Podcasts about consumer advisory board

Ali Velshi is joined by Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair Molly Jong-Fast, Opinion Writer with The Washington PostJennifer Rubin, NBC News Foreign Correspondent Matt Bradley, Editor-at-Large for Jewish Currents Peter Beinart, Host of SiriusXM's ‘The Dean Obeidallah Show' Dean Obeidallah, Editor-at-Large of The 19th* Errin Haines, Professor of History at NYU Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Creator, Executive Producer, and Co-Host of ‘The Circus: Inside The Greatest Political Show on Earth' on Showtime Mark McKinnon, President & CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law Michael Waldman, Civil Rights Attorney Charles Coleman Jr., Co-Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Warren Magee

In this episode we are joined with someone's auntie Tanisha Malcom to have an in-depth conversation on Mental Health & the disparities from the personal perspective of lived experience.  Welcome Tanisha Malcom to the Highly Melanated Family Managing a mental health diagnosis for almost 20 years, our guest, Tanisha Malcom, is a staunch mental health advocate, not only for herself, but for the mental health community at large. Tanisha was just featured this week in a CBS News segment sharing her mental health journey and how attending support groups at NAMI NYC in 2019 saved her life. Since 2020, she has been a volunteer at NAMI NYC facilitating several support groups, one specifically she holds near and dear called Black Minds Matter, which she helped create.  "Being Black and living with a diagnosis can be very lonely, so to have this supportive space for our community is vital."Tanisha is currently employed at a mental health nonprofit organization as a Peer Specialist, providing collaborative support and case management to people transitioning from an inpatient psychiatric setting back into the community. She sits on the Consumer Advisory Board of New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of Mental Health"I am being the person for others that I needed throughout my life. I'm still here, and for that, I am grateful."It's "Queens All Day" for Tanisha as this is the borough she was born and raised in. Tanisha's an old-school Rap/Hip-Hop nerd, obsessed with beaches, documentaries, and the University of South Carolina's Women's Basketball team.As of late, she's been crafting a solo show highlighting the humor in life pre and post diagnosis.--- QUOTE OF THE DAY ---“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." - Audre LordeFollow US IG: https://www.instagram.com/highlymelanatedpodcast Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/H_MelanatedPod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb2VbyoW6KaMxQo5onYluXAIF YOU WANT TO BE A GUEST OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO WOULD BE A GREAT CHOICE, HIT US UP!!!FEEL FREE TO EMAIL US @highlymelanatedpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Renee Adair about End of Life Doulas and how their services provide support, options, and education assisting the needs of those who are facing death. Renee Adair is the founder and director of the Australian Doula College, the Groundwork Program and the ADC's charity-arm Doula Heart Network. She first began working with women and babies in 1994 as a massage and Aromatherapist and Reiki Practitioner and in 1998 after the home births of her two biological children she began studying and working as a Doula and Childbirth and Early Parenting Educator. Renee then worked for the Australian Red Cross at a young women's health program/refuge in Sydney's East, setting up both the outreach and childbirth and early parenting education programs for that service. Working In collaboration, Renee helped produce the first research on Doulas in Australia which was published in the Journal of Perinatal Education in 2013. She has spoken on a variety of radio programmes, at conferences and seminars and is a regular contributor for a range of publications, websites and podcasts. Renee has worked to change the way we think about Doula support launching an End of Life Doula Training for the College in 2021 with a view for the wider community to see Doula support though a broader lens, supporting all major life transitions, not just in the birthing space. In 2019 Renee proudly partnered with Charles Darwin University to co facilitate Accredited Doula training for Indigenous women in the remote First Nations community of Galiwin'ku. She now sits on the official Galiwin'ku steering committee to restore Birthing on Country. Renee has sat on the Consumer Advisory Board of the Australian College of Midwives, trained thousands of Doulas and supported hundreds of women, their partners and families through pregnancy, birth, early parenting and end of life over the course of her career. A fierce advocate for human rights, the proud mother of three adult children and three grandkids, blends her life's work, spending downtime with her family, friends and fur babies. Episode link at https://neshnikolic.com/podcast/renee-adairSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SaverLife is a national non-profit sponsored by some of the nation's leading financial institutions that uses financial technology to improve the financial health of low- to-moderate income consumers by incentivizing savings through prizes, rewards, expert resources,  and gameplay. We first discuss SaverLife's objectives and how its online platform operates. We then discuss a range of issues, including the goals of the CFPB's Section 1033 rulemaking, Saverlife's perspective on the growing use of earned wage access and buy-now-pay later products, and the role of the CAB and issues under consideration by the CAB. Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel in Ballard Spahr's Consumer Financial Services Group, hosts the conversation.

