License Plates

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by writer Parker Molloy (‘The Present Age’ Substack) and comedian/podcaster Blake Wexler (new stand-up album ‘A Lifetime Of Laughter’) for a look at why license plates are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• ‘The Present Age’ by Parker Molloy
• Parker Molloy on Twitter
• Blake Wexler on Twitter
• Blake Wexler’s stand-up albums
• ‘Blake’s Takes For God’s Sakes’ podcast

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Taxation without representation tags grace D.C. vehicles (The Washington Post)
• Welcome To Delaware, Home Of The $410,000 License Plate (NPR)
• The $675,000 License Plate (CBS Evening News)
• Carlos Boozer Is Now Starring In A Vasectomy Ad For An Underwear Company (BroBible.com)
• Marcus Fizer’s page at Basketball-Reference.com
• Biden’s old license plate up for auction (Wilmington News Journal)
• Cash and low-digit license plates among Delaware vaccine incentives (WHYY PBS)
• NY’s New License Plates Will Still Be Made By Prisoners Earning 65 Cents An Hour (Gothamist)
• Why a cyber attack on a Florida prison contractor will delay toll road bills (Tampa Bay Times)
• Saturday Driving Restrictions Fail to Improve Air Quality in Mexico City (Nature)
• Why licence plate bans don’t cut smog (The Guardian)
• The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969 (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Ohio reverses course after its new license plates showed the Wright Flyer backwards (NPR)
• The 1903 Wright Flyer (Air & Space Magazine)
• Parts Of An Aircraft: 1903 Wright Flyer (NASA)
• Ontario’s New License Plates Have A Problem: You Can’t Read Them (NPR)
• Days after denying there was a problem, Ontario government says it will replace defective new licence plates (National Post Canada)
• Ontario government will go back to the old licence plates while waiting for a fix to plates that are hard to read (The Toronto Star)
• How License-Plate Readers Have Helped Police and Lenders Target the Poor (The Atlantic)
• License Plate Readers Are Photographing You Everywhere (Popular Science)
• Hackers Grabbed Security Camera Images Taken At Border Crossing, CBP Says (NPR)
• ACLU sues Virginia county police for storing data from license plate readers (The Guardian)
• California legislation targets police use of license plate readers (The Guardian)
• US uses vast license plate database to track undocumented immigrants (The Guardian)
• DEA using license-plate readers to take photos of US drivers, documents reveal (The Guardian)
• California Senate Committee Passes Bill to Limit ALPR Data Retention, Help Block National License Plate Tracking Program (Tenth Amendment Center)
• The Strange Popularity of Corsican License Plates (The Atlantic)
• Why Corsican number plates are popular (The Economist)
• Mississippi, the only state with a Confederate symbol in its flag, is offering a new flag design on license plates (CNN) — No U.S. states currently have a Confederate flag on their standard plate. And this is a story about Mississippi’s optional plates featuring a potential alternative state flag.
• Virginia DMV Revokes World’s Greatest License Plate (Jalopnik)

Additional link: Alex highly recommends “Artistic License”, a great episode of the great podcast 99% Invisible. We don’t talk about anything from that on this show. It’s its own great look at license plates.