The lecture and fireside chat (with introductory framing from filmmaker Justin Schein) will focus on taxes and include clips from the documentary Death & Taxes. Using clips from the documentary, the panelists will explore the false narratives that shape tax policy in the U.S., including "double taxation," "the death tax," and "taxpayers money," while illuminating the real ways in which the tax code creates and supports inequality. Panelists will explore and explain how wages are taxed differently––and thus valued differently––than capital, how the tax code transfers resources to the wealthy in ways that are seen as virtuous and earned, while resources transferred through public benefits are seen as corrupting and unmerited, and how taxing wealth and inheritance is not just about revenue generation but about breaking the cycle of too much wealth and power accumulating in the hands of too few. Panelists will further provide a vision for what taxes can and should do to build an inclusive economic system that supports a thriving democracy.

SPEAKERS

• Chuck Collins is the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org
• Morris Pearl chairs the Board of Directors at Patriotic Millionaires. He was formerly a managing director at BlackRock and had a long tenure on Wall Street, where he invented some of the securitization technology connecting America’s capital markets to consumers in need of credit.
• Gabriela Sandoval (they/she) is the Executive Director of EWDi – Excessive Wealth Disorder Institute, where she leads work to address the corrosive influence of excessive wealth on our world.
• The Honorable Nina Turner is a “hell-raising humanitarian” and a tireless advocate for economic and social justice.

This event is part of the 2025 Henry Cohen Lecture Series, which will bring leading thinkers, changemakers, policymakers, journalists, and activists to the New School to present their perspectives and explore the intersections of race, social stratification and political economy that inspire economic and racial justice.

Presented by the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy and the Milano Schools of Public Engagement.