Matt Recommends

This is a list of things I find to be really useful, interesting, or something I would simply recommend to friends and family alike.

Disclaimer: You may encounter links in this page that are affiliate links which means if you click on them and purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting me!

Money-Saving Apps

👉🏻 Upside

Upside is a fantastic way to save money by claiming cash back on gas when you fill up at the pump. You claim the cash back, fill up your car or make your purchase, and either verify by tying a credit card to your account or uploading your receipt. I’ve made over $60 in the past couple of months just by using this app! Sign up using my link above, and we both get $.15 per gallon one time bonus on your first fill up!

Productivity Tools

👉🏻 TaskTXT.com

A great way to stay on top of your to-do list by assigning a little time to it. This creates a timer which helps to motivate me to get things done!

👉🏻 Goblin.tools

If you need an easy way to break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks, this is the best way to do so. This tool uses AI to create a to-do list with mini steps that lead to your larger goal.

Books

👉🏻 Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

This is easily one of my most favorite sci-fi novels despite the author being a terrible human being. ¹ This book is all about Ender, a child pulled into a bootcamp for child soldiers in space who are put through simulations to help determine their fitness to fight a war against the evil aliens of the universe.

👉🏻 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

This book had me captivated and turning the pages as quickly as I could. The story is of a young girl’s rise in Japanese society to eventually become a Geisha. The imagery and drama throughout the book keeps you hooked as you follow Sayuri through her trials and tribulations.

Movies

👉🏻 Tombstone

An amazing movie starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer in one of the best westerns I’ve seen. It’s the account of Wyatt Earp (Russell) and Doc Holliday (Kilmer) as they take on the wild west and the outlaws in Tombstone, Arizona.

👉🏻 Evita

Say what you will about Madonna’s acting chops. “Evita” is a fantastic musical with a solid soundtrack, and it’s a great story in general. Focused on the rise of Juan Peron in Argentina and Eva Duarte de Peron’s meteoric rise by standing for the poorest of Argentinians whilst sticking it to the middle and upper classes, Evita will move you!

Podcasts

👉🏻 Write Out Loud

A podcast I cohost with Christina Trevaskis focused on writing, storytelling, and the creative arts associated with each. We delve into topics such as “Heartstopper” by Alice Oseman, interviews with authors, and discussions on tactics and techniques for writers.

👉🏻 Literally Books

Co-hosts Magda and Lindsay deep dive into the books they love, books they don’t love, and everything in between. This includes discussions of book-to-movie adaptations and more. They’re delightful, funny, engaging, and you discover so many books you might never have heard of otherwise. Check them out!

👉🏻 Crime Junkie

I’m a true crime fanatic, and co-hosts Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat bring you stories of crimes both solved and unsolved. The care with which they handle the victims, their stories, and the victim’s families is really great. Their stories are engaging and thoughtfully told.

Start Your Own Podcast

Hosting

👉🏻 Buzzsprout

Buzzsprout is a fantastic place to host your podcast with easy submissions to all major platforms built directly in. They offer excellent support, helpful features like dynamic content insertion for your advertising or announcements, “Magic Mastering” to make your episodes sound terrific, and more! Sign up through this link and we each receive $20 in credit!

Webpage

👉🏻 Podpage

Podpage makes building a dynamic, interactive, feature-rich website for your podcast a breeze! You can add features like a blog, voicemail, announcement banners and pop-ups, and so much more!

Recording Platform

👉🏻 Squadcast

Squadcast is a brilliant platform for hosting live video calls with multiple participants. My favorite thing is the recordings are done locally and then uploaded to the server mitigating any issues with network connectivity or latency. It is currently owned by Descript.

👉🏻 Descript

Squadcast’s owner, Descript is one of the best audio editing platforms I’ve encountered. They take a transcript editing-based approach which means instead of splicing and dicing a waveform of audio, you’re simply editing the transcript’s text. Using AI audio of your hosts, you can even regenerate content that was lost in the original audio!

Microphone

👉🏻 Blue Yeti

This is one of the best mics at this price point, and it will easily help make your podcast sound fantastic! You will want to invest in a boom arm and a pop filter, but in general, this USB microphone will make recording your podcast a snap!