SHUT UP! OK SHUT UP!  Do you know how long it takes to research and write and record one of these episodes?  I just got a new job.  I&apos;m busy, i got my own stuff going on.So instead of that, today we are going to spend some time with Ethan Craft another dude I met on Tiktok and we&apos;re gonna talk about License Plates, which he collects.  Now I know you are thinking, Andrew aren&apos;t license plates just a piece of unnoticed ephemera that reveal a shockingly rich culture of changing material design that also reflects our national transition to an hyper-individualistic society?   And the answer is yes, but some of them have bird on them.Actually I&apos;m really in to this kind of stuff, its actually the exact kind of thing that inspired this podcast.  Most of us object to the Great Man of History TM ideas, but the reaction to this has been to assume a kind of photo negative inverse of it.  We no longer celebrate how George Washington built this county, we morn how he was the worst.  The reality is that the Great Men of History rarely shape your daily life as much as you&apos;d think.  It&apos;s also the tiny little decisions of material culture.  License plates are a perfect example of that.  Why are there so many diffrent kinds of license plates?  Why are they made in jail?  What is the rarest license plate?  Where can I get a license plate?  

Kings of Democracy

American Voices: Ethan Craft, License Plate Collector. THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY INTERESTING OK SO LISTEN TO IT

The Voyager Space Probes are in the top ten coooooooooolest things America has ever done.  Seriously we built a little robot during the Ford administration and it&apos;s still flying around and telling us all kinds of cool stuff about the dust in space or how the sun gets weird after pluto.  Lets face it if you like this podcast or are even seeing this you are probably a huge weeb for space exploration and you&apos;re a little bit mad that all the cool kids stole the NASA shirt and you wish that Nixon hadn&apos;t been arrested for Watergate so we could have gone to Mars.  I mean sure Elon Musk says hes going to Mars, but he also said that the way to fix traffic problems is to dig thousands of tiny tunnels under LA so you can pay to use them.  The American Space Program was so cool and we did so much cool stuff that wasn&apos;t apollo.   also this one has Lt. General Jason Torchinsky, Former Advisor to the Obama Administration and Senior China Policy Fellow at the Brookings Institute.  When were the Voyager Space Probe Launched? What planets have Voyager probes visited? Where is the Voyager Space Probe?  Where is the Voyager Space Probe going? How do the voyager space probes work? How do we talk to the voyager space probes?  What did the voyager space probe cost? What is NASAs budget?

Voyager Space Probe: GO LITTLE ROBOT GO (ft. Jason Torchinsky)

AND WE&apos;RE BACK BAYBEEEEEEEEEEHey sorry if you&apos;ve been waiting on this one but didn&apos;t hear from us for a while a pipe exploded at my place and all my computer and sound stuff got wet and also I am getting a new job.  ANYWAY Edgar Allan Poe was a real guy if you can believe it.  He did stuff.  If anybody reads this comment HEY ANDREW I READ THE EPISODE DESCRIBTIONS on the subreddit cause I don&apos;t like writing them.  Now if you&apos;ll excuse me I need to scam SEO .  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—             Only this and nothing more.”     Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.     Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow     From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—             Nameless here for evermore.when did edgar allan poe die? who wrote the raven? who wrote murder in the rue morge?  when was edgar allan poe born? how many books did edgar allan poe write?  how can i be a mystery writer?  where was edgar allan poe from? did edgar allan poe own slaves?  how did edgar allan poe die?  was egdar allan poe married? huh? what gives? Answer me internet answer me you coward     

Edgar Allan Poe: And Quoth The Raven "BUMBOCLAAT"!

The history of NASCAR is a history of America&apos;s love affair with the car.  Which is to say a lot of us actually hate it and it&apos;s too expensive and we wish there was a better way but that might involve taking the bus and god knows we can&apos;t have that.  

