Provoke.fm Media

In this episode Cecilia Tham takes us through the intersection of science, design, and business to build things that don’t exist yet. As the founder of Futurity Systems, Cecilia leads a team providing Futures-as-a-Service for global companies and government agencies. Moving beyond speculation into active future building and construction. In this episode we also talk about her efforts to build her own digital soul…

What happens when three fintech nerds gather to eat spicy wings, share some sauce and talk about industry trends? If you are a regular listener to Breaking Banks, you already know the answer: the latest episode of Hot Takes!

Get some chips, your own sauce if you’d like, and listen now as Jason Henrichs, Alex Johnson (Fintech Takes) and Simon Taylor (Fintech Brainfood) — refereed by Peter Renton — offer Hot Takes fueled by hot sauce and spicy conversation. This episode was recorded live at the University of Utah’s 2026 FintechXchange.

This candid discussion with leading voices in fintech is not to be missed! The wide-ranging conversation covers everything from AI and stablecoins to financial nihilism, and more. The panelists explore trends reshaping the banking and fintech landscape while sharing key insights, things to watch and some predictions.

This episode is powered by U.S. Bank. Be sure to catch the entire series releasing this month from the Hot Takes stage, brought to you by U.S. Bank.

Globally the cost of health care is exploding. In the United States, the problem is particularly severe because system is fragmented across many providers and highly inefficient. Economic incentives intensify the problem among private films. Suneel Ratan, CEO of Precognitive, is on a mission to streamline service delivery by building an intelligence layer to provide a single unified care plan across siloed providers. He likens it to a fintech model for health care. Ratan points out that health care is not an infinite resource, which raises the stakes for optimized delivery of personalized care. This is a job for AI. In this discussion, the Futurists covers a range of issues of challenges and areas of inefficiency in health care while driving towards solutions. 

The length of the sales cycle in financial services is legendary. Slow decisions, endless diligence, and constant risk reviews are practically an industry meme. To be fair, the stakes are real. When money moves, it has to arrive; when deposits sit in a bank, they have to be safe. Somewhere along the way, caution turned into paralysis. Banks ask more questions, add more steps, delay commitment, often increasing the risk by avoiding learning, accountability, and real-world feedback.

In this episode of Breaking Banks, Jason Henrichs connects with Lindsay Borgeson, President of Core Bank’s Partner Banking Division, and Kalyani Ramadurgam, CEO and Founder of Kobalt Labs. They discuss the dynamics of decision-making in banking, the importance of defining the problems to be solved, the role of proof of concepts, and the hurdles of implementation. By sharing the Core Bank and Kobalt Labs partnership journey, Lindsay and Kalyani offer practical strategies for navigating these processes more effectively.

For financial institutions, speed doesn’t require cutting corners. For fintech providers, strong partnerships can be built by proving value early and enabling clients to make decisions based on real operational impact.

Whether you are a financial institution seeking to modernize your technology stack or a fintech company looking to accelerate enterprise adoption, this conversation offers experience-based guidance for making faster, high-confidence decisions without sacrificing risk discipline.

Listen now, share with your colleagues, and please reach out to share your feedback.

In this episode, author Daniel Trabucchi joins host Paolo Sironi to explore strategies for legacy companies to embrace platform business models amid dominance by tech-native giants. Drawing from his book The Digital Phoenix Effect, he outlines a pragmatic approach for traditional firms to foster innovation through platform thinking, preserving core strengths like customers, suppliers, data, and expertise. Unlike startup-focused literature, this conversation emphasizes internal transformation in established organizations, blending academic rigor with practical insights from Thinkers50-recognized experts. Ideal for leaders seeking sustainable, networked value creation without radical overhauls.

LINKEDIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-trabucchi-a7891566

https://www.linkedin.com/in/buganza

TWITTER

@DanielTrabucchi

@polimi

An erratic President, a bungled raid on American cities, two fatal shootings by ICE agents, a massive protest by thousands of citizens in Minneapolis and other US cities, and flood of dishonest and misleading statements by Presidential aides and cabinet members: the United States begins 2026 in utter turmoil. Technologist and author Ramez Naam joins the Futurists to share his perspective on the political unrest in American civil society and the collapse of governance norms. Are populist forces fighting against a future defined by accelerating change? Is this a desperate attempt to restore society to a mythical past that never existed? Or is something more sinister afoot? What are the long term effects, domestically and internationally? The discussion includes a range of views on American chaos and some lively debate about the long term implications. 

Host Matteo Rizzi welcomes fintech ecosystem builder Rodrigo García de la Cruz for a global conversation on the future of financial innovation.

This episode explores how fintech ecosystems scale across regions, why Nubank’s U.S. banking license marks a turning point for global neobanks, and how stablecoins and banking infrastructure are reshaping cross-border finance. The discussion also compares European fintech models – from France’s unicorn-focused strategy to Germany’s resilient innovation approach – and dives into what makes fintech associations truly sustainable. A must-listen for founders, investors, regulators, and anyone shaping digital finance.

Could up to 80% of existing credit cards be canceled or see credit reductions under the proposed 10% interest rate cap?

That’s the stark prediction from industry research and leading credit providers like JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon. Instead of helping consumers, the policy could trigger an evaporation of available credit, shrink access, and push borrowers toward less regulated alternatives.

In this episode of Breaking Banks, Jason Henrichs connects with leading industry voices Ron Shevlin, Managing Director & Chief Research Officer of Cornerstone Advisors and author of Forbes‘ Fintech Snark Tank, and Rhett Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO of LoanPro.

As the trio discuss benefits, tradeoffs, and risks, they recognize that one size doesn’t always fit all, and explore where innovation might fill the gap: buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) models, bespoke lending products, and how stablecoins could be a market-based alternative to blunt the access problem, a way to lower costs without breaking the system. Could “loan-on-card” structures or embedded finance preserve convenience while reshaping risk? If credit migrates outside traditional card networks, are we undermining decades of consumer protection?

For anyone shaping the future of banking, fintech, consumer lending and credit, or just trying to better understand the benefits, potential tradeoffs, and risks of interest rate caps and stablecoins as a market-based alternative, this episode is essential listening. Credit has a very long history of teaching us that quick fixes often create new problems.

This episode explores the mission of advancing financial stability and generational wealth for traditionally underserved individuals and families through the lens of  founder and CEO of The Savings Collaborative Barbara Freeman. The conversation highlights her global career in finance, consulting, and development, and how her personal experiences with financial uncertainty and deeply held values around fairness shaped the founding of the Savings Collaborative. Barbara shares how her work bridges systems, education, and economic opportunity to address the everyday financial fragility faced by working families, ultimately reframing wealth not just as money, but as security, choice, and control over one’s life.

Bio:

Dr. Barbara Freeman is the founder and CEO of The Savings Collaborative. She combines her global experience in finance, education, and social impact to help people and communities expand opportunity. She is also a senior consultant to the World Bank, where she focuses on technology and innovation in education.

She was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley and is a certified financial counselor. Barbara created award-winning digital learning tools for English learners and students with special needs, making learning more accessible and engaging for diverse students. Earlier in her career, she helped pioneer one of the first global derivatives portfolios as a currency options dealer with UBS and HSBC, and co-founded KPMG Consulting’s Risk Management practice in Asia, building it into a 400-person team.

As the founder of The Future of Storytelling, Charles Melcher curates a collection of the world’s most provocative and vivid immersive experiences. To Charlie, future stories won’t be linear or confined to the pages of a book: they will be participatory and responsive. Charlie tells The Futurists what makes this type of drama so effective and memorable. In our modern media landscape, where books and TV shows have become commoditized and formulaic, the most successful stories tend to work harder by engaging all of the senses and the imagination fully. After you hear Charlie’s account of his amazing adventures, you’ll never look at storytelling the same way again.