Rhys Binney owns Rhys Binney, an advisory, coaching, facilitation, and wilderness experience business that specialises in the use of the wilderness and outdoor activities to build leadership, change, and strategy skills in organisations and individuals. Rhys has a varied background including leading the business transformation of an enterprise technology vendor as the Chief Transformation Officer, 5 years advising executives with Gartner, and experience across management consulting, sales, academia, and the Australian Army. Rhys is an avid ultra-marathon runner, adventurer, long-distance ocean swimmer, and rock climber. He is also part of the Consumer Advisory Board of Hello Sunday Morning and is a keynote speaker in the corporate world regarding mental health, addiction, trauma, and personal transformation. On the podcast this episode, I chat with Rhys about career and life in the outback and deep dive into:Lessons from working in the army that apply to corporateHow being under-prepared led to hallucinations in a marathonHow to transform in life and in businessWhat you can learn from nature that applies to corporateHow agile is being applied Bringing stakeholders on the journey with a mindset shiftChanges in consulting as an industry And much more!Rhys can be contacted at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhysbinney/ and rhys@rhysbinney.com.au Thank you for listening, PLEASE share or rate this episode if you enjoyed it. It helps us a lot so we know what content you enjoy most and can create more of it! #AgileIdeasThis podcast is sponsored by Agile Management Office (www.agilemanagementoffice.com) providing high-impact delivery execution in an agile era for scaling businesses.Thank you for listening to this podcast. We welcome any feedback. www.agilemanagementoffice.com/contact Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to receive access to special events, checklists, and blogs that are not available everywhere. www.agilemanagementoffice.com/subscribe You can also find us on most social media channels by searching 'Agile Ideas'.Follow me, your host on LinkedIn - go to Fatimah Abbouchi - www.linkedin.com/in/fatimahabbouchi/ 

Max E Guttman, LCSW is the Editor-in-Chief of Mental Health Affairs.  He is an award-winning book author and Bold 10 Under ten award recipient.  Through his work as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, mental health therapist and disability rights advocate, Mr. Guttman fights for those without a voice in various care systems, such as the New York City Department of Social Services, the New York State Office of Mental Health, or the city's Department of Corrections.Max's battle with Schizophrenia began at New London University in his last semester of college.  Discharged from Greater Liberty State Hospital Center in July 2008, Max's recovery was swift but not painless and indeed brutal after spending six months there.He has published several journal articles on recovery and mental health and three books: University on Watch, Small Fingernails, and Wales High School. He is also a board member of the newspaper City Voices.   Max currently sits on the CAB committee (Consumer Advisory Board) for the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene in NYC and the Office of Mental Health (OMH) as a peer advocate.He is blogging daily on his site mentalhealthaffairs.blog,   Max regularly writes articles relating to his lived experience with a mental health diagnosis.For more information on Max:FB:  https://m.facebook.com/max.e.guttmanUniversity on Watch:  https://www.universityonwatch.comAmazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Mr.-J.-Peters/e/B001JXF1X8%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_shareCYFHB FB:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/cyfhb

