Provoke.fm Media

Can a not-for-profit, member-owned credit union genuinely out-innovate a bank with a multi-billion-dollar AI budget by being more disciplined and mission-anchored?

In this episode of Breaking Banks, Bev Anderson (President and CEO of BECU) and Nadim Homsany (SVP, Head of AI at BECU) join host Jason Henrichs to unpack the strategy behind the credit union’s AI decisions. They discuss where to focus, the choice between buying and building, and whether traditional ROI even applies.

Discover how BECU is getting serious about AI and whether this marks an opportunity for credit unions to reshape financial services in the U.S.

Interested in hearing more? You can catch Nadim on stage at MoneyLive North America with Samer Saab (SVP of Product and Partnerships at Alloy Labs) in Chicago on September 14–15. Find out more at moneylive-insights.com/breakingbanks

Kristen Castell, Managing Director of the Center for Accelerating Financial Equity (CAFE), joins Social Currency to discuss the intersection of profit and purpose in financial services. From fintech innovation to financial inclusion, Kristen shares how technology, partnerships, and mission-driven solutions are helping expand access and opportunity for low-to-moderate income communities. Listen in as we explore the future of financial equity.

Can a company use AI to be capable of infinite adaptability?  Brian Solis and Dave Wright believe that right approach to deploying AI in large enterprises is a two-model process, first to find efficiency and create savings, and second, to invest those savings into accelerated innovation. In their new book Infinite, Brian and Dave cite successful case studies to show AI can help business leaders accomplish things that were never previously possible.  Rob Tercek interviewed Dave and Brian to extract the key points for listeners of The Futurists podcast.  

In this episode host Brett King and Paolo Sironi, host of Breaking Banks’ sister podcast The Bankers’ Bookshelf, speak with Pal Krogdahl, author of Rip Out the Core—an essential guide for anyone wrestling with the stubborn realities of banking core modernization. Despite massive investments, many institutions still face overruns, delays, and outcomes that leave them no stronger than before.

Sparked by a flooded kitchen that perfectly mirrored the chaos of real-world banking transformation programs, Pal’s book shifts the lens from pure technology to organization, showing that lasting change is impossible without adapting how people work. Pal speaks to banking executives and transformation leaders tired of endless patching, converting hard-won industry experience into precise, actionable steps that finally deliver meaningful business value.

Join as the trio unpack why core modernization so often fails, how organizational design must evolve alongside systems, and the practical path to progress that stops the cycle of frustration once and for all.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Pal Krogdahl, author of Rip Out the Core—an essential guide for anyone wrestling with the stubborn realities of banking core modernization. Despite massive investments, many institutions still face overruns, delays, and outcomes that leave them no stronger than before.  Sparked by a flooded kitchen that perfectly mirrored the chaos of real-world banking transformation programs, Pal’s book shifts the lens from pure technology to organization, showing that lasting change is impossible without adapting the way people work. He speaks to banking executives and transformation leaders tired of endless patching, converting hard-won industry experience into precise, actionable steps that finally deliver meaningful business value.  Join us as we unpack why core modernization so often fails, how organizational design must evolve alongside systems, and the practical path to progress that stops the cycle of frustration once and for all.

To understand the future, it’s best to begin by studying the past. Jeff Jarvis returns to the Futurists to share a lively summary of the long arc of mass media, and he unpacks several valuable lessons for our present moment. Jeff’s new book Hot Type provides a compelling account of the long struggle to mechanize typesetting, one invention at a time, including the many failures that led to other mechanical breakthroughs. The invention of the Linotype machine made print cheap, and thereafter society consumed far more printed works, paving a path for modern mass marketing and mass consumption. Rob Tercek and Jeff discuss the direct parallel between the economic impact of mass media 100 years ago and the current advent of AI and the commoditization of human cognition. Topics include Jevon’s paradox, human-mechanical hybrids, unanticipated change versus technological determinism, a dozen parallels to our contemporary media economy, the importance of advertising and the attention economy, the advent of subscription sales of literature, a new definition of literacy.

This week on the futurists host Brett King sits down with Dr Julia Michelin to discuss the future of healthcare and how AI, gene-therapy, robotics, neural interfaces, cybernetics, 3D bio printing and other bio-tech is going to transform human society and culture.

Entrepreneurship is an odyssey with many unexpected stops on the journey. You could find yourself on a loading dock in East LA, freestyle rapping with a man known as DJ Trucker—yes, there is video proof.

In this episode of our special series, Killing It, hosts Jason Henrichs and Alex Johnson talk with Max Farrell. Max started his career in business development at Dwolla and went on to found WorkHound, which is now WorkStep. WorkHound began when Max stumbled upon a problem in an industry he didn’t come from, and he jumped right in.

The trio speaks candidly about the unpredictable nature of the founder journey and the need to deeply understand the customer. This includes Max spending 48 consecutive hours in the cab of a truck, winning a Truck Tank pitch competition, and recognizing when it is time to personally hit the road and move on.

This honest conversation shares the ups and downs of building a business. Max describes the near-failures, the acquisition, and his eventual decision to leave his founder identity behind. It’s an odyssey. 

In November 2025, the global techno-economy shifted subtly, then dramatically, as AI agents became viable additions to the workforce. Mark Pesce has documented these changes, what he refers to as “The Watershed”,  in a remarkable series of articles at https://thewatershed.markpesce.com/.  Pesce joins the Futurists to explain his perspective about how companies and work have changed forever. Pesce and Rob Tercek discuss the future of jobs for humans working alongside AI agents, and what happens when an  AI with compounding capability begins to set its own goals. Topics:  relative super intelligence versus AGI; The Bitter Lesson and what remains durable work for humans; private insurance markets as the mechanism for pricing AI risk, why governments will evade that measurement, and the dissolving boundaries that used to define corporations. 

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Prof. Dr. Ingird Vasiliu-Feltes, author of the new book The Art of Quantum: Statecraft, Sovereignty, Strategy—a timely strategic manifesto that reimagines classical principles of foresight and power (inspired by The Art of War) for the quantum age.  As demographic shifts concentrate workforce and economic power in emerging economies by 2030, and technology giants increasingly rival nation-states, the very meaning of sovereignty is being rewritten. Ingird makes a compelling dual case: nations must urgently build quantum sovereignty frameworks to safeguard security, economic stability, and strategic autonomy, while enterprises must engineer quantum resilience to stay competitive in a technology-dominated landscape. We unpack Ingird’s call for integrated quantum governance, orchestration across legal, regulatory, diplomatic, and cyber-ethical domains, and the practical steps required to create regenerative, quantum-resilient ecosystems. Listeners will gain frameworks for quantum literacy, leadership recalibration, and the high-stakes race that will define competitive advantage, national power, and enterprise survival in the decades ahead. Those who master the “art of quantum” will shape the future—join us as we examine why this is no longer optional.