SELECTED JOURNALISM

OREGON DRUG APOCALYPSE

A blistering dispatch from the Pacific Northwest, scourged as it is by rampant consumption of chemicals too strong for their users, and blighted as it is by all manner of indulgent and enabling bullshit around this disaster. Pour a stiff drink before reading.

Published by SPIN.

TWILIGHT OF A MERRY PRANKSTER

George Walker is one of the last of the infamous cross country, LSD distributing, bus travelers of Tom Wolfe’s classic, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. And he remembers everything.

Published by SPIN.

NIGHTSWIMMING IN DUNGOG

Spread over the best part of a decade, this is Matt Thompson's confronting account of life and death in small town Australia.

Published by the Sydney Review of Books.

THE LAST CONQUISTADOR

Matt Thompson explores the violent intrigues of Basilan, a rebel and terrorist-plagued island  in the southern Philippines.

Broadcast by ABC Radio National.

DOPEY: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST PODCAST
The heartbreaking, life-affirming story of the people behind the Dopey Podcast, a show about the dark comedy of drug addiction. 

Published by SPIN.

THE CLOSER TO CAESAR, THE GREATER THE FEAR

Americans want a Renaissance for their country. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump suggests that it's already here.

Published by SPIN.

DON'T GO TO JOLO

Matt Thompson goes deep within the Asia Pacific's front-line of the 'War on Terror' and finds that instability and stability can be different words for the same thing.

Published by the Sydney Review of Books.

ERIC AVERY TELLS HOW IT WAS

Jane's Addiction co-founder and bass maestro Eric Avery on growing up in LA and the rise, rush, ruin, and resurrection of his volatile band. Co-written with Matt.

Published by SPIN.

WELCOME TO THE PRODROME

It turns out that America is in a prodromal state, a phase of creeping madness usually only diagnosed retrospectively — after the eruption of full-blown psychosis. 

Published by SPIN.

IDIOT BOX

Aussie prison administrators routinely ban true crime books, asserting without  explanation their threat to the ‘security and good order’ of jails. Matt discovered this after writing Mayhem, a biography of a near-lifelong prisoner, Christopher ‘BADNE$$’ Binse, and then trying to get a copy to him. 

Published by the Sydney Review of Books.

WIPE MY MIND WITH YOUR HEAVENLY POWERS OR TAKE ME TO EDGE CITY, YOU FRAUDULENT CORPSE-DANDY

Much of Matt's adult life was spent revering New Journalism and pining for such an era. When Tom Wolfe died, Matt faced reality.

Published by Neighbourhood.