EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

In this episode, Nafkote Dabi, Harjeet Singh, and extinction rebellion activist Teun Ott join Max and Nadia to talk about billionaires, inequality, and climate breakdown. Nafkote and Harjeet joined us directly from the COP last week. Nafkote, Climate Lead at Oxfam describes how billionaires contribute to carbon emissions not only through their lifestyles but also through their investments. Harjeet...

Ann Pettifor joins Max and Nabil on EQUALS. She famously predicted the global financial crash in 2007/8 and she’s worried again. She says it’s not just simply supply and demand that’s driving global food system shocks - and tells the story of how gambling-like practices in global financial markets are affecting all of us. She’s got some big ideas to on reining in capital, and why poorer countries...

We speak to three people reckoning with today’s massive cost of living crisis – with stories from Malawi, the United Kingdom and South Africa. Max speaks with Nellie Kumambala , a secondary school teacher in Lumbadzi, Malawi, and Walter, a security guard in London, United Kingdom. Nabil speaks with Wafaa Abdurahman , the National Coordinator, Fight Inequality Alliance South Africa. Different count...

EQUALS is back! We're asking: What has *really* been happening in the board rooms of multinational companies? And what's that got to do with today's cost-of-living crisis being felt across the globe? This new season on EQUALS we’ll focus on the crisis, bringing stories and solutions from across the globe. Nabil and Nadia speak with Dr. Lindsay Owens and Irit Tamir. Lindsay is the Executive Directo...

Nadia and Nabil welcome former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on the EQUALS podcast for a special episode. The IMF, World Bank and the G20 all are meeting this week. The world is facing multiple crises that are converging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ukraine crisis, to soaring food and fuel prices. Two years into the pandemic, we ask PM Clark what governments should have done to respo...

It’s a wrap on Season 4 of EQUALS! Liz, Max, Nabil and Nadia reflect on the season, and on 2 years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We talk race, inequality, political power, access to justice, and we discuss campaigning for a People’s Vaccine. 14 episodes in, which ones stand out for us and why? Make sure you share the podcast on social media and leave a review! We’re at @EQUALShope on T...

In a few days, a 36-year-old former student leader who wants to fight inequality will become the President of Chile. He says, “ If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave ”. We find out about what President-elect Gabriel Boric wants to do, and about the movement of young people whose protests have swung the pendulum of power in Chile. We take a trip to 1973 to the birth of...

Max and Nabil welcome former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the Oxfam EQUALS podcast for an incisive interview. The pandemic is far from over. Vaccine inequality rages on. We ask Gordon what he would do if he was leading the G20 today – and how to rally the world’s leaders to act, as he did in response to the global financial crash. Gordon Brown is the World Health Organization’s Ambassador for...

We are witnessing a COVID-19 driven explosion in inequality. This week, Oxfam released its annual report, Inequality Kills , showing that the pandemic is killing at least 1 person every 4 seconds, while the ten richest men have doubled their fortunes during this same pandemic. This is the biggest single increase in billionaire wealth in recorded history. Max and Nadia talk to Branko Milanovic, wor...

Alas! Santa Claus is coming to town!! And we’re having a Christmas debate on a hot button topic that is dividing people. Is Santa a socialist or a merciless capitalist? Liz and Nadia talk to Asad Rehman , the Executive Director of War on Want. He’s a lifelong campaigner against racialised capitalism, economic, climate and social injustice – and he’s got some beef with Santa! This is one...

We finally talk healthcare on EQUALS. Could the pandemic trigger the creation of universal healthcare systems around the world? What can we learn from Thailand and Costa Rica? What is privatization doing to healthcare in Kenya? And who is undermining healthcare for all? Liz, Nabil and Max chat to Rob Yates ( Director, Global Health Program, Chatham House ) and Rebecca Riddell ( Co-Director, Human...

Here’s your post-COP26 deep dive. What do the outcomes mean for us all? Why were developing countries insisting on reparations? What’s the fuss about billionaire emissions? We welcome two amazing guests from the climate justice movement who were influencing the Glasgow climate talks. Asad Rehman is the Executive Director of War on Want, a lifelong campaigner against racial and economic injustice,...