Arjan is a trusted and experienced venture investor and founder of Core Innovation Capital, a leading venture capital fund investing in financial services companies that democratize prosperity. He is a passionate advocate for market-based financial access and empowerment.His investments include Ripple, NerdWallet, Bestow, and Oportun. He is a Senior Advisor to the Financial Health Network (formerly CFSI), the nation's leading authority on financial health, which he helped start in 2004. He has served on the CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board and currently serves on the Fed's Consumer Advisory Counsel.Several of Arjan's investments have been acquired or gone public, including TIO Networks (by PayPal), Fundera (by Nerdwallet), Coverhound (Brown & Brown), Oportun (Nasdaq:OPRT), Honest Dollar (by Goldman Sachs), L2C (by TransUnion), AccountNow (by Green Dot), CircleLending (by Virgin Group), and RentBureau (by Experian).Arjan writes regularly, and has been noted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Economist, and in the documentary, Spent. He speaks regularly including at the White House, SXSW, Stanford, Harvard, and MIT.On a local level he serves on the Compton Community Development Corporation Board. Prior, he spent a decade as an operator in several venture backed startups as a technology leader, product- and general manager including Pierian Spring Software, Cognitive Concepts (acquired by Houghton Mifflin), Capella Learning (now NASDAQ: CPLA), and DoTheGood.Arjan joins me today to discuss mainly about a piece he wrote for Medium called How missionary are you actually?, which I think has so many insights per sentence. It is mind blowing, how dense and how much information is in the short piece. I thought it was worth a deep dive on the podcast, especially for founders thinking about how to hold themselves accountable to the mission. How to make sure it lives on past your initial excitement. And those moments when you say, Let's go climb that mountain..“We believe in Occam's razor, so pick the simpler versus the more complex solution, when there's a choice. We believe in creative destruction. And so rather than perfect academic rigor, we're fine to always be tinkering and improving it. Then we put together a small group of folks whose job it is to call our bluff, to hold our feet to the fire to insist on intellectual honesty.” - Arjan SchütteToday on Startups for Good we cover:Misguided perseveranceImpact externalities reportWhy mission driven startups are intent on financial healthThe importance of writing down the company's mission Calculating correlations between social impact and enterprise valueDifferent ways to levy feesUnderstanding your customer betterSharing positive externalities with steak holdersTaking The Founder's PledgeArjan's article in MediumConnect with Arjan through his email at a@corevc.com or at Core's websiteSubscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.Don't forget to visit our website, connect

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that carries a heavy social stigma. However, experts have also questioned the validity and utility of the label. In response, some experts and service-user groups have called for different conceptualizations and terms for those experiencing psychotic symptoms. Doctors Matcheri Keshavan and Raquelle Mesholam-Gately are currently tackling this issue. They recently completed a project in collaboration with the Consumer Advisory Board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, examining the benefits and drawbacks of renaming schizophrenia. Matcheri Keshavan, M.D. is the Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Academic Head of Psychiatry and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Raquelle Mesholam-Gately, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also the director of the Consumer Advisory Board and conducts neuropsychology research in the Psychosis Research Program at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. In this interview, they discuss what they learned about the issues surrounding the renaming of schizophrenia in their research with consumers and service users. In particular, they reflect on how this psychiatric diagnosis can impact the therapeutic alliance necessary for effective treatment and the overall quality of life of people diagnosed.

