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quinns.com/hyper fixed. Hi, my name's

2:36

Alex Goldman. This is hyper

2:38

fixed. On this show, listeners write

2:40

in with their problems big and small,

2:42

and I solve them. Or at least

2:44

I try. And if I don't, I

2:47

at least give a good reason why

2:49

I can't. This week. Jack and the

2:51

Missouri Color Cabal. And let me just

2:53

get my microphone. My microphone stand is

2:56

extremely broken, so give me a second

2:58

here. It straight up looks like you're

3:00

in a shed right now. This man,

3:02

impugning the shed-like nature of my basement

3:05

studio, is Jack. He lives in Missouri

3:07

in a home that looks nothing like

3:09

a shed. And he works as a

3:11

software engineer. Building websites using their most

3:14

basic building blocks. Code. And it's because

3:16

of this. because he spends all day

3:18

looking at code, that Jack started noticing

3:21

this thing, this thing that's happening all

3:23

over Missouri, and very few other people

3:25

seem to be noticing it. Okay, let's

3:27

try and start from the very beginning.

3:30

You sent a message on the hyperfix

3:32

discord, and I am wondering if you

3:34

could tell me the story of first

3:36

noticing this particular problem. Yeah, so I

3:39

was driving... to get coffee with my

3:41

wife and we were behind this car

3:43

that had this plate and license plates

3:45

here have six digits. And

3:48

most of the

3:50

time it's three and

3:52

then three. This

3:54

was all together. And

3:57

I noticed because

3:59

I've been trying to

4:01

teach myself how

4:04

to read hex codes

4:06

that this license

4:08

plate in front of

4:10

us was a

4:13

hex code. If

4:20

you have no idea what we're

4:22

talking about, a hex code is

4:24

a six character sequence that tells

4:26

a computer what color should appear

4:28

on the screen. It's like a

4:30

recipe, but the only ingredients you

4:32

can use are the numbers zero

4:34

through nine and the letters a

4:36

through f. And based on where

4:39

those characters appear in the sequence,

4:41

it'll tell the computer what color

4:43

to display on screen. So if

4:45

you want a pure red, you'll

4:47

do ff 0000, you're saying full

4:49

red, no green, no blue. There's

4:51

a six digit sequence like this for

4:53

every shade of color on the spectrum. There's

4:55

over 16 million shades in total. And

4:57

the thing is the vast majority of people

4:59

in this world will never have to

5:01

interact with these or even know what they

5:03

are because hex codes exist wholly within

5:05

the realm of computer code. Or

5:08

so Jack thought until

5:10

that day when he was in line to get coffee

5:13

with his wife and he spotted a hex code

5:15

on the license plate in front of him. And

5:17

I said, Hey, I'm sure if you

5:19

type this into Google with a hashtag

5:21

on the front of it, it would

5:23

be the same color green as Spotify.

5:25

And then she typed it in and

5:27

pulled up the color. And it was

5:29

the same type of green as Spotify.

5:32

And she's like, that's insane. This

5:34

was one of those extremely rare instances

5:36

when a computer nerd is able

5:38

to demonstrate their skills to someone in

5:40

the non computer world. Except

5:42

as it turns out, this hex plate, it

5:45

wasn't super rare. The better

5:47

Jack got at reading hex codes, the

5:49

more frequently he started seeing them in

5:51

the wild. It became kind of a

5:53

game for Jack and his wife. Every time they saw a

5:55

hex plate, he would try to guess the color. And

5:58

then his wife

6:00

would look it up

6:02

and tell him

6:04

how close he got. They

6:06

even started keeping a list of all

6:08

the hex plates they'd found. At the

6:10

time of this interview they'd found about

6:12

90. And here's where things got really

6:14

weird. Because when they looked at that

6:16

list, they realized that every one of

6:18

the hex plates they'd seen, everyone in

6:20

all of Missouri produced just one color.

