I was born and raised in New England, but spent almost 40 years living in southern California and San Francisco. I'm a retired psychology professor with a strong interest in natural disasters, media influences, and travel. I used to teach a specialty course on the Psychology of Travel and created my own travel website at www.mattathomeintheworld.com I recently published my first book: At Home in the World: Reflections of a Travel Addict. Please come check out my site!
For those of you who’ve never been able to see one of my author talks in which I discuss my book, I thought you might get a kick out of this. It was a presentation I did for the Public Library in the town of Middleboro, MA on January 15 and the public access TV station in town recorded it.
The talk was really well received; the reference librarian put out a promo to all libraries in Massachusetts recommending me as a potential guest speaker, and I’ve been contacted by another 6 or 7 libraries to do talks in the future.
So if you want to see my “act”, this is the next best thing to being there. Enjoy!
With Labor Day Weekend now behind us, the smell of pumpkin latte will soon be wafting through the crisp autumn air. On the September 3rd episode of WJAR-TV’s Studio 10 program in Providence, Rhode Island I talked about suggestions for fall getaways in New England and you can watch it here with this link to the episode: For those who got to view the episode – and those who didn’t – I thought I’d summarize some of those suggestions here. Hopefully they’ll help those of you fortunate enough to do some leaf peeping in the northeast this season to make the most of your visit!
For some reason I never received a link to the second segment of my interview with WJAR TV’s Studio 10 program for July 18, but I did capture the broadcast on my phone, so here is that installment. Unfortunately, I stopped recording at the end of my segment, but the host, Christina ended the show by telling one of her co-hosts how funny my stories are and that she needs to talk to me before she plans her next vacation, so that was a fun finish. Enjoy!
I’m beginning to feel a little like a local celebrity. Last month I appeared on Providence station WJAR TV to discuss my book on their “Studio 10” program. They are now asking me back on a semi-regular basis to talk about travel in general. They recorded two segments that aired this week, and I am supposed to return in September to do more.
I was just interviewed about my book and my love of travel on the afternoon magazine program, “Studio 10” on WJAR TV in Providence, Rhode Island. Thought I’d share the link to the interview here for those of you who are interested. I guess they liked me, as I’ve been asked to come back for a segment next month to talk about travel tips, so “stay tuned” so to speak!
If you’ve already purchased and read the book, I can’t thank you enough and would be so grateful if you could please leave a review on either the Amazon or Barnes and Noble websites – the book is now for sale in both places. And if you haven’t read it yet, I think it makes a nice, light summer read.
As always, thanks for following my travels and visiting my online home!
After a peaceful drive filled with countless vistas of snowcapped mountains, I arrived in Salt Lake City by late afternoon; the surrounding mountains looked like they’d had powdered sugar dumped all over them. I couldn’t believe it was actually early May and all I could see was snow.
(Please note: Photo captions can be viewed by clicking on each individual photo!)
After my first three weeks on the road, I’d managed to see and visit with a total of almost 30 people. As wonderful as it had been to spend time with so many good friends and family, I was now looking forward to a much quieter second half of my trip as I headed west to wander deserts, mountains, and forests and be alone with my thoughts. Leaving Memphis on a Sunday morning, I had two rather long days of driving ahead of me to get out west where I planned to focus my time. The first day I drove to Oklahoma City, and the next day to Albuquerque, New Mexico, each about a 550-mile journey.
It had been almost a year since I’d taken any significant trips, so the combination of my itchy feet and the prospect of taking my new car on its first road trip, caused me to decide that it was time to hit the road again. Unlike the days when I was living in California and made a couple of cross- country trips each year to visit friends and family back east, these days my time is pretty much my own, so I can just meander and go where I want without being on any type of schedule. When I learned that my friend Joanne had planned to take her 93-year old mother, Norma on a road trip to Florida to visit relatives, I suggested we coordinate our plans to rendezvous first in Virginia Beach, then in Florida where we’d celebrate Norma’s 94th birthday together.
I’ve just returned from a six-week long road trip that took me from Massachusetts to Virginia to Florida to Tennessee, out to Utah, up to Yellowstone and back east again! I basked in the ocean in 85-degree weather and braved hail and treacherously snowy mountain passes; I saw alligators up-close and got some wonderful photos of bears, bison, and wolves! I ate everything from rock crab and key lime pie to elk and bison burgers and of course sampled a lot of my favorite thing: pancakes! And I amassed a huge collection of new photos. I just arrived home this week, so will start sharing my experiences in some new blogs very soon, so please stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I’m still trying to promote my book and I do have more author’s nights/book signings scheduled for the summer at local libraries. To those of you who purchased the book, I’m truly grateful and really hope you enjoyed it. It is still available for purchase as a paperback or e-book on Amazon.
If you did purchase the book and found it entertaining, I’d like to ask that you please take a few minutes to go back to Amazon and leave a review. Although all of the reviews so far have been very positive, there aren’t very many and supposedly, the more reviews the book gets, the more visible it becomes to potential buyers. So thanks in advance to anyone who has left or will leave a review for me!
I hope this finds you all well and looking forward to some wonderful travel adventures this summer!
As I welcomed in 2024 watching a truly impressive fireworks display over downtown Providence, Rhode Island, I decided that one of my New Year’s resolutions needed to be paying more attention to this website and creating some new blog posts for the new year. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, during the last few months of 2023 I was preoccupied with finally getting my book published and trying to promote it.
MATT: AT HOME IN THE WORLD 