OUR ROMAN EMPIRES
LAST YEAR, a viral Tiktok and Instagram trend saw users of those platforms asking their male friends and relations, on camera, how often they think about the Roman Empire. The answer? Quite a lot, apparently. By the end of the year, “my Roman Empire” had become a catchphrase for something you can’t stop thinking about.
Around the same time as the Roman Empire hit the mainstream, new market research was released showing that Canadian Geographic has the second-highest combined print and digital readership of any magazine in Canada, and that our reach among millennials and Gen Z is trending upward. As a millennial with a child starting kindergarten this year, I wasn’t surprised. At its core, the magazine reflects many of the values parents hope to cultivate in their children: a love of learning, respect for nature and a desire to contribute to a more just and sustainable world.
But I also think our appeal lies in something much less lofty: we publish stories about things we can’t stop thinking about. Sea otters kept coming up in our editorial meetings, so we commissioned the story on page 32. We’d all heard of Manitoba’s Narcisse Snake Dens, but needed to know more, hence the feature on page 46. To mark the centennial of the Royal Canadian Air Force, we wanted to profile a young person who represents the future of that storied force and were thrilled when our writer found Cyle Daniels (page 40).
So, tell us: what’s your Roman Empire? We might just cover it in a future issue.
—Alexandra Pope