Breaking Banks

Hosted by Breaking Banks - The #1 Global Fintech Podcast

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100

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The #1 global fintech radio show and podcast. Every week we explore the personalities, startups, innovators, and industry players driving disruption in financial services; from Incumbents to unicorns, and from the latest cutting edge technology to the people who are using it to help to create a more innovative, inclusive and healthy financial future.

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60 recent

August 20, 202654 min

Rip Out the Core

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.

August 6, 202642 min

Killing It: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey

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.

July 16, 202647 min

A New Framework for Sponsor Banking

In This Episode For years, Banking as a Service (BaaS) was sold as a silver bullet for community banks to solve their deposit problems and grow non-interest income. Through its evolution, the industry has learned that it is not enough for BaaS to simply be programmable. For innovation in banking to flourish, without sacrificing the safety and security of the banking ecosystem, BaaS must also be governable. With the bankruptcy of Synapse and the resulting consent orders, sponsor banks have been forced to prove their control over outsourced operations. This week on Breaking Banks , Jason Mikula, who wrote the book on BaaS, literally! , and is publisher of FinTech Business Weekly; Ellen Linardi, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Synctera; and Reid Whiting, President of Lincoln Savings Bank join Jason Henrichs to talk about sponsor banking. Is it growing up or catching up? Interested in learning more? Check show notes for a link to a paper, a blueprint really, for the choices a bank that wants to play in sponsorship banking will need to make. White Paper Link: Orchestration, Control, and Observability: A New Framework for Sponsor Banking https://alloylabs.docsend.com/view/gs8925x8yeii5vxg

July 2, 202639 min

Human Consciousness in an AI-Driven World

In This Episode What if AI could replicate your consciousness? Listen as Breaking Banks host Brett King connects with Paolo Sironi, host of Provoke.fm ‘s The Banker’s Bookshelf about Paolo’s latest book, Quantum Sapiens. Paolo’s foray into literary fiction explores the intersection of quantum gravity, philosophy, and the future of human consciousness in an AI-driven world, providing a unique way to explore complex topics. Available at major bookstores and on Amazon, Quantum Sapiens is a haunting novel blending scientific speculation, the frontiers of artificial intelligence, theories of consciousness and urgent ethical questions into a compelling narrative. Join Paolo and Brett as they dive into the “hard problem” of consciousness and how technology like AI acts as a mirror for the human experience.

June 18, 202622 min

The Evolving Digital Economy

In this episode of Breaking Banks host Brett King sits down with Farbod Sadeghian, Founder and Executive Chairman of TheBlock. Based in Dubai, TheBlock is a fintech collaboration space dedicated to fintech, blockchain development, and crypto, bringing together fintech, AI, and capital markets to build the next economy of virtual assets, The conversation covers the origin story of TheBlock and the UAE’s regulatory landscape—specifically the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). They also discuss how TheBlock is building a virtual asset community that enables faster speed to market through direct collaboration with onsite advisors and strategic partners. By connecting people, infrastructure and opportunities, TheBlock offers end-to-end support to help companies launch, operate and scale within the digital economy. If in Dubai, stop by!

June 4, 202642 min

Winning the Multi-Front War: AI-Powered Intelligence for Modern Banking

In This Episode Financial institutions (FIs) are currently navigating a “perfect storm” of technological, market, and consumer shifts. They face a multi-front war: constant economic and regulatory pressure, soaring consumer expectations for 24/7 personalization, and the existential threat of megabanks with massive tech budgets. To survive and thrive, FIs must move beyond “pilot purgatory”—where 95% of generic AI pilots fail—and adopt a banking-specific AI workforce,an AI-powered intelligence layer for modern banking. In this episode of Breaking Banks host Jason Henrichs is joined by Dan Michaeli, CEO & Co-Founder of Glia, a digital customer service and banking AI platform serving over 700 FIs, and Madeline Fredin, SVP of Growth & AI Transformation at Alloy Labs to explore how a self-learning institutional brain unifies data across the organization. By starting with the contact center—the richest source of unstructured interaction data—banks can build a foundation that shifts their entire operation from reactive service to proactive growth and agentic workflows.

