The financial services podcast Bankadelic marked its 100th episode this week with a show that celebrates its unusual niche in fintech coverage — an unlikely mix of serious commentary, silly skits and conversational interviews with industry leaders.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to start another banking podcast, especially at the start of the pandemic,” said Lou Carlozo, Bankadelic’s creator-host and the editor/publisher of Talking Biz News. “But the time was right to spotlight voices of calm, hope and leadership at a time when the industry faced its biggest challenge since the Great Depression.”
The timing was fortuitous. Financial technology (“fintech” for short) accelerated in 2020 at a rate equivalent to seven calendar years, and Carlozo spotlighted advances in areas from customer service, to loan origination, to the explosion of cloud-based banking technologies.
“Many of the guests have the scrapping, can-do spirit of entrepreneurs and visionaries,” Carlozo said. “They’re the unsung heroes of keeping financial services alive and moving forward at time when everyone was in a panic.”
Bankadelic also created an opening for Carlozo, a veteran music performer, to dig into his trick bag of voice impersonations and comedy chops. Weekly topical skits have helped “Bankadelic” stand out in the business podcast space, with recurring characters, who include a 17th century British executioner and a gregarious, grammar-mangling wise guy known only as “Johnny Da Big.” Two episodes compiling past Bankadelic skits have been hits with the listening audience.
But Bankadelic has also hit hard, with a show in the wake of George Floyd’s murder that spotlighted racism in banking. Others have looked at the role women have played in the banking leadership.
“I take the content seriously, myself not so much,” Carlozo said.
Sponsored by the William Mills Agency, Bankerhire and Lemonade LXP, Bankadelic is the follow up to a podcast Carlozo co-created and hosted for the Bank Administration Institute. Over two-plus years, Carlozo’s show amassed 125,000 listens and took a four-month hiatus after he left BAI in 2019.
Plans call for financial services podcasts and coverage to join the content lineup at Talking Biz News by Q1 2023. To check out the Bankadelic podcast archive, click here or visit Apple Podcasts.
