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 Director at the Groundwork Collaborative, formerly Economic Policy Advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren...

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 respond to the pandemic; what still needs to happen; and how to prevent future crises. And could we...

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 Twitter. For more information about the people’s vaccine movement check out @peoplesvaccine. If...

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 neoliberalism – the economic ideology that would go on to spread across the world – under military...

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 Global Health Financing, and a member of Club de Madrid forum – the world’s largest forum of...

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, world-renowned authority on inequality, to find out why. Branko is a Senior Scholar at City...

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 for the books. With lots of laughter and music. Please do share the episode on your social media. Intro...

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 Rights and Privatization Project, NYU Law School Center for Human Rights and Global Justice). The...

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, and has been at the forefront of the climate justice movement helping to reframe climate as an...

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 (Senior Lecturer in Development Studies - SOAS University of London) who know lots about buses. We...

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 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, activist, academic and author of ‘Less is More’ and ‘The Divide’ . Jason is a leading thinker on both inequality...

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 needs to end? How must the whole system change? And is it time to move to talk about reparations?...

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 the economic justice department at FEMNET, one of the largest African women's rights networks. She is an...

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 taking a far more active role. What can we learn from “Kaundanomics” for today? And what was the...

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 – founders of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy individuals leading the charge to raise...

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 joined by three giants from the access to medicines and public health movement: Priti Krishtel and...

[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, and the power of music to change the world.   You can listen to more of PilAto’s music on...

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 and Nabil speak to the brilliant award-winning journalist, prolific author and now professor of sociology...

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 vaccine? What needs to be done?   We speak to vaccine and health experts – Dr. Mohga Kamal Yanni,...

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 success really looks like in the wake of the rise of climate movements across the globe. All in under...

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 success really looks like in the wake of the rise of climate movements across the globe. All in under thirty minutes. An illuminating episode to finish 2020 – with hope and inspiration for what we must do in 2021.

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 University of Western Ontario, whose fascinating research digs deep on inequality, and the...

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 University of Western Ontario, whose fascinating research digs deep on inequality, and 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? And just how can Modern Monetary Theory – “MMT” – help? We talk to the influential economist Professor Stephanie Kelton. She was formerly chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders, and has been recognized by...

How can we reimagine our relationship with nature? Why do we need to bring down the emissions of the rich more than all? How can we bridge climate science with indigenous knowledge? A profound interview with leading climate figure Hindou Ibrahim, an indigenous leader and member of Mbororo people in Chad and President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). We’re also joined by Tim Gore, the climate guru behind Oxfam’s fascinating new research showing how bringing...