The Good Society cover art

The Good Society

And How We Make It

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The Good Society

By: Kate Pickett
Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A fairer, healthier, more caring and sustainable society is entirely within our grasp. The renowned co-author of The Spirit Level shows us the way.


• How do we ensure that everyone has good health and receives the care they need?
• How do we provide education that allows every child to flourish?
• How do we ensure safety, justice and a sustainable environment for all?

Kate Pickett is a world-leading social scientist whose life’s work has been to identify the underlying causes of society’s most important problems – and the long-term solutions that will actually work.

In this inspiring book, she shows that to make a good society – in which everyone has what they need to be well, and everyone would be better off – we must prioritise the health, care, education and rehabilitation of those who have the least and suffer the most. This means confronting once and for all the fundamental problems of poverty and inequality that lie behind all the others.

Drawing on over three decades of evidence, and an array of proven solutions and real-world success stories from across the globe, The Good Society cuts to the essence of the challenges we face and presents us with a practical, galvanising, perspective-shifting vision for how to tackle them.

'Just what these times are crying out for’ KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics

© Kate Pickett 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Politics & Government Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology

Critic reviews

Packed with vision, hope and a practical plan – just what these times are crying out for (Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics)
An electrifying book: audacious in its range, blistering in its analysis and yet warm and immensely readable (Polly Morland, author of A Fortunate Woman)
Genuinely transformative, grounded in rigorous evidence and focused on what really matters. A powerful and deeply humane vision (Daniel Chandler, author of Free and Equal)
This is what we need. A clear roadmap that makes the case for how things can be better in achievable and realistic ways (Sammy Wright, author of Exam Nation)
An uplifting vision for solving inequality that benefits everyone (Andy Burnham)
Grounded in practical, tried-and-tested solutions from across the world, The Good Society offers real hope that the problems we face are not insurmountable (Jonathan Aldred, author of License To Be Bad)
Optimistic and realistic - a brilliant personal account of what a lifetime of world-leading research on health and well-being shows us is possible (Danny Dorling, author of The Next Crisis)
Building on a long, distinguished career as a researcher on the links between ill-health and inequalities, Kate Pickett has brought the threads together in an elegant call for a Good Society (Guy Standing, author of The Politics of Time)
Kate Pickett brings much needed intellect, expertise, experience and empathy to the urgent challenges now facing our society (Melissa Benn)
The country desperately needs a new lodestar of hope. The Good Society is the book we have been waiting for (Neal Lawson, Director of Compass)
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