Matthew Donovan is a writer, researcher, and cultural observer. He has lived more than one life, depending on who’s asking. Now a sociology student at Columbia, a co-founder of The Future Left, Neoliberalhell podcast, an editor at the literary tabloid (and forum) On The Rag, and from time to time a strategist for On Air Presents and Commonwealth Projects. His work floats between theory, gossip, and cultural observation. He’s writing a memoir about detransition, what it means to undo a story you’ve already told about yourself, and contributing to an essay collection on “Internet Cinema” from Becoming Press.

His work has been covered  by The New York Times, GQ, Nylon, Vice, NPR (unreleased interview), Hyperallergic, LA Times, Paper, Office, Lever News, E-News, Page Six, San Diego Beat, Boston Hassle, Little Village Mag, Seattle Times, ISU Vidette, Perfectly Imperfect, Catapult Magazine, De Zeit, Hysteria Magazine, Byline, Serving Capitalist Realism, Know Your Meme, The Fine Print, Moral Cinema, Paste, and The Pantagraph. Matthew has byelines in The Whitney Review, Forever, Clockedout, Office Magazine, Zora Zine, Interview, Dirty, Curate LA, Kismet Magazine, Restless Nites, and has helped support research for articles in The Atlantic (author note), the New York Times, Reuters, among others.

Meeting Fran Leibowitz, 2025—photographed by Katharina Poblotzki

Matthew James Donovan was born on May 20, 1986, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and grew up in Normal, Illinois. Their earliest publications appeared in the local newspaper The Pantagraph when they were in the 2nd and 3rd grades, and by 6th grade they won an essay contest that granted them to serve as a page for the day with Bill Brady of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Matthew went on their national tour with Casados in 2005. Matthew left Illinois in 2008 to live with their father in Massachusetts and shortly after arriving moved to Boston after he went to prison. During 2008 to 2012, under the trans-androgynous identity of Teaadora Nikolova, releasing their first song on Myspace in 2008, they performed more than hundreds of shows across the United States, self-releasing their first CD-R in 2009, and their first record as a lathe in 2010, earning acclaim from Avant-Garde composers like Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, Zeljiko McMullen, Kites, and Acid Mothers Temple. They were featured in a documentary Vandura Capsule Logbook with Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth), made their first experimental-performance video art piece (at MICA in 2010), and played one of their first roles in the Film Rose (2011): "a gender [experimental] film noir. Inspired by Raymond Chandler and the drag alter-ego of Marcel Duchamp - Rrose Sélavy," the character they played. 2012 they played the Titwrench feminist music festival in Denver, Colorado, the Nau Nau Art Magazine Festival, Phoning It In, and South by Southwest (SXSW). After living in Portland, Baltimore, New York City, Austin, Chicago, Boise, and other cities, they eventually returned to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois in 2011, where they began reclaiming the name Matthew—even as, at that time, more people still knew them as Teaadora.

In 2013, according to College Music Journal, their first LP, Virgin Forever, was the most-played song on prescient college music radio station WXYC in Chapel Hill, NC. In 2014, they were featured as part of the Daytrotter Session, released their Blood Gold EP, and the 2014 Mission Creek Music Festival Artist-in-Residence and performed with Juliana Barwick and William Basinski. Their music wove together deeply personal, confessional narratives with a slow, resonant folk style. Hook and Line Magazine at this time, they hosted an artist series for three years, bringing national artists to their hometown of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Their music premiered internationally at a Scottish Queer International film festival in a film by Mattie Kennedy in 2015 played at the Wichita Psych Fest, named top performances of year, and they took up their second role in a film entitled Present. Their first double-sided LP recorded with Brady Keehn (of Sextile) has since sold out, and they have yet to release their latest album, recorded at Flat Black Studios with Luke Tweedy funded by the Iowa Artists Council. Additionally, Teaadora's music was featured in (some defunct) magazines or blogs from this time period such as Obskure Magazine, Beats Per Minute, Oimos, Raised by Gypsies, All Our Noise, No Not Yet, Cutty Spot, Disdainful Hipster, The Argus, The Press Citizen, Paste Magazine, Warmer Climes, Portly Adolescence, Everything is Chemical, I Had An Accident, The Milk Carton, Beach Sloth, and The Tape Deck. They have performed with No Age, Grimes, Explosions in the Sky, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, Gang Gang Dance, Washed Out, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

"This might well be the most intimate, spellbinding and heart-breaking song I’ve stumbled across this year." No Fear of Pop, Berlin blog (defunct)

"The album is melancholy at times, playful at others. And while the music could be described as minimalist and bleak, her vocals are warm like orchestral strings, and the emotion in her lyrics is dense and layered... Nikolova also has a refreshing, child-like approach to very heavy topics, which erases any kind of pretentiousness from the otherworldly approach she has to her music and conversation." Little Village Mag

"You music belongs in a David Lynch film... so so beautiful. I do not know what to say." Kawabata Makato (founder of Acid Mothers Temple) 

"I just came across this album and am floored. Psyche, folky, abstract, distant, beautiful.. A loo of words to tell you the truth and confused at what I am actually listening to." Birp  

