Magnified with Matt Cooper

Avril Copeland is a remarkable individual who has led an adventurous and multifaceted life.Hailing from Dublin, Ireland (her father is none other than legendary tailor Louis Copeland), Avril played international hockey for Ireland and worked in the country music business in Nashville and developed a passion for adventure racing, where she raced seriously for five years.With a background in physiotherapy Avril is the CEO and co-founder of Innerstrength Health, an eHealth company. The company develops digital tools that facilitate collaboration between health professionals and patients for preventing and treating chronic conditions.In this wide-ranging conversation with Matt you get to hear about all the dimensions of her incredible professional and sporting life as well as her journey with IVF and dealing with her sons profound deafness diagnosis. Enjoy!

Currently proving herself to be one of the best pundits in the game at Euro 24, in this edition Matt revisits a conversation he had with one of the most influential Women in World Sport. Lisa Fallon has been a footballer, an analyst, coach, manager and now sits on the FIFA Technical Group and has built a reputation as one of the foremost minds in the game.

Conor Niland, a former Irish professional tennis player, has written a captivating book titled "The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%." In this memoir, Niland shares his experiences as part of the 99% of players who travel the globe, hoping to climb the rankings and qualify for Grand Slam tournaments. The book provides insights into the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the challenges faced by touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses1 2. It's a unique look inside the fascinating hidden world of professional tennis and in this week's episode he joins Matt to discuss his fascinating book and career.

Entrepreneur Rena Maycock, founder of Cilter Technologies, discusses child protection software, her matchmaking agency, and advocating for women in tech with Matt Cooper. Topics include navigating career transitions, building confidence in sales, securing grant funding for deep tech, and rebranding for online safety.

Fresh from being elected Mayor of Limerick, this week we revisit Matt's previous conversation with John Moran. Once dubbed Ireland's Mr Austerity, Limerick’s first directly-elected mayor has had a fascinating career, in law, in business, as a senior official in the department of finance during an economic crisis, Chairman of the Land development agency and now he's overcoming cancer. He discusses all of these topics and the need for state intervention in land and housing development in this edition of Magnified.

Anthony Scaramucci is an American financier but he best known for the time he briefly served as the White House Director of Communications from July 21 to July 31, 2017 before being dismissed by President Donald Trump. Scaramucci has also been critical of Trump in the media and voiced support for Joe Biden in the 2020 and 2024 election and is a huge advocate for bitcoin. In this episode of Magnified Matt spoke to Anthony in front of a live audience about his short but eventful time in Trump's White House and whay he is such cheerleader for crypto.

The late Tony O'Reilly was many things to many people. A brilliant rugby player capped by The Lions, a business giant on both sides of the Atlantic, a philathropist, art collector, media mogul and above all one of the most influential figues in recent Irish history. Matt Cooper literally wrote the book on the man so in a special edition of Magnified he has swapped seats and invited Anton Savage to interview him about Tony O'Reilly's quite incredible life.

 Conall Laverty is the founder and CEO of Wia, a startup that provides the backend for developers and companies to build Internet of Things (IoT) devices and among his many incredible achievements Conall was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Europe in the technology category. In this week's episode of Magnified Conall tells Matt of getting started in the tech world at the age of 8, bootlegging sim cards and how he turned his mind to making ventilators more accessible during covid. 

Peter Murtagh is an award-winning Irish-born journalist and author. He spent almost 40 years working in newspapers, including The Irish Times, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Times, The Guardian and is the co-author of The Boss, the ground-breaking book on Charles Haughey.In addition to his journalistic career, Peter Murtagh has embarked on travel adventures. After retiring in 2019, he decided to explore the world on his trusty motorbike and in this week's episode Peter shares his incredible experiences and stories along the way.

John Gibbons is an Irish environmental campaigner and the founder of the climatechange.ie website. He also co-founded the healthcare publishing and communications specialists MedMedia Group and is known to many radio listeners for his 150 appearances on Last Word On The Environment. John joins Matt on this week's episode to discuss his own farming background, how is dedicated advocacy for climate issues developed as well as the impact his difficult relationship with his father has shaped him.