The Take Down
Issue #007, A bell, a birthday, and a Saturday night that aged us
Hi, it’s Caroline.
Quick scene reset: Last week was the quiet one. This week was not.
Jon turned a year older, we rang the opening bell at the TMX, a brand new Global X ETF launched, we dropped two videos, did a community event, hosted a guest shoot, kept the kids fed, the dog groomed, and the laundry going. And we attempted a date night in a neighbourhood that has officially decided we are too old for it. (Joke’s on them, we are.)
Settle in.
Thursday: Jon’s birthday + the bell at the TMX
If you’ve been reading The Take Down for a while, you’ll remember that earlier this year I rang the closing bell at the NYSE during our partnership day. A few weeks ago, Jon and I were both down there to film and co-host our first-ever Ticker Take episode at the NYSE. The bells, somehow, keep finding us.
This week we got to ring another one, this time at home.
Thursday was Jon’s birthday, and we kicked it off by ringing the opening bell at the TMX to mark the launch of Global X’s new space ETF, ORBX. A new fund from a partner we love, a new ticker, and a real-deal celebratory morning at the Toronto Stock Exchange. There’s something genuinely surreal about standing on that floor knowing that an instrument from a brand we’ve worked with so closely is opening for trading right behind us.
A bell. A birthday. A new ETF. All in one morning.
Then back to work. (Of course, back to work.)
The video this week: 10 Stocks That Actually Make Money, with David Driscoll
At 4 PM on Thursday, our latest Ticker Take episode dropped: a sit-down with David Driscoll to break down the measure he uses to find companies that are great at making money. Earnings only tell you part of the story. David shares the same metric Warren Buffett swears by, and the 10 stocks that make his list.
As always, this is not financial advice. Just a smart conversation with someone who knows what to look for. Watch it here.
AI Under the Hood: IREN and the AI Infrastructure Race
This week’s AI Under the Hood is about a part of the AI story that does not get enough airtime: the infrastructure race. The picks and shovels behind every model launch and chatbot we hear about.
I dug into IREN and what’s happening across the broader race, with names like CoreWeave, Vertiv, and the hyperscalers moving fast to lock down the compute, the cooling, the land, and the power that make all of this possible. The story behind the story.
In plain English, as always. Watch it here.
The rest of the week
Monday: kickboxing + a great guest shoot at the home studio. Started the week on a high note. The guest brought ideas I’m still thinking about, and we got the kind of episode I cannot wait to share.
Tuesday: a walk with a friend. The kind of catch-up that resets your nervous system. Also: Lola got groomed, which was its own production.
Wednesday: a full day. Jon was on Your Morning (always nice to see him in a different studio for a change), kickboxing for me, tons of work, and two great events back-to-back that evening.
First, the Blossom Social mixer at Everyside Social Eatery + Taphouse (right beside the TMX), a smart patio full of catch-ups with people I love working with in this industry.
Then over to the Balmy Beach Club for Jon’s Q&A with Natalie Johnson, who’s running for City Councillor in Beaches-East York. Our friends & neighbours, Lori and Mike Van Soelen have been working on the campaign, and another friend/neighbour, Valerie Blackstock, did the step and repeat and the rest of the event signage through her company Prism Promo. It is a very particular kind of magic when half the people making an event happen live on your street. The whole night reminded me how lucky we are to live in a community that shows up for each other.
Thursday evening: Jon’s birthday dinner at Imigrante with our girls. We’ve been meaning to go back to this spot for a while, and it did not disappoint. A proper birthday with our four, which is genuinely Jon’s favourite kind of birthday.
Friday: kickboxing, in-studio shoot, How to Make a Killing, and Cali’s school play. The shoot was for an upcoming episode (more soon). We stayed in that night and watched How to Make a Killing. Cali was at her school play and came home full of stories. A perfect Friday.
Saturday: a date night, with a brief stop in the future of nightlife
Saturday was the grown-up part of Jon’s birthday weekend. Dinner at Alder, which was excellent, and then we decided to do a small Toronto Saturday-night walking tour.
