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CONTRIBUTORS

Tony Davidow, CIMA®

Senior Alternatives Investment Strategist
Franklin Templeton Institute

To commemorate the start of season three of the Alternative Allocations podcast, our producer Julia Giordano and I wanted to reflect on our first two seasons. Since launching in the fall of 2023, we have been fortunate to have had incredible guests and have covered a range of topics including the growth and evolution of private markets, product innovation, advisor adoption, asset allocation and portfolio construction, and where the best investment opportunities in the coming years are likely to come from.

I began by asking Julia about our metrics. “To date, as we record, we've had over 18,000 downloads of the episodes, which averages to about 1,000 a month, which is pretty incredible. We consistently rank in the top 25% of all podcasts, and that's based on the number of IAB downloads1 in the first seven days of an episode release, which is a typical way you kind of look at ratings and how we perform.” She noted that we reach over 100,000 per month via social media. These strong results are a testament to our guests and their generosity in sharing insights.  

As we reflected on the first two seasons, we wanted to discuss the lessons we’ve learned and rank our top 10 episodes. While our audience has grown considerably over the past two years, it has been interesting to see new audience members listen to early podcasts. In fact, two of our top episodes are from very early on—episodes #1 (John Bowman) and #3 (Jenny Johnson).

 

Rank

Episode Title

 Guest
10

Ep #1: The State of the Alts Industry

John Bowman, CAIA
9

Ep #21: Enhancing Retirement Options with Alternatives

Jonathan Epstein, DCALTA
8

Ep #18: The Rise of Secondary Markets in Private Equity

Taylor Robinson, Lexington Partners
7

Ep #17: A CIO’s Perspective on Allocating to Alts

Scott Welch, Certuity
6

Ep #3: Democratizing Alternative Investments

Jenny Johnson, Franklin Templeton
5

Ep #15: The Evolution of Alts: From Institutions to Main Street

Nick Veronis, iCapital
4

Ep #8: Challenges & Opportunities in Real Estate

Jeb Belford, Clarion Partners
3

Ep #19: Special Feature: Private Markets Outlook

Taylor Robinson (Lexington Partners), Rick Schaupp (Clarion Partners), Richard Byrne (Benefit Street Partners)
2

Ep #7: Evaluating and Allocating to Alternatives

Jackie Klaber, Rockefeller Capital Management
1

Ep #14: Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate Debt

Richard Byrne, Benefit Street Partners

 

We had multiple macro episodes score well including “The Rise of Secondary Markets in Private Equity,” “Challenges & Opportunities in Real Estate,” “2025 Private Markets Outlook,” and our top-rated episode “Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate Debt.” We also covered different themes presented in the episodes “Enhancing Retirement Options with Alternatives” and “From Institutions to Main Street,” and heard insights regarding allocating capital in “A CIO’s Perspective on Allocating to Alts” and “Evaluating and Allocating to Alternatives.”

There were so many great episodes that didn’t make the list. We think the secret to our success has been getting great speakers who can discuss timely and topical issues. To our loyal audience, we thank you for listening and providing feedback. For new listeners, we encourage you to check out the gems above, which provide pearls of wisdom.

Julia and I are excited about the coming year and the guests that we have in our queue. If you have ideas regarding guests and/or topics, feel free to reach out to either of us on LinkedIn. As always, please rate the episodes and share them with your networks.

If you missed this episode, or any of the previous Alternative Allocation podcast episodes, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We encourage you to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Endnotes:

  1.  IAB downloads are podcast download statistics that follow the measurement standards set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). These standards are designed to provide a consistent and trustworthy way to measure downloads by filtering out bot activity and duplicate listens. A download is counted if at least 60 seconds of an episode is downloaded or played, and a single user listening to an episode multiple times within 24 hours is still counted as only one download.

 

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Investments in alternative strategies may be exposed to potentially significant fluctuations in value.

An investment in private market investments is suitable only for investors who can bear the risks associated with them (such as private credit and private equity) with potential limited liquidity. Shares will not be listed on a public exchange, and no secondary market is expected to develop.

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