NASCAR: Going Fast and Turrning Left

So most of us just sort of assume that the Vice President is a loser job for somebody who is good with a demographic the President is weak in.  And that&apos;s true.  But in reality, the Vice Presidency is one of the weirdest and worst things in our Constitution.  Seriously, it&apos;s a bunch of random crap put together with duct tape and bailing wire with a ton of massive problems.  Did you know we have no idea who should be in charge of the Vice President&apos;s impeachment? The Constitution doesn&apos;t say.  It straight up doesn&apos;t say.  If the Vice President has to go on trial we have no idea who is in charge.  SO STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT HOW FUCKED YOU&apos;D BE IF THE PRESIDENT GOES CRAZYWho is vice president? How many vice presidents have their been? How much is the vice president paid?  What does the vice president get paid? Who was George Washington&apos;s Vice President? Who was Trump&apos;s Vice President? What happens if the Vice President dies? Where does the Vice Presidnet Live?

The Vice President: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late (FT. Matt Beat)

Welcome to the Thunder Dome, except instead of Mel Gibson fighting a Midget its a chcik with purple hair screaming at a dude with Oakleys.  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I JUST WANT GOOD HEALTH INSURANCE. 

The Confederate Flag: A Symbol of Heritage, Hate, and Good BBQ

We are on the charts in Urugyay BABY ALL THE WAY NUMERO UNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo

Reader Mail 5: URUGUAYYYYYYYYYY!

Everytime somebody says "MOST AMERICANS DONT KNOW THEIR REAL HISTORY" my brain shuts down.  Because we all do.  Like not everybody knows the details but you have to go pretty far in to the woods to find anybody who is like "Oh yeah I unironically 100% like George Washington." We know the messed up stuff we did, or at least we understand it in general its just that nobody agrees about what to do about it.  German Americans are part of that history.  They are the single largest block of American Ancestry and literally nobody knows any of their history.  There&apos;s nothing written about this.  Everybodys uncle is proud to be Irish and the Italians still run new york but you can&apos;t find a word about the Germans.  This weeks episode of Kings of Democracy will answer these questions.  How many americans have German ancestry? When did Germans come to America? How many people speak German in America? How many Americans are german? Why are there no German American holidays?  Who are some famous German Americans? Where do German Americans live? Who invented the hamburger? Who invented the hot dog? Who invented saurkraut? Was hitler popular in America? Was german almost the official language of America?

German Americans: THE HISTORY THEY WON'T TEACH YOU IN SCHOOLS

The Battle of the Alamo was a vicious last stand battle, where a ragtag group of Americans fought for their right to be Americans in Mexico.  And also so that they could bring slaves there, get free land and not pay taxes.  It&apos;s a story of intrigue, passion and the Pirate King of Galveston who was a real person.   But it&apos;s also a story where basically everybody is a bad person and it&apos;s kind of hard to develop emotional stakes because literaly everybody is a slave owning fedual landlord. When was the Battle of the Alamo? Who Died at the Alamo? Who Fought at the Alamo? When is the Alamo open? Where is the Alamo? What times does the Alamo close? Who built the Alamo? Why is the Alamo famous? who named the Alamo? 

The Battle of the Alamo FT. Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón

FUN FACT: I once barfed on the rainbow sidewalks in seattle but not on purpose I had just eatten to much shrimp too fast. ANOTHER FUN FACT: The Stonewall Inn was a shit hole without working toilets that use to blackmail it&apos;s customers and after the riots the gay community boycotted it.  The riots were mostly caused by gay anger over mafia control of gay bars and police corruption.    ONE MORE FUN FACT: The reason I had eatten so much shrimp so fast was I just did a comedy show and my payment was all the leftover shrimp. Where was the Stonewall Inn?  What happened at Stonewall?  Is the Stonewall Inn still open?  When did Stonewall Happen? Are pride parades happening this year?  

The Stonewall Riots or How the Mafia Created Gay Pride Parades

We cover the history of the people, places and things that make America what it is today, which is mostly empty space and kinda racist. But it's still pretty interesting. The official podcast of the United States of America and everybody who lives in it or ever has or ever will.

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