Onward, a Fundrise Production

Latest Episodes:

29: The largest developer in LA, Rick Caruso Nov 17, 2023

Show notes

Rick Caruso’s real estate projects have defined how a generation of LA residents live in and experience the city. When you truly collaborate with communities, Rick explains, you get more than reliable financial success — you get momentum behind your project, you get political capital, and you get the satisfaction that comes from knowing people appreciate and enjoy the spaces you’ve contributed to the city. In this latest episode of Onward, Rick joins Fundrise CEO Ben Miller for a behind the scenes conversation on the current status of the real estate industry, and how his business principles have helped him navigate multiple past industry downturns, such as the S&L and 2008 crises. Beyond that, Ben and Rick’s discussion touches on a variety of veteran real estate insights, such as why Rick is concerned that LA’s current politics could block opportunities for growth; the critical considerations that go into managing banking relationships for real estate developers; and why the 2028 Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, could supercharge yet another real estate renaissance for the city. All this and more, on the latest episode of Onward.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see www.fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

28: Investing in AI, with Tomasz Tunguz Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

As our host, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller, observes in this latest episode of Onward, the amount of hype surrounding AI has become extraordinary… to the point that it’s become difficult for many people to distinguish the reality of its potential from vaporware. Luckily, coinciding with the Fundrise Innovation Fund’s investment in Theory Ventures, we have the opportunity to chat with Tomasz Tunguz, Theory Ventures General Partner, whose experience provides a critical perspective in analyzing how new technological paradigms become drivers for change, productivity, profitability, and growth. Ben and Tomasz’s conversation touches on structured vs. unstructured data, how technology development moves between infrastructure and software, and why tech incumbents have such a head start with AI. This episode is a key introduction to the kinds of systems theory governing the thinking in AI today and the economic analysis that will guide how it eventually winds up in everyday application, in all consumers’ lives. No matter how tremendous the hype behind AI becomes, this conversation makes one thing clear: we’re witnessing the beginning of a new era for tech.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Disclaimer: An investor in the Fundrise Innovation Fund should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The Fund’s prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and may be obtained at fundrise.com/innovation. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

27: Understanding AI and its implications Sep 29, 2023

Show notes

As artificial intelligence has dominated headlines over the past year, it’s become increasingly critical for everybody to understand AI, due to its likelihood to impact each and every one of us. In this latest episode of Onward, join Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia for a conversation that aims to reveal some of the big picture ideas driving AI’s current growth, along with the potential ramifications of those changes — and why it really is worth getting excited over. In terms of impact, Ben and Cardiff explain, we’re beginning to be able to rely on AI to perform tasks as vital and varied as weather forecasting or performing medical diagnoses. The financial outcomes of these leaps are staggering, according to recent reports and projections by some of the world’s largest accounting and financial firms, some expecting annual GDP growth to triple, directly attributed to AI’s ability to automate 40-70% of all workers’ activities. So where does that leave the labor market, people’s day-to-day lives, and investment opportunities in infrastructures that will help govern a whole new technological paradigm? Join Ben and Cardiff in this latest episode of Onward to find out.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Disclaimer: An investor in the Fundrise Innovation Fund should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The Fund’s prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and may be obtained at fundrise.com/innovation. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

26: The Insider's Lobbyist: How lobbying really works, with David Carmen Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

In our latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by David Carmen, founder of the Carmen Group and one of the top lobbyists in the nation. He has worked on some of the most important issues of the past nearly half century — from 9/11 to Softbank’s $22B acquisition of Sprint. With increasing polarization and political dysfunction, many may feel that our democracy is at risk. Most people don’t know why, let alone how we might fix it. With nearly 40 years as a Washington-DC-insider, David Carmen has real knowledge and concrete suggestions that he argues could bring us into a new era of effective government.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

25: The Big Bang: The origin of modern real estate and banking Aug 18, 2023

Show notes

In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia give us a tour of the economic landscape that was once the status quo: a world where local lending institutions called S&Ls — or thrifts — were the primary way individuals saved for and financed home ownership. However, due to a confluence of events, including rocketing inflation similar to the past 18 months’, S&Ls found themselves in a period of acute insolvency. As Ben and Cardiff explain, a series of regulatory blunders, bailouts, and bad actors then caused the crisis to deepen, eventually leading to a total shutdown of the S&L framework, forcing our financial system to perform a hard reset. In the process, the long financial era that had begun in the 1930s came to an end, and our modern era began. Out of the Savings and Loan Crisis arose some of the most basic pillars of today’s economic system, fundamental to how we now think about and handle money, including national banks, banks as mortgage providers, public REITs, and the entire industry of private equity real estate. Ultimately, the Savings and Loan Crisis was so instrumental to shaping our monetary systems today that to truly understand modern finance, we need to look back at that explosive event that set the trajectory our economy still follows.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

