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Obesity costs the UK £100 billion a year, yet stigma still clouds the conversation. Science shows it’s more than willpower—genetics which drive up to 80% of weight gain, and new treatments are changing the game. With weight loss medications proving effective and the government backing their use, is it time to rethink our approach? More than one in ten women in the UK already use GLP-1s for weight management, but 31% hesitate due to stigma — highlighting the urgent need to shift public perception. Joining Adam Cox today is pharmacist Kevin Joshua from Juniper Technologies UK Ltd, who will discuss the future of obesity treatment and its impact on public health.

When alcohol becomes a need, it's not uncommon to look for ways of scaling back that desire. There are nausea-inducing medications which may help, but Adam Cox looks for how you might trigger such an aversion through hypnosis. There is, of course, another alternative in the run-up to Easter: try giving it up for Lent! It's a way to test your conscience's ability to cope with a temptation which may be quite compelling ... so Adam's hypnosis session might be one of a number of options here.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her March '25 Spring Statement — this is an unabridged audio record of her speech to the House of Commons

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University says that if the markets turn against the government then it is real trouble. If Reeves increases taxes in the Autumn, as many expect, then we will be in a doom loop. He admires an idea from Dr. Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute for using a blockchain approach to speed up the lamentable speed of the UK housing market. Why can the Americans move so easily? And he discusses the record fine imposed on the University of Sussex over the case involving Professor Kathleen Stock, a big victory for defenders of free speech.

With box office + 63%, James Cameron-Wilson says #1 Snow White is neither as bad nor good as some would have it. Rachel Zegler lights up the screen but the CGI dwarves make it feel like an animated remake. It's not a new classic. #7 The Alto Knights has Robert de Niro playing 2 rival gangsters at once, a truly bad idea. It's misjudged and incredibly boring. James recommends documentary A Thinking Game if you can find it. O'Dessa, on Disney+, is a dotty, cheap and nasty, post-apocalyptic rock opera, with Sadie Sink considerably better than the movie which is a real rag bag of influences.

Steve Caplin discusses a hybrid STOL plane which is as quiet as a vacuum cleaner and only needs a 100m-long runway. Amazon's plan for UK drone deliveries might be kiboshed by the CAA insisting on one pilot for each drone. There's an example of just how realistic GPT is when you chat to it. Placebos are the most effective way of treating PMS. Running a marathon shrinks your brain. There's a bizarre crowdfunded watch. Farmers with unhappy crops are being offered a (possible) solution. And heavily-polluting concrete may be a thing of the past with the future use of seawater instead of sand.

Russ Mould says that with the OBR lowering its growth and raising its inflation target, stagflation looks even more likely. The concept of "fiscal headroom", he says, is pure rhubarb but the bond market seemed content with what Rachel Reeves had to say, even though the UK's interest bill is higher than the defence budget. However, tariffs are going to complicate things. With the NASDAQ this year's worst market so far and Hong Kong the best, the mood music is changing. Investors must think about whether the environment for the next ten years is going to be different than the previous ten.

When Clement Attlee introduced welfare universality to post-war Britain, he was aiming for a more egalitarian society. Seventy-five years on we can see not only that it has not been achieved, but also that it has nearly bankrupted the public finances: a major task for UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves to tackle in her Spring Statement. Targeting support for those most in need with the help of philanthropy will be a key part of replacing 'egalitarian socialism' with egalitarian capitalism, enabling those with a social conscience to concentrate support and encouragement where it's needed, rather than providing publicly-funded services 'free at the point of use' for everyone. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins Image source: Wikipedia

Rachel Reeves is due to deliver her Spring Statement next week, and it's probably safe to say this isn't the position she wanted to be in. After an Autumn Budget that raised spending and hiked taxes while locking the Chancellor in with a new fiscal rule, Reeves would have hoped to arrive in March with better news on the economy. Instead, Labour's not-a-tax-on-working-people national insurance hike on employers has backfired, at the same time as the growth forecasts have taken a downturn and borrowing costs have risen. So, what will the Chancellor do next week? Will she tweak her own fiscal rule, raise taxes again or cut spending in unprotected areas that are already suffering? As Rachel Reeves finds herself between a rock and a hard place, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert look at what could happen. Plus, what does the Bank of England holding rates and the potential future path mean for your savings and mortgage? What should you do to sort your ISA and pension now? Can you really give away £1 million a year and dodge inheritance tax? And finally, the question that anyone like Simon who racks up the odd foreign traffic infraction needs answered: if you get a holiday parking fine, do you have to pay it?

Two of the most influential voices in the market had something to say this week. Asit Sharma and Jason Moser discuss Fed Chair Powell’s rate outlook, and what Jensen Huant sees coming down the pike for Nvidia chips and quantum computing, what Tesla investors need to know about the headlines around recent accounting concerns, and earnings updates and red market reactions for FedEx, Nike, and Accenture. Then, 19 minutes in, Joe Cutillo, CEO of Sterling Infrastructure, talks Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner through his company’s work on infrastructure projects, how the tariff picture figures into their outlook, and how to invest like a CEO. Finally, 31 minutes in, Jason and Asit talk about lessons from their favorite college basketball teams and the stocks on their radar this week: BYD and Williams Sonoma. Stocks discussed: NVDA, TSLA, FDX, NKE, ACN, STRL, BYDDY, WSM. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Asit Sharma, Jason Moser, Joe Cutillo, Tom Gardner