John Hodgman and Janet Varney are calling for freedom from the juventocracy as they visit Illinois!

It’s got a motto that makes you think but a state seal that’s very confusing and unappealing. But the pair promise to be fair judges.

How do you decide what food and critters are good enough to be official representations of your home? Let the children decide of course! That’s right, Illinois allowed the… admittedly middling opinions of elementary school kids to decide on a variety of state symbols.

We’ll get into all of those and even discuss some of the famous nicknames for the cities of the Illinoisans.

Justice for the 13 striped ground squirrel!

Episode art provided by: 

Hannah Owens

Claire O’Hanlon

Rob Bond

Androo Gardner

Produced by Julian Burrell.

Senior Producer at MaxFun is Laura Swisher.

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And send us a voice memo, message or photo about an upcoming state to 

Emailpluribusmotto@maximumfun.org

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