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Spending money on clothes or lifestyle items can be gratifying, but cast your mind into the future. The value of those purchased items is likely to be near zero: it was a short-term fix! An alternative is to consider the gratification that comes from growth: something well understood by farmers and gardeners. In money terms, that leads you towards investment, and its capacity for rising value. Of course risk is often cited as the reason why people don't invest: but surely buying something which is more likely than not to have a future value is better than buying something that will have no value? What's your take on these alternative approaches to money?

Data has revealed half of UK women (48%) have found it harder to create or maintain friendships during and post the pandemic, and an astonishing 90% of UK women say they want to make more friends. With near to 1 in 2 women looking to get out of their comfort zone this year, notably by taking solo travel trips, it’s no surprise that our next guests suggest that demand for these adventures is already on the rise. Adam is joined by Zina Bencheikh from Intrepid Travel, and Claire Cohen, journalist, author of 'BFF - The Truth About Female Friendships' and expert on female friendship, to discuss this rise in solo-female travel and share tips & advice on how to make & maintain female friendships this year. https://www.intrepidtravel.com/

Russ Mould of A J Bell takes a look at the banking sector. He points out that there are many similarities in the results from Barclays and Standard Chartered, with both showing the highest profits and dividends for some time. However, the market has reacted very differently, with Barclays punished and Standard boosted. He also discusses why banks might be being criticised by MPs and others for still squeezing savers.

James Cameron-Wilson on the latest box office (-24%) and the movies worth seeing (and worth avoiding). At #2 is Magic Mike's Last Dance, the 3rd in the series, with Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek, which James enjoyed. He was less enamoured of the Jennifer Lopez film Shotgun Wedding, now on Amazon Prime. It is, he said, a comic thriller with no laughs and few thrills. However, he adored the Oscar-nominated animated film The Sea Beast which is now on Netflix and recommends it strongly.

Steve Caplin astounds Simon Rose with tales of the latest tech. Microsoft are killing off Internet Explorer, AI can change the style of video footage and synthesise voices while an AI virtual friend is apparently getting way too frisky with some users. Scientists have developed an automatic arm-stroker to redue stress, Lockheed Martin now have an autonomous fighter jet, the best restaurant in Montreal doesn't actually exist, physiological synchrony can determine how a date is going while goldfish turn out to have fantastic memories and sea squirts eat their own brains.

Political commentator Mike Indian looks at the ramifications of Nicola Sturgeon's surprise resignation as Scottish First Minister, speculating what might happen now and whether this will be seen as a great opportunity for the Labour Party. He explains why he thinks that Keir Starmer's decision to ban Jeremy Corbyn from running as a Labour candidate is not a smart decision. And he crosses his fingers that there is a possible NI Protocol deal in the offing.

The earthquake disaster in Turkey shows yet again how little we learn from the past, and the limited attention we give to planning for the future. Constitutional principles could do much to help - but are we making best use of them? Meanwhile insurers tend to refer to natural disasters as 'Acts of God', but such a description doesn't align with with the Christian understanding that the nature of God is love. In March 2020 we recorded 'Love at the Cutting Edge' seeking to provide an answer, and it's included as the second part of this commentary. Background music: 'Elegy' by Wayne Jones; and to accompany 'Love at the Cutting Edge', Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, first movement as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1995.

ChatGPT is getting plenty of attention, but there are other uses for artificial intelligence that investors should watch. Beth Kindig is the lead technology analyst for the I/O fund. Deidre Woollard caught up with Kindig to discuss where we are in the cloud adoption cycle, a key narrative playing out in semiconductor earnings, and what to learn from companies that went public too quickly. Companies discussed: MSFT, NVDA, TSM, META, AMD. Host: Deidre Woollard; Guest - Beth Kindig

Microsoft's AI event is only the latest sign of the hottest area of tech. Jason Moser discusses: CEO Satya Nadella hailing "a new day in search", shares of C3AI, an enterprise AI platform company, doubling in the past five weeks, and Zoom Video announcing it's laying off 15% of employees. Then, at 12 minutes in, Robert Brokamp talks with former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Jonathan Scott about playing in Super Bowl 45, managing an irregular income, and other takeaways from his book "The Winning Playbook: Strategies for Life on and off the Field". Stocks discussed: MSFT, GOOG, AMD, AI, ZM; Host - Chris Hill; Guests - Jason Moser, Robert Brokamp, Jonathan Scott

Inflation is theoretically running out of steam but there's one essential that's still gloing up in price rapidly: food. Even as energy prices and other recent highly inflationary items run out of steam, the cost of food seems to show no let up - with reports reporting inflation-busting rises. What is going on here? How much have food prices risen, why have they gone up so much, are supermarkets or brand-name makers profiteering, and will costs ever come back down? Georgie Frost, Angharad Carrick and Simon Lambert, delve into food prices on this week's episode - and look at any ways you could save money. Plus, mortgage rates are falling while the base rate is going up: why is that and what happens next? Should you invest in a VCT, not just for the juicy tax breaks but also for the investment opportunities on offer? And finally, we met the founders of Seatfrog to find out how they are helping passengers buy up unused first-class seats on trains at bargain prices and their plans for making train ticket-buying better.