In this episode, we'll be hearing from Paul Pester, Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board at Fairer Finance. Paul is also currently working with Cardeo, a startup whose purpose is to create more competition and transparency in financial services, beginning with credit cards. Paul shares with us the fundamental reason why traditional banks find it very difficult to do what is in the best interest of consumers – and walks through an explanation of how that shows up in a product most of us use: the credit card. He also talks about why, if you are a purpose-based organisation, you need to know who your enemy is, who Cardeo's “enemy” is and, surprisingly, who it isn't.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jason Gross, Co-Founder and CEO of Petal, a new kind of credit card company that has pioneered the Cash Score – an alternative measure of creditworthiness based on income, savings and spending history – to make credit more accessible. Founded in 2016, the company has raised over 100 million equity and close to 500 million in debt from industry leaders including Valar ventures, Third Prime, Afore Capital, Story Ventures, and Jefferies. We discussed: - Jason’s non-traditional startup founder background - The story and inspiration behind Petal - Taking the company from 0 to 1 - The state of consumer credit and open banking and what has changed over the last five years since launching Petal - Why Petal has actively collaborated with the US regulator and why Jason considers this extremely important - Founder advice - And a lot more! Jason Gross Jason Gross (@jasonbgross) is the CEO and co-founder of Petal, a New York-based fintech company on a mission to make credit honest, simple, and accessible. Jason has served as a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board, and as a guest lecturer on topics ranging from financial inclusion to A.I. and machine learning in financial services. Previously, Jason practiced law, representing leading technology firms and financial services companies. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School. About Petal Petal is a new kind of credit card company founded to help people financially succeed (http://www.petalcard.com). Petal utilizes the CashScore to make credit more accessible, especially for people just starting out with credit. Petal offers a simple, modern digital experience that encourages members to build credit, avoid debt, and spend responsibly. Petal is located in New York, NY, and Richmond, VA. Petal credit cards are issued by WebBank, Member FDIC. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Miguel's Twitter: twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Miguel's Substack: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Nina Mohanty is a "visionary". Specifically speaking, she is one at the upcoming "Women's Economic Empowerment TechSprint & Conference", which she now showcases in our podcast, providing awareness to our audience on this great initiative brought by the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) in partnership with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We invited Francesca Hopwood Road and Jo-Ann Barefoot to tells us the goals, operations, and available resources created by this initiative to our audience. More on the initiative here: https://regulationinnovation.org/womens_empowerment_sprint/ More on our guests:Jo-Ann BarefootJo-Ann is the CEO & Founder of AIR - the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and host of the global podcast show Barefoot Innovation. A noted advocate of “regulation innovation,” Jo Ann is Senior Fellow Emerita at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government. She has been Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, partner at KPMG, Co-Chairman of Treliant Risk Advisors, and staff member at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. She's an angel investor, serves on the board of Oportun, serves on the fintech advisory committee for FINRA, is a member of the Milken Institute U.S. FinTech Advisory Committee, and is a member of the California Blockchain Working Group Advisory Board. Jo-Ann chairs the board of directors of FinRegLab, previously chaired the board of the Financial Health Network, and previously served on the CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board. She was a co-founder of Hummingbird Regtech.Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbarefoot/ Francesca Hopwood RoadFrancesca leads the FCA's RegTech and Advanced Analytics function responsible fordeveloping and embedding data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence tools and capability across the organization. She also runs the FCA's RegTech activities, including the FCA's TechSprint events, the first of their kind convened by a financial regulator. Since joining the regulator in 2010 she has led a number of strategic transformation programmes. Prior to joining she worked in the third sector and private sector using data and intelligence to identify and mitigate harm for consumers.Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-hopwood-road-ab040b15/

In this episode, Miguel Armaza sits down with Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO & Founder of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and host of the podcast Barefoot Innovation. Jo Ann is a famous advocate of “regulation innovation,” and is one of the most active and visible fintech leaders working to improve and modernize financial regulation around the world. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government and in the past was Deputy Comptroller of the Currency of the United States and a staff member at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. Jo Ann Barefoot Jo Ann Barefoot is CEO & Founder of AIR - the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and host of the global podcast show Barefoot Innovation. A noted advocate of “regulation innovation,” Jo Ann is Senior Fellow Emerita at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government. She has been Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, partner at KPMG, Co-Chairman of Treliant Risk Advisors, and staff member at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. She’s an angel investor, serves on the board of Oportun, serves on the fintech advisory committee for FINRA, is a member of the Milken Institute U.S. FinTech Advisory Committee, and is a member of the California Blockchain Working Group Advisory Board. Jo Ann chairs the board of directors of FinRegLab, previously chaired the board of the Financial Health Network, and previously served on the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board. She was a Cofounder of Hummingbird Regtech. About Alliance for Innovative Regulation AIR is a nonprofit dedicated to modernizing the financial regulatory system. We believe that the regulatory framework needs to migrate from a largely manual to a Digitally-Native Design. This will ensure financial stability, protect consumers from harm, promote financial inclusion, curtail financial crime, and enable continuous innovation. AIR works at the intersection of technology, innovation, and regulation to help regulators better understand emerging technologies that can help improve financial health. Examples like cash-flow underwriting can expand safe and affordable credit to people with no credit history, increasing credit access and a creating a more fair financial system. AIR’s Regtech Manifesto Financial regulation needs to convert from analog to digital design. This seminal thought piece calls for gradual, but urgent, conversion of the financial regulatory system to a “digitally-native” framework. The Manifesto is a Request for Comments (RFC). It calls for discussion about a system that will be rebuilt over time to leverage the power of digitization and make regulatory outcomes better, faster, and cheaper, all at once. Join the conversation.

Parts of our financial system are so deeply ingrained that innovation seems impossible. But after realizing how archaic the credit score was, Jason Gross set out to fix it. He launched Petal to reinvent the credit card and leverage banking data to democratize credit scoring. He's long been committed to fairness in financial services, having served on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board. Now, with tens of thousands of customers, Petal is rising to combat the financial inequity that Covid has exacerbated. Jason shares how being a lawyer has made him a stronger founder, how to hire a low-ego team, and the importance of prioritizing sleep.

