Payments Unfiltered

Join Theo Spyrides, Head of Product at Primer, for your much-needed dose of honest payments chat.

Latest episodes

Payments Unfiltered is a podcast from Primer, hosted by Theo Spyrides, exploring the ideas, technologies, and trends shaping modern payments. Each episode features candid conversations with payment leaders, founders, and industry experts about the decisions, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of payments and commerce.

July 23, 2026

The next era of payments: AI, data & the end of the “black box”

In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides sits down with our co-founder and CEO Gabriel Le Roux to discuss where payments are heading next, why AI in payments is more about context than prompts, and what payments intelligence actually looks like in practice for merchants.

June 15, 2026

Everything merchants need to know about chargebacks with Chargeblast’s Qi Cao

Most merchants think hitting their chargeback target means they're safe. Spoiler alert: they're not. In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides speaks with Qi Cao, co-founder and CEO of Chargeblast, to unpack chargebacks, what the Visa Acquiring Monitoring Program (VAMP) actually means for merchants, and why the merchants who manage disputes best are the ones who've already fixed their business model.

April 30, 2026

What is really takes to build and run a PSP at global scale with Worldpay’s James Fry

This is Part 2 of our conversation with James Fry, Head of Enterprise Product at Worldpay (now part of Global Payments). Most people know what a PSP does. Far fewer know what it actually takes to build and run one. In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides, VP of Product at Primer, and James pull back the curtain. James also shares how he thinks about structuring product teams inside a large payments organization and his advice for anyone building payment technology today.

March 19, 2026

From commodity to competitive advantage with James Fry at Worldpay

In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides, Head of Product at Primer, sits down with James Fry, Head of Enterprise Product at Worldpay (now part of Global Payments), to explore how merchants have evolved their approach to payments, and what that means for the payment providers supporting them. James also shares his perspective on two of the biggest trends reshaping the space: stablecoins as an additional payments rail for global merchants, and agentic commerce as a new channel that will require the industry to solve for trusted agents, fragmented protocols, and a whole new model of intent verification.

February 19, 2026

The shifts reshaping enterprise payments with Citi’s Will Artingstall

In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides, Head of Product at Primer, is joined by Will Artingstall, Global Head of Digital Asset Payments and ecommerce Services at Citi. Will shares how Citi is working more closely with enterprise merchants as payment flows become more complex and new rails begin to emerge. They discuss how large organizations are approaching these changes in practice, and what it means for how payments are designed and managed.

January 21, 2026

How AI shoppers are forcing merchants to rethink fraud with Riskified’s Jeff Otto

In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides, Head of Product at Primer, sits down with Jeff Otto, CMO at Riskified, to explore what happens when software starts acting on behalf of customers and what that means for risk, fraud, and merchant exposure. They discuss how agentic commerce changes who initiates a transaction, how trust is established, and why introducing an agent into the flow raises new questions around risk ownership and liability.

September 24, 2025

The business of play with Xsolla’s Berkley Egenes

Payments aren’t just infrastructure in gaming, they’re critical to the industry’s growth. From local wallets and currencies to mobile browser checkout, the way players pay now decides how studios scale. In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla, joins host Theo Spyrides to outline a practical playbook for global game monetization.

July 31, 2025

Why low fraud isn’t always a win, with Galit Shani-Michel of Forter

Low fraud and chargeback rates? Great. But what if it’s costing you customers? In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, host Theo Spyrides is joined once again by Galit Shani-Michel, VP of Emerging Products at Forter, to explore the hidden risks of a “zero fraud” mindset. From KPI misalignment to false declines and friction-filled 3DS flows, Galit explains how well-meaning fraud strategies can quietly damage conversion, customer experience, and long-term growth.

April 16, 2025

Merchants, money & the mechanics behind the scenes with Natasha de Teran

In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides speaks with Natasha de Teran, author of The Payoff and former Head of Corporate Affairs at SWIFT, about the hidden complexity behind everyday transactions. Together, they unpack the frictions built into today’s payment rails, the rising role of regulators, and whether CBDCs and account-to-account payments are viable challengers to cards. Natasha brings a rare blend of policy insight and hands-on merchant experience to the conversation, questioning what’s changing in payments and who those changes are actually for.

Meeting with the best in the business

Primer puts you in control of how money moves across the business. With our unified infrastructure you can orchestrate every flow, reduce friction, and capture more revenue everywhere.