A New Generational Divide: Living with(out) the Bank of Mum and Dad (Dr Eliza Filby)

Radical with Amol Rajan

BBC

Society & Culture

4.5 • 919 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can Millennials, Gen Zs and Gen As thrive in a world where so much success depends on having access to the Bank of Mum and Dad?

Historian Dr Eliza Filby – an expert in generational identity – tells Amol that society needs to shift in three major ways to mitigate the “rupture” between young and old: in values, education and wealth.

Amol speaks with her about her book ‘Inheritocracy’ which calls for a radical redefining of meritocracy. They also discuss the shifts in parenthood and the evolving household roles of men and women, and ‘kidulthood’ - where young people move into adulthood in their early thirties instead of their late teens or early twenties.

(00:02:30) What is ‘Inheritocracy?’

(00:04:13) The values rupture – Baby Boomers are the exceptional generation

(00:10:07) The education rupture - the declining graduate premium

(00:16:00) The wealth rupture – unattainable ‘big ticket’ items

(00:28:00) Why is the social contract broken between generations?

(00:38:27) Shifts in assortative mating

(00:45:30) Is meritocracy a good idea in principle?

(00:54:17) How to reconfigure the tax system for a new generation

(00:57:07) Dr Eliza Filby's radical idea

(01:01:11) Amol’s reflections

(01:04:25) Listener messages

GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Gareth Jones. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.6	Hello, it's Amal here and welcome to radical conversations about the deep global trends changing our world and offering you some radical ideas for the future.
0:15.5	One of the issues that we touch upon every so often on this podcast is the issue of fairness or unfairness between
0:22.7	the generations. There is a growing sense in this country that if you're under 45, i.e. not very young,
0:28.2	but under 45, a millennial, life is just much harder in some pretty fundamental, economic
0:33.8	and maybe cultural ways than it was for your parents or your grandparents. And the historian,
0:39.5	the writer, the thinker, Dr. Eliza Filby, says that's because we are living in an inheritocracy,
0:46.2	rather than a meritocracy. An inheritocracy where access to the bank of mum and dad is more
0:52.7	important than whether you earn or learn. And she thinks
0:56.3	the declining share of national wealth that's making its way to workers, the declining offer of
1:03.2	pensions that young people have these days, and the housing crisis, which is maybe not one crisis,
1:07.8	but several crises all add up to a stacking of the odds against
1:12.2	people of roughly her age and mine. And she's grown up enough and honest enough to know that she
1:17.1	and I have it much, much, much, much easier than people who are younger than us. She thinks,
1:22.3	and she'll argue, as you're about to hear, that we need to come to terms with this inheritocracy
1:27.3	and its implications.
1:28.8	We need to understand how it's transforming our society and then fundamentally change our approach to everything from the houses we build to what we tax and how much of it.
1:37.9	I think you're going to enjoy this, particularly if you're my wife.
1:55.0	Dr. Eliza Filby.
1:57.3	Author of Inheritocracy.
2:01.8	Distinguished contributor to several Radio four programs which I have presented,
2:10.0	fellow child of tooting in South London, and champion of a generation that feels a bit screwed.
	...

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