Provoke.fm Media

In this episode, Paolo Sironi interviews Aiden McCullen to explore his book UNDISRIPTABLE, a book that brings order to the chaos we are experiencing in personal and corporate lofe to the acceleration of the innovation life cycle. While we cannot see into the future, there are repeatable patterns we can understand learning from homo sapiens to CEOs, from hunters to the jelly fish as a way to master the infinite loop of reinvention. Aiden demystifies the principles of change through a blend of analogies, innovation frameworks and the challenges we face whenever we lead change at a personal or organizational level.

LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidanmccullen/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-innovation-show/

INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/the_innovation_show/

TWITTER
https://x.com/AidanMcCullen
https://x.com/TheInnoShow

Industry strategist John Sviokla is the co-founder of GAI Insights and an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He tells the Futurists about the real challenges and opportunities in the process of reorganizing businesses around unlimited intelligence.  Topics include: The existential threat to the big strategic advisory firms. Why talking to machines is such a significant change.  The remarkably rapid rise of machine IQ and the power of emergent capabilities.  John’s forecast for the evolution of new AI models. How proprietary data, especially intent, will fuel the transition from search engines to answer engines.  The logic behind the partnership between Walmart and OpenAI.  What happens to a company’s organization when you can buy expertise on demand.  How every human worker will become a platoon of experts.  The two populations in most organizations that use AI. The net present value of AI projects.  GAI Insight’s four-step process for fostering new corporate capabilities based on AI. 

In this episode of Breaking Banks, hosts Jason Henrichs, Brett King and JP Nicols delve into the transformative impact of AI and technology on the banking industry, and share insights on what institutions must do to not only survive, but thrive as AI rewrites playbooks.

The conversation covers the role of stablecoins, agentic AI, the future of smart contracts, smarter digital infrastructure, and how accelerated innovation cycles are reshaping the global financial system.

They explore the structural changes they see coming and the potential of AI in automating cross-border transactions and business banking platforms, while discussing challenges and opportunities for larger and smaller banks in adapting to new systems of trade.

How best for bankers to get ready for this transition?

All banks, regardless of size, need to get their data house in order, ensuring better access to their data and data capabilities, and need to assess their cultural agility. The banking industry is entering a new era where data fluency, cultural adaptability and use of available AI tools and AI-driven automation will define the competitive frontier and spark innovation. As the hosts remind us, “Adapt or be left behind.”

Listen now to hear how leaders across banking and fintech can navigate the shift and prepare for what comes next.

This episode of Breaking Banks Africa features Anie Akpe, founder of LumoHubs.com and African Women in Technology (AWIT). The conversation explores how Lumo Hubs is shaping the future of work in Africa by partnering with universities to equip students and communities with hands-on digital, vocational, and AI-driven skills. Anie highlights the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and building solutions locally – especially as AI accelerates global change. She also discusses the challenges faced by women in tech, ongoing funding gaps, and the crucial role of community-driven support in times of shrinking foreign aid. The episode emphasizes collaboration across African regions, the power of technology to bridge language and geographic barriers, and the need to invest in rural inclusion. Anie shares how AWIT has empowered women for a decade and outlines LumoHubs’ vision to nurture future innovators across the continent.

Connect with Anie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anie-akpe-abb48312/

In last month’s segment of #BBE, Elizabeth Kleinveld invited Lars Markull, founder of Embedded Finance Review, and Philipp Buschmann, CEO of AAZZUR. Celebrating the podcast’s sixth anniversary, the episode explores major trends across funding, regulation, partnerships, and the rapid rise of embedded finance. Key topics include the deep fintech–bank partnership between Allegro and PKO Bank Polski, Italy’s CDP blocking the sale of Nexi for strategic infrastructure reasons, and BaFin’s €45m fine against JP Morgan ahead of its 2026 Chase launch. Revolut expands with Booking.com via Revolut Pay, signaling its broader ecosystem ambitions. Funding trends show U.S. fintech investment slowing except for megadeals like Ramp, while Europe sees growth. The thematic deep dive highlights embedded lending’s breakout year, expanding across marketplaces, SaaS platforms, and traditional enterprises, with Germany’s embedded finance market projected to surge through 2030.

Shelly Palmer returns to the Futurists to share fresh insight about how AI agents will rearrange the way entertainment and news are published, distributed and monetized. Today, many of the biggest media companies are still reeling from the previous two rounds of digital disruption (web and mobile). This leaves Big Media unprepared for the biggest disruption of them all, because AI agents will soon  reconfigure their core asset: video distribution channels. This interview provides a preview of how autonomous agents will work in unison to handle tasks that previously were managed by networks of human professionals, such as media buyers, advertising managers, retail marketers, and TV programming executives.  Likely impact: a further round of unbundling as agents personalize video distribution and advertising. Timeline: this transformation begins in 2026 and will iterate rapidly during the next five years. 20th century mass media is about to go through the Big Tech blender. 

