"It Sets the Mind Dreaming": Birds on Stamps, Topical Collecting, and Postcrossing with Matt Cassetta

After a badly needed summer break, we're back folks!—and rounding out Season 1 with a few more episodes before summer's end. We're thrilled to be talking this week with special guest Matthew Cassetta: an O.G. Postcrosser, globe-trotting naturalist and birder, former president of the D.C.-based Washington Stamp Collectors Club (IYKYK), and all around veteran of topical collecting. Matt also spent two decades in the U.S. Foreign Service focused on science, conservation, and related issues in diplomacy, and has lived (and collected!) in places as far flung as Fiji, East Africa, Madagascar, and Belgium. We chat all about his journey in the hobby, his expertise in birds-on-stamps, and how he got started Postcrossing in the very early days. We hope you enjoy.

ALSO: if you wrote to us last month during the World Stamp Expo (or prior!) fear not—we are racing to get a very tardy mailbag episode in your feeds shortly, and will have goodies out to everyone who wrote to us during Boston 2026 just as fast. Hang tight and keep an eye on your mailbox folks!

As always, we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line at:

P.O. Box 26

Grant Central Station

New York, NY 10163

(Or digitally, at: birthstampsdeath@gmail.com)

Links:

A wonderful gallery of gorgeous bird stamps curated by Matt himself (Google Drive)

Stamps for the Wounded (SFTW)

Matthew and Christopher's club, the Washington Stamp Collectors Club (WSCC)

An introduction to Postcrossing (postcrossing.com)

Probably the most insane and incredible birds-on-stamps collection to date (Birdtheme.org)

Our earlier episode on the Voice of America issue (Part 1) (birthstampsdeath.com)