Axolotls. Narwhals. Llamas. Sloths. Every few years, it seems like American kids and parents collectively decide they cannot get enough of a creature that makes teddy bears seem impossibly quaint. In today’s episode we’re going to swim after the axolotl, as it takes us to some far-flung and unexpected places, to understand how it came to rule the stuffed animal kingdom. Though the answer absolutely has to do with parents eager to please their children at the gift shop, it's bigger than that. The insatiable hunger for novelty that is bound up with the axolotl — well, that has to do with all of us. This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. It was edited by Evan Chung. We produce Decoder Ring with Max Freedman. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. In this episode you’ll hear from Elaine Kollias who works with Folkmanis Puppets, Diana Laura Vasquez Mendoza who is a biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Dr. Jessica Whited who is a professor at Harvard, Gerhard Runken who is the executive vice president of global brand and marketing for Jazwares, and Laura Wattenberg who is a baby name expert. Thank you to our translator Ezequiel Andino, as well as Luis Zambrano, Kelley Garnier, and Alejandra Escobar. And if you’d like to help the wild Axolotl, here is the conservation project where Diana works and they accept donations. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring and all other Slate podcasts without any ads and have total access to Slate’s website. Your support is also crucial to our work. Go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When I was a little kid, I had one stuffed animal that I loved more than all the rest.
I adored it so much I could never part with it.
Even as I got older, I'm a little sheepish about all the places that I lugged it.
Summer camp, college, the many apartments I lived in in my 20s.
All until it found a new owner.
This is Allie.
It was my mom's favorite stuffy willows.
And it's an owl that used to be white, but she plays it so much it turned gray.
That's my seven year old daughter.
The other day I asked her to go through a bag full of her stuffed animals which she calls stuffies and tell me about each of them.
Oh, this is cowie, my favorite stuffy.
It's white and black and it's a cow.
I begged mommy for him.
At first glance, her stuffed animal collection is full of familiar, adorable classics.
Your cats, your dogs, your bears.
This one, its name is Barry.
It's a dog and it berry lives.
Sorry, its name is Barry, but it's a dog.
Yeah, it's a dog.
But she also has a number of stuffed animals that are relatively unusual.