"She played a solitary piece that stretched on for minutes...In that room, in that moment, it felt like we were voyeuristically peering into a child’s mind, a kid in her bedroom singing songs about imaginary friends." Rid of Me, Ames, IA blog (defunct)

"She is a musical cherub, spreading hope, love, and inspiration; serving as an     healer for grieving souls of all living things." Eat On This (defunct) via Abdul Ali 

"It’s difficult to learn about the Bloomington-Normal local music scene without hearing the name “Teaadora” dropped at some point.. [T]he alter ego of local artist Matthew Donovan. No matter what Teaadora played, though, the audience remained captivated throughout the set." Illinois Wesleyan University Argus    

"when the always-forward-looking station charted A Vierge Jemaisé/Virgin Forever by minimalistic singer-songwriter Teaadora, I was immediately taken by the ghostly nature of the serenely echoing vocals." College Music Journal 

"The debut album of young midwesterner Teaadora Nikolava is a collection of songs and incantations with an unnerving and affecting core of fragility and intensity primarily based around voice and guitar, though often with noise floating along the edges, background to foreground - there's a raw sense of melancholy but also sweetness and a sort of uncompromising loveliness, though the poppier sensibilities are tempered with a vague feeling that somebody's relatives are possibly oozing up from beneath the floorboards. Many transcendent late night emotions to be found on this one." Forced Exposure 

"Wonderful music..." Rhys Chatham, avant-garde composer 

 "...the jaw-droppingly-beautiful music of Teaadora. The Bloomington-Normal songwriter is an incredibly rare talent. Years from now when this diamond-in-the-rough has attained  cult status, you’ll hate yourself for missing this show. Words won’t do. Hear for yourself in the video below." Theatre Tangible

"Teaadora is a musical nomad having lived in Boston, New York, Portland, Baltimore, Austin, Asheville, NC and for now Bloomington Normal, IL.  The lo-fi music she creates reflects just that. Right away the music demands listening and it carries you through its life.  The vocals are reminiscent of PJ Harvey set against the soundtrack of a broken, wandering soul.  Teaadora‘s sound can be described as lonely, haunting, unconventional, but at the core of all this lies the beauty and spectrum of deep human emotion.  Prepare to be challenged and moved by Teaadora." Oimos

"When Teaadora performs, I literally almost can't breath..." Steve Halle, Editor in Chief, Spoon River Poetry Review

"The intimacy of this release is so pronounced, the confessionalist poet allows the listener to feel and be part of the tragedy of life. With somber guitar pieces and an angelic voice so rare and delicate, you listen for the moment when everything will break. The warble haze of raw emotion and inner struggle balances the softness and floods of loudness of this mysterious album." Tomentosa Records 

"An enigmatic folkie with an angelic voice, Teaadora Nikolova uses squiggling electronics and folksy acoustic guitar in solo material that’s sometimes dreamy and sometimes nightmarish—but always compelling." San Diego Beat (defunct)

"This is the most real music I have heard in ten years." Christopher Forgues, (also known as C.F. and Kites)

 "I was the photographer for the show and I wanted so badly to capture Teaadora during her performance as she lightly tapped her foot and closed her eyes. However, her silent child-like voice not only captivated me, but hindered my ability to press the shutter. My few attempts disrupted the mesmeric audience as they watched; half-smiling, eyes shut, mostly standing still with placid faces." Parallel Planets 

"Teaadora has a soft, soothing voice that sometimes brings out words and at other times just sounds.I enjoy a good artist comparison as much as anyone... I just cannot even begin to come close to what this song resembles exactly." Raised By Gypsies

 As previously mentioned, they returned to central Illinois to pursue an Associate's Degree at Heartland Community College between 2011-2015. During this time, as part of Mark Jeffries’ performance class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, they created a new Facebook profile under the name Matthew Donovan—an intentional act of publicly detransitioning. Like many others, they founded the second-longest student-run #occupywallstreet movement at Illinois State University in 2011, wrote for the student newspaper, taught yoga classes, and ran an interpersonal-political conversation circle on "difficult topics." They completed a Master Gardening certificate from the University of Illinois, and the following summer, they worked as a farm apprentice on the experimental organic farm known as Henry's Farm. The next year, they were featured at by Illinois Artists Council and ISU English Department's @Salon series featuring renowned local and regional artists and recognized as a Heartland Rising Scholar 2012-2014, the 2015 Paul Simon Essay Contest winner, and the Annual Student Speaker at their 2015 graduation. Matthew’s contributions shape both discourse and community action. Matthew Donovan’s work continues to push the boundaries of public discourse, creating spaces where ideas are shared and lived.

