How America's Government Teacher Proves Doers Beat Critics
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when a high school government teacher becomes America's most trusted voice on democracy? Sharon McMahon transformed from classroom educator to social media sensation by explaining politics with facts, civility, and clarity. Known as "America's Government Teacher," she reveals how she accidentally became a democratic educator during the pandemic and shares insights from her book The Small and the Mighty about unsung American heroes. She discusses why working with your enemies might be democracy's secret weapon and tackles divisive topics from constitutional reform to political violence. Discover why history favors doers over critics and what it truly means to do "the next needed thing" in challenging times.
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Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | History favors the doers and not the critics. And the people that history smiles kindly upon are the people who actually do things. They did not just stay home and say the government did my family wrong. And so my entire life is going to be consumed with avenging this injustice. They had every right to be upset about what happened. |
| 0:22.5 | But the reason history smiles kindly upon them is because of what they did, not because of |
| 0:28.4 | what they complained about. |
| 0:34.0 | Hello, it's Guy Kawasaki. This is the Remarkable People podcast, and for the upteenth time, |
| 0:40.6 | we are on a mission to make you remarkable, and we go all over the place looking for remarkable |
| 0:46.0 | people. And from time to time, we find some, and we found one today. Her name is Sharon |
| 0:53.3 | McMahon. |
| 0:57.4 | She's a former high school government teacher, but now she's a social media sensation, |
| 1:01.3 | and she's done that, |
| 1:03.3 | not with makeup and food and all that kind of stuff, |
| 1:06.8 | but a much more important topic. |
| 1:09.3 | She explains complex political and legal issues with clarity, accuracy, and civility. |
| 1:16.8 | That's not three words you usually hear when people explain government issues. |
| 1:22.5 | She's really known as America's government teacher, |
| 1:26.3 | and she's built a community of millions of people. |
| 1:30.0 | Her non-partisan platform is at Sharon says so, and she has a really great website called |
| 1:37.3 | The Preamble. |
| 1:38.2 | Her mission is to educate, empower, and restore faith in democracy. |
| 1:43.3 | What a remarkable goal. |
| 1:45.9 | And she's doing this one fact at a time. |
| 1:48.4 | Welcome to the show, Sharon. |
| 1:50.4 | Thanks for having me. |
... |
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