation also explores the risks of continued dependence on fossil fuels, and why responding to these interconnected crises requires international cooperation rather than fragmented, national responses.

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In this episode, we move beyond measuring inequality to examine how it is lived and experienced by people who are affected by it and why that distinction matters for policy.

Dr. Wanga Zembe-Mkabile, social policy expert and one of the Founding Committee members of the International Panel on Inequality (IPI), brings a critical perspective often missing from economic debates: the human and embodied experience of inequality. Drawing on research in social determinants of health and epidemiology, she explains how the conditions people are born into shape not only income and opportunity, but health outcomes, life expectancy, and overall well-being.

This conversation also challenges dominant ideas of meritocracy, showing how structural inequality predetermines life chances long before individuals can “compete.” It also explores why inequality is no longer just a development issue, but a global emergency with consequences for economic stability, personal well-being, security and trust in institutions.

As momentum builds behind the International Panel on Inequality, this episode examines what a global, multidisciplinary body could mean for policymakers, governments, and the development sector. Can better evidence, and better framing, drive more effective action on economic justice?

For economists, policymakers, and anyone working on inequality, this episode offers a deeper understanding of how inequality operates across systems—and why addressing it requires more than data alone.

This is the second episode in a short series on the International Panel on Inequality. In our previous episode, we were joined by Isobel Frye and Katy Chakrabortty on the process of making the IPI and what aims to achieve.

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From rising billionaire wealth to dying public services, the gap between who has and who doesn’t is widening almost everywhere. Costs are climbing, and for millions, economic security is slipping further out of reach. And for once, there’s broad agreement, from the G20 to the UN to leading economists. The diagnosis is in. Inequality is no longer a side issue—it’s the issue.

In this episode, we explore a bold new proposal from a panel of leading experts from around the world, chaired by Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz: International Panel on inequality (IPI), something similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but focused on economic inequality. The idea is to bring together the best global evidence, track progress, and give policymakers a clearer, shared foundation to act on one of the defining challenges of our time.

But building a global response to inequality is not a small task. It means navigating politics, coordinating across countries, and turning knowledge into action in a world that doesn’t always agree on the solutions. What could a panel like this realistically achieve? And what might it change about how we understand and tackle inequality?

At a time when faith in global cooperation is shaky and multilateralism is under strain, this could be a serious step forward and a test of whether the world is ready to act on inequality at the scale the crisis demands.

This is the first episode in a short series on the International Panel on Inequality. In the next episode, we’ll be joined by Dr. Wanga Zembe-Mkabile, a member of the founding committee of the IPI, to take the conversation further.

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Norway is often seen as one of the most equal countries in the world. But is it really?

In this episode Trine Østereng unpacks the reality behind the reputation, and the answer is uncomfortable. While some aspects of Norwegian society, like incomes, remain spectacularly equal, wealth at the top is becoming increasingly concentrated, giving a small elite outsized economic and political power. For example, just 10 people in Norway own more wealth than the bottom 50%.

From a housing system that is locking young people out of ownership, to rising poverty and the reappearance of food lines, this conversation reveals how inequality is growing in ways that are harder to see but impossible to ignore.

This episode also explores the political battles behind Norway’s wealth tax, how billionaires push back, and why tackling inequality isn’t just about lifting people out of poverty but also limiting the extreme wealth and power at the top.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope, Bluesky and on LinkedIn.

Trine Østereng is an advisor at Think Tank Agenda and has been a host of the podcast Ut i Verden (Out in the World). She is also the author of the book Dangerous Differences: Why Great Economic Inequality Is a Social Problem

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Why do women’s rights advance in some societies — and decline in others?

In this episode, historian and gender scholar Kristen Ghodsee explains why economic inequality is one of the most powerful drivers of gender inequality.

Drawing on decades of research comparing socialist and capitalist societies, Ghodsee shows how policies such as universal childcare, public services, and guaranteed employment dramatically expanded women’s opportunities in the twentieth century — and why the collapse of these systems often led to renewed discrimination and inequality.

But the story is not only historical.

