DePaul grad aims to preserve friend’s legacy
23-year-old loses podcast co-host to brain cancer
By Clare Proctor
When Michael Holmes was in high school, he won $20,000 to fund a startup that recycled organic matter into soil supplements.
His freshman year at DePaul University, he became finance chair of his fraternity and got the chapter out of tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of debt.
In June 2020, in addition to graduating college in a pandemic, Holmes and his best friend, Landon Campbell, released the first episode of their podcast “InTheir20s.” They interviewed 2020 presidential candidate and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and dozens of others on how they navigated their 20s.
Holmes died April 20 after dealing with brain cancer, said Campbell, also a DePaul graduate. Holmes was 22. His death was “unexpected,” said Campbell, who declined to provide further details out of respect for Holmes’ family. But Campbell has no intention of stopping the podcast after losing Holmes, instead aiming to “preserve (Holmes’) legacy” through it, he said.
“We just miss him dearly and wish he were still here,” said Campbell, 23, of the South Loop. “He just inspired so many people while he was with us, and I just wish that he could have (seen) a lot more of the impact.”
‘Everybody has a Michael story’
Campbell met Holmes their freshman year at DePaul in 2016, when they rushed the same fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. Campbell immediately noticed Holmes’ “authentic” and “entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.
A tightknit friend group emerged from the fraternity pledge class. Campbell, Holmes and their friends moved into a six-bedroom apartment in Wrigleyville sophomore year and Lincoln Park junior year and enjoyed many nights at Kelly’s Pub, Holmes’ favorite place, Campbell said.
“Everybody has a Michael story,” Campbell said. “You had a Michael that you worked with, Michael that you laughed with, that you cried with, that whooped your ass at video games, that you could drink with — sorry — that could outdrink you.”
Tomer Yogev, a DePaul professor and executive coach, gathered his “Michael story” during the fall of Holmes’ senior year in 2019, when he took Yogev’s entrepreneurship and leadership class.
In one in-class assignment, Yogev gave each group a $20 bill and told them they had three hours to “grow the money,” he said. While several students in the class tensed up, frustrated with the nontraditional assignment, Holmes lit up, Yogev said. Three hours later, Holmes returned with his group and $48 — the second-highest result in the class, said Yogev, who couldn’t remember exactly how Holmes earned it.
Holmes consistently demonstrated an “infectious” desire to understand life throughout Yogev’s class, ultimately earning the highest grade in the class of about 50 students that quarter, Yogev said.
Remembering Holmes encourages Yogev to be a “student of life,” even though he’s in his 40s, not his 20s, he said.
Michael Holmes, Campbell’s best friend, died April 20 of brain cancer.
“Obviously, there’s sadness and grief with his passing, but he figured out more about life in his 22 years than some of the people that I coach who are three times his age,” said Yogev, who was one of the early guests featured on “InTheir20s.” “You can spend 100 years on this planet and not figure out life as much as that young man did in his short time.”
Podcast during a pandemic
Holmes and Campbell were seniors in spring of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic closed down schools and triggered stayat-home orders across the country. The friends were thousands of miles apart during the shutdown, with Campbell returning to his hometown of Oakland, California, while Holmes stayed in Chicago.
The two watched classmates and friends face furloughs and rescinded job offers as they graduated into a nearly halted economy, Campbell said.
“We were confused, like, ‘What the hell?’ ” Campbell said. “We’re early in our 20s. This is supposed to be the best time of our lives, and everything is shut down. Everybody’s so depressed. No one knows what they need to do in life.”
The vision for “InTheir20s” sprang from this frustration, as well as a documentary series about Chicago designers that the friends started in college. With the pandemic challenging the logistics of recording documentaries in-person, the pair switched gears to podcasting, Campbell said.
Starting in March 2020, Campbell and Holmes began brainstorming, planning and reaching out to potential interviewees who could provide insight for people in their 20s navigating their early careers.
“We love success stories, and a lot of times, you only hear about what someone’s doing today,” Campbell said. “You don’t really hear about how they got there.”
The podcast does so in its more than 40 episodes.
NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway Sr. told the co-hosts what it was like playing against Michael Jordan — “I was in awe,” Hardaway said — among other basketball greats. Microsoft senior marketing director Kati Quigley recommended that Microsoft job applicants volunteer in something they are passionate about to set them apart.
After Campbell returned to Chicago in summer 2020, Holmes and he met nearly every Sunday to evaluate how many people listened that week and what sorts of influencers people wanted to hear from, Campbell said — neither of them were the type of people to just write an idea down on a Post-it note and forget about it. They wanted to experiment and try things out, Campbell said.
Losing his co-host and best friend isn’t stopping Campbell from continuing the podcasts, which attract thousands of viewers and listeners on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcast, he said. Campbell launched a fundraiser Tuesday in Holmes’ honor and had already raised more than $14,000 as of Friday afternoon.
“I’m just gonna keep it going for my best friend,” Campbell said. “He would have wanted to keep it going as well if the roles were reversed.”