Marcus Kane

I'm Marcus Kane, and I write the Interesting Facts series here on the site.

I grew up in a small town in Montana where the public library had about two hundred books. I read most of them twice. Geography wasn't a school subject for me, it was an escape route: a way to picture Lisbon or the Atacama Desert before I'd ever left the county. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and I studied Geography and Cultural Studies mostly because I wanted an excuse to keep asking "wait, why is that true?"

These days I live in Portland. I've made it to over 40 US states with a camera in the passenger seat, and I still get the same jolt I got as a kid finding out that Chile is longer than the distance from New York to Los Angeles or that Bolivia has two capital cities. I'm not a professional geographer or a travel influencer. I'm just someone who never lost the habit of looking things up twice to make sure they're right, then writing them down the way I'd tell a friend at 11pm.

Articles by Marcus Kane

Denmark: A Small Country That Punches Above Its Weight

Denmark: A Small Country That Punches Above Its Weight

A small Nordic country with the oldest monarchy in Europe, more bikes than people in its capital, and a culture that turned coziness into a national export.

Marcus Kane
DR Congo: The Country That Powers Your Phone Battery

DR Congo: The Country That Powers Your Phone Battery

A country the size of Western Europe, holding the second largest rainforest on Earth and most of the cobalt in your phone. Here is what makes the DRC one of a kind.

Marcus Kane
North Korea: A Country Living on Its Own Calendar

North Korea: A Country Living on Its Own Calendar

A country that runs on its own calendar, its own internet, and its own version of reality. Here is what makes North Korea one of the most isolated places on Earth.

Marcus Kane
Czechia: The Country That Quietly Changed Its Name

Czechia: The Country That Quietly Changed Its Name

A landlocked country of beer halls, fairytale castles, and a name change most of the world is still catching up to. Here is what makes Czechia worth a second look.

Marcus Kane
Cyprus: A Divided Island with Ancient Roots

Cyprus: A Divided Island with Ancient Roots

Cyprus is a small island doing the work of three different countries at once. Here's what actually makes it tick, beyond the postcard beaches.

Marcus Kane
Cuba: An Island of Vintage Cars and Living History

Cuba: An Island of Vintage Cars and Living History

Cuba is the kind of place where the cars are older than your parents and the music is older than the cars. Here's what makes the island tick.

Marcus Kane
Croatia: A Country Shaped by 1,200 Islands and a Necktie

Croatia: A Country Shaped by 1,200 Islands and a Necktie

Croatia gave the world the necktie, has more than a thousand islands, and hides a Roman emperor's palace inside one of its busiest cities.

Marcus Kane
Cote d'Ivoire: The Country That Grows Most of the World's Cocoa

Cote d'Ivoire: The Country That Grows Most of the World's Cocoa

Cote d'Ivoire grows most of the world's chocolate, has two capitals, and built the largest church on the planet in a town of fewer than 300,000 people.

Marcus Kane
Costa Rica: A Country Without an Army Since 1948

Costa Rica: A Country Without an Army Since 1948

Costa Rica got rid of its army in 1948, runs almost entirely on renewable power, and packs about 5% of the world's species into a country smaller than West Virginia.

Marcus Kane
Cook Islands: A Tiny Nation Spread Across the Pacific

Cook Islands: A Tiny Nation Spread Across the Pacific

Fifteen specks of land scattered across an ocean the size of India. The Cook Islands run their own country while sharing a passport with New Zealand.

Marcus Kane
Congo: The Other Congo, and Why That Matters

Congo: The Other Congo, and Why That Matters

People hear "Congo" and think of one giant country. There are actually two, and the smaller one is its own quiet, green, river-shaped story.

Marcus Kane
Comoros: The Perfumed Islands Most People Have Never Heard Of

Comoros: The Perfumed Islands Most People Have Never Heard Of

A three-island nation off the coast of Mozambique, Comoros sits at the crossroads of Africa, Arabia, and Asia, and almost nobody talks about it.

Marcus Kane