My Finest Work
On the My Finest Work podcast, we talk to writers, editors, artists, and photographers about their favorite projects to help understand what makes a magnum opus, and what everyone can learn from that process.
S1, E7: The Design Duo of EmDash
Erin Mayes and Kate Collins are a two-headed design powerhouse. Together, they are the creative force of EmDash, one of the most successful and recognizable design firms operating in the alumni magazine arena. Their work is iconic and consistently at the top of the heap come award season. Erin and Kate discuss the cover of the summer 2018 issue of Kappa Kappa Gamma’s magazine The Key, which features an illustration of one very famous KKG alumna.
S1, E6: Photographer Eric Hatch
Eric Hatch has captured landscapes in remote place, architecture in less remote places, and portraits that move you. On this episode, we speak to Eric about Faces of Addiction, a gallery show and book project featuring a collection of 50 stunning black and white portraits and accompanying life stories of addicted persons that he captured between 2018 and 2020, as well as a series of photos that trace retreating glaciers across the globe.
S1, E5: Writer Vicki Glembocki
Vicki Glembocki has written for Parents, Reader’s Digest, Women’s Health, The Daily Beast, Salon, and Playboy, not to mention a slew of alumni mags. She’s a contributing editor at Reader’s Digest and has appeared on Oprah and The Today Show. Her book The Second Nine Months traces her journey into motherhood. On this episode of My Finest Work, we chat with Vicky about “What Katrina Gave Michael,” a gripping story about the impact of organ donation.
S1, E4: Photographer Aaron Conway
An industrial warehouse. Jungle props. And very large, muscular men. When photographer Aaron Conway was tapped for concept photography of the Cincinnati Bengals’ New Stripes campaign and uniform reveal in 2021, he went all in with some of the NFL’s most recognizable names from past and present.
S1, E3: Author April White
April White is a senior writer at Atlas Obscura and a former editor at Smithsonian Magazine. She joins My Finest Work this week to share the circuitous story of how her fantastic 2022 book The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier came to fruition.
S1, E2: Illustrator Max-O-Matic
Máximo Tuja (aka Max-O-Matic) is an artist whose finest work is a series he calls “Untitled” from late 2014 to early 2015. He tells hosts Maureen Harmon and Patrick Kirchner about starting this project on vacation, working late into the evenings, and prepping for a show 2 months before its debut.
S1, E1: Editor Kerry Temple
When Kerry Temple came on board as the editor of Notre Dame Magazine in 1995, he was told that any topic was fair game for the Catholic university's quarterly. Except homosexuality. In 2004 under Kerry’s watch, Notre Dame Magazine finally tackled the subject.
My Finest Work Trailer
What are the stories behind the stories that move us? What is the creative process of some of our favorite writers, photographers, designers, and illustrators? And where do they go for inspiration? On My Finest Work we seek to find out.
