Ep9: Economics, Intuition, Wave 2, human behaviour, Brexit, more Money for SMEs & Lifestyle Medicine

In this action packed episode, I kick things off with my rant of the week, where I share some of the things that have been occupying my brain in the last few days.  The topics I go into in EP9 are pharmaceutical companies and that old chestnut Brexit - which is now starting to raise it's head again.  I then push on to my first conversation, and this week I was truly delighted to welcome a new guest to Money & Plants in the form of Stephen Kinsella, one of Irelands brightest economic minds. A Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick and the Chief economist at the excellent Currency platform, Ireland's number 1 business resource, Stephen and I have a wide ranging conversation about Covid, wave 2, how we are at the most uncertain time of the pandemic alongside talking about the new government, and why there might be good news on the way for Irish SMEs.  We also have a very interesting discussion about N Ireland and how it's went from being the richest and most industrial part of the island, to now being one of the poorest parts of the island.  We finish off our conversation with two excellent book recommendations, so make sure you have a pen and paper handy, as I personally really enjoyed this conversation with plenty of takeaways.  At 1hr mark in the podcast, I welcome my second new guest to the show, the incredible Dr Monica Agarwall.  Monica is a Cardiologist and Professor of Preventative Cardiology at the University of Florida who specialises in disease prevention.  She is also an author, athlete, and proud mum to 3 kids, passionate about life, and helping her patients back to great health, through lifestyle medicine,   In this conversation Monica shares with us how she is changing the lives of her patients by introducing them to a new way to manage disease, and facilitate the healing process in the body - Lifestyle Medicine. This truly is a wonderful empowering conversation with such a remarkable lady, who is saving peoples lives.  Monica shares lots of her personal journey of how she thought at one time, she was going to teach religious studies all of her life and suddenly ended up a cardiologist, changing lives through lifestyle medicine.   She shared with me how many of her patients are now fellow physicians who go to her for help because they themselves have got sick and encountered heart problems, but they don't want to take the drugs.  Monica herself, had her own health challenge a number of years ago, and suffered very badly from rheumatoid arthritis after the birth of her third daughter. It was at this time her specialist told her she would be on drugs for the rest of her life, and tried to condition her to believe that the illness would likely progress, and she simply had to accept it. Unfortunately, this specialist didn't really understand Monica, her drive and faith she had in her own ability to not only overcome her condition, but to go on and thrive with her life, to a point where she is now symptom free, and on no medication.    This really was a very special conversation and I truly believe if any of you want to improve your own health, pay attention to this conversation, make some notes, and start to make changes in your own life.  If you want to grow old, happy and healthy, then I suggest you listen up. ** The reason I started this podcast was to share information with you the listener, that would maybe empower, educate and inspire you to make better choices in your own life.  I would like to thank everyone for all of the support as we have received well over 2000 downloads at this point. If you would like to sponsor the show, or have any other feedback, pls email me at [email protected] Until next time, look after yourself, and each other, Conor