We discuss how today’s surge in online misogyny, “trad-wife” narratives, and the rise of the manosphere may be connected to deeper economic transformations — including the possibility that AI-driven job disruptions could trigger a new backlash against women’s participation in the labor force.

In this conversation we explore:

• What Cold War history reveals about women’s rights
• Why inequality and patriarchy reinforce each other
• The rise of the manosphere and online misogyny
• How AI and labor market shocks could reshape gender roles
• Why reducing economic inequality is key to reducing violence against women
• What egalitarian communities today can teach us about building a more equal future

Ghodsee also discusses hopeful alternatives — from cooperative communities to new ways of organizing economies around care, cooperation, and shared prosperity.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope, Bluesky and on LinkedIn.

Kristen Ghodsee is the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and Everyday Utopia: What 2,500 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life.

This conversation is a part of Oxfam’s #PersonalToPowerful campaign. The campaign calls for our shared feminist future where gender justice starts with bodily autonomy. It echoes the stakes outlined in Oxfam’s Personal to Powerful briefing on gender justice, which shows how unequal economic systems, rising inequality, and anti‑rights movements are not just historical legacies but real threats to women’s rights.

As a part of the campaign, we invited feminist & queer activists this International Women's Day (IWD) to share their letters from the future, a future where bodily autonomy reigns. Check out the Letters from the Future repository here. You can also submit your own ‘Letter from the future’ using this link.

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Is the immigration debate really about borders — or is it a political smokescreen?

In this episode, we unpack how migrants are often turned into political scapegoats to redirect public anger away from the real causes of public frustration —rising inequality, underfunded public services, unemployment, and the soaring cost of living.

Migration policy expert Zoe Gardner brings a UK lens, showing how media narratives and political talking points can manufacture outrage that shields those at the top.

Sharon Ekambaram joins from South Africa, where xenophobia, inequality, and coordinated disinformation campaigns reveal the same pattern playing out in a different setting.

Different continents. Same playbook.

Together, they expose how anti-migrant rhetoric gains ground when inequality deepens and why that’s rarely a coincidence. We dig into who benefits from these narratives, how social media supercharges them, and why public attitudes are often far more humane than political messaging suggests.

This is a sharp, myth-busting discussion about power, inequality, and who really benefits when societies are encouraged to blame outsiders instead of confronting systemic injustice.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope, Bluesky and on LinkedIn.

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When countries fall into debt, who actually pays the price?

In this episode, we talk to Matthew Martin, a passionate advocate for debt relief and inequality, who shares his personal journey from experiencing apartheid in South Africa to becoming a leading voice in the fight against global debt crises. Matthew discusses the intricate relationship between debt and inequality, highlighting how high debt burdens disproportionately affect poorer citizens and hinder social spending.

Right now, 5.2 billion people live in countries that spend more money paying back debt than they do on schools, hospitals, or climate action. We break down how that happens, why global financial markets get away with charging eye-watering interest rates, and why governments are so often pushed to cut public services instead of standing up to creditors.

He reflects on the success of the Jubilee debt cancellation campaign and the lessons learned, emphasizing the need for structural change in the global financial system to prevent future crises. With insights into the current state of debt across the globe, Matthew calls for a renewed popular movement to prioritize debt relief and tackle inequality.

This is a clear, grounded conversation about debt, inequality, and who the global economy is really built for — and why things don’t have to stay this way.

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Most activists don’t wilfully choose a life of protest. But sometimes, we are left with no other option.

In this episode we speak with three activists from Kenya, Nepal, and France who explain what drove them to the streets to fight for their cause and the brutal violence they met from the state. We explore the profound cost to citizens when their governments choose force over justice.

From informal settlements of Mathare in East of Nairobi, Wanjira Wanjiru describes how police killings are so common that they have been normalised. During the Gen-Z protests and resulting police brutality of 2024 and 2025, Wanjira refused to allow the police to arrest her. It wasn’t bravery that drove her in this moment, she tells us, but exhaustion.

Youth Leader in Nepal, Pawan Gautam explains how peaceful protests against economic disparities, corruption and unemployment turned bloody when the government chose repression over wealth redistribution, leading to more than 70 deaths – predominantly of youths.

