The Laura Dowling Experience

About The Laura Dowling Experience

Conversations about health, science, wellness, life, love, sex and everything in-between. Laura is a Pharmacist who loves to talk to interesting people about their unique life and work experiences. See @fabulouspharmacist on instagram for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Laura Dowling

Category

health & fitness · health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

23 Aug 2022

Latest episode

17 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

215 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Sept 2026

   From Moving One Toe to 6 Million Steps with Fergus Farrell #187

   In this episode, former Connacht rugby player Fergus Farrell tells Laura what happened after he lifted a metal bench in his own yard in October 2018 — and severed his spinal cord by ninety per cent.He was paralysed from the ribcage down and told he had a five per cent chance of walking again, on the condition he moved within seventy-two hours. He didn’t move. Instead he lay in a bed for twenty-one days and built a picture in his head: a circuit board for his brain, a light switch for his big right toe, and a wire he had to run between them. At half two in the morning on day twenty-one, the toe flickered. When the doctor came round, he watched it move three times before he’d call it anything other than a spasm.Fergus is candid about what recovery costs — pain around the clock, no balance, no feeling from his feet to his waist, and the hidden disability nobody sees in a big man walking down the street. He talks about the businesses he lost, the family who carried it, the guilt of being one who got back on his feet, and why he now calls the accident the best thing that happened to him.In August he set out from Brooklyn Bridge to walk 4,500 kilometres to Santa Monica Pier for Spinal Injuries Ireland — six million steps, and each one as important as the next.🔑 Key PointsThe injury came from lifting, not impactHe carried a 60–80kg bench about fifteen metres, dropped it, took a breath and lifted it again. The second lift ruptured a disc into his spinal column and severed the cord by 90%.The five per cent came with a conditionA 5% chance of walking again if he moved within 72 hours. He didn’t. The toe moved on day twenty-one.Visualisation was a tool he already hadHe’d used it to win selection and to build his business. In hospital he made it concrete: a circuit board as his brain, a switch as his toe, and the work of wiring them together.The doctor called it a spasm — twiceDr Cullen made him move it three times before saying “that’s most unexpected, Fergus.”Not every disability is visibleHe walks, so people assume he’s fine. Zero balance, no feeling from his feet to his waist, constant pain on 3,000mg of gabapentin a day.The people around an injury carry it tooHis then-wife finished the house, worked and raised three young children. “The person that’s left behind injured affects so many different people.”He never visualised himself walkingHe started with the smallest thing he could actually see: one toe, with the blanket off. Setting the finish line at walking would only have set him up to fail.The walk is the same method at scaleBrooklyn Bridge to Santa Monica Pier, 4,500km, six million steps, 75 days as a target rather than a deadline.📚 ResourcesFergus Walks (https://ferguswalks.ie/)Fergus’s walk across America for Spinal Injuries IrelandSpinal Injuries Ireland (https://spinalinjuries.ie/)The only Irish organisation dedicated solely to supporting people living with a spinal cord injury and their familiesChristopher & Dana Reeve Foundation (https://www.christopherreeve.org/)Supporting the American leg of the walkNational Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire (https://www.nrh.ie/)Where Fergus did his spinal rehabilitationFergus Farrell on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iamfergusfarrell/)Following the walk day by day⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Intro02:10 — Lifting a metal bench in his own yard05:35 — The disability nobody can see06:44 — Pain 24/7, and refusing it attention08:46 — A five per cent chance, and the seventy-two hours10:00 — The circuit board, the switch and the wire12:04 — Day twenty-one, half two in the morning13:11 — Dr Cullen: “these could be involuntary spasms”17:50 — The guilt of getting back on his feet19:42 — What it did to his family21:53 — Losing the businesses25:09 — Walking across America30:56 — “Every day is a new day to improve”32:42 — Advice for young people, and the meaning of lifeThanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4xDBAAv7WCZCJ0VJC8lIXiX8_QtHFZJ&si=yi8ifI_sbjJJISSi). Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience (https://www.instagram.com/lauradowlingexperience?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist (https://www.instagram.com/fabulouspharmacist?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   10 Sept 2026

   World Bodhrán Champion on Music, Belonging and Motherhood with Aimée Farrell-Courtney #186

