EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

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

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

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

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 rightsWhy inequality and patriarchy reinforce each otherThe rise of the manosphere and online misogynyHow AI and labor market shocks could reshape gender rolesWhy reducing economic inequality is key to reducing violence against womenWhat egalitarian communities today can teach us about building a more equal futureGhodsee 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.

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.

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

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

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

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