May 22, 202654 min

Is just a little crime OK now or what?

In This Episode Kiah Haslett walked into our Hot Takes session at the Alloy Labs annual member meeting with a thesis she’d been sitting on, and it’s a good one: in a lighter-touch regulatory environment, the prisoner’s dilemma rewards whoever moves first. The strategically correct move, she argues, might also be the morally bankrupt one. And she’s not sure that changes the math. Dara Tarkowski — who sees the grand jury subpoenas before anyone else does — pushed back. Not on the logic, but on the premise. The statutes didn’t go anywhere. The switch can still be flipped. And underneath both arguments is the question we’d been wrestling with the day before: if most banks only have a debt mindset — protect the downside, don’t lose, get your principal back — what are they leaving on the table? And what does it actually cost them to keep waiting for clarity that isn’t coming? Joining Jason Henrichs are Kiah Haslett (Fintech Takes Banking), Dara Tarkowski (Much Shelist, P.C.), and Rick Geloff (Bank of North Dakota).

May 7, 202637 min

Everybody’s Robot Fighting

In This Episode This week on Breaking Banks Brett King interviews bestselling author Igor Pejic about his new book Tech Money: A Guide to the New Game of Technology Investing, available May 26th. Brett and Igor discuss turbocharged innovations, frontier technologies, and how AI and technology investment are changing our future. In this wide ranging conversation, Brett and Igor also debate the implications of wars fought largely by AI and how tech-first defense players like Palantir, Anduril and others are changing the sector from an investment perspective.

April 23, 202638 min

Inside the Next Chapter of Payments: Policy, Fintech and Innovation

In This Episode This week on Breaking Banks , we feature sister podcast, Social Currency , powered by Sunrise Banks. Social Currency introduces us to some of the most innovative changemakers in finance, technology, and social impact—leaders who are dismantling barriers and reshaping their industries. In this episode hosts Tyler Seydel, Chief Fintech Officer, and Eric Schurr, Chief Strategy Officer at Sunrise Banks are joined by Brian Tate, President and CEO of the Innovative Payments Association, to discuss where payments policy and innovation are headed next. A graduate of Howard University with experience at the Financial Services Roundtable during the post-crisis reform era shaped by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Brian draws on decades inside Washington to unpack what’s coming for fintech, prepaid products, and the broader banking ecosystem. From regulatory modernization to emerging technologies, he shares his outlook on the opportunities and challenges that will define the next chapter of the payments revolution. To hear more episodes of Social Currency go to provoke.fm or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

April 9, 202638 min

After the Demo: When AI Stops Impressing and Starts Mattering

In This Episode Have we reached the point where AI is beginning to matter in a commercial sense or are we still in the ‘figuring it out’ stage and it’s not driving outcomes yet? In this episode host Jason Henrichs is joined by Prashant Mehrotra, Chief AI Officer at U.S. Bank, and John Sun, Co-Founder and CEO of Spring Labs, for a deep dive into the frontier that is AI. Listen as these executives share insights on AI as a transformational force, not just one part of the organization. Everyone needs to be brought along on the journey which requires evangelization, education, building, and execution as one. Best techs just exist, it should not feel like you are doing AI, you should just be doing your work — a state where intelligence is embedded and is everywhere. The trio also explore the importance of balancing innovation with responsibility, and using AI thoughtfully. AI is complex, and organizations need to know where best to use it. There’s no need to overengineer every single solution. Generative AI costs every time you use it and human oversight remains essential, particularly in highly regulated environments. As we search for efficiency and transformation for good, is AI the next set of prosperity, similar to the invention of the automobile? This episode is part of the Hot Takes series, powered by U.S. Bank, and was recorded live at the University of Utah’s FintechXchange Conference.