Assa Traoré never planned to lead a movement — until her brother Adama Traoré was brutally killed by police on his birthday just because he didn’t have his ID on him. In this episode she explains how the fate of Adama Traoré catalysed a movement that continues to call on France to address racist, sexist, and class-based violence.

Stories from three different countries, but which exposes how repression is used to defend a much bigger systemic problem of inequality, racism and colonialism.

Wanjira Wanjiru is the co-founder the Mathare Social Justice Centre and is a Member of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network. She has been featured in Al Jazeera’s Generation Change and recently won the Mawina Kouyate Daughters of Africa Award for activism.

Ganda Bahadur Gautam (Pawan) is Youth leader the president of Youth Initiative (YI) in Nepal. He was on the scene during the 2025 Gen Z protests and has called for an end to corruption in the country.

Assa Traore is a French Malian activist who was driven to activism after the death of her brother Adama at the hands of the French police in 2016. She set up an organisation called Justice for Adama and has become one of France’s most prominent campaigners for racial justice.

Note: Assa Traoré spoke to us in French — her words were translated by Maaza Seyoum.

This is the last part of a three-episode series on economic inequality. The first one featuring Thomas Piketty, the second featuring Gary Stevenson was released on Tuesday this week. Go back and have a listen if you haven’t yet.

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“What you have here is a long-term systemic transfer of wealth away from middle classes, away from rich governments and towards a small super rich elite.”- Gary Stevenson”

To coincide speak with the release of Oxfam’s Davos report, we speak with Gary Stevenson, who became a millionaire by betting that ordinary people’s living standards would keep falling while wealth piled up at the top.

Gary explains why economists repeatedly failed to predict the post-2008 crisis, why low interest rates didn’t lead to prosperity for ordinary people, and how a systemic transfer of wealth from the middle class to a small super-rich elite has reshaped the global economy to the detriment of everyone bar the minority at the top.

We dig into why inequality is at the root of today’s economic crisis, how wealth concentration suppresses growth and erodes democracy, why mainstream economics avoids talking about wealth, how class shapes the fight for a more equal world and why taxing the super-rich the best path towards equality.

This is a no holds barred conversation about how the rich influence power and fuel inequality and why ignoring wealth concentration guarantees that living standards will continue to fall.

This is part two of a three-episode series on economic inequality. The first one featuring Thomas Piketty was released in December, and the third one with three activists taking the fight for equality to the streets will be released on Thursday this week. Watch out for it.

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Did you know that governments in Europe are able to spend 40 times more per child on education than governments in Sub-Saharan Africa?

In this episode, world renowned economist Thomas Piketty breaks down the World Inequality Report 2026 and explains why today’s inequality is no longer a slow-moving crisis but an emergency.

He shows how the global financial system is designed to extract wealth from the Global South to the Global North, through debt, reserve currencies, and unequal power at institutions like the IMF and World Bank and how this must change.

He also explains why he is a strong supporter of the proposed International Panel on Inequality, and why he is optimistic that the long-term trend is towards more equal societies, but that this will not happen without campaigning and organisation.

This is part one of a three-episode series on economic inequality. The next two episodes will be released in January 2026.

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What happens when healthcare becomes a financial asset?

In this episode, Anna Marriott and Dr. Aquina Thulare break down the dangers of health privatization and financialization. They explain how private equity and hedge funds are transforming hospitals into profit machines, putting patient care and public health at risk.

Dr. Aquina Thulare describes how South Africa is fighting back with national health insurance reforms designed to promote equity, solidarity, and universal access to healthcare.

From the lessons of global health crises to local legal battles, this conversation uncovers the human, economic, and political stakes of privatizing healthcare.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic listen to The Sick Development Podcast an EQUALS miniseries dedicated to this issue.

Dr. Aquina Thulare is a technical advisor in South Africa’s Department of Health, working on National Health Insurance (NHI).

Anna Marriott is an independent health policy advisor and advocate, having led Oxfam’s health influencing work for nearly 19 years. She is the author of several Oxfam reports and policy papers, including Sick Development, which exposed the injustices and human rights violations caused by the financialization of healthcare.

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