Tag: Stan and Jan Berenstain

Episode 521 – The BEAR Essentials!

Stan and Jan Berenstain wrote a parenting guide, and Becca and I have some questions.

This week, we crack open THE BEAR ESSENTIALS: parenting advice, unexpectedly advanced vocabulary, and a VERY thorough index. We explore the Berenstains’ earlier cartoons for adults, consider the financial wisdom of Barbie and Beanie Baby college funds, and take an entirely reasonable detour into Psalty the Singing Songbook.

But first, Becca has a new clue in our ongoing mystery of those unusual Berenstain Bears hardcovers: matching Tuesday Morning stickers. We follow the discount-store trail and try to piece together how these books ended up on the shelves.

Have one of these mystery editions sitting around your house? Let us know in the comments!

There’s always more Bear Country.

Episode 520 – The Berenstain Bears and BECCA IS CO-HOST!

After more than 11 years of Deep in Bear Country, I officially have a co-host! Becca Peter joins me and she’s brought a Berenstain Bears mystery that has even Mike Berenstain stumped.

Becca has uncovered some unusual hardcover editions featuring messages from Stan and Jan, unfiltered parenting advice, maybe a connection to the Berenstains’ parenting guide(?), and Ronald Reagan’s death. We’re gonna get into these!

We also talk about how Becca found the show, our plans to revisit classic First Time Books, and why vintage coloring books might provide us with an alarming amount of material.

Have one of these mysterious editions? Know where they came from? Have something you’d like us to cover? Write to us at berenstainbearcast@gmail.com!

Episode 519 – Sister Bear Learns to Share | Brother Bear Loves Dinosaurs!

After more than a decade in Bear Country, Becca Peter is still finding Berenstain Bears books that have completely escaped my attention.

This time, we’re exploring Sister Bear Learns to Share and Brother Bear Loves Dinosaurs: two overlooked board books featuring peculiar rhymes, unfamiliar cubs, and a potentially alarming explanation for Brother’s love of dinosaurs.

Does Sister actually have anything to learn about sharing? Who are Jason and Melanie? Is the pterodactyl being a little too showy?

Plus: vintage coloring books with actual plots, our dreams of Berenstain Bears graphic novels, and the joy of discovering there’s still more Bear Country to explore.

Find Becca on TikTok at tiktok.com/@defectivebecca

Episode 518 – Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right (2026)

Mike Berenstain returns to talk about Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right, a rediscovered story from Stan and Jan’s archives. We discuss recreating their classic illustration style, navigating publishers’ suggestions, and more unpublished treasures headed for print. Plus: childhood artistic revelations, Dr. Seuss, Peanuts, Richard Scarry, and my entirely reasonable demand for more Ferdy Factual and Trudy Brunowitz.

Episode 512 – The Berenstain Bears (deep breath) The Truth/Save The Bees/Get In A Fight/The Bigpaw Problem!

I’m back with TWO EPISODES in ONE. That translates to FOUR EPISODES! because there’s two episodes per episode. So, it’s four.

Episode 512 – The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners/The Wicked Weasel Spell!

Let’s learn how to BEHAVE and how to RESIST HYPNOTISM! It’s The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners and The Wicked Weasel Spell!

Episode 507 – The Berenstain Bears In the Dark/Ring the Bell!

This week, we’re watching along with The Berenstain Bears In the Dark and Ring the Bell. The last two segments of Season One! WOO HOO!

Also, standwithminnesota.com is still the best place to go for donations but there’s also https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-south-high-school-families to directly support the familes of South HIgh students primarily with rent support.

Episode 506 – The Berenstain Bears LEARN ABOUT STRANGERS and THE DISAPPEARING HONEY!

You ready to LEARN ABOUT STRANGERS? You ready to DISAPPEAR SOME HONEY?! Let’s go, then, bruh!

Help out in Minnesota!

standwithminnesota.com

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-south-high-school-families

Episode 489 – The Berenstain Bears: Get Outdoors

This week I’m talking about The Berenstain Bears Get Outdoors (2025), a simple Level 1 reader where the Cubs camp in the backyard, Papa Bear makes a mess of things, and—out of nowhere—Mr. Raccoon shows up. Along the way, I share a few of my own disastrous camping stories, look back at the old Ghost of the Forest tale, and explain how this very podcast somehow landed me in a 3M commercial.

Episode 485 – 10th Anniversary and “Parents Are Such A Lot Of Trouble!”

It’s the 10th anniversary of Deep in Bear Country, so let’s reunite with longtime friends Brad Mariska and Jeremy Gloff to mark a decade of Berenstain Bear-loving chaos! Brad and Jeremy reflect on the origins of the show, the evolution of their collecting journeys, and the joys and… other joys of the Berenstain Bears fandom.

And, we’re super jazzed about the exciting release of a long-lost boutique book from Stan and Jan Berenstain—Parents Are Such a Lot of Trouble—recently discovered in the Berenstain archives and published via print-on-demand. We dive into the book’s significance, emotional resonance, and raw artistic charm, and explore what makes it such a powerful find for fans and collectors alike.

Episode 481 – Tax-Wise: A Pictorial Romp Through the Tax Form by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Before they created the beloved Berenstain Bears, Stan and Jan Berenstain were drawing… THIS?! Tax-Wise: A Pictorial Romp Through the Tax Form (1952) is a bizarre, hyper-specific IRS humor book filled with visual gags, surreal scenarios, and more gendered 1950s weirdness than you can shake a W-2 at. In this episode, I (Phil Gonzales) walk you through the entire book — panel by panel — and try to make sense of its wild humor, historical context, and what it tells us about the Berenstains before they became family-friendly legends.

This was a personal request from Mike Berenstain himself, and honestly, it’s the perfect unhinged way to celebrate tax season.