Don’t Cede The Country with Adrienne Evans

Written By Karen Jackson

Episode Description

Ejeris sits down with organizer, sociologist, and United Vision for Idaho Executive Director Adrienne Evans for a powerful conversation about belonging, authoritarianism, and what it really takes to build a movement that can stop rising fascism. Drawing from more than 107,000 conversations across rural communities, Adrienne challenges the idea that people in rural and conservative areas are fixed, unreachable, or already lost. Instead, she makes the case that many people have been waiting for an invitation, for someone to ask what they think and feel, and for movements to stop ceding whole communities to the far right.

Together, Ejeris and Adrienne explore why belonging can be the strongest political force and how deep listening can open up transformation.

Episode transcript - coming soon!

About Adrienne

Adrienne Evans is the Executive Director of United Vision for Idaho (UVI), an Idaho-based nonprofit and the state's only multi-issue progressive coalition. A sociologist specializing in democracy, authoritarianism, polarization, and movement building, Evans has spent more than seventeen years organizing in one of the nation's most conservative states while building a nationally recognized model for strengthening democratic participation. Through its work, UVI has become a wake-up call to the broader pro-democracy movement, demonstrating that rural America is not peripheral to the future of democracy—it is central to it.

While rooted in Idaho, UVI operates the national United Vision Project, a pioneering research and organizing initiative that has conducted more than 107,000 conversations across politically diverse communities across multiple states while building one of the largest known qualitative datasets examining authoritarianism, political identity, and democratic resilience. The project's research has demonstrated that even deeply polarized conversations can change meaningfully: 32.7% of participants who began conversations as very hostile ended them very positive, providing compelling evidence that authentic relational organizing can reduce polarization and rebuild trust.

A nationally recognized organizer, strategist, public speaker, and facilitator, Evans works with organizations and leaders across the country to translate on-the-ground experience and research into practical strategies for countering authoritarianism, strengthening civic participation, and expanding democratic belonging. Political Research Associates Senior Research Advisor Steven Gardner has described the United Vision Project as, "The first time anything like this has ever been attempted; the closest thing might be the work of Theodor Adorno studying the rise of authoritarianism after the Spanish Civil War."

Evans' work argues that rebuilding democracy requires more than winning elections or passing policy. It requires creating the social, cultural, and relational conditions that allow democracy itself to renew and flourish.

About Ejeris

Ejeris is a political strategist passionate about strengthening liberation movements and building community safety. Ejeris serves as the Fascism Barometer's "movement meteorologist," exploring the impact of fascist movements on communities of color, queer and trans communities, and all marginalized people. Having worked for the past twenty-five years at the intersections of racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, anti-violence, transformative justice, and economic justice movements, Ejeris focuses on creating political and strategic experiments to strengthen social justice movements through the organization Ejerie Labs.

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Karen Jackson
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