6:23

Green. And I never knew why it

6:25

was always green. And that's the... question

6:27

that I have is why are all

6:29

of the hex code plates that I

6:31

see in Missouri green? Okay, so I

6:33

have questions. Do you believe that this

6:35

is a deliberate hexadecimal code that's being

6:37

put on these license plates? Or is

6:39

it just like, do you think it's

6:41

random? So I don't know. In theory,

6:43

I should be seeing all different types

6:45

of colors if this is truly random.

6:47

but I'm only seeing greens. I saw

6:49

one purple and the car was the

6:51

same color of purple. So I think

6:53

that was a vanity plate, but I

6:55

don't know. Interesting. So the only not

6:58

shade of green hexadecimal license plate you

7:00

have seen was a vanity plate for

7:02

a car that was the same shade

7:04

as the hexadecimal code that you saw

7:06

on the license plate. Correct. And so

7:08

that... kind of confused me. I was

7:10

like, is this an intentional choice? These

7:12

other cars aren't green. I have no

7:14

idea what's going on. And I didn't

7:16

know who to ask. I imagine if

7:18

I went to the DMV and asked

7:20

the person behind the counter, they would

7:22

say next. So... Jack told us he

7:24

hasn't done any real digging into this

7:26

question. And he hasn't approached any of

7:28

the drivers he's seen with green hex

7:30

plates, in part because he's worried his

7:33

question sounds kind of crazy. But he

7:35

does have two major theories about what

7:37

might be happening. The first is that

7:39

there's someone at the Department of Transportation

7:41

who for some strange reason has written

7:43

an algorithm that favors hex green license

7:45

plates. His second theory is that that

7:47

The hex green

7:49

plates are all vanity

7:51

plates, and the

7:53

people driving around with

7:55

them are part

7:57

of some kind of

7:59

group, like army

8:01

veterans, or some other

8:03

kind of club

8:05

with an affinity for

8:08

green. Totally a guess,

8:10

right? Like, I'm just trying

8:12

to connect green to organizations, but

8:14

I genuinely have no idea and

8:16

no idea even where to begin.

8:18

So I think there is an

8:20

algorithm. It's not totally random,

8:22

but I just don't know why

8:24

the algorithm would result in only

8:26

greens. What if there's some kind

8:28

of cabal of, like, green hexadecimal

8:31

code that's like the free

8:33

masons or something? What if you've

8:35

uncovered a sinister conspiracy? I

8:41

don't know. I don't know what the

8:43

repercussions of this would be. I

8:46

just feel like one of

8:48

the hallmarks of conspiracy theories is

8:50

that people hide stuff in plain

8:52

sight. The idea that, like, celebrities

8:54

cover their left eye as

8:56

like a nod to Freemasonry. They're

8:59

always trying to hit you with

9:01

codes. This is

9:03

code. This is computer code. This

9:05

is a literal code. All

9:08

right, is there anything else that you

9:10

need to tell me before I

9:12

get involved with this? No, I'm looking

9:14

forward to having some answer. I

9:17

don't know if it'll be as fun

9:19

as a cabal. It better be.

9:21

I hope so. After

9:25

talking to Jack, I immediately started fantasizing about

9:27

a Missouri -based secret society whose membership could

9:29

only be identified by the green hex

9:31

codes on their license plates. I pictured them

9:33

driving past each other and rolling down

9:35

their windows to tip the brim of their

9:37

stets and hats at one another before

9:39

driving off into the night. But

9:42

before I could even start searching, I

9:44

got a mysterious message from hyperfixed

9:46

producer Emma Cortland asking me to join

9:48

her in a recorded meeting. Hi,

9:51

Emma. How are you? Hey. OK,

9:53

I'm going to make this quick. I

9:55

listened to your conversation with Jack and

9:57

I was struck by something that I

9:59

need to ask. you about. Mm -hmm.

10:01

Go ahead. Do you think license plate

10:03

numbers are random? Yes,

10:05

I thought that, yes, I do. Like,

10:07

like the order of the letters and numbers

10:10

on a license plate? You think those,

10:12

you think those are random? It's

10:14

not like I see cars driving

10:16

down the street and they're like,

10:19

one, one, one, one, one, and

10:21

one, one, one, one, one, one,

10:23

two, yeah, I think they're random,

10:25

yes. Are they not? Hold on,

10:27

Alex, okay, do you know your

10:29

license plate number? Yes, I do.