We are joined by Prentiss Cox, a University of Minnesota Law School Professor formerly of the MN AG’s office and the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board. After discussing whether the CFPB’s structure should change in the wake of SCOTUS’s Seila Law decision, we look at the different approaches of the CFPB’s past and current leadership to the use of its authorities, the merits and drawbacks of such approaches, and the skill sets of possible candidates to serve as the next Director in a Biden Administration.

In our latest podcast, live from Money20/20, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) speaks with Tim Chen, the CEO and co-founder of NerdWallet. NerdWallet is a leading personal finance content platform with over 100 million users that provides users clarity around all of life's financial decisions. In addition to leading NerdWallet, Tim sat on the most recent Consumer Advisory Board of the CFPB, and was appointed to the board of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). In this extensive interview, Tim shares: • NerdWallet's founding story and how he's grown the company from an $800 investment into a $500 M company serving 100 M+ customers • The future vision for NerdWallet and how Tim is using machine learning to better understand and serve customer needs • Lessons learned from his experience as an entrepreneur, particularly on how he finds and evaluates talented executives • Advice for investors or young executives choosing FinTechs that will be successful in the long-run Prior to NerdWallet, Tim was a hedge fund analyst and also worked in equity research at Credit Suisse First Boston. We would like to thank the team at Money20/20 USA for hosting Wharton FinTech in Las Vegas during their annual conference to meet with and interview thought leaders in the FinTech industry. Money20/20 is the premier global event on Payments, FinTech, and Financial Services where C-level executives, renowned speakers, innovators, and disruptors from across the world unite to drive change in the future of money. We would also like to thank Wharton FinTech's Platinum Sponsor, the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance. The Stevens Center is the premier research, education, and thought leadership institution in the world for financial technology.

Antoinette Schoar is using big data to hold the personal finance industry accountable to the people it serves. The finance professor was a founding member of the Consumer Advisory Board for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We speak with Antoinette about prolific credit card offers, shoddy financial advisors, and how what’s good for the consumer can also be good for the market.

This episode of Bay Area Ventures features Tim Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of www.nerdwallet.com. Tim is a former investment banker and private equity financer who was simply trying to help his sister find the best credit card. In doing so Tim discovered that it was not as simple as he first thought. Besides the obvious brand names such as Visa, Master Card and American Express, all cards vary in their annual fees, interest rates, sign-up promotions, cardmember services and whether they do or do not offer points or cash back. The list was long and the task was a real challenge. When he was through he posted his results to his friends on social media and the demand was so great that he realized there might be a business opportunity to offer similar information to the public and, not only for credit cards but, for a host of other financial services from life insurance, to travel rewards to mortgages and banking. Tim was not a tech entrepreneur but quickly learned to think like one and a soon decided to move Nerdwallet from his apartment in New York City to San Francisco. He discovered that the ecosystem and human talent of the Bay Area with their propensity for taking on something new to their deep network of like-minded startup veterans, was the ideal place to build and grow his company.In this interview Tim talks about scaling his team and about how they all share knowledge internally and challenge each other to think about solving problems for the organization and their customers. He also talks about the financial industry as a whole drawing from his participation as a member of the Consumer Advisory Board to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal agency set up after the 2008 financial melt-down to protect consumer from banking, mortgage and credit card abuse and fraud.Tim gives some great tips on managing your finances and, more importantly on being a successful entrepreneur.Recorded on February 13, 2017, on SiriusXM Channel 111, Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School. Bay Area Ventures airs live on Mondays at 4:00pm Pacific Time, 7:00pm Eastern Time. For a list of upcoming and past guest information visit www.donaldlandwirth.com and click on the Show link.To participate in our monthly Bay Area Ventures Conversation of the Month visit www.BAVConversation.com

