Another Take: We need to talk about Davos
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on January 20, 2023. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
The World Economic Forum is known for glitzy parties, exclusivity, and dealmaking – in addition to panels on topics ranging from climate change to ‘stakeholder capitalism’. The theme of this year’s annual meeting in Davos is “cooperation in a fragmented world,” and Davos mainstays are the world’s most powerful networkers. They wield an enormous amount of economic and political power. So who are they? What actually happens at Davos, and what do the people left off the invite list need to know about it?
In this episode:
- Peter S. Goodman (@petersgoodman), global economics reporter at The New York Times and author of Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World
- Max Lawson (@maxlawsontin), Head of Inequality Policy, Oxfam
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Ashish Malhotra, Miranda Lin, and our host, Halla Mohieddeen.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi, I'm Tamara Kondogar, and this is another take, where we resurface episodes from the archives. |
| 0:17.0 | The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, bills itself as a place where global leaders come together to discuss the biggest forces shaping our world today. |
| 0:28.9 | And we did get a pretty rare moment of honesty on the Davos stage this week, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney openly questioning whether the so-called |
| 0:39.3 | rules-based international order still exists. |
| 0:43.4 | Call it what it is. A system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful |
| 0:49.4 | pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion. But a lot of the action this week happened offstage. |
| 0:57.6 | Most notably, a framework for a U.S. deal involving Greenland, |
| 1:02.2 | made behind closed doors between U.S. President Donald Trump |
| 1:06.2 | and NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta. |
| 1:09.4 | Today, we're bringing back an episode that looks at what Davos really is, |
| 1:15.0 | who it serves, how power moves through the forum, |
| 1:18.4 | and how decisions with global consequences are so often shaped outside of public view. |
| 1:25.1 | This episode originally aired January 20th, 2023. |
| 1:29.6 | All dates and references are from that time. |
| 1:38.9 | Some of the most powerful people in the world |
| 1:41.7 | have gathered in the Swiss Alps over the last week for the annual |
| 1:45.3 | World Economic Forum meeting, more popularly known as Davos. This year's theme is cooperation |
| 1:53.0 | in a fragmented world. That's not to be mistaken with the theme from 2018, creating a shared future in a fractured world. |
| 2:04.0 | Most years, Davos is pretty similar. |
| 2:06.9 | The elite usually gather here to talk about injustice and inequality. |
| 2:10.9 | The focus on sustainability is sometimes a little bit blurred by the constant arrival of private jets and helicopters. |
... |
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