The Road Ahead for UNWON

Today Is Day One.

UNWON is a voice for rural Americans, working Americans, the people who feed, build, protect, and clothe a nation.

Working America has been abused by the elites for decades; an increasingly out-of-touch oligarchic class who take their labor for granted, regulate them into the ground, scold them for providing, belittle them for believing, berate them for building.

Tuesday, the rurals roared. Donald Trump is the president elect of the United States. JD Vance, Appalachian son, is vice president elect. His party is set to take back the Senate, expand their majority in the House, and, for the first time since 1988, win the popular vote. It’s a new day in America.

But none of these issues facing rural America will be fixed overnight, and not without a fight.

Already the lobbyists and corporate interests are looking for inroads in the administration, adapting their language to meet the populist moment.

Blue states will continue to oppress small farmers and independent producers. Bureaucracies will continue to treat producers like terrorists as the anti-human movement tries to remove us from nature. Globalists will continue to undermine American farmers and ranchers.

The work isn’t over. In fact, the real work begins today.

THE AGE OF NEW MEDIA

“If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor rule. That was the American dream.”

Edward Abbey

UNWON is about the American dream. The West isn’t won, there is adventure and opportunity out there.

UNWON tells the untold stories from the other half of America. The moms, the plumbers, the soldiers, the farmers, the preachers, the coaches, the hunting guides, the mechanics, the cowboys, the truckers. Everyone proud to be an American, to work with your hands, provide for your family, serve your community. The unsung heroes who still believe in opportunity, kindness, and being a good neighbor. Everyone just trying to leave it better than you found it. This project is for you.

My sources and the voices I amplify are smart, knowledgeable, working Americans who the establishment media would never ever acknowledge, let alone quote. They bring real insider info and profound, thoughtful takes, shaped by common sense and real world experience, and then I share that take, unfiltered, with you. UNWON is crowdsourced information from the people you want to hear from.

I believe urban and suburban Americans want to know about where their food comes from, the farmers and ranchers who grow it, and the issues impacting agriculture, natural resources, and land stewardship in America. I believe most Americans care about these things and would get involved to fight for, vote for, and speak up for their rural neighbors who steward our national resources and food supply if they only had the info.

UNWON is a rebellion from the effete, self-flattering joke modern journalism has become. I believe journalism should be a blue collar, shoe leather job. I believe in amplifying people with practical life skills, people who touch dirt, people who spend time in nature. UNWON stands in opposition to the anti-human movement that tells us human presence is detrimental to the natural world. We are part of nature, wilderness is a myth, abundance requires stewardship. We are true conservationists and lovers of the natural world. I explore that concept and what it looks like in practice.

STORYTELLING IS POWER

Common sense may be enjoying a win this week, but it takes more than common sense to build a society. We need shared values, shared ideals, myths and heroes, a sense of legacy. After 60 years of inside-out destruction of our institutions and communities and country and culture, we have to start rebuilding before it’s too late. That’s what UNWON is about.

For a generation of kids without heroes, we’re rebuilding the myths and heroes of America that make our country great.

WHAT IS AHEAD

UNWON is a voice for rural and forgotten America through writing and film.

My next documentary, High Country Murder, co-directed with my sister Michaela Brazil Gillies, comes out this month, produced by Palladium Pictures. Our first feature-length documentary You Just Can’t See Them From the Road will be released next year.

Every week you’ll see stories, reporting, and interviews from real America.

MEET THE EDITOR

My name is Keely Brazil Covello. I am from a rodeo town in the rural mountains of Northern California. My dad was a ranch veterinarian. My childhood was feral, wild, and woolly. I went to school in Los Angeles County and experienced culture shock. I studied to become a journalist, writing for my local paper The Ukiah Daily Journal and then a short stint in Washington, D.C. for the Washington Times.

In D.C. I became disillusioned with political news and the mainstream media. I started an independent blog covering ranch news. UNWON is a continuation of this project. Today I live in Orange County, California with my husband Nick.

I am an independent journalist and a documentary filmmaker, and I am here to stay.