Episode 9 finds us at the 2015 EMERGE conference in Austin with the winners of the first Financial Solutions Lab competition. The contest is a $30 million, five-year initiative funded by JPMorgan Chase and run by the Center for Financial Services Innovation, or CFSI, the conference sponsor (note -- I serve on CFSI's board). It challenges entrepreneurs to create solutions for the cash flow difficulties facing millions of American middle and lower income-households. Two hundred ninety-eight innovators applied. Nine were chosen. And  -- drum roll - one was Steve Carlson of Ascend Consumer Finance, our guest for this episode. Ascend was recognized for its unique approach to broadening credit access and affordability for non-prime borrowers.  The company wants to drive a new generation of lending with its Adaptive Risk Pricing tool, which actively monitors and rewards customers for positive financial actions throughout the span of their loan, sharply cutting interest costs. I've known Ascend's Co-Founder and CEO Steve Carlson since we both joined the Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) when it first was formed in 2012. Ascend has benefited - and so does our podcast - from Steve's double background in banking and technology. He has held senior executive roles at HSBC and Washington Mutual and advised global financial services firms as a co-founder of Sung Carlson Associates. He was also the head of marketing and business development at Intuit Financial Services (Mint.com and Quicken). (A side-note on Intuit:  in the recording, Steve  relates its history and I ask if its founder, Scott Cook, got started by making calls from a phone book. Afterwards, I looked up the story and found it in The Lean Startup, by  Eric Ries (pages 88-89). He writes that in 1982 Cook "picked up two phone books: one for Palo Alto, California, where he was living at the time, and the other for Winnetka, Illinois." He randomly called people to gauge interest in his idea, and a company was born. For any listeners who haven't read The Lean Startup, do!) In our conversation, Steve describes the impetus behind Ascend, their current status (including their partnership with Lending Tree), and why he believes banking should be a value-driven proposition. He thinks both consumers and the industry can benefit by improving the financial health of consumers. The company's pioneering product, RateRewards, enables borrowers to earn up to 50% off their interest expense by making responsible financial choices throughout the life of their loan. With Adaptive Risk Pricing, Ascend is able to offer loans at rates that reflect real-time performance instead of past behavior. This, Steve says, is reinventing "the whole concept of underwriting and risk assessment." Indeed, many "non-prime borrowers" - a group that actually represents about a third of the U.S. population - are better candidates than their credit scores would indicate. One-time financial shocks and "thin" files can greatly diminish a consumer's chance of getting a reasonable rate on a loan, or even a loan at all at a traditional institution. Ascend is encouraging borrowers to bet on themselves and prove -- through their actions, rather than their credit history -- that they are creditworthy. As Steve says in the episode: "Everyone today [is] going to be in a different stage in terms of their financial health ... I might be in great shape today; tomorrow could be totally different."  Ascend is trying to make the road to financial wellness smoother -- something Steve says he feels good about. This episode of Barefoot Innovation became a brainstorming session, as Steve and I tried to think through how innovators, banks and regulators can move toward better ideas for financial consumers -- including musings on how innovators should interact with the world of bank charters and regulation. Enjoy it!  And check out more information on Ascend, and on the Innovation Lab winners. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes HERE or by opening your favorite podcast app and searching for "Jo Ann Barefoot".  

Following the Great Recession of 2007-2008, regulators jumped at the opportunity to "remedy" (i.e., regulate) perceived market failures in credit markets. Although government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae were responsible for many of the bad loans that created the crisis, politicians alleged it was the free market and payday lending that needed to be reined in. The 2011 Dodd-Frank Act increased regulators' responsibilities, and even gave rise to a new agency ? the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As the first appointee of the agency's "Consumer Advisory Board," Elizabeth Warren became known as a savior of sorts for victims of so-called "predatory lending." But do these laws, bureaus, and advisory boards protect or harm consumers? In this episode, Bob's guest is George Mason University Law School professor Todd Zywicki, one of Warren's most knowledgeable and outspoken critics. Zywicki and his co-authors recently finished a detailed study on this topic, "Consumer Credit and the American Economy." Listen to learn how the public has been misled about the costs, benefits, uses, and abuses of consumer debt. ----Update [10/19/14]: Todd Zywicki writes a post at the Volokh Conspiracy blog about the NYT Editorial on capping interest rates on consumer credit brought up by Bob and his caller during the show.Click here to read Todd's commentary.Click here to read the NYT Editorial, "A Rate Cap for All Consumer Loans", published 10/18/14.

