EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

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.
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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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.
Don't just listen, join thousands of others reading our weekly digest on inequality. Sign up at https://www.equals.ink/
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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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