We need to talk about buses. Yes, buses. And inequality. The issue that nobody’s talking about. Since the 80s, transport across the world has been privatized – fueling an inequality crisis that undermines our human rights. Liz, Max and Nabil chat to Bassam Khawaja ( Co-Director, Human Rights and Privatization Project, NYU Law School Center for Human Rights and Global Justice ) and Matteo Rizzo ( S...

How fighting inequality and beating climate change means we must end our addiction to economic growth and fast. We’re asking: How are inequality, climate breakdown and growth linked? Why is green growth an impossibility? If rich nations must stop growing, what does this mean for developing countries? Nadia and Max have an amazing conversation with Dr. Jason Hickel – economic anthropologist, activi...

Foreign aid has helped save millions of lives. But the whole system is facing a huge reckoning. As the New York Times’ Editorial Board wrote recently , “ A growing group of intellectuals, aid workers and civic leaders from Africa say the “white savior” mentality of the world’s foreign aid system can end up doing more harm than good . We’re asking: Does aid work? Is aid really so colonial that it n...

What doesn’t mainstream economics “get” about Africa? What is the future of the state itself in Africa? And how much should we really be focusing on corruption within Africa?   Max and Nabil have a riveting conversation with Pan-African feminist Crystal Simeoni – who is Director at Nawi: Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective ( which is well worth checking out here! ). Previously, she was head of...

Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda (“KK”) – who led his country in the wake of independence from colonial rule – recently died. A pan-African giant, he pursued efforts to boldly pursue equality at home and fight for liberation across the African continent.   Max Lawson and Nabil Ahmed have an amazing chat with Dr. Grieve Chelwa on what President Kaunda really set out to do with the state...

How does it feel to have more money than you could ever spend? What is it that makes someone who is a millionaire fight for higher taxes on the rich? How does playing a rigged game of monopoly reveal how rich people’s minds work? What chance that President Joe Biden can reverse the relentless lowering of taxes on the richest people? Nadia and Max are joined by Erica Payne and Morris Pearl – f...

We’re asking: is racism silently shaping the global vaccine response? And what could President Biden’s recent huge decision to take on vaccine monopolies mean for people around the world? We also do a special round of “big pharma bingo”, examining the key arguments that pharmaceutical corporations have been making that is stifling the mass production of Covid-19 vaccines.   Max and Nabil are...

[This episode contains great music!] His beautiful music reaches millions. He’s topped the charts in the African continent. He’s winning change. He’s even been arrested for his music. He is PilAto – real name Fumba Chama – the Zambian music artist and activist sensation. On this truly inspiring episode of the EQUALS podcast Max and Nabil speak to PilAto about his backstory, what’s behind his music...

A remarkable conversation with a great thinker and giant of journalism who has covered the great stories of our time. We ask what can be learnt from MLK about the fight against inequality? What holds back change and what is the role of journalism? How can America heal under Biden? We talk about the place of idealism in politics and how we can bring together struggles – and win.   Nadia a...

A vaccine. Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna. You know the names by now. A vaccine is the light at the end of this painful pandemic. It’s been amazing to see some people in some countries starting to get a vaccine. But just 1 in 10 people in poor countries stand to get one this year. On this EQUALS podcast special we speak to brilliant vaccines experts to answer: when will most of the world get a vacci...

2020 ends. 2021 begins. How can we make sure this will be a defining year in the fight against climate breakdown? What has COVID taught us? And is it possible to be optimistic? We talk to Christiana Figueres – the global climate leader who led the 2015 Paris accord talks and author of “The Future We Choose” – about all of this. And we also get reflections from Oxfam’s Nafkote Dabi about what succe...

COVID-19 has pushed over a billion kids out of school. What must we do right now to ensure this isn’t a “lost generation”? How does inequality affect access to education? And why do private schools present such a challenge to quality education in developing countries? To show us what needs to be done, we’re joined in this episode by the inimitable Dr. Prachi Srivastava – Associate Professor at the...

Just what does the election of US President-elect Joe Biden mean for the fight against inequality, in the US and around the world? How might billionaires be feeling? What’s it going to take to put the right policies into place? What can we learn from FDR? And just how can Modern Monetary Theory – “MMT” – help? We talk to the influential economist Professor Stephanie Kelton. She was formerly chief...