Hey there, it's Colby. So as we begin to prep our turkeys and get ready to make our stuffing and mashed potatoes ahead of Thanksgiving Day, we wanted to re-air a delightful and award-winning episode from last year.

It's a culinary mystery that senior producer Ted Muldoon and our old colleague, Shane Harris, went on a quest to solve.

It's a story about a sweet, meaty treat that had been at the center of American power for decades.

It's about politics, loyalty, and

finally giving credit, where credit is due. Okay, we hope you enjoy the show. Sheen's going to take it

from here. Okay, so set up is, it's October 2014, and Ben Bradley, the legendary editor of the Post, has just died.

And I'm reading an article in the paper, not about his funeral, but about the after-party to his funeral. So, like, Ben

had an after-party, and it was like an A-list party. And where are you in your life? Where are you

working? I am working as the senior writer for Washingtonian magazine. So I had worked, I've been

working as a journalist in D.C. at that point for about 14 years, writing on national security,

policy, and politics. And I'm reading a story about the party by Roxanne Roberts, who used to write the Post's reliable source column. And, I mean, Ben's funeral is a huge event. The After Party's a huge event. And, like, everybody wanted to go to the After Party. Like, I think the After Party was more exclusive than the funeral. And she's writing this column that is very much, like, with that kind of vibe.

But also, it's framed as this kind of last hurrah, where Sally Quinn, who is also a post-writer,

who was Ben's wife, is giving Ben Bradley this final send-off because Ben and Sally famously through parties, especially big dinner parties that were often quite exclusive.

They very much serve this function of social cohesion and influence among a very influential

set of people in this town. And so I'm reading it in the column as describing the food that's being

served underneath these tents, I guess, on the back lawn. And it says like, you know, there were ham and biscuits, there was chicken, there were chocolate

brownies, and bacon.

And just says, and bacon, period.

And there's no description of the bacon, which makes me think, like, okay, well, I'm like,

sort of there's bacon strips being sent around, or like, so I go over and talk to my friend Carol Joint, who I was working with at Washington at the time. I either called or walked across to your office and said, Carol. What's the thing with bacon? Yeah. And she is my trail guide for all things social and strange about Washington. And I think he said to me, oh, you don't know about bacon.

And I was like, Shane, what do you mean?

What's this thing about bacon?

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