10:31

Does it go letter, number, number,

10:33

letter, letter, letter? Oh,

10:36

what the fuck? Yes, yes, it is

10:38

A31HWL. You can put that on the

10:40

radio. I don't care. If you guys

10:42

want to find me in New Jersey,

10:44

that's my license plate number. How did

10:46

you know that? My dude, that is

10:49

the current serial format for passenger plates

10:51

in New Jersey. But

10:53

every state has its own

10:55

special format. And the reason

10:57

this matters for our story

10:59

is that you know how

11:01

Jack said he would expect

11:03

to see hex codes for

11:05

different colors if this were

11:07

truly random? Well, because of

11:09

the format is definitely not

11:12

random, you would actually expect

11:14

it to be producing the

11:16

same color. Okay, so this

11:18

really isn't like a real

11:20

problem, right? Because he's seeing

11:22

so many greens because Missouri

11:24

Standard Format produces the hex

11:26

green. Okay, so that's what

11:28

I expected too. But if

11:30

you actually try plugging hex

11:32

characters into Missouri Standard Format,

11:34

which is letter, letter, number,

11:36

letter, number, letter, you'll see

11:38

it does not produce green.

11:40

Do you want to try

11:42

it? Okay, I will put

11:44

in, I'm going to put

11:46

in CD3D3D. Let's see how

11:48

that works. CD3D3D.

11:54

Whoa, yeah, not green

11:56

at all. In fact,

11:58

very red. Right, right,

12:00

which means that. the hex screen

12:02

plates that Jack is seeing around

12:04

town are not run-of-the-mill

12:07

plates. They are either

12:09

vanity plates. Come on,

12:11

this is a couple.

12:13

It's people who like

12:15

frogs. They're all hanging out

12:17

in the swamp together.

12:20

But in the meantime,

12:22

to identify one another,

12:24

this is what they're

12:26

doing, right? Okay. Seems unlikely

12:29

that my I feel like the frog

12:31

I feel like the frog theory seems

12:33

more likely, but how do we figure

12:35

this out? I don't know yet, but when

12:37

Jack first posted his question on

12:40

the discord someone found this red

12:42

thread from like 10 years ago

12:44

or someone else had noticed these

12:47

green hex plates driving around Missouri

12:49

and I think they said they

12:51

were most frequently seeing them on

12:54

these license plates that had

12:56

little green handprints, which apparently

12:58

go to benefit this Missouri-based

13:01

nonprofit called the Children's Trust

13:03

Fund. Hold on just a second. Children's

13:06

Trust Fund. Okay, so I'm on

13:08

their website. Their branding is indeed very

13:10

green. Yeah, it looks like they do

13:12

a lot of advocacy work around child

13:14

abuse prevention. So maybe just give them

13:17

a call. Just ask if they know

13:19

why so many of their license plates

13:21

seem to be producing this hex screen

13:23

format. I'm going to think I'm out

13:26

of my mind. Yeah, so I'm

13:28

super excited to hear how it

13:30

goes. Great. Okay, talk to you soon.

13:32

Hello and thank you for

13:34

calling the Children's Trust

13:37

Fund, Missouri Foundation

13:39

for Child Abuse Prevention. We

13:41

are currently away from our

13:44

desk for helping another caller.