"I've been in radio/TV for nearly 46 years. I've had many, many good moments, but NONE tops the hour this afternoon spent with Matthew Donovan, our Someone You Should Know. From college dropout to living on the streets of New York, Baltimore, Austin and Portland to becoming a top scholar at Heartland Community College, he is now preparing for college at MIT, Yale or [Columbia]. His story is incredibly uplifting." Dan Swaney (original link to quote dead), WJBC Radio

 Matthew’s collaborations extend to nonprofits, political advocacy groups, and cultural organizations, applying strategic insight to digital outreach. The majority of these projects and partnerships happened after moving to Los Angeles in October of 2015. So, Matthew between 2015-2020 include work with co-teaching a class at The New Centre for Research & Practice (NCRP) with Anon Collective (behind "the altwoke manifesto.") Our group hosted public events for numerous projects, including the Los Angeles municipal elections, to help mobilize young voters, Noise Against Sexual Assault in conjunction with a Toronto-based event, Bash Back! To the Future, a Seattle panel on queer community self-defense in the age of the Alt-Right; Together We Plan! Community Organizing in 2018 with Women’s Center For Creative Work to rebalance the often juxtaposed goals of community change and livable personal lives; we lead a workshop on the politic issues in technology, data, and theoretical concerns for Feminist A.I.; and The Future of Activism, a simulcast reading group that both critiqued contemporary activism and explored new visions of social change to come, in association with NCRP and Wolfgang Tillman’s Between Bridges gallery in Berlin. 

Between 2017-2020, they were invited to speak at Living in the Age of Uncertainty on the Anthropocene (alongside K-Allado McDowell and Catherine Malabou) and at Grand Park’s Our L.A. Voices festival and Solitary for Sanctuary, a civic arts initiative of the City of Los Angeles, where he led workshops on crafting political zines and personal essay as tools of public discourse.  speaking on panels for Honey Power and Junior High on sexual assault and gender issues. In 2017, they first spoke publicly about their experiences of detransitioning—before they had even encountered the term—and later reflected on their earlier trans-androgynous identity with a similar sense of disorientation. Donovan also launched his first podcast, Community Outreach, in collaboration with IHeartComix, documenting local and national conversations around pandemic safety, mutual aid, and emergent political struggles during the early months of COVID-19. He was also founders of Covid-19 Mutual Aid Network that helped distribute direct aid, educational infographics, and later became the Mutual AID Los Angeles Network. The Future Left’s projects expose and investigate systems of power—for instance, a documentary on the LAPD unions’ corrupt influence over local governance that premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and PCRC, a data tool that directly maps the financial ties and corruption linking police unions to city officials. In Los Angeles, The Future Left also published one of the region's most-read voter guides (1, 2, 3, 4), helping to elect progressive district attorney George Gascon with people such as Sarah Squirm, Kim Gordon,and others. Matthew also spoke at and help organize cultural events for Bernie Sanders around this time with the Oh Sees, How to Dress Well, and others. During this time, Donovan has lectured at the University of Southern California in the Media and Arts Practice department on digital and networked justice from the perspective of sociocultural research and the history of activist practices.

Working on a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Columbia University in 2021 as an honors student, Matthew’s research spans gender studies and internet culture. In 2022, Matthew, alongside mentor JM "Jaden" Adams, submitted a co-written video essay to The Nature of Cities festival —an international, transdisciplinary gathering exploring urban ecology, equity, and design. In addition to their research, Matthew co-hosted the Neoliberalhell podcast, where their cultural and intellectual life mixes for public audiences alongside throwing parties and hosting public conversations Yesika Salgado (2020), with Steven Donziger, Chris Smalls (founder of Amazon Labor Union) in 2023, Will Menaker and Matt Christman, (of Chapo Trap House), Hasan Piker, Zack Fox, Jessica Burbank, Anna Delvey, Kareem Rahma, Bryan Johnson, Dorian Electra, etc. He has read his work in Dogtown Reading Series, Car Crash Collective, Casual Encounterz, and spoke at Little Secret on tech moderation issues and various political issues. In 2023–25, he appeared: On Air Fest, Hot and Single, RTS Conessions, Subway Takes, The Antifada Podcast, Scroll Tax, Offtrend, the Acid Left (now Revol Press), and others. 

 “A host of Neoliberalhell, the popular podcast on left-wing politics and internet            culture.” Joe Bernstein, New York Times

"Matthew Donovan is one of the smartest people I know—an academic... [who's] work is sharp — clever, but the kind of cleverness that begets survival". Izzy Capulong, Office Magazine

"You’re such a beautiful writer..." Kelly Cutrone, American author, television personality, and fashion publicist

"The people's princess is Matthew J. Donovan." Safy Hallan Farah, contributing writer, Vanity Fair and Vogue (also NPR, the New York Times and more).

 "Matthew Donovan — founder of neoliberalhell podcast— is ‘the perfect cosign … an outward leftist detransitioner who knows everybody, reads everything … meeting every power broker in the room and absorbing them into his orbit at an astonishing clip." Sam Venis — Contributing writer, The New Republic, The Guardian, and Dissent

“Your piece about the death of parties is one of the best pieces of writing in years. Really stunning. You’re Warhol with Didion sentences. I loved every word.” Shumon Basar, British writer, editor and curator.

Lately, I’ve been into running this groupchat—Sweetychat, 400+ people somehow—where we have community online but inside our own world. I like making things just to make them with the people I care about. And then there's this other thing I do, maybe more of a compulsion: helping my friends get what they want, feel more seen, like there's a system here even if there isn’t.