Matt Katz

About

Matt Katz is an investigative reporter, author, audio producer, and on-air host who has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and podcasts for more than two decades, reporting on everything from local school boards to presidential elections to natural disasters. He is currently executive producer of City Cast Philly, a daily news podcast and email newsletter in Philadelphia. Before that he hosted and wrote a an eight-part podcast series, "Inconceivable Truth," about his search for the identity of his biological father and the unusual way in which he was conceived. The show hit the Top 10 on the Apple Podcast charts, won a Webby Award, was named by Vogue as a "Best Podcast of 2024," and was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Podcasts of All Time in an international poll of 300 audio producers, writers, hosts, and scholars. For many years Matt covered former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, first for The Philadelphia Inquirer and then WNYC public radio, winning a Peabody Award for a series of stories about the Bridgegate scandal that rocked Christie's political career. Katz's book, "American Governor: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption," was published by Simon & Schuster in 2016. Before covering state and national politics, he spent time in Afghanistan, writing a series for The Philadelphia Inquirer on failed American reconstruction efforts that won the Livingston Award for International Reporting for young journalists. Katz has also reported extensively on immigration, uncovering abuse in ICE detention centers and traveling to Malawi and Japan to report on the global refugee crisis for The Atlantic, NPR, PBS, and The New York Times. His journalism has also been featured in The Washington Post, Politico Magazine, and The New Republic. For more than a decade, he reported on air at WNYC and NPR about policing and incarceration, and won a Sidney Award for obtaining never-before-scene images of squalid conditions at jails on Rikers Island in New York. He regularly filled in as on-air host for five of WNYC's local and national radio shows. Once upon a time, he wrote a nationally syndicated dating column.