13:46

So we tried calling the

13:49

Children's Trust Fund. Actually, we tried

13:51

a bunch of times, and every

13:53

time we called, we got their

13:55

voicemail. Now, it was right around the holidays, and

13:57

not many people were picking up their phones

13:59

around that. time, so we sent an email

14:01

to their head of media relations. And when we didn't hear

14:03

back, we sent a follow -up email. And

14:06

when we didn't get a response to the follow -up email, we

14:08

decided to change course and focus on

14:10

the Missouri Department of Revenue. The

14:13

Department of Revenue is the agency that's actually in

14:15

charge of license plates. So we

14:17

called and emailed their media person. And

14:20

when we didn't hear back from them, we called their help

14:22

desk. And that's when we started to

14:24

wonder if maybe we were the problem. The

14:27

person at the help desk took down our information

14:29

and they took notes about our question. And

14:31

they were like, look, we're going

14:33

to try to find someone to talk to

14:36

you about this. But if you don't

14:38

hear back from us,

14:40

basically, probably nobody's going to

14:42

call you back. Jack

14:48

told us the reason that he

14:50

was reluctant to approach anyone with

14:52

a hex green plate was because

14:54

there was a very strong chance

14:56

that asking them about it would

14:58

make him sound crazy. And it

15:00

turns out that fear was not

15:03

unfounded. Because once you've heard a

15:05

recording of yourself asking a government

15:07

official why their license plate algorithm

15:09

is generating HTML code for the

15:11

color green, you're forced to admit

15:13

it does sound pretty nuts. So

15:15

we decided to change our approach. But

15:17

even when we quit asking about the

15:19

hex codes and just tried asking,

15:21

hey, is there someone we can

15:23

talk to about Missouri's license plate

15:25

sequencing? The reaction was the same.

15:27

It was like we were asking

15:29

why water was wet. Like this

15:31

question, what is the logic behind

15:33

your state's license plate numbering system,

15:35

was simultaneously the strangest and most

15:37

obvious question we could possibly be

15:39

asking? And for that reason, I

15:41

don't think anybody took it very seriously. So

15:44

with our next step, we decided

15:46

to redirect our question. As

15:49

far as we could tell, nobody had tried

15:51

to answer this question about the license

15:53

plate numbering system in Missouri. But

15:55

as we were digging around on this, we found that

15:58

there is a whole community of people. who

16:00

have paid an inordinate amount of time to

16:02

license plates. And they were so excited to

16:04

talk to us about them. I really appreciate

16:06

the great heroic efforts you're trying to answer

16:09

this one. Yeah, it's the whole idea. It's

16:11

fascinating. I think it's wonderful. We spoke to

16:13

three members of the Automobile License Plate Collectors

16:15

Association, which turns out is the country's preeminent

16:17

group for license plate enthusiastsists. The group has

16:19

about 3,500 members. their own bimonthly magazine, and

16:22

they also have their own archive, where they

16:24

keep data and decoding information for license plate

16:26

sequences going back to the very beginning of

16:28

license plate history. Because, you know, somebody needs

16:30

to document this stuff, otherwise it gets lost

16:33

to time. If you have to try and

16:35

figure it out 25 years from now, you

16:37

know, it's going to be difficult unless there

16:39

was an article to help you. All of

16:41

these guys have been collecting and decoding license

16:43

plate sequences since before the internet age. And

16:46

they told us some truly amazing stories. One

16:48

of them drove across state lines to crack

16:50

a reportedly random sequence that turned out not

16:52

to be random at all. Another even used

16:54

license plate sequencing to help catch a violent

16:57

criminal. But those are stories for another time,

16:59

or perhaps a bonus episode. For now, you

17:01

just have to know this. There's a lot

17:03

of complexity to these license plates. The hidden

17:05

codes and meanings and meanings in some of

17:07

these plates are just limitless. Given their decades

17:10

of expertise and their pension for puzzling out

17:12

the hidden meanings behind different license plate sequences,

17:14

we figured if anyone can tell us why

17:16

Jack is seeing so many hex screen plates,

17:18

it's these guys. So we told him everything

17:21

we knew about Jack's hex plates. We told

17:23

them we knew about Jack's hex plates. We

17:25

told them we'd already established they aren't part

17:27

of Missouri standard sequence, that they're sometimes seen

17:29

on children's trust fund plates, but also sometimes

17:32

not. And all the characters are smushed together

17:34

instead of being separated three and three and

17:36

three, like a normal license plates. And then

17:38

we asked them. Is it possible that Missouri

17:40

is using a second sequence for certain types

17:42

of plates? And they were like, oh yeah,

17:45

that's definitely what's happening. That's what it is.

