How former Labor Secretary Robert Reich packages his anti-inequality message for Gen Z

Reich and Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse of Inequality Media reach millions of people with content about the imbalances of power in our democracy and economy.

Robert Reich [Photo: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg/Getty Images]

Robert Reich has been warning people about the dangers of inequality for decades, in all sorts of different ways. He’s interacted directly with politicians as a member of three different presidential administrations, most notably as Bill Clinton’s labor secretary. He’s taught thousands of college students at Harvard, Brandeis, and UC Berkeley. He’s written 18 books. And for 11 years, he has run Inequality Media, a nonprofit dedicated to informing the public about income and wealth disparity, among other imbalances of power in our society. 

Inequality Media now has 15 million followers across all its social media channels. At a time when Americans are increasingly paying attention to issues of affordability and rising extreme wealth—even outright blaming billionaires for making society less fair—Reich’s content is striking a chord. 

Reich and Inequality Media executive director Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse came on the Most Innovative Companies podcast to talk about how they reach such a wide audience, the importance of experimentation, and the power of educating people about these issues.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What was the original spark for Inequality Media, and why were short-form videos the right fit for that kind of work?

Robert Reich: Well, sometime around 2013 or ’14, my son, Sam Reich, said, “Dad, I think you have written a lot of very good books and people like your books, but if you want to reach my generation, it’s not through books. It’s through social media.” And I didn’t fully understand even the meaning of the word social media, but he was very kind and he explained a lot to me. And it seemed like we needed to have some sort of social media company to produce videos.

His point—and I think he’s absolutely right—is that videos do something that the written word doesn’t do. And this is particularly true of young people who are very acutely aware of what happens visually. They pick up very, very subtle details in terms of visual media, but they are not, as my generation was, readers.

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