Mortgage market talk with operator consequences.
Lykken on Lending is a working mortgage-industry briefing built around rates, policy, technology, and lender execution. Its conversations move from broad market pressure to practical consequences for mortgage professionals, lenders, vendors, and borrowers.
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Lykken on Lending is a mortgage-industry conversation built for people who live inside lending decisions. It is practical first. The show follows rates, loan programs, market pressure, regulation, technology, AI, and operational strategy, then keeps asking what each shift means for lenders. Recent episodes show that pattern clearly. A discussion of uncertainty-aware AI decision intelligence moves from research and data to whether banking and mortgage platforms can make risk-aware decisions under regulation. A conversation with Pavan Agarwal turns probability, Markov chains, Monte Carlo tree search, and AlphaGo into a broader question about business uncertainty and AI judgment. The show does not treat AI as magic. It keeps circling back to governance, data quality, vendor knowledge, borrower impact, and the difference between probabilistic output and dependable decisioning. Market episodes bring a similar frame. Oil shocks, global tension, inflation pressure, yield-curve movement, and rate changes are discussed in terms of hedging, pipeline management, IMB competition, and lender preparedness. The tone can be loose, but the subject matter is serious. Home equity episodes focus on speed, borrower experience, underwriting constraints, and the competitive cost of slow loan cycles. Crypto coverage is careful to distinguish access, fractional ownership, exchange-traded products, compliance, and risk from investment enthusiasm. Regular update segments give the show a trade-publication rhythm, while longer interviews let guests build a case from history, math, legal structure, or operating experience. It is not polished consumer finance content. It is an industry table with market people, technologists, attorneys, operators, and mortgage veterans talking through what has changed and what lenders should do next.
Made for: Mortgage professionals, lender executives, originators, compliance teams, vendor leaders, and market watchers who need current industry context. It is best for listeners comfortable with finance, regulation, technology, and operational detail.
What sets it apart: The show connects macro market movement, regulatory news, AI systems, and lending workflows in the same conversation. Its strength is turning abstract disruption into concrete lender exposure, process choices, and competitive pressure.
Created by mortgage professionals for mortgage professionals, Lykken on Lending is a weekly 60-minute podcast hosted by mortgage veteran, David Lykken, and co-hosted by Marc Helm. Joining the program each week is Adam DeSanctis with his weekly MBA Mortgage Minute, Les Parker with his Macro Market Update, Matt Graham with a weekly Market Update, David Kittle with Originations Update, Alice Alvey providing a Legislative Update, Allen Pollack with his weekly Tech Update. The weekly updates are followed by the Hot Topic segment, which is an in-depth discussion about one of the hottest topics related to the mortgage industry. The program can be heard live each Monday at noon central or downloaded…
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Mortgage headlines become operating questions, with regulation, AI, digital assets and home-equity lending traced back to real lending decisions.
Lykken on Lending follows the mortgage business from the market headline down to the loan file. David Lykken moves among interest rates, regulation, technology and lending operations, asking guests to connect broad shifts with decisions inside mortgage companies.
David Lykken asks what CFPB cuts mean and whether lending AI knows when it's guessing.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A mortgage AI discussion that links uncertainty, governance, and lender risk to practical loan decisions.
The episode centers on Angel AI's uncertainty-aware machine learning framework and Professor Aaron Brahma's push to close the blind spots left by traditional AI models.
Bitcoin, ETFs, and a mortgage-industry view of digital-asset access.
David Lickin frames crypto and digital assets for a mortgage audience through a conversation with Manny Alicandro. Alicandro comes across as grounded in compliance and risk management, with experience spanning regulation, control, surveillance, supervision, governance, banking,…
A brisk mortgage-industry AI segment that links math, uncertainty, and AlphaGo to business risk.
The segment uses Einstein's dice line to set up a clear point: planning in the mortgage world still gets knocked around by uncertainty. Pavan Agarwal moves through probability, Markov chains, Monte Carlo tree search, and Google DeepMind's 2015 AlphaGo breakthrough without losing…
Home equity lending, reduced to speed, borrower friction, and the cost of legacy systems.
David Lickin talks with David Bolin and John Aslan about the operational side of home equity lending, where speed, borrower friction, and the move from application to approval all matter.
A lender-facing discussion of economic pressure, policy decisions, and what a smaller CFPB could mean for mortgage professionals.
Mortgage lending comes into focus through a wide industry conversation about market strain, economic pressure, and the policy choices now facing the business.
Odd questions, followed patiently down to the incentives.
Family grief, public questions, and the responsibilities of care.
On Lykken on Lending’s 09/29/2026 update, panelists assess mortgage rates near 5.25% and the prospect of a 5.5% trading level.
Pavon Agerwal describes biocomputing as human neurons grown from stem cells and connected to electronic circuits.
Matt Graham links a surprising PMI report to a repricing that moved June Fed-rate expectations from 4.2% to 4.8%.
Another AI update starts with governance, then gets into the plumbing.
Crypto is the mortgage industry question on the table.
David Lickin opens with a different kind of AI update, and Pavan Agarwal brings a title that treats business as a question of probability.
David Lickin opens the episode with David Bolin and John Aslan.
This episode discusses mortgage market stabilization amid global tensions and industry disruption, featuring insights from the MBA and a macro view with Les Parker.
This episode discusses how AI is transforming mortgage lending by enhancing data manipulation and workflows, while emphasizing the continued importance of vendor expertise and best practices.
This episode discusses how potential inflation shocks from oil and geopolitical factors could impact mortgage rates and the yield curve, using trader axioms to analyze market dynamics.
David Lickin frames the episode as a mortgage-industry conversation for mortgage professionals, then points back to a recent discussion on AI and the mortgage citizen developer.
This episode features an interview with Steve Stone, a mortgage industry executive, discussing how AI and technology from Byte Software are transforming mortgage operations and recapture strategies.
This episode explores how financial education initiatives led by Dave Savage and Kristin Messerli are addressing distrust in the mortgage industry and helping first-time homebuyers.
This episode discusses AI hype versus reality, focusing on why large language models don't actually think, using Jack Dorsey's recent layoffs of 4,000 software engineers as a case study.
This episode explores how AI and blockchain technologies enable individuals to own and monetize their personal data, particularly in financial and medical contexts, with guests Pavan Agarwal and Damon Burrows.