17:47

I'm sure that's what it is. is

17:49

they're using the same

17:51

numbering pattern on all

17:53

their specialty plates. You're

17:56

actually absolutely onto something

17:58

here. There is a

18:00

second sequence. They've decided

18:02

that when they're doing

18:04

the short run sheeting

18:06

or the thermal transfer

18:09

with digital plates, that

18:11

that's the numbering pattern

18:13

to be used on

18:15

those and they're just

18:17

running it in order.

18:20

None of these guys have studied Missouri's

18:22

specialty plates explicitly. But apparently a

18:25

lot of states are doing this

18:27

whole specialty sequencing thing for their

18:29

digitally printed plates. So

18:31

frequently what happens is that standard plates are made

18:33

on a license plate press. So they're embossed. The

18:35

numbers and letters are raised. But

18:37

the specialty plates, the ones with decorative

18:39

images like say a lobster on a

18:41

license plate from Maine or the green

18:44

handprints from the Children's Trust Fund, those

18:46

are printed by a computer onto a flat

18:48

plate. Digital printing allows the

18:50

states to be a lot more flexible

18:52

with their specialty designs, which allows them

18:54

to make more money because they're able

18:56

to cater to a bunch of different

18:58

groups. Apparently in Florida, all you need

19:00

is 25 people to justify the creation

19:02

of a new license plate. And

19:05

a lot of the time when they make that

19:07

flat computer printed specialty license plate, they

19:09

create a whole separate sequence

19:11

specifically for those plates. The

19:14

thing is Missouri also prints their vanity plates. You

19:16

know, like plates where you can customize what

19:18

it says so that I could have one that

19:20

says like podcaster. I would never do that

19:22

by the way. They print those on

19:24

the same machine. So

19:26

if we wanted to confirm that

19:28

the abundance of green hex codes

19:30

that Jack was seeing on license

19:32

plates were indeed part of a separate

19:34

sequence for specialty plates and not vanity

19:36

plates, we'd have to go up to

19:38

someone with these plates and ask them

19:40

if they specifically asked for a green

19:42

hexadecimal code as their license. Or

19:46

we'd need a bigger data sample than

19:48

what's available online. And

19:50

to get that bigger data sample, everyone

19:52

had the same suggestion. You could

19:54

submit a FOIA request to the stating

19:56

question. You'd have to do a freedom

19:58

of information, a FOIA. request for the

20:00

Bureau of Revenue. They probably would give that

20:03

to you. I have one in to the

20:05

state of Maine for like six months

20:07

now. They haven't responded. It's all public

20:09

information. Just they make it real difficult

20:12

to get it. The Missouri State FOIA system

20:14

is supposed to be one of the most

20:16

expeditious in the country. So we went

20:18

ahead and filed a request explaining what

20:20

we were doing and why. But we were

20:22

still pretty sure we were going to have

20:24

to publish the story before the state

20:27

had a chance to fulfill our request.

20:29

Foyer requests can sometimes take years

20:31

to fulfill. And we were already down to

20:33

the line on this story, and we couldn't

20:35

go back to Jack without something more

20:37

definitive. So producer Emma Cortland threw

20:40

a hail Mary and decided to make one

20:42

more call to the Children's Trust Fund.

20:44

I'm so sorry that I never responded to

20:46

you if I'm being completely honest. I was

20:48

like trying to figure out if it was

20:50

some sort of scam. This is Brianna Barber.

20:53

She runs media relations for the Children's Trust

20:55

Fund of Missouri, and once she realized we

20:57

weren't trying to scam her, she went out

20:59

of her way to help us. She talked

21:01

to us about the organization's green branding

21:04

and commiserated with us about how hard

21:06

it is to get information from the

21:08

Department of Revenue. And then she

21:10

gave us something we'd been looking for since the

21:12

beginning of our search, access to a person with

21:15

a green hexadecimal license plate.

21:17

And that person was her. I can absolutely confirm

21:19

that you're... You know, you're correct.

