Podcast art by Katelyn Curtis
In the season opener of Pull Quotes, the Toronto Star feature writer Richard Warnica spoke with Gabe Oatley, the podcast’s editor and co-host, about his recent feature Rothko at the Inauguration.
This season’s podcast takes you behind the scenes of Canada’s top long-form stories. In this episode, Warnica talks about his near half-decade long journey to bring this feature, published by Hazlitt in December to light.
“I knew I wanted to write about it, but I had no idea what I was going to write.”
Richard Warnica
In the podcast, Warnica talks about what drew him into this story—a near transcendent moment at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of Donald Trump, staring at a room full of Mark Rothko paintings.
“I sort of sat there by myself, because the gallery was deserted, and I ended up crying and walking out,” says Warnica. “I knew I wanted to write about it, but I had no idea what I was going to write.”
In the interview, Warnica talks about the story’s unusual structure—nut-graf-free and broken into dozens of fragments; his method for writing great scenes and vivid descriptions; and how anxiety has affected his writing.
Credits:
Gabe Oatley, editor and co-host
Rahaf Farawi, producer and co-host
Andrew Oliphant, guest producer
Annika Forman, guest producer
Geena Mortfield, fact checker
Sonya Fatah, executive producer
About the author
Gabe Oatley
Gabe Oatley is Managing Editor (Podcast) at the Review of Journalism.
