EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

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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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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