   Aimée Farrell-Courtney was six years old when she saw three girls playing the bodhrán in her school yard, the sun behind them and the sound going round the walls. She went home and announced she wanted to learn. Her mother's reply - "Oh my God, smelly pub" - is the first clue that this instrument arrived with a reputation attached, and with assumptions about who gets to hold one.She learned anyway, was helping to teach by the age of twelve, and in 2010 won the World Bodhrán Championship. What she has spent the years since doing is quieter and, in its way, harder: asking why so many women take up the drum and so few are ever seen playing it.She and Laura go from goat skin and tuning systems to the survey Aimée ran into women's experiences of trad sessions - the player left standing at the bar while everyone else is asked what they're drinking.She talks about being told she only got a Royal Albert Hall booking because she could wear a dress, about designing a drum that fits the body holding it, and about the two communities she has built for people who want music without the judgement.🔑 Key PointsShe was six, and three girls in a schoolyard decided itAimée watched them rehearsing with the sun behind them and thought they looked like superwomen - with no idea yet that the bodhrán was a male-dominated instrument."My youngest student is four, my eldest student is 94"The bodhrán is unusually easy to start, which Aimée sees as its gift and also the reason some people dismiss it without ever learning it properly.A survey put evidence behind what women already knewWorking with a UK researcher, Aimée surveyed bodhrán players worldwide and found most women reported poor experiences bringing their drum to sessions."You only got that because you could wear a dress"After a 2014 gig at the Royal Albert Hall, a peer told her the booking had nothing to do with how she played.Male players are described by technique, women by appearanceRead how the two are written about online, Aimée says, and the difference is immediate.The instrument was never designed around the body playing itSmaller drums with deeper frames chase a sound, not a posture, so Aimée has been designing a bodhrán that works with the body rather than against it.Music can be used, not only performedTrained as a sound therapist, she works with frame drum, gong and singing bowls — and says three minutes of a slow, steady rhythm is enough to settle yourself at home.Trad Drum and Drummy Mummy exist to take the judgement out of itTrad Drum grew out of lockdown check-ins with her students; Drummy Mummy, launching shortly, is a drumming space for mothers — no children, no competition, nobody marking you.📚 ResourcesAimée Farrell-Courtney (https://www.aimeefarrellcourtney.com/)Bodhrán lessons, workshops and Traddrum Productions.FairPlé (https://www.fairple.com/)Campaigning for gender balance in Irish traditional and folk music.Rhythm2Recovery (https://rhythm2recovery.com/)The Australian drumming programme for social and emotional development Aimée is certified in.Basic Income for the Arts (https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment-and-redundancy/employment-support-schemes/basic-income-for-the-arts-bia/)The Irish scheme behind the conversation about supporting artists.⏱️ Timestamps02:30 — Three girls in a schoolyard03:24 — "Oh my God, smelly pub"08:02 — "It's just a frame drum, essentially"10:32 — Designing a drum that fits the body15:23 — Winning the world championship in 201017:32 — The survey into women and the bodhrán18:50 — "My youngest student is four, my eldest is 94"24:39 — "You only got that because you could wear a dress"27:04 — Sound therapy, and what entrainment does41:08 — Trad Drum, and the new Drummy Mummy51:00 — The woman nobody spoke to at the session01:01:44 — Trust yourselfThanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4xDBAAv7WCZCJ0VJC8lIXiX8_QtHFZJ&si=yi8ifI_sbjJJISSi). Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience (https://www.instagram.com/lauradowlingexperience?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist (https://www.instagram.com/fabulouspharmacist?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   8 Sept 2026

   Bitesize Moment: "It Comes From a Place of Love." — Dr Anne Doherty on a kinder way to see people

   In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, consultant anaesthetist Dr Anne Doherty offers two simple, evergreen pieces of wisdom from the close of her conversation with Laura.Nothing is as permanent as you think — the good times and the bad both pass — and almost every hard choice people make, even the ones you disagree with, comes from a place of love.🔑Key Points• Why the good times and the bad times both pass• The freedom in not needing an answer for everything right now• How love sits underneath even the choices we disagree with• A gentler, more compassionate way to see people🎧 Listen to the full episode here. (https://shows.acast.com/the-laura-dowling-experience/episodes/6884beac3781311f9174e442🎧 Listen to the full episode here.)Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4xDBAAv7WCZCJ0VJC8lIXiX8_QtHFZJ&si=yi8ifI_sbjJJISSi). Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience (https://www.instagram.com/lauradowlingexperience?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist (https://www.instagram.com/fabulouspharmacist?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on The Laura Dowling Experience

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Eimear Mithen
• Ciara Mangan
• Martin Daly
• Kathryn Thomas
• Donal O'Shea

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

546,540

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

1,083 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 87 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

82

Social presence

97

YouTube

86

Engagement

96

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Guest appearances

Books guests

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