In this short introductory episode, hosts Paul Johnson and Michael Kell introduce Econ to Icon. This is a podcast about people whose careers began in economics and went somewhere remarkable, exploring the substance of what they did and the choices behind how they did it

Paul Johnson has spent nearly four decades working on the economics of public policy — as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in government, and now at the University of Oxford, where he is head of Queen's College. Paul's interested in how economics shapes the decisions that affect all of us: taxes, pensions, public services, inequality, and how governments respond to crises.

Michael Kell has also spent most of his career as an economist — at the Treasury, the International Monetary Fund, and in consulting. Today he works as a careers coach. He's interested in the people behind the public roles: the turning points, the decisions to leave one path and take another, and what it's actually like to sit in the room when big decisions are made.

In this trailer, Paul and Michael introduce themselves, explain what the podcast is about, and preview the six guests in the first series:

• Steve Webb — the pensions minister who redesigned the UK state pension, and whose legacy we will all live with as we hit retirement age
• Stephanie Flanders — BBC economics editor for a decade, then head of economics at JP Morgan and Bloomberg
• Sharon White — senior civil servant, head of Ofcom, and former chair of the John Lewis Partnership
• Tim Harford — Financial Times columnist, best-selling author, host of Radio 4's More or Less and one of Britain's most trusted communicators of economic ideas
• Amelia Fletcher — competition economist and pop star, founder member of indie bands Talulah Gosh and Heavenly
• Dan Corry — political advisor at the heart of Number 10 during the 2008 financial crisis, and leading figure in measuring the impact of charities