Today, we turn the show over to our friends at Breaking Banks Europe, as we celebrate their 6th anniversary.

What began as a podcast experiment has grown to over 280 episodes, more than 570 guests, thousands of listeners from every corner of the world, and countless debates.

Over the past 6 years, the show has:

Today we’re celebrating with a special throwback episode. Host Matteo Rizzi welcomes back Serena Torielli, CEO and founder of WealthHype, who first joined the show back in Episode 3.
In this new conversation, Matteo and Serena dive into Revolut’s explosive growth in Italy, the future of private banking, and how AI, Bitcoin, and gold are reshaping investing. They also explore regulation, stablecoins, and global market shifts, with Serena sharing her optimistic view on innovation in AI, energy, and biotech as drivers of the next financial revolution.

Rapid growth as a community bank – Five Star’s strategies for using fintech to expand their customer.

Detailed Summary:

This episode of the Finovate Podcast features DJ Kurtze, Executive Vice President and Bay Area President of Five Star Bank, discussing the community bank’s impressive growth trajectory and unique positioning in the competitive San Francisco market. Five Star Bank is a $4.6 billion community bank headquartered in Rancho Cordova with nine branches and two administrative offices, serving real estate communities, small to medium-sized businesses, nonprofits, agriculture, and governmental entities. Founded 25 years ago by real estate developers Buzz Oates and Frank Ramos, the bank has maintained a remarkable 20% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years through organic growth strategies rather than acquisitions. Kurtze joined Five Star after the collapse of Signature Bank in March 2023, bringing his team over to capitalize on opportunities created by the banking sector disruptions involving SVB, First Republic, and Signature Bank.

The conversation explores Five Star’s competitive advantages, which center on hiring exceptional senior bankers who understand their clients’ businesses and providing direct access to decision-makers with speed and certainty of execution. The bank positions itself as “technology first,” implementing advanced systems both for customer-facing services and internal operations. This technological focus, combined with their flat organizational structure and lack of legacy systems from acquisitions, allows them to operate at a 40% efficiency ratio and quickly implement customer feedback and new product offerings. The bank’s approach to fintech partnerships emphasizes working with vendors who have proven track records with financial institutions and can provide plug-and-play solutions compatible with existing core banking systems.

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Five Star’s specialized approach to nonprofit banking, which requires understanding unique cash flows, funding structures, and the sophisticated needs of experienced C-suite executives and board members who often come from successful business backgrounds. The bank provides advanced fraud prevention tools, insured cash sweep products for higher FDIC insurance limits, and creative lending solutions including tax-exempt financing. Kurtze closes by highlighting how community banks have advantages in fraud prevention through personal relationships and direct banker-client communication, allowing them to identify unusual transactions and protect clients more effectively than larger institutions despite having smaller technology budgets.

More info:

Five Star Bank: https://www.fivestarbank.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/five-star-bank-california/

DJ Kurtze: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dj-kurtze-449b3934/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

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Mike Pell is an author, an artist and the director of the Microsoft Garage, the worldwide innovation program where he applies “fast design” principles to bring ideas to prototypes quickly. Mike’s hackathons scale to include 10,000 participants.  Mike tells the Futurists how artificial intelligence systems accelerate ideation during the innovation process.  The challenge: managing a team of AI agents will require human workers to adapt to entirely new processes and discard some outdated practices. Visualization is one of the key elements in Mike’s approach to this process, as conveyed in his recent book, “Visualizing Business”.  

Today on Breaking Banks we feature the newest addition to the Provoke.fm family, Breaking Banks Africa.

In this episode Breaking Banks Africa Host and Executive Producer Matteo Rizzi sits down with Sandra Yao, Ecobank‘s Group Head: Cross Border Remittance, Payments & BaaS (Fintech). With 20 years of experience driving fintech and payment innovation across Africa, Sandra brings a unique “builder’s mindset” into one of the continent’s largest financial institutions, operating in 39 markets.

From pioneering mobile money to tackling fragmented infrastructure and regulatory environments, Sandra shares how interoperability, accessibility, and digital transformation are reshaping the future of payments in emerging economies. Additionally, Sandra reveals how Ecobank is empowering young African talent, forming major tech partnerships (including Google), and creating API-first solutions to help fintech founders scale across borders.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about Africa’s digital growth story, inclusive innovation, and hearing about those turning vision into execution—from Nairobi to the world.