The kick off point for this week’s podcast was Ipsos MORI’s finding that only 13% of 18,073 adults, spread across 25 nations, think the world is getting better and five times as many (67%) think it’s getting worse. Belgium is the most glass-is-basically-empty nation on earth while China is the most positive. All of the results are summarised in the chart above.

We were joined by two men who spend their professional lives trying to understand what life is like at the bottom and it’s, perhaps, the newly impoverished and insecure who are driving the gloom identified by Ipsos MORI. One of our guests was  James Bloodworth who writes frequently for UnHerd, including this comprehensive 11-part guide to the nature of disadvantage that so many face today. Completing our quartet was Ed Davies of the London think tank, the Centre for Social Justice. Ed oversees the CSJ’s policy development and you can read more about him here.

It was a lively discussion at times – ESPECIALLY on the contribution of family breakdown to poverty and hopelessness.