Intelligence Squared

Michael Rosen on Hope, Happiness and Finding Joy in the Small Things (Part One)

December 24, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Michael Rosen's new book, *Good Days: An A-Z of Hope and Happiness*, is intended to provide 'sparks, not blueprints' for readers, offering ideas generated from his own experiences rather than prescriptive self-help advice. 
  • The opening concept of the book, 'A for Arouet' (Voltaire), centers on the idea of 'cultivating our garden' as a foundational, multifaceted approach to optimism, encompassing personal action, metaphorical focus, and environmental care. 
  • Rosen emphasizes curiosity as a vital tool for resisting passivity and oppression, a trait he inherited from his politically active parents whose life lessons included trade union solidarity and resistance against fascism (e.g., the Battle of Cable Street). 

Segments

Podcast Introduction and Sponsor Reads
Copied to clipboard!
(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Intelligence Squared is partnering with WaterAid to highlight global water access issues during the festive season.
  • Summary: The episode begins with an announcement about a partnership with WaterAid, featuring a special episode titled ‘Everything Starts With Water’ released on December 17th. The introduction also includes advertisements for Depop, Progressive Insurance, Shopify, Rumchata, and Coca-Cola.
Introducing Michael Rosen and New Book
Copied to clipboard!
(00:01:51)
  • Key Takeaway: Michael Rosen’s live event discussion focuses on grief, recovery, hope, and finding meaning in everyday moments, aligning with his new book, Good Days: An A-Z of Hope and Happiness.
  • Summary: Producer Mia Sorrenti introduces Michael Rosen, noting his background as the author of over 200 books, including We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and his recent eloquent voice on grief following his son’s death and his COVID battle. The conversation is guided by host Elle Osili Wood and centers on Rosen’s new book celebrating small joys.
Book Structure and Intent
Copied to clipboard!
(00:04:38)
  • Key Takeaway: The book Good Days is structured as an alphabet to facilitate writing ’little by little,’ aiming to generate ideas (‘sparks’) rather than offering prescriptive ‘blueprints’ for happiness.
  • Summary: Rosen explains that the A-Z format was chosen because he finds it difficult to write large, continuous narratives, preferring a segmented approach. He explicitly rejects the self-help model of telling readers to feel great when they feel ‘crap,’ positioning his work as a source of inspiration rather than instruction.
Voltaire’s ‘Cultivate Our Garden’
Copied to clipboard!
(00:08:33)
  • Key Takeaway: The opening chapter uses Voltaire’s final line from Candide, ‘Il faut cultiver notre jardin,’ to explore multiple meanings, including active personal work, philosophical optimism, and ecological responsibility.
  • Summary: Rosen reveals that ‘A’ stands for Arouet (Voltaire’s real name) to justify the placement. He recounts his youthful dismissal of the line as a letdown, but now interprets it as a call to action following catastrophe, suggesting it can mean focusing on one’s immediate sphere, embracing deism, or caring for the Earth.
Curiosity as Resistance
Copied to clipboard!
(00:14:21)
  • Key Takeaway: Curiosity serves as an active mechanism to wrest control back from feeling like a passive recipient of external forces, contrasting with the ‘jug and mug’ model of education.
  • Summary: Rosen contrasts passive learning with active curiosity, which he learned from his parents through camping trips where they insisted on finding specific geographical features like tumuli and analyzing architectural details like hammer beam vaulting. This active engagement prevents the feeling of being oppressed or grumpy.
Parental Political Education
Copied to clipboard!
(00:23:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Rosen’s political education was rooted in his parents’ communist leanings, exemplified by learning about trade union solidarity via the 1958 bus strike and the principle of collective strength.
  • Summary: His mother taught him about the incremental nature of equal pay victories, while the bus strike taught him about solidarity, symbolized by putting money in the strike fund bucket. His father conveyed the union concept using his Polish-Yiddish grandfather’s analogy: one match breaks easily, but a whole box cannot.
Cable Street and Family Lore
Copied to clipboard!
(00:29:18)
  • Key Takeaway: The Battle of Cable Street, where East Enders successfully blocked Mosley’s fascists, was a formative political story in Rosen’s childhood, often recounted with the humorous detail that his parents were briefly trapped on the ‘wrong side of the barricades.’
  • Summary: Rosen recounts how his mother used historical events like Cable Street as kitchen table lessons to combat passivity. The story concludes with the anecdote of his parents being nearly caught by mounted police before being pulled into a house, a detail they found funny, illustrating a shared history of political engagement.
Sponsor Messages and Outro
Copied to clipboard!
(00:35:46)
  • Key Takeaway: The segment concludes with production credits, membership appeals, and further sponsor messages from Fordham University, Mint Mobile, Kia, and Rubrik.
  • Summary: The conversation wraps up with acknowledgments for the producer and editor, and calls to action for listeners to become members for ad-free content and to attend future live events. The final minutes are dedicated to various sponsor advertisements.