Episode 9: Bacon Makes It Better

This sizzlin' episode is all about Bacon. Lia tells us the story National Bacon Day, created by “two nice Jewish girls” inspired by a classic episode of The Simpsons. We hear about the awesomely-named Iowa Porkettes, wives of hog farmers who joined forces in the 1960s to save the pork industry. Finally she asks, as so many have, what’s the deal with “Canadian Bacon”? In our Deep Dish, Anna revisits one of our favorite topics, food trends! We look at how in the last 20 years Bacon became the hottest food craze this side of Pumpkin Spice. This bizarre story starts with 1980s diet culture, and leads to a secret pact between a pork marketing exec and a fast food mogul made at a hotel pool during a 1990’s pork convention in Florida (picture it). Once the Bacon craze started to sizzle, the advertising took a dark turn, moving from positive ads targeting a wide audience, to disturbing negative ones aimed mostly at men. Which makes Anna wonder, is Bacon the gateway meat to toxic masculinity?

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Explore from the show:
Watch Michael Scott risk life and limb for bacon on The Office.
Relive your childhood with this Pork, The Other White Meat ad.
Listen to more about the damage caused by toxic masculinity on Hidden Brain's episode "The Lonely American Man."
Hear a very important Bacon PSA from Ron Swanson on Parks & Rec.

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