24: The case for a recession Jul 05, 2023

Show notes

In the latest episode of Onward, Ben and Cardiff work through one of the most confounding questions currently poised for the economy: What do we make of two seemingly contradictory data sets, where one is telling us that the economy is generally healthy, while the other says we remain precisely on track for a full-blown recession, according to all historical precedent? This source of cognitive dissonance recently sent Ben down a path of research, which has led to a critical observation: Before every recession in recorded Fed history comes a “Great Lag” — an average of 10 months between when the Fed reached peak interest rates and when the subsequent recessions actually began… resulting in a devastating average total stock market decline of -43%. Taking this data into consideration, the task of navigating the recession still hasn’t even started — in fact, we still haven’t even entered the first inning, as Ben says. If many companies are already strained in the current market, with current interest rates — as we’ve seen borne out in some sectors of commercial real estate — they certainly are not prepared for the the multi-year marathon of economic hardship that this data forecasts. So, despite the relative calm of our current economic moment, Ben points out that right now is the moment to prepare for what is almost certainly a recession still lingering on the horizon.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

23: Debt ceiling crises, with Noreen Harrington May 15, 2023

Show notes

Noreen Harrington’s background in finance has involved working on everything from running Treasuries for Goldman Sachs to helping manage the creation of the Euro. In this latest episode of Onward, she joins Fundrise CEO Ben Miller to help us better understand why the upcoming debt ceiling crisis in the United States is a serious threat to economic stability. Today, there are a number of macro crosswinds in play including China’s challenge to SWIFT banking and the rise of digital currencies. These factors set the stage where a politicized debt ceiling crisis threatens to put the fundamental credit and reputation of the US dollar on the line. As Noreen explains, “If we default even one day, I think the ramifications could be on your children and their children.” Even so, from an investing perspective, Noreen validates one of the primary ideas we’ve championed at Fundrise for the past several months, as The Great Deleveraging unfolds: “I think if you have liquidity, there'll be an unbelievable opportunity coming for you to have rescue capital.”
15:05 Noreen's Perspective
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus. For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

22: The case for optimism, with Cardiff Garcia May 05, 2023

Show notes

If you’ve listened to Onward regularly, you know that Fundrise’s CEO Ben Miller has been a perennial contrarian when it comes to assessing the outlook for the economy, especially as markets have overheated and behaved irrationally. So, this latest episode of Onward might surprise you, as Ben gives the floor to co-host Cardiff Garcia, who treats us to a fundamentally different perspective — a full-throated case for economic optimism, as we look ahead to 2024. Ben and Cardiff’s conversation begins with an assessment of the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, where so many of the social, economic, and political upheavals that paved the way for historic inflation also set the stage for fundamentally positive effects on economic productivity, technological adoption, and true cultural change. While the first benefit of these COVID responses was immediate stability, the second boon, our hosts argue, has yet to become fully visible: a new era of growth and productivity.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus. For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

21: Bonus Episode: The fundamental nature of the universe, with Amanda Gefter Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

In this bonus episode, our host Ben Miller interviews a special guest, the science writer Amanda Gefter, to discuss some of the most intriguing and consistently mind-blowing ideas from her book about cutting-edge physics and cosmology, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn. Departing from Onward’s usual topics — the economy, what’s happening in the markets, and Fundrise — Ben asks Amanda to explore a few of the fundamental (but deeply unintuitive and surprising) ideas that underlie the architecture of quantum physics and the behavior of our universe. Over the course of their discussion, they touch on the importance of Einstein’s relativity; why “variance” is at the core of how we define "something" vs. "nothing"; the surprising nature of Hawking radiation; the balance of elegance and practicality in John Archibald Wheeler’s writings; the mechanics through which the universe may eventually "restart"; why perspective always matters; and much more. Join Ben to understand and celebrate the important ways that Amanda’s work has helped push knowledge forward, which is, ultimately, what Onward is all about.
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus. For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

20: The Cascade, the Great Deleveraging’s next chapter Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

In the weeks since Silvergate, Signature, and Silicon Valley Banks’ respective failures, observers around the world have found ways to classify each collapse as the result of specific, isolated circumstances. But our hosts at Onward see something much different: a systemic, likely global crisis in the financial markets, playing out very close to what we projected in our November 2022 episode, “The Great Deleveraging” (https://fundrise.com/education/onward-episode-10). In a direct follow-up to that episode, join Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia for an analysis of how the recent bank crises are strong evidence that The Great Deleveraging is in full swing, along with a forecast on what is likely to happen next for the economy — a phase that Ben has deemed “The Great Cascade,” as the impacts of the liquidity crisis reverberate across multiple sectors of the market, with profound effects. There’s even an event on the horizon that Ben believes is likely to be the straw that “breaks the turtle’s back — toppling turtles, all the way down.” Listen to the episode to find out what that straw is likely to be. (And listen to the original Great Deleveraging episode (https://fundrise.com/education/onward-episode-10), if you need a refresher in turtle cosmology.)
Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.
Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).
Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.
About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.
Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus. For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.
Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.

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