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Political commentator Mike Indian looks at the rumpus over who paid to redecorate Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat and at the allegations made against the Prime Minister by Dominic Cummings. He also looks at the complexity of Northern Irish politics in the wake of Arlene Foster's resignation. And he looks across the Atlantic to assess Joe Biden's first 100 days as President. He begins, though, with a look at Ed Balls Day.

James Cameron-Wilson reflects on this year's Oscar ceremony and how well British talent did. He reviews the Netflix sci-fi film Stowaway from Joe Penna with Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette. And he also looks at the post-apocalyptic comedy drama Love And Monsters, also available on Netflix. Simon Rose chips in with a recommendation for the horror period TV drama The Terror, starring Jared Harris and Ciaran Hinds.

Russ Mould, Investment Director of A J Bell, applies Sir John Templeton's dictum on the four stages of bull markets to suggest how investors can spot the next round of market winners – and dodge the losers. He compartmentalises the market's sectors into those suffering pessimism, scepticism, euphoria and optimism and suggests how investors might be able to suppress their natural instinct to follow the herd; as Warren Buffett said, "You cannot buy what is popular and do well".

Tech expert Steve Caplin is bemused by the UK's go-ahead for self-driving cars only on motorways and no faster than 37 mph. He looks at Amazon's trials of contactless palm scanning, at their smart doorbell to deter porch package purloining, at Porton Down's new machine for training bomb-sniffing rats, at a smart bird feeder, at B&O speakers masquerading as books and at the development of paper-thin loudspeakers.

Adam creates a bedtime story hypnosis session suitable for children based on Aesop's fable - The Grasshopper and the Ant. In the story, the grasshopper possesses the quality of mindfulness and enjoyment while the ant represents the qualities of diligence and preparedness. This short hypnosis session enables the listener to appreciate that both are important resources and that balance is essential to benefit from the best of both.

Adam Cox is joined by Jade Asha, author of Actorpreneur. Jade talks about the struggles of being an actor and needing to have second sources of income while not working. They discuss how COVID has hit actors hard, and how it is causing many actors to leave the profession and give up on their dreams. Jade offers tips so that actors can still pursue their dreams while earning a living.

Alison Southwick and personal finance expert Robert Brokamp challenge the conventional wisdom on life's biggest financial issues to reveal what you really need to know to make smart money moves. Longtime Motley Fool analyst Tim Beyers joins us to discuss how much to invest in one stock, whether to invest a lump sum all at once, accounts for kids, and which types of options strategies are most Foolish.

Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple report record earnings, and Microsoft reports its biggest revenue growth in three years. Shopify rises on a strong quarter, Shares of Crocs, Facebook, and Waste Management hit all-time highs, Pinterest and Teladoc tumble, and Domino’s reports double-digit growth. Motley Fool analysts Ron Gross and Jason Moser discuss those stories and dig into earnings news from Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Visa. Plus, our analysts share a couple of stocks on their radar: Axon Enterprise and Skillz.

Life is tough for first-time buyers. House prices were already expensive before the coronavirus lockdowns and defying all logic a mini-boom has sent the average house price up £20,000 further over the past year. At the same time mortgage lenders have indulged in a flight to safety, canning the vast majority of 95% loan-to-value mortgages and bumping up the gap between rates on 90 per cent mortgages and those for borrowers with more equity. 'Once more into the breach' has stepped the Government, with taxpayer aid for banks and building societies to offer more 5% deposit mortgages. But is this a wise move? Should we stop meddling in the mortgage and property market, as short-term assistance ends up meaning long-term pain as more credit is extended and house prices climb ever higher? And could it be that while the 95% mortgage push is the wrong move at the national economic level, on a personal level taking one might prove a good move for some, who could end up paying less than they do in rent? Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the 95% mortgages, the rise in house prices and whether buy-to-let is still a good investment. Also this week, the lowdown on the Barclaycard customer service meltdown as long-standing customers see their credit limits slashed. And finally, you want a shed-office (aka a shoffice) to work in down the bottom of the garden, but can you power it with solar panels?

Are you itching to spend or planning to save? Lockdown savers are forecast by the Office of Budget Responsibility to have stashed away £180billion by the middle of this year. That collective cash pile has been built up by those who have been fortunate enough not to see their finances hit by the pandemic, but have seen their outgoings drop substantially. We’ve already seen some big spending themes come out of this, as people splash out on everything from home improvements, to luxury garden furniture, expensive pizza ovens and hot tubs. The expectation is that as lockdown eases and people are released into the hoped for freedom that vaccines bring, they will go on a spending spree. But will that definitely happen and will the economic rebound be strong enough to create a virtuous circle that delivers the much-talked about Roaring Twenties? Or will people be more cautious and adopt their newfound savings habit more permanently? Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert, dig into the save vs spend debate and look at how the giant behavioural and psychological experiment that lockdown represents might play out for the economy and people’s personal finances. Also on this week’s episode, the team look at both investing in the big themes of the coming decades and buying a holiday let for profit. And finally, if a fence comes down how do you find out who has to pay for it and is there any truth in the old ‘yours is the one on the left’ rule?