Blue’s Clues Host Launches Alive, a New Podcast on Adulthood

Based in 2019, Lemonada has grown rapidly into one of the crucial outstanding unbiased podcast networks, now boasting greater than 100 reveals. 

The corporate has constructed a fame on socially aware storytelling, with titles that span psychological well being, politics, and tradition. Its in-house groups deal with every thing from manufacturing and social distribution to gross sales and branded content material campaigns.

Advertisers together with ZipRecruiter and BetterHelp have already signed on to Alive, whereas curiosity can be coming from monetary companies companies, meal package corporations, and wellness manufacturers. These sponsors see alignment within the present’s themes of middle-aged resilience and on a regular basis problem-solving.

The wager is that Alive can ship not simply one-off buzz however sustained listenership. The problem for Lemonada shall be to make sure Alive isn’t only a short-lived experiment however a repeatable franchise, in line with Nissenblatt.

A wager on video

Whereas Alive is rooted in audio, Lemonada sees it as a video-first property. 

The community has seen triple-digit development in video consumption throughout its portfolio, and Burns’ TikTok experiments—brief clips the place he merely asks “What’s up?” after which listens silently—have already proven viral enchantment.

That momentum displays a bigger trade shift. The road between podcasting and video has blurred as creators more and more suppose by way of multiplatform distribution. A present might need an RSS feed, a YouTube channel, and a TikTok presence concurrently, every feeding into the others. 

For Alive, the plan is to distribute full episodes by way of podcast apps whereas utilizing YouTube and TikTok to floor shorter, visible riffs.

Episodes will run weekly, with a plan to publish round 30 throughout the primary yr, damaged into seasonal arcs. Burns retains full management over visitor choice, balancing superstar interviews with on a regular basis voices that underscore the present’s ethos of human connection. Visitors embrace Jamie Lee Curtis and Tig Notaro, in addition to a hospice nurse with whom Burns has a frank dialog about loss of life.

For the era that grew up with Blue’s Clues, Burns’ presence presents a dose of nostalgia and continuity. However Alive is pitched simply as a lot at listeners who by no means watched the children’ present, framing its host much less as a former TV star than as a companion navigating maturity.

The goal of the intimate really feel is to faucet into one in every of podcasting’s defining strengths: parasocial connection. 

Listeners kind one-sided bonds with hosts, usually feeling like they’re in dialog with an in depth pal. Burns subverts that conference by intentionally inserting silence, turning the format again on the viewers. As a substitute of passive consumption, listeners are invited to pause, suppose, and take part.

That inversion, paired with Lemonada’s advertising muscle and gross sales infrastructure, positions Alive as each a inventive experiment and a business play. For Burns, although, the motivation is less complicated.

“I simply wish to make one thing that feels actual and respectful,” he stated. “This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about being alive, collectively, in all its weirdness.”