Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers.

And I'm Eric Mendel.

And this is Embedded from NPR.

When we first had the idea to do a series on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,

we knew that we would eventually put in a request to talk to him.

But then something happened. We'd spent a couple of days in December making phone calls

to people who used to work with him. And right before the Office Holiday Party,

we got an email from Mitch McConnell's office wanting to know what we were up to.

See, McConnell has this incredibly loyal circle of people who used to work for him.

People who've gone on to unlawing firms, PR firms, political organizations.

And some of them won't talk to reporters unless they get permission from McConnell.

One of them probably told his office that we were poking around.

So we told McConnell's office, we're doing a podcast series about your boss.

Could we get some time with him?

And a few months later, it happened.

Maybe it's just because I don't report on Washington.

But for me, the whole thing felt pretty bizarre.

From that first email to the moment we walked in the door.

There was this sense that everyone already knew exactly how this was going to go.

So you've been spending a lot of time on ancient history.

Almost like it was scripted.

It'll be kind of fun to relift some of the early days I'm looking forward to it.

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