There are 19 centibillionaires and a growing list of 3,000 billionaires worldwide. So it might not surprise you that the richest one per cent possesses nearly half of the world’s wealth. History has never seen such an extreme concentration of wealth. Some economists argue the battle of the 21st century is between oligarchy and democracy. How did we get here? IDEAS begins a four-part documentary series The Billionaire Age.

Listen to more episodes in this series:

Listen to Part Two: Disney heiress on the dangers of extreme wealth

Listen to Part Three: How oligarchs are taking over the world

Guests in this episode:

Ingrid Robeyns is a philosopher and economist. She is the chair in Ethics of Intuitions at Utrecht University and the author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.

Lucas Chancel is the co-director of The World Inequality Lab and a professor at the Paris School of Economics.

Gabriel Zucman is also the co-director of The World Inequality Lab. He is a professor at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley.

Nitin Bharti is an economist and lecturer at The University of Western Australia. He is the South and South-East Asia coordinator at the World Inequality Lab.

Lars Osberg is an economics professor at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His latest book is The Scandalous Rise of Inequality in Canada.

Abigail Disney is an American film producer, philanthropist and social activist. She is a member of Patriotic Millionaires which advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy.

Paul Krugman is an American economist and the winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Tim Wu is a legal scholar and a professor at Columbia Law School. He is also a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times. His latest book is The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.

Nick Hanauer is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-authored his latest book with Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen, Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing The Lies and Half-Truths that Protect Profit, Power and Wealth in America. And he hosts the podcast: Pitchfork Economics.

Guido Alfani is a professor of economic history at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. His latest book is As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West.