21:21

I have CTF license plates and

21:23

they very much follow like that,

21:26

you know, number, number, letter, number,

21:28

sequence. Yes. And let me confirm

21:30

for you just really quickly. You

21:32

did not elect to have the

21:35

number number, letter, letter, number number,

21:37

number, that was just default assigned

21:39

to you. Correct. And just like

21:42

that, Brianna confirmed that the

21:44

Children's Trust Fund's green hex

21:46

plates are not vanity plates.

21:48

Now, she had no idea why the plates

21:50

are sequenced this way or why all the

21:52

new ones are hex codes for the color

21:54

green. But the idea that it's somehow

21:56

tied to the CTF's green branding didn't

21:59

seem that crazy. Because apparently

22:01

the last generation of the

22:03

Children's Trust Fund plates had

22:05

an even more explicit

22:07

coding system. We have a staff

22:10

member who's been at the Children's

22:12

Trust Fund for almost two decades

22:14

and she's like, it hasn't always

22:16

been this specific sequence. They used

22:19

to start with CT for like

22:21

Children's Trust or something, but our

22:23

state has. dozens and dozens

22:25

of like different specialty plates

22:28

that people can order so people can

22:30

get like, I don't know, like Red

22:32

Cross or like back the blue, like

22:34

there's all kinds of them. So my

22:36

best guess at this point is that

22:38

they have like just different sequences for

22:40

different types of plates and that

22:42

just happens to be the sequence

22:44

we got. And then, like a

22:47

Guardian angel shielding us from

22:49

the hellfire of government bureaucracy,

22:51

before she hung up, Brianna was like,

22:53

hey! By the way, my office is

22:55

in the same building as

22:57

the Department of Revenue. So

23:00

how about I pop in

23:02

there sometime next week

23:04

or so and see if I

23:06

can get an answer to this

23:08

question for you? After the

23:11

break, we hear back from

23:13

Brianna, and all of Jack's

23:15

questions are answered. This

23:28

episode of Hyper Fix is brought to

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See site for details. Welcome

24:44

back to the show. So when we

24:46

first started reporting this story, we really

24:48

had no idea how little we knew about

24:50

license plates or how hard it would

24:53

be to even formulate a question about them

24:55

without sounding totally nuts. We

24:57

spent more than a month chasing our

24:59

tails. And we set a new Hyper

25:01

Fixed record for the most unanswered interview requests

25:03

in a single episode. But with

25:05

the guidance of some passionate hobbyists

25:07

and the help of one very

25:09

apologetic government employee, we suddenly found

25:11

ourselves flooded with answers. And

25:13

we had the raw data to back them up. So

25:16

we reached out to Jack. And when

25:18

we asked if he was ready to hear the answer to the question,

25:20

he said, there's an answer. Well,

25:23

you know, this is a show about

25:25

solving problems. And I like to

25:27

not come back to you until the

25:29

problems. I'm so full of shit.

25:31

Yes, there's an answer. Awesome. Yes.

25:34

All right. So

25:36

here's what we learned the day

25:39

after we connected with Brianna at the Children's

25:41

Trust Fund. She wrote us an email

25:43

letting us know that she had been able to get in

25:45

touch with the source at the Department of Revenue. And that

25:47

they had confirmed the sequence used

25:49

by Children's Trust Fund license plates is

25:51

the same one used by all

25:53

of Missouri's specialty license plates. So anytime

25:55

someone orders a plate that shows

25:57

they served in the Korean War, or

26:00

that they support deer conservation, or that

26:02

they contribute to the Children's Trust Fund, that

26:04

person will be assigned a license

26:07

plate that uses the sequence

26:09

number, number, letter, letter, number,

26:11

number. And the reason

26:14

that matters is this. And

26:16

give me just a moment, I'm gonna send you a

26:18

link. Go ahead

26:20

and click on that. Tell

26:22

me what you

26:25

see. I see

26:27

a Freedom of

26:29

Information list of

26:31

Missouri specialty plates between

26:34

2022 and 2024. A

26:36

couple days before our follow -up conversation

26:38

with Jack, the Department of Revenue

26:40

responded to Emma's FOIA request with

26:42

a spreadsheet, nearly 15 ,000 cells

26:44

long. And in the very

26:46

first row was this

26:49

license plate, 00AA01, the

26:51

first of the hex green sequence.

