The Peak Weekend Reader

Good morning. Two nights ago, I attended the Hilary Duff concert at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto and found myself surrounded by 15,000 fellow millennial women, most dressed in platform flip-flops, their hair adorned with flower clips, outfits trimmed in sequins and pink faux fur. There were even a few cartoon Lizzie McGuires in shiny yellow wigs a couple of seats down from me. The energy whenever Duff sang one of her decades-old hits was electric: we scream-sang So Yesterday, mildly in awe at how well-preserved the lyrics were in our collective inner-child memories. And then, she’d play one off her new record, and the vibe plummeted and bathroom lines lengthened. It was a testament to how much people will pay for a dose of pure nostalgia.

Nostalgia might also be one of the drivers behind Canada’s notable spike in reverse mortgages (slick transition, I know). As writer Jared Lindzon put it in an email when he pitched today’s story, “the graph literally looks like a hockey stick.” Since 2010, the total outstanding reverse mortgage debt in Canada has grown from $0.65 billion to nearly $11 billion today, and the numbers keep climbing. Reverse mortgages are no longer niche, and our feature explores the reasons behind this spike, and whether they’re a good idea in the first place. 

Also upcoming, I’m currently deep into researching a story about how Ontario wine is enjoying a major glow-up. One tidbit from my interviews with sources so far: $30 seems to be the threshold of what we’re willing to pay for local wine, but whenever I see an Ontario bottle for $20 I always wonder whether the winemaker is even making money on it. I’ll try to find out. 

Happy reading,

Liz

🍟 The Golden Arches knows all. Wired writer Reece Rogers requested a copy of the data McDonald’s collected on him as a loyalty program member. Parsing the 515-page document, he discovered just how granular the data was, and found McDonald’s was predicting how much he’d spend and the likelihood he’d stop being a customer — the data pegged it at 0%. 

🎤 Is this boy band really a Nathan Fielder ploy? Pop four-piece Boy Throb has blown up over the past year, gaining notoriety for their irreverent style and their crusade to get one member a U.S. visa (they recently achieved this goal). But some online sleuths now believe their sudden ascent is part of the plot of Nathan Fielder’s next season of The Rehearsal.  

🥤 This soda gets its fizz from captured carbon. Upstart soda brand Misan — owned by direct air capture (DAC) company AirMyne — boasts that it uses “some” CO2 sucked from the air using DAC technology. Currently, it only comes in a lychee flavour. Jeva Lange of Heatmap gave it a less-than-glowing review, saying it had a “cloying, perfumy flavour.”

🐦 Correspondence by carrier pigeon for the modern age. A developer named Noah Iarrobino has created a delightful app called Carrier Pidge, which simulates sending a message via pigeon. For example, if you’re in New York and text someone in L.A., it’ll take 22 hours for your pal to get it. There’s also a small chance the ‘pigeon’ might die (how sad!).

On Monday, Colombia was rocked by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake — the strongest quake to hit the country this century. As of writing, at least 281 people have died across western Colombia, while rescue missions are still working to find missing people and fish survivors out of the rubble. This would be a complex and daunting challenge for any government, let alone for one that’s only been in power for a week, but that is exactly what’s happening. New Colombian president Abelardo De La Espriella just took office on Friday of last week and is already facing a situation that could make or break his presidency.

De La Espriella eked out a victory in the country’s federal elections in June, beating his opponent, Senator Iván ‌Cepeda, by around 250,000 votes. A political outsider — he worked as a lawyer who handled several high-profile cases before founding his own party in 2025 — De La Espriella ran on a hard-right law-and-order platform, promising to flatten armed rebel groups. He also vowed to bring economic reform that would reduce the size of the state and boost the oil and gas industry. Now, the earthquake response is suddenly at the top of his agenda.

Response has been complicated by the fact that many of the areas that were hit the hardest are some of the poorest, least developed, and most isolated in the country. It is these same areas where the aforementioned armed rebel groups, along with independent paramilitaries and criminal gangs, exercise outsized control, which has complicated the delivery of aid. Likewise, looting in the region that has broken out after the disaster has forced some cities to enact strict curfews, which means that rescue crews need to obtain special permits in order to continue their efforts deep into the night.

If handled correctly, the earthquake presents an opportunity for De La Espriella to make his name on the global stage. In this time of crisis, he should face little resistance even from rival parties and be able to pass measures to address the situation. This presents him an early opportunity to forge lasting coalitions and promote himself as a stabilizing force in Latin America. As analyst James Bosworth puts succinctly in Latin America Risk Report, “the earthquake will generate domestic sympathy and support, a rally-around-the-flag moment.” 

However, there is also a lot of room for error. One of the chief knocks against De La Espriella is that he has no experience holding elected office; a botched long-term response could reinforce the narrative that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. In turn, opposition could quickly capitalize. Aside from Cepeda, there is also previous president Gustavo Petro, who purposefully derailed the transition process and has been flinging accusations of electoral interference against De La Espriella. If the public quickly turns on him, it could delegitimize his leadership, potentially destabilizing the country further, and causing geopolitical ripple effects across the entire region. 

Thus far, De La Espriella’s nascent government has declared an economic emergency, giving it temporary powers to enact new taxes and economic measures. It plans to use them to establish a fund for hospitals, schools, and highway reconstruction, as well as offering housing and public service subsidies for those affected by the quake. That’s still in the future though; what matters most right now is managing the complicated rescue response — which involves coordinating a complex web of foreign aid — and keeping the death toll from rising further. 

📡  What else is on our radar: 

Reverse mortgage debt in Canada has grown from $650 million to nearly $11 billion since 2010. We talked to the brokers, bank execs, and one skeptical financial planner to find out why so many are staying put — at a price. 

Also below the fold today…