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There are not many podcast episodes where the guest has played golf with Jack Nicklaus, once shared a locker room with Dan Aykroyd, and can explain municipal homelessness policy with genuine passion. But that’s exactly the kind of conversation that unfolded when actor Chris McDonald — Shooter McGavin himself — sat down with Good Government Show host Dave Martin at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. McDonald was there as national spokesman for Hello Nation, the show’s new partner and a digital magazine dedicated to amplifying the best stories from cities across America. What started as a fun detour from the show’s usual roster of mayors and commissioners turned into one of its most surprisingly candid conversations about what good government actually looks like from the outside.
The two men hit it off immediately — and for good reason. It turns out they’d met before, though neither remembered it clearly. About twenty years ago, Martin had been invited to the Boston set of Celtic Pride, the sports comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and Daniel Stern, where McDonald played the last winning coach on the old Boston Garden parquet floor. Martin, as he cheerfully admitted, lost a game of horse on that same floor. The reunion gave the episode a warm, unhurried quality — two guys who’d orbited the same world for decades, finally comparing notes. McDonald was quick, funny, and self-deprecating about his Shooter McGavin legacy, describing the moment he walked onto the Happy Gilmore 2 set and a room full of golf legends immediately started doing finger guns at him. “Pinch me now,” he said. “I’ll never forget that moment.”
But the conversation kept finding its way back to government — and McDonald’s take was refreshingly unfiltered. A three-year high school class president who has carefully maintained what he calls his “Switzerland” position as an actor, he came to the Conference of Mayors genuinely curious and left genuinely impressed. He was particularly moved by the mayor of Manhattan Beach, California, who had found concrete, funded solutions to homelessness in his city — tracking down two disoriented German tourists, connecting them with family, and getting them on a plane home. “He gets the job done,” McDonald said. He was equally taken with pollster Frank Luntz, who addressed the conference with West Point cadets in tow. McDonald’s definition of good government, when Dave finally put the question to him directly, was plain and earned: “Listening to who your constituents are and doing the best you can possibly do in those areas they’re asking you to fix — because it ain’t easy.”
McDonald also opened up about the one time he broke from Switzerland — when his small California lake town faced what he called outright fraud over water rights, with deals being cut behind closed doors and residents shut out entirely. He didn’t run for office. He called lawyers. “When you find out what really happens behind closed doors,” he said, “you go, oh man, we got to step up and do something here.” It was a reminder that civic engagement doesn’t require a title — just attention and a willingness to show up. For McDonald, that’s also what Hello Nation is about: finding the people in every town who are quietly doing good work and making sure their stories travel. “We need more good,” he said simply. “We need more humor in life. We need more good in life.”
The Good Government Show has built its reputation on finding wisdom in unexpected places — a county commissioner cleaning up the Mississippi, a mayor planting trees across Tucson, a city handing out micro-loans that change lives. Chris McDonald fits that tradition perfectly. He’s not a politician. He’s not an activist. He’s an actor who pays attention, votes seriously, eats well in Rome, and still gets asked to do the finger guns at charity golf tournaments. As the Good Government Institute continues its partnership with Hello Nation, having a spokesman who genuinely believes in the mission — and who can light up a room full of mayors just by walking in — is not nothing. As Shooter McGavin himself might say: just tap it in.
The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to civic engagement and civic education. Learn more and donate at goodgovinstitute.org.