From desert marathons to mountain treks, he goes where the adrenaline flows.
Like many of you, I have roamed the world vicariously with Boyd Matson for the past 30 years. One of the great adventure journalists of our day, Matson has suffered dehydration, broken bones, snakebite, and countless other misfortunes in his pursuit of stories—and usually comes up laughing. Most people know him as the longtime host of the acclaimed series National Geographic Explorer. Before that, he worked on some of the country's top news shows, including ABC's World News Now and The Today Show on NBC. Currently, he hosts Wild Chronicles on PBS and the radio program National Geographic Weekend. And lucky for us, for the past two years he's written "Unbound," his highly popular column for Traveler. I managed to sit him down for a few minutes before he jetted off to his next adventure.
What is it about travel that you love? I've been addicted to travel since I was a kid. The books that interested me when I was young were about explorers and other parts of the world. I thought I would like to go and find out more about those places. I read a book about Sun Yat-sen in China and a book about a missionary's experience in New Guinea. I thought, I have to get to China and New Guinea to see what they're like. I wanted to see them firsthand. I still read other people's travel writings and say, "Well, I have to get there and see it for myself."
How much time do you spend on the road in a typical year? Probably a third of the time. I try not to keep an accurate count because then I would have to confess to my wife. When I worked for NBC News years ago, for The Today Show, I traveled half the time or more. I was single then. I was the only correspondent who would have laundry bills the first day on the road, because I took all my dirty laundry with me. I knew by traveling I would get my laundry done and have a clean bed at night and a decent meal, something I didn't get at home.
We think of you as an explorer, but what about travel here at home? I traveled a lot as a kid in the United States, going on driving vacations with my parents. I still like driving the back roads of America, seeing the rural places. When I could drive myself, I would stop at all the places that my parents wouldn't let me stop because they were always in a hurry to get someplace. I wanted the journey; they wanted the destination. I did driving trips for The Today Show and briefly at National Geographic. I took my '63 red Cadillac convertible with tail fins and drove around the country doing stories.
