HEATDRAWN Media introduces Interested Party, a magazine about what AI is doing to our work, money, health, and culture
The free magazine publishes reported essays and stories about AI in people’s everyday lives, and sends its first monthly edition Dec. 1.
LOS ANGELES — HEATDRAWN Media has started Interested Party, an independent magazine about what AI is doing to our work, money, health, and culture, from a Black point of view. It’s free to read, and its first monthly edition goes out by email Dec. 1.
Interested Party reports the good and the bad of AI in people’s lives and helps readers make sense of it. Its essays look at how AI is changing the way people work, make things, and judge each other. Its reported stories follow one person and one decision software made about them, such as a job application turned down in minutes, an account suspended overnight, or a rent score they never saw. They name who made the decision, ask them to explain it, and print the answer, or say there wasn’t one. The magazine also shows what works, through people who use AI in their own jobs and lives.
The first stories are already on the site. They include the man whose job application was rejected 55 minutes after he sent it and the shopper flagged by a Sainsbury’s self-checkout after she had paid. Several AI and technology essays that founder Ethan Ward first published in INHERITANCE Magazine now appear there, revised, including “AI Is the New ‘Who Did You Vote For?’”
“I grew up as the internet arrived, and I still love this stuff. I use AI every day,” said Ethan Ward, founder of HEATDRAWN Media. “I also watched the internet stop treating everyone the same. For my master’s thesis, I studied how Black LGBTQ+ creators work around TikTok’s algorithm, avoiding banned words and posting at exact times, all for half the visibility of other creators.
“Now software makes more of the calls about people’s jobs, accounts, and apartments, usually with no reason given. Most of the talk about AI is a fight over whether it’s good or bad, and the people living with it get left out. I started Interested Party to show what AI is changing in their lives. When software decides something about them, I find out who made the call and tell them what they can do about it.”
Ward reports, writes, and edits every story and puts his name on each one. His AI-assisted newsletter, The Thread, won the 2026 Online Journalism Award for Excellence in AI Innovation. He holds an AI Policy Certificate from the Center for AI and Digital Policy and an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from University College Dublin.
The first edition, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, looks at where AI stands at the end of 2026, what changed this year, and what to watch for in 2027. After that, each edition arrives around the 1st of the month with the month’s stories, what readers sent in, and one thing to do before a deadline. New stories go up on the site between editions. Readers can also send tips through the magazine’s tip box: “Rejected, suspended, or flagged for no reason? Tell me what happened.”
Readers can sign up for the monthly edition for free. Interested Party joins Maroon Astro, HEATDRAWN Media’s travel magazine from someone who went, whose first issue came out Nov. 1.
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About HEATDRAWN Media
HEATDRAWN Media is an independent studio for publishing, audio, and screen, founded in 2020 by product strategist and journalist Ethan Ward. Everything it makes is researched, fact-checked, and true to the people it’s for. Its work includes Reputation, a podcast on homelessness in L.A. that won a 2023 Housing Narrative Award; The Thread, a newsletter that won the 2026 Online Journalism Award for Excellence in AI Innovation; and INHERITANCE Magazine, whose essay “The American Experiment” won two awards in 2026. The studio also makes podcasts, series, and campaigns for brands and organizations.