26:54

I sent the list to Jack and it

26:56

did take him a minute to understand what he

26:58

was looking at or why we'd sent it

27:00

to him. But when he finally realized it, his

27:02

eyes bugged out of his head like a

27:04

tech -savory cartoon. Oh my gosh,

27:06

they're all, they're all green. And

27:08

what you can see is from

27:10

that list, with the exception

27:12

of motorcycles and other specialty vehicles,

27:14

they're all sequenced number, number, letter,

27:16

letter, number, number. And as long

27:18

as those letters are A through

27:20

F, which is most of them, you'll

27:24

get a green hex decimal code. Wow.

27:26

Jack was obviously very happy about putting

27:28

this mystery to bed. But the thing

27:30

that seemed to make him most excited

27:32

was finding out that there was a

27:34

club of people who care passionately about

27:36

license plates. In fact, when we told

27:38

him about the Automobile License Plate Collectors

27:40

Association, he said, I'm not alone. Not

27:44

only are you not alone,

27:46

there are people who are like

27:48

into decoding these sequences for

27:50

all 50 states. Oh my gosh.

27:52

Do you feel like you've

27:55

found your people, maybe? Yes,

27:58

I feel like

28:00

I found my

28:02

people. and I feel that

28:04

like I thought I was crazy

28:07

but that is like another level

28:09

of dedication so like that's awesome

28:11

and I'm probably going to join

28:13

the ALPCA or whatever. Look I

28:15

don't want to take more credit

28:17

than I'm due but when I

28:19

am do some credit you can

28:22

be sure I'm going to take

28:24

it all the way up. Not

28:26

only did we find the answer

28:28

to Jack's question. We also found

28:30

him something that he didn't even

28:32

know we was looking for, a

28:35

community of people to make him

28:37

feel less crazy about his love

28:39

of license plates. It's not quite

28:41

the green license plate cabal we

28:43

were hoping for, but for Jack,

28:45

it's kind of something better. I

28:47

feel like we've like infected you

28:50

with a sickness. I feel like

28:52

I already had a sickness before

28:54

I came in, and you guys

28:56

have found where I can, um,

28:58

coexist with the other thing. We

29:00

found a little asylum for you.

29:03

Thank you. Thank you so much.

29:05

This is awesome. I appreciate it.

29:07

Jack's official ALPCA membership arrives in

29:09

two weeks. This

29:20

episode of Hyper Fixed was produced

29:22

by Emma Cortland, Amore Yates, and

29:24

Sirius Offer Sukenic. It was also

29:27

edited by Emma Cortland, Amore Yates,

29:29

and Sirius Offer Sukenic. It was

29:31

hosted by me, Alex Goldman. The

29:33

music is by the mysterious Breakmaster

29:36

Cylinder, and me, and if you're

29:38

noticing the theme song sounded kind

29:40

of wild today, that's because this

29:42

is the winning submission to our

29:44

theme song remix competition. It's by

29:47

listener Henry Wilkinson. The show is

29:49

engineered by Tony Williams, fact-checking by

29:51

Sona Avakian. Special thanks to Eric

29:53

Tanner, Michael Wiener, Scott Rode, Richard

29:56

Dragon, Gaspar Kovac, Nicole Dunmire, and...

29:58

Natalie Wilvers. You can get bonus

30:00

episodes, join our discord, and much,

30:02

much more at hyperfixpod.com/join. I recently

30:04

did a live stream with premium

30:07

listeners where we made a music

30:09

cue for the show together. You

30:11

heard that cue in this very

30:13

episode. I feel like we're building

30:16

a really nice community of hyperfix

30:18

listeners. I'd love to have you

30:20

be a part of it. Once

30:22

again, you can become a premium

30:24

member by going to hyperfixpod.com/join. HyperFixed

30:27

is a proud member of Radiotopia

30:29

from PRX, a network

30:32

of independent, creator-owned,

30:35

listener-supported podcasts. Discover

30:37

audio with vision at

30:40

Radiotopia.fm. Thanks so much

30:42

for listening!