AMNA NAWAZ: Ben Sheehan is a comedian on a mission to educate the public on civics.

A former executive producer in the entertainment industry, he pivoted to politics when he realized how little people actually knew about how government works.

He's since run multiple campaigns to get out the vote and authored the book "OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say?"

Tonight, Sheehan shares his Brief But Spectacular take on knowing your power.

BEN SHEEHAN, Author, "OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say?

: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy is Supposed to Work": Hi.

How's it going?

Sorry to interrupt.

I'm Ben.

That actually looks really good, what you're eating.

But I wanted to give you a couple of questions about civics.

Let me ask you the following.

What are the three branches of government?

How does the Electoral College work?

Who is your state's attorney general?

How many voting members are in the House of Representatives?

If you didn't do so well on the quiz, do not feel badly.

You are not alone.

In truth, less than 50 percent of adults today can name the three branches of government, probably including some congressmembers.

I grew up in Washington, D.C.

I was surrounded by government from a very early age, having two parents that worked in and with the federal government.

I was about 5 years old.

My mom had a napkin and a pen, and she wrote a number, 435 on one side, 100 on the other, drew a house, and that was my first lesson about Congress.

In 2016, I ran a company that made videos that helped get young people to register to vote.

We were able to register 50,000 voters just through online video.

In 2018, I realized firsthand how little people actually know about how government works.

I would be doing events for a state attorney general or a state secretary of state, and friends of mine would come to these events, and they would have no idea what I was talking about.

They didn't know the jobs even existed, let alone who was running to have them.

MAN: Schools ought to turn out good citizens.

WOMAN: Yes, good citizens.

BEN SHEEHAN: Coming out of World War II, there was a massive resurgence and interest in feelings of patriotism in the school system.

We had classes like American government, U.S. history, civics, foundations of democracy.

Fast-forward several decades later, some federal and state policies, like No Child Left Behind, Common Core, Every Student Succeeds created these incentives toward teaching and getting good test scores in reading and math.

And, as a casualty, civics has fallen by the wayside.

Only eight states require at least a year of civics in government at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade.

My book is called "OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say?"

And there's also a kids version titled simply "What Does the Constitution Say?"

Not only is our Constitution the oldest national constitution in the world of any country, but we have the ability to change it.

And we have done that 27 times.

We have the right to free speech because of the Constitution.

We no longer have slavery because of the Constitution.

We no longer have to pay a tax in order to vote because of the Constitution.

And women and people over 18 have voting rights because of the Constitution.

The better a society is educated in civics, the better they can dictate a government that is supposed to, by design, represent their interests.

I think one of the biggest threats to our democracy is ignorance, not just not voting, but not understanding why we should even vote in the first place.

My hope for civics education in the future is that every state requires at least three years of it, you have to take some sort of exam to show proficiency in order to graduate, and that we make civics a part of our everyday lives from a cultural sense.

What gives me hope is seeing younger generations step up and participate in a way that I don't think recent generations have, and it really inspires me.

My name is Ben Sheehan, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on knowing your power.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.