Steve Burns, the beloved unique host of Blue’s Clues, is again in entrance of a digital camera and microphone with Alive, a brand new podcast from Lemonada Media that premiered Wednesday.

Twenty years after he left kids’s tv, Burns now goals to take the sensibilities of his outdated present—curiosity, calm, and connection—and develop it up for an grownup viewers.

The title itself is a mirrored image of Burns’ newly mature method. He was moved by the viral response to a 2021 anniversary video the place he reconnected with followers. 

“When folks found I used to be nonetheless alive, they had been completely happy about it,” Burns stated. “That connection appeared to endure, and this podcast is my manner of constant it.”

A do-it-yourself ethos

Alive feels in contrast to most podcasts in the marketplace.

Burns information largely from residence, dealing with not solely the internet hosting but in addition writing and composing unique music. He desires the present to really feel handmade, invoking the aesthetic of public entry tv and the intimacy of a childhood pal.

Episodes function surprising structural selections: lengthy silences, open-ended questions, and interactive listening moments the place the viewers is invited to mirror. Burns sees these pauses not as empty house however as “lively silence” that enables listeners to really feel like contributors.

Arielle Nissenblatt, founding father of the consultancy EarBuds Podcast Collective, stated these pauses may resonate deeply with adults who as soon as watched Blue’s Clues. 

“It lets listeners cease for a minute and really feel that consolation wash over them,” she stated. “You get rest and thoughtfulness with out totally tuning out.”

That meditative high quality makes Alive stand out in a market the place podcasts are sometimes designed to maximise tempo and effectivity. 

“Some folks wish to study one thing new, others wish to recap the information or get leisure,” Burns stated. “That is about being collectively within the weirdness of life, not about racing to the following truth or joke.”

Lemonada’s function

For Lemonada, Alive represents each a inventive wager and a business alternative.

Chief government Jessica Cordova Kramer described the partnership as “full on,” with Burns serving as government producer and inventive visionary whereas the community offers infrastructure, advertising, distribution, and gross sales.

“Steve is beloved throughout so many sectors of society, and his present is speaking about common experiences—failure, dying, funds—that entrepreneurs wish to have interaction with,” she stated. “Our job is to package deal that in a manner that feels genuine to him and worthwhile for them.”