Matthew is a veteran of the United States Army. He was deployed to Iraq in 2010 for one year. After his discharge, Matthew and his family moved to California where he opened and operated a small business. He ran that business until the end of 2019. In 2019 Matthew decided he wanted to move back to Hawaii. Hawaii is where he was stationed while serving in the Army and where he and his wife met. Right after he returned to Hawaii the Corona Virus pandemic broke out. This gave him the opportunity to start this podcast. Something he has been wanting to do for some time.While Matthew was in California he attended Hypnosis Motivation Institute. HMI is an accredited college for Hypnotherapy. He went to the school not to become a hypnotherapist, but to learn about the subconscious mind and how it influences behavior. In the Above the Divide Podcast, Matthew combines his love of country with his study of the subconscious mind to try and help heal the division within the country. He believes the division is more emotional than ideological or philosophical. Of course, there are these ideological and philosophical differences, but the more we listen and try to understand each other the more those arbitrary divisions seem to fall away.