Who am I?
My name is Matthew Berger, PhD – but I much prefer Matt.
Or “Doctor Noir,” as a friend christened me, which is the name of my YouTube channel. This photograph of me in San Francisco’s Castro station during the 2018 NOIR CITY film festival captures that persona.
Otherwise, I am a data geek, scribbler, historian and film noir devotee. My academic credentials: BA in political science from Yale, AM in government from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a MA in biostatistics and a PhD in epidemiology, both from Boston University School of Public Health. You may find my doctoral thesis on the health impacts of neighborhood walkability here. At Harvard, I wrote four papers using baseball statistics that landed me my first job in a two-decade-long career as a health-related data analyst. In 2017, I declared myself a Writer. Around the same time, I finished compiling a comprehensive database of 4,825 movies at least one authority had labeled “film noir.” It has since informed numerous analyses (especiallyt on YouTube) and my first book, Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History…and My Own. Rather than revise it, I now envision splitting Interrogating Memory into The West Philadelphia Story: An Immigrant Jewish Journey and An Idiosyncrat Seeks His Place (or something like that – “idiosyncrat” is the noun form of “idiosyncratic,” of course). The book I started (and to which I will return someday) in the summer of 2022 – Meet Me at the Counter: A Life in Diners. Another possible book might be titled “The Burns Woman”: Misogyny and Class on Trial. Writing investigative works of personal-meets-official history is my gig now.
My musical triumvirate is Genesis, Stan Ridgway and Miles Davis – Roxy Music makes it a quartet. I am a Jewish-raised atheist. While my favorite sitcom is Barney Miller, I think Doctor Who and Twin Peaks are two of the best things ever put on television. Placed for adoption in utero, I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. However, I have now lived in the suburbs of Boston more than half of my life. My politics strongly lean left, though no group has a monopoly on good ideas.
Maybe the best way to put it is this: My wife Nell, along with our daughter, gender-fluid child and golden retriever, keep me happy, sane and grounded.
If there is anything you would like to know, please ask!
Just Bear With Me... 