A real black bear skull sits in London’s Hunterian Museum, its teeth ruined by decades of honey fed to it by a boy named Christopher Robin. That bear, Winnie, was bought for $20 by Canadian veterinarian Harry Colebourn in 1914 and became a regimental mascot before being left at the London Zoo. This episode traces how a zoo bear, a swan named Pooh, and a Harrods teddy bear combined into one of the most recognizable characters in history, and how A.A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard built the Hundred Acre Wood from the real Ashdown Forest.

From there the story turns to commerce and conflict. Stephen Slesinger bought the U.S. merchandising rights in 1930 for a $1,000 advance, added the famous red shirt in 1932, and built a $50 million-a-year business during the Depression. Disney took over in 1961 and grew it to nearly $6 billion in annual retail sales, second only to Mickey Mouse. We cover the decades-long royalty lawsuit that ended with a private investigator digging through Disney’s dumpsters, the 2022 public domain expiration that spawned a slasher film, the censorship of the character in China, Taiwanese Air Force morale patches, and Yuzuru Hanyu’s fans raining plush bears onto Olympic ice.

• How Harry Colebourn’s $20 bear cub became a WWI mascot and London Zoo sensation
• Why Shepard drew his own son’s bear, Growler, instead of Christopher Robin’s toy
• Stephen Slesinger’s licensing deal and the origin of the red shirt
• The 1991 Slesinger v. Disney lawsuit and the dumpster-diving scandal
• How public domain status and internet memes turned Pooh into a slasher villain and a geopolitical flashpoint