In matlab, how to read python pickle file?

I ended up with read the data back from the .p file:

[whatever_data]=pickle.load( open( "myallData.p", "rb" ) )

Then use scipy to convert and save the data to .mat

import numpy, scipy.io
scipy.io.savemat('/home/myfiles/mydata.mat', mdict={'whatever_data': whatever_data})

So as to avoid dealing with pickle.