First stop: Paris Texas. Now, we knew exactly what Paris Texas was, the cool kids’ bar, packed with the city’s twenty-somethings, the kind of place where the line is long, the music is loud, and nobody in the room has yet developed an opinion about back support. (Jon, incidentally, had thrown out his back earlier that same day. The universe has a sense of humour and was apparently leaning into the bit.) We weren't trying to belong there. We just wanted to walk through. Take the temperature. See what the youth are up to.
It was 8:30 PM. The place, naturally, was empty. Because Paris Texas, as anyone under thirty will tell you, does not get going until 11:30 at the absolute earliest. We had arrived three full hours before the demographic we were observing was even going to show up. We walked through a half-lit, low-energy room, were offered a table and politely declined. We stopped to take a couple of selfies and exited.
We then redirected to Beso by Patria for a drink, which was much more “two adults celebrating a birthday” energy, and headed home for cake with the girls. We watched Ladies First together, ate said cake, and called it a night well before the people at Paris Texas had even arrived.
I’m calling that a win. The girls were home, the cake was good, and Jon got to spend his birthday Saturday with the people who actually like him. Cake at home with your teenagers is, increasingly, my entire personality.
Sunday: laundry, gardening, and a summer being booked
Sunday was the kind of slow-and-productive day you don’t notice you needed until you’re in it.
Mountains of laundry. Gardening, weeding, the backyard, getting that mid-spring “okay, we are really in the season now” attention. A long walk with Lola down to the beach. And, in the afternoon, the slow joyful work of booking the summer: itinerary planning, trip dates, the early notes on what the next few months will look like.
Summer is officially being scheduled. More on that as it gets real.
Jon’s AM vs. Caroline’s PM
Jon this week: Your Morning, the TMX bell, two video drops, a Q&A with a city councillor candidate, a birthday dinner with the family, a birthday weekend that ended in cake, and somewhere in there, his usual columns and shoots. The man does not stop. (Annual reminder: he turned a year older this week. He looks great.)
Me this week: Kickboxing three times, a walk with a friend, the TMX morning, the dinners, the date night that aged us, this Substack, Video shoots, drops, and the long, quiet Sunday at home. The 11 PM brain is getting more 10 PM company, which I take as growth.
The Wins This Week
The bell at the TMX. A morning we’ll remember.
ORBX is live. Global X’s new space ETF, in the world, trading.
Jon’s birthday with our four. The best version.
New video live: 10 Stocks That Actually Make Money, with David Driscoll. Watch it.
New AI Under the Hood: IREN and the AI infrastructure race, featuring CoreWeave, Vertiv, and the hyperscalers. Watch it.
Jon on Your Morning.
The Blossom Social mixer at Everyside. A great room, full of people I like.
The Natalie Johnson Q&A at Balmy Beach Club, with a whole team of neighbours making it happen.
Alder for date night. A genuinely lovely dinner.
Cali’s school play. She came home glowing.
The summer, officially being scheduled.
The Losses This Week
Paris Texas at 8:30 PM: Three hours too early, and probably twenty years too old. A learning experience.
The mountain of laundry: It found me. As it always does.
Sleep: Still a work in progress. Birthday weeks are not when sleep wins.
The takeaway
Some weeks, you ring a bell. Some weeks, you walk out of a bar because you’ve aged thirty years in twelve seconds. Some weeks you do both, on the same week, with the same husband, and you laugh about it in the cab on the way home.
This week had it all. The marquee morning at the TMX. The launch of a new ETF. A birthday with the people who matter most. A date night, an at-home cake night, a school play, a guest shoot, a Q&A, two videos, a friend’s walk, and Sunday’s slow exhale of laundry and gardening and a summer about to start.
If last week was the pause, this week was the proof that the pause works. The slower weeks let the busier ones land. They give you the energy to ring the bell, to walk out of the bar, to eat cake with your kids, and to mean every part of it.
Bell rung. Birthday celebrated. Onwards.
Thanks for being here. See you next week.
Caroline
P.S. A belated happy birthday to Jon if you didn’t get to wish him one this week. Subscribe to his Substack if you haven’t, you’ll get both sides of our brain.