We’ve never had it so good – that’s the data-driven message delivered at UN Headquarters this month, by one of the world’s foremost public intellectuals, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.

He was delivering the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Inaugural Presidential Lecture, with the journalistically counter-intuitive declaration, that humankind is more peaceful, prosperous, healthy and free, than ever before.

For this latest UN News Lid Is On podcast, Matt Wells caught up with Professor Pinker who explained why the Sustainable Development Goals are one of the most “glorious, noble, thrilling” achievements of all time.

Music credit: Audiobinger, Rise and Shine.