About: Where the heat comes from.
We’re a studio for publishing, audio, and screen. We make stories that change how people see themselves, each other, and the world they share.
Founded in 2020 by product strategist and journalist Ethan Ward. Working across the U.S. and Europe.
What the name means
HEATDRAWN is an anagram of Ethan Ward. The E in the wordmark carries a flame because it’s the first letter of Ethan.
HEATDRAWN began in 2020 as an idea for a news and culture site. The news site never launched. The studio did.
What we make
Original projects built to move from one format to the next, and work made for organizations with a story to tell.
Publishing
Books, magazines, and newsletters: Interested Party, Maroon Astro, the ID picture books, The Pendant’s Secret, The Thread, and the INHERITANCE Magazine archive.
Audio
Reported podcasts, starting with Reputation, a nine-episode series on homelessness in L.A.
Screen
Projects developed for the screen, starting with ID, a wordless animated series created by Ethan Ward and in development at HEATDRAWN Media.
Made for you
Podcasts, series, social impact stories, AI-use policies, user research, and campaigns for brands and organizations. See how we work with you
How we work
Ethan leads every project. We bring in specialists where a project needs them, like the music, editing, and visuals on Reputation and an outside editor on the YA novel.
Look closer
We go where attention usually doesn’t, whether that’s a stranger’s obituary, a fingerprint, a city abroad, or a promise a company makes about its technology.
Do it properly
We fact-check, credit, caption, and finish. People can count on what we make and on us.
Show our methods
When our own publications use a tool like AI, we tell our audience how, as The Thread did, and we write down what it will never do. Read our standards
Make it last
We build projects that can keep going as a book, a series, or a show, and that stay with the people who find them.
Who taught us to look
We learned to bear witness from their work.
James Baldwin
Essayist and novelist
The Fire Next Time (1963)
Ida B. Wells
Investigative journalist
Southern Horrors (1892), her reporting on lynching
Zora Neale Hurston
Novelist and anthropologist
Mules and Men (1935), Black folklore recorded in people’s own words
Gordon Parks
Photographer and filmmaker
His photographs for Life, and The Learning Tree (1969)
Marlon Riggs
Documentary filmmaker
Ethnic Notions (1986) and Tongues Untied (1989)
Toni Morrison
Novelist and editor
Beloved (1987), and the Black writers she published as an editor at Random House
Ethan WardFounder
Ethan Ward is a product strategist and journalist. He researches each project, designs it around how people will use it, and makes sure every fact holds up.
His reporting has appeared in USA Today, NPR, Slate, Fast Company, Marketplace, and PBS SoCal. He has given keynote addresses and government presentations on housing, civil rights enforcement, and responsible AI.
- MSc in Human-Computer Interaction, University College Dublin, with research on responsible AI
- Master of Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
- BA in Journalism, University of Southern California
- AI Policy Certificate, Center for AI and Digital Policy
Recognition
Start with a first call
