Matt Kirouac

Matt Kirouac started writing about food and restaurants while attending culinary school in Chicago, going on to write for outlets like Time Out Chicago, Plate Magazine, Serious Eats, Daily Candy, and Zagat — the latter of which led him to his coolest celebrity encounter to date: having cocktails with Steven Soderbergh at Drum Bar in Chicago. He also published two Chicago restaurant books, The Hunt Guides: Chicago (2016) and Unique Eats & Eateries of Chicago (2017). Following an eye-opening trip to South Dakota's Badlands and Black Hills in 2016, he's branched into travel writing, covering everything from national parks and Disney World to festivals, hotels, and Pride parades for outlets like Travel + Leisure, Thrillist, Culture Trip, AFAR, TripSavvy, Tasting Table, and Conde Nast Traveler. In 2018, he sold his loft in Chicago to travel full-time in an RV, which led to him creating a national parks travel podcast with iHeartRadio called Parklandia. After premiering in 2019, the show became the most downloaded travel podcast in the country. In 2020, he launched a new podcast, Hello Ranger, all about diversity within the national parks community. The two shows have been covered by outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, AFAR, Block Club Chicago, Barron's, and KAYAK. That year, Matt also settled in Oklahoma City, where he became the first gay writer to have a story on the front page of The Oklahoman newspaper. He lives with his husband Nathan and their mini dachshund, Finn, and enjoys re-watching Twister on an all-too-regular basis.