EQUALS: Reimagining Our Economy

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.

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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.
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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“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.
Don't just listen, join thousands of others reading our weekly digest on inequality. Sign up at https://www.equals.ink/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.
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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What happens when healthcare becomes a financial asset?
In this episode, Anna Marriott and Dr. Aquina Thulare break down the dangers of health privatization and financialization. They explain how private equity and hedge funds are transforming hospitals into profit machines, putting patient care and public health at risk.
Dr. Aquina Thulare describes how South Africa is fighting back with national health insurance reforms designed to promote equity, solidarity, and universal access to healthcare.
From the lessons of global health crises to local legal battles, this conversation uncovers the human, economic, and political stakes of privatizing healthcare.
If you’d like to learn more about this topic listen to The Sick Development Podcast an EQUALS miniseries dedicated to this issue.

Dr. Aquina Thulare is a technical advisor in South Africa’s Department of Health, working on National Health Insurance (NHI).
Anna Marriott is an independent health policy advisor and advocate, having led Oxfam’s health influencing work for nearly 19 years. She is the author of several Oxfam reports and policy papers, including Sick Development, which exposed the injustices and human rights violations caused by the financialization of healthcare.

If you enjoy the episode, please like, share, comment, and leave us a review. Follow us on X @EQUALShope, Bluesky, Instagram and on LinkedIn.
Don't just listen, join thousands of others reading our weekly digest on inequality. Sign up at https://www.equals.ink/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.