This episode explores different tax systems and people's relationship with the state. Dr Charles Dolph, a colleague and fellow tax enthusiast at UCL, reflects on his experience of moving from the US to the UK and the differences between the two tax systems — noting, above all, how much easier it is to pay tax in the UK.

The episode also features Anna-Rikka Kauppinen, an anthropologist at the Geneva Graduate Institute (who appears in another episode discussing mega-churches and tithing). Here, the focus shifts to one of her research participants in Ghana, Vaida, who becomes a taxpayer for the first time. Vaida shares how she expects paying tax to the state to change her business.

Link to Charles’s work:

https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/92548-charles-dolph

Charles’s article on the Bolivian Wealth Tax:

https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9655.70011

Link to Anna-Riikka Kauppinen:

https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/faculty/anna-riikka-kauppinen

Anna-Riikka’s article on Vaida and becoming a taxpayer in Ghana:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/anthropology-and-tax/nurturing-state-an-intimate-portrait-of-becoming-a-taxpayer-in-ghana/05FB0240C7E5A4ECCF9A83134A238F5A

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In this episode on libertarian critiques of tax, Miranda talks to Professor Soumhya Venkatesan from the University of Manchester. Soumhya is an incredibly productive and insightful academic and friend; one of the many strings to her bow is her research with libertarians in the UK — a group who hold very strong and particular views about taxes and freedom. Had they been better prepared, they might have done some smoking, drinking and gambling during the recording to get into the spirit of it.

Links to Soumhya’s work:

https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/soumhya.venkatesan

Soumhya’s chapter on freedom:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-for-the-anthropology-of-ethics/freedom/99BF428032D6CBC7A46302DD5740019E

Soumhya’s article on ethics and tax:

https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social-analysis/64/2/sa640208.xml

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In this episode on work, the mobile workforce and global relations, Miranda talks to Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol and Dr Johanna Mugler.

Johanna is a social anthropologist and Senior Researcher at the University of Fribourg. She is also an unusual anthropologist in that she “studies up,” spending time in large institutions with people who do not have time and do not necessarily want to share — a tricky proposition for an anthropologist.

This work is especially important because it is easy to forget that in places of politics and bureaucracy there is also culture, a way of doing things. Doing anthropology with the powerful is one of the key tasks in the discipline. In this episode, Miranda talks to Johanna about her research with tax norm negotiators at the OECD — who holds power in these negotiations and why it matters, and whether supranational agreements or institutions could create global redistribution. Listeners will hear from Johanna later in the episode.

Olivia is someone Miranda finds truly inspiring. Olivia became interested in employment justice while researching for her PhD in anthropology, doing fieldwork with Romanian migrants and realising there was a real need for advice and support within this community.

After her PhD, instead of chasing academic posts, she set up the Work Rights Centre, a charity dedicated to helping migrants and disadvantaged Britons access employment justice and improve their social mobility. The charity has grown exponentially since it was founded. Advancing the migrant perspective is especially revealing when studying tax — how do people come to belong, and how do they navigate multiple fiscal systems?

Links to Olivia’s work:

https://www.workrightscentre.org/

Publications by Olivia:

https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social-analysis/64/2/sa640206.xml

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/anthropology-and-tax/becoming-the-good-migrant-how-romanian-migrants-mobilise-taxpayer-status/1868DD9E3692210265A2C93855B03AAA

Links to Johanna’s work:

https://www.unifr.ch/directory/en/people/446205/5c650

Publications by Johanna on international tax relations:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/anthropology-and-tax/sharing-beyond-the-state-international-tax-norm-negotiations-at-the-oecd/0E9A2AB9DFCD372CB2880498104FBA04

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07329113.2018.1557434

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In this episode on fairness and how fiscal systems work, Miranda talks to Mike Lewis, the director of Tax Watch. Mike doesn’t have a traditional background in tax or policy; he cut his teeth working as a criminal financial investigator and sanctions expert for the UN — a fitting training ground for his role as Director of Tax Watch.

Mike and Tax Watch investigate, research and publish on the UK tax system, highlighting the unfair and the absurd. Their findings are sobering — offering up-to-date takes on the fiscal system and people’s attitudes to tax — but they also propose solutions and alternatives. Tax systems can change, and do.

Links to Mike’s work:

https://www.mikelewisresearch.com/

https://www.taxwatchuk.org/

In this episode on religion, Miranda talks to sociologist and religious scholar Professor Ruth Braunstein and anthropologist Dr Anna Rikka-Kauppinen.

Anna-Rikka and Miranda have collaborated and crossed paths many times over the years. Anna-Rikka’s work on understanding capitalism in Africa today is never normative, but always impressively considers whole contexts. In looking at taxes in Ghana, she began working with mega-churches - exploring how people think about their taxes alongside their tithes, and whether all money is the same, or whether it is different.

Miranda first came across Ruth’s work when her book ‘My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America’ came out last year, but admits to not having read it until hearing Ruth on a podcast discussing religion and tax.

On that podcast, Ruth addressed deep philosophical questions that resonated with Miranda’s own work - how people conceptualise the tax that they pay, and why these conceptualisations are forged through political, social and religious frameworks.

Ruth speaks openly about growing up in a religious household, and this has shaped the kinds of questions she asks. Ruth also hosts an incredible podcast of her own, ‘When the Wolves Came’, about evangelical Christians in the US rejecting extremism - another fascinating element of religious politics.

Links to Ruth’s work:

https://soc.jhu.edu/directory/ruth-braunstein/

https://www.ruthbraunstein.com/

My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America

https://bookshop.org/p/books/my-tax-dollars-the-morality-of-taxpaying-in-america-ruth-braunstein/1ebf09e335468984?ean=9780691254999&next=t&affiliate=104582

Ruth’s podcast:

https://www.ruthbraunstein.com/podcast

Links to Anna-Riikka work:

https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/faculty/anna-riikka-kauppinen

Article by Anna-Riikka on taxes and mega churches:

https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social-analysis/64/2/sa640203.xml

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In this episode, Miranda talks to Professor Gurminder Bhambra. Miranda first came to Gurminder’s work while editing Anthropology and Tax, having been searching for data on tax and colonialism.

Gurminder’s research on how taxes paid in the colonies to the British state helped build the British welfare state offered exactly the historically grounded story Miranda wanted to highlight — one that moves us away from simple models of how taxes work.

The episode also explores the story of Gurminder’s family and the broader struggle for migrants to belong when their contributions are rendered invisible — a theme that feels especially urgent in today’s political climate, in which the rights and obligations of different communities are often scrutinised, and not always generously.

Links to Gurminder’s work:

https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p27518-gurminder-bhambra

https://gkbhambra.net/

Imperial Inequalities: The politics of economic governance across European empires:

https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526166142/

Link to work by Kyle Willmott:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/law-and-society-review/article/abs/taxes-taxpayers-and-settler-colonialism-toward-a-critical-fiscal-sociology-of-tax-as-white-property/A64C397E269523DDA5846F28160AC3FD

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