This week's special guest, Doug Fiore, fills in Bob and Dale on the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailer (IPCPR) show in Las Vegas. (For the first time in five years, neither Bob nor Dale were able to attend the IPCPR event, but have big plans for next year when the show will be held in Orlando.) Check out Professor Fiore's column to read more about this year's IPCPR. Bob talks with Mark Brownlee of Cigar Rights of America (CRA) about CRA's newly created Consumer Advisory Board. Bob is proud to be one of the eight new board members. Dale talks about his plans to attend the 2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival on Aug 28th in Boulder, Colorado. Stan Wojculewski from New Jersey pushes Bob to explain his previous comments on internet retailing practices. The Cigar of the Week is the 777 Zero by J. Fuego. The cigar featured on the "What's My Band?" blind smoke test is the Siglo IV Limited Reserve. Check out the live show! Go to http://www.cigarmedia.tv/live/ where the show is broadcast live most Friday evenings at 9 PM EST. Cigar of the Week - 777 Zero by J.Fuego. A Nicaraguan binder and filler to compliment the Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. Offered in 4 sizes: 5.5x46 Corona, 5.5x54 Belicoso, 5x50 Robusto, and 6x52 Toro. What else have you been smokin' Dale? La Reloba Habano Robusto - 5 x 50 One of the most affordable cigars from the My Father factory in Nicaragua, the La Reloba line is all Nicaraguan longfillers and binder. The Habano line is wrapped with a beautiful, toothy Nicaragua Habano leaf that has a reddish hue, and is aromatic, with scents of deeply fermented tobacco. Medium bodied at the start, growing to a fuller bodied smoke by the halfway point. Tons of great savory flavors - oak, grains, spices and a mild sweetness. The finish brings out some pepper and some nuttiness. Available in 3 other sizes, all priced from $4.50 to $6.50. The line also is available with a Sumatra wrapper for those who prefer a spicier, slightly sweeter character. Highly recommended! Saint Luis Rey Serie G Maduro - 5 x 54 Another value cigar that was brought back to my humidor from the unbanded segment a few weeks ago. This cigar features a thick, oily Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper over a Connecticut Broadleaf binder. The filler is all Nicaraguan tobaccos. A bold, full flavored cigar with full body, good construction and great balance. The core flavors are earthy, with cocoa, coffee, cedar, and exotic spices. There is a solid natural sweetness that supports and enriches the other flavors. In boxes of 25 cigars for around $100 - truly lots of bang for your buck. What else have you been smokin' Bob? Viaje Satori - One of those rare limited production cigars from Viaje the Satori (japanese for enlightenment, more on that later). This cigar boasts a dark Oscuro wrapper and pure Nicaraguan innards that at first may not seem to be anything different than a number of other Nicaraguan puro cigars. But when smoking the Satori, you are truly blessed with enlightenment as the flavor envelopes your brain and your palate begins to float amongst the woody, spice flavors of this distinct cigar. I had mine in my humidor for a year waiting for the right moment but I must say, any moment is right for enlightenment. Elogio LSV Robusto - Certainly one of my favorite smokes and one of Liz’s as well.The LSV is a Nicaraguan puro sporting a sungrown Oscuro wrapper fermented by the blender himself, Carlos Pereda. A complex cigar with great soft spices and a subtle sweetness that is entirely unique. What's My Band? - this week's Unbanded Cigar is the Siglo IV Limited Reserve. Bob: Very pleasant pre-light aroma of fresh cut straw. But what a bland cigar; best flavor was the aftertaste that was slightly cedar. Boring. Dale: Ugly mottled wrapper, good draw, messy ash. Dry and bitter. Flavors of cardboard with a touch of oatmeal being the only savory component Do you have a suggestion for the unbanded cigar of the week? Every week Bob and Dale include an “unbanded cigar” segment in their show in which they smoke a cigar without any markings and give their honest opinions. Bob then opens a sealed envelope and discovers the cigar’s name and manufacturer. If you have suggestions for the "What's My Band?" segment, please send them to liz@cigarmedia.tv. Do you have a Cigar Review? If you call and leave a cigar review on the herf line and it is played on the show, you will receive a DogWatch Cigar Radio patch! You can reach the Herfline at 321-594-4373 - or cigar.radio on Skype. You can also send email to theshow@cigarmedia.tv. Music provided by the Figurados from their new album, "Lesson Two," and The Surfonics. Please visit our sponsors and let them know you heard about them from DogWatch! 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