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Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Ari Rastegar and the business of being Iranian

Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

Chai & Conversation

Iran, Conversation, Persian, Chai, Language Learning, Farsi, Courses, Education

4.9548 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we talk to Ari Rastegar, a commercial real estate developer in Austin, Texas. Ari talks about his half Iranian background, how his father instilled the Iranian culture in him, and how it's helped him develop his empire in Austin. 

Transcript

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0:00.0

Learn Persian with Chaiin Conversation, and I'm excited to share

0:32.6

with you today my interview with Ari Rastigar, a well-known and prolific real estate investor here in Austin, Texas.

0:40.1

I first became aware of Ari because his name started showing up everywhere in publications,

0:44.6

especially during COVID, as being the Oracle of Austin and really knowing real estate investing

0:51.3

in this town. To his credit, he grew up here in Austin, so he wasn't one of

0:55.9

these outside investors. He's different than interview subjects I usually talk to, but I was

1:01.2

interested in talking to him for a couple of reasons. First, he is half Iranian, so obviously that

1:06.4

fits in with my theme. But also, I felt like there was something quintessentially Iranian about the way

1:11.5

he ran his business. His logo, it's very Iranian, the way he sometimes speaks in metaphors and

1:18.6

poetry, very Iranian. In general, I was intrigued and I wanted to hear how being Iranian has

1:24.7

influenced the way he is, if at all. I have to say I really enjoyed talking to

1:29.9

him, and I was really surprised by a lot of what he had to say, and especially surprised, given the

1:35.2

fact that he's half Iranian and his dad is the Persian parent, that he speaks fluent Persian,

1:40.7

and that he's even passing the Persian language onto his quarter Iranian children.

1:45.6

Here are the methods he and his dad used to make this happen in the interview. And a quick note,

1:50.5

this was recorded pre-Masa Aminian Iran, so I've been sitting on this interview for a while

1:55.4

and felt it was not quite appropriate to release it earlier. But if you're wondering why the revolution doesn't come up

2:02.2

at all in this interview, that's why. It was early September when we recorded. And with that,

2:08.3

let's listen to my interview with Ari Rostigar, Oracle of Austin. So Ari Rastigar, thank you so much

2:15.1

for talking with me today. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so you're my hamshaddy, which means we live in the same town. We're in Austin. I've been here since 2001, and it sounds like you were born here and kind of left and came back. Exactly right. 1982 and kind of left and came back and forth, and now I'm back to stay. Nice, awesome. Well, so I first read about you in Forbes.

2:35.9

They called you the Oracle of Austin.

2:38.0

You're a real estate mogul here now, and you've kind of pivoted.

...

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