Legends of the Old West - Introducing “Government That Doesn’t Suck” from Rewind Studios

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

Government often gets a bad rap. But each episode of the new podcast “Government That Doesn’t Suck,” hosted by Professors Greg Jackson and Lindsey Cormack, tells a surprising origin story of a feature of government important to the country, from the internet to the National Park Service to the roads that connect the nation. New episodes drop every other Monday. Use this link to follow on your favorite listening platform or on YouTube for full video episodes: Government That Doesn’t Suck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone. Thanks for listening to Legends at the Old West, of course, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of you also listened to an American history podcast called History That Doesn't Suck by Professor Greg Jackson. I met Greg a few years ago in the relatively small world of history podcasters, and I'm happy to give you a quick preview of his new podcast. From Rewind Studios, the show is called Government That Doesn't Suck by Professor Greg Jackson and his co-host Professor Lindsay Cormack. They'll give you the origin stories behind facets of government, now and throughout history, that are vital to the country, many of which we undoubtedly take for granted, like the roads under our feet, the weather forecast on our phones, the National Park Service, the GI Bill, and more. The professors welcome guests who know the topics inside and out, and will make sure you never look at any of those things the same way again. Here's a short preview of episode one about the founding fathers and the Constitution.

You've basically framed people today, citizens, as founders themselves, right? Yes, I think about this a lot. So in the work that I've been doing in the last few years is I've been around a lot of middle school children, a lot of elementary school children, high school children. And oftentimes they are taught about the founders. And they hear, you know, there were these very few men who had elite ideas. They came together and they built this thing. Isn't that great? And I understand that that's a story we should care about. And it's a story we should tell. But it casts us as sort of spectators in a historical theater play. whereas I like to think of us as all founders. And so when I'm working with children, after we talk about who the founders were, I point to them and I say, what kind of founder are you? Honestly, I mean,

that jives so much with everything that the founding fathers talked about. I mean, Jefferson could kind of run his mouth a little bit on some of his ideas, things that some of the other founders were probably a little more inclined to say, okay, okay, Tommy, chill out there. But, you know, he did articulate the idea

that the revolution should effectively be renewed every generation. That's what I mean, right? Like the idea that, well, basically, a little blood's got to be spilled. Calm down, Tom. I don't know if we need to go quite there. But the real sentiment, what I feel like T.J. is getting at, isn't that we necessarily have to spill blood, but perhaps that we should have our blood, our skin in the game, right?

And I think we do have to have our skin in the game. And I think we kind of all have skin in the game, but we're not realizing the benefits. We're just not. If we think someone else is taking care of it, then we aren't being in it in the way that I think our OG founders wanted us to be. I feel like people want this perfect guarantee of a safety rail

that government's going to work out and be okay without them being the safety rail. There has to be this recognition that we the people, we are that safety rail. You just don't get government by the people unless the people are doing it. Look, we do government at the end of the day, at least from the American framework, I'd say, in the pursuit of happiness. That's the point here is that we believe that we have this unalienable, self-evident right, to be able to pursue our own happiness, whatever that means for us as individuals. Craig, I have a question for you.

Oh, let's go. When is the first time you remember reading the Constitution? Oh my gosh. It was as a kid. So my mom flirted with homeschooling off and on. I was in public school from sixth grade on continuously, but my elementary school years were back and forth as she, well, as she went back and forth on this idea.

and mom was really good about covering civics government. And I remember, I was growing up in Southern California. We, yeah, I remember sitting in my room reading the Constitution because mom said to do so. I think that's really lucky. I think most of us can get to our 18th birthday be fully eligible to participate in the American experiment, but not really know the rulebook at all, having never cracked it. And that's something that I think makes me a little bit sad when I get to interact with new undergrads every year because I know that no one likes playing a game they don't know the rules

to, whether it's like a hard game, a board game, or politics. And I'm like, guys, this game can't feel that good. If you haven't read the rules, you have to have that if you want it to be something that you can have a better chance of winning. If you run with that analogy even more, I mean, imagine, You're on a baseball team, but for some reason you've gotten the idea that you are such an unvaluble player that you're just going to go sit in the stands and you don't know the rules. So not only is your team missing you on the field and then you're not realizing the damage that

that's doing, right, as an easy pop fly is just thudding to the ground and the outfield because you're not there to catch it, I'm not trying to make people feel guilty. Maybe a little guilty, not super guilty, the right guilty. And at the same time, you don't even know the rules to understand when a call is made. You might get the impression that the ump is being unfair

when in fact there are three strikes and you don't understand that. Or perhaps the ump is being unfair and you don't know to call it out, right? It cuts both ways. I think this is sort of the point of shared governance is that you have to have people who understand oversight and accountability.

And if we all want to play like, oh, that's not for me to know, or, oh, I never learned that, then we're never going to have something that feels accountable. We have to understand what it is that they can be held account for. And so that's one of the reasons I'm happy that you got to read the Constitution early on. I didn't do this until the very end of high school. And I will say I probably didn't understand it until the very end of a PhD. And I still learn things. I read it once a year.

I get to do it in class, and I learn things every time I do it. But I really think we sort of undergear our citizens to understand the world that they're stepping into because we don't have most of them read it. I feel the need right now to say, thank you, Mom. Thanks for listening to this preview of Government That Doesn't Suck. To hear more, follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now. Or subscribe on YouTube for full video episodes. The link in the description will take you to all the different platforms. platforms. New episodes drop every other Monday.