Steve Burns, the beloved authentic 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.
20 years after he left kids’s tv, Burns now goals to take the sensibilities of his outdated present—curiosity, calm, and connection—and develop it up for an grownup viewers.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 strategy. He was moved by the viral response to a 2021 anniversary video the place he reconnected with followers.
“When individuals found I used to be nonetheless alive, they have been joyful about it,” Burns stated. “That connection appeared to endure, and this podcast is my means of constant it.”
A home made ethos
Alive feels not like most podcasts available on the market.
Burns data largely from dwelling, dealing with not solely the internet hosting but additionally writing and composing authentic music. He desires the present to really feel handmade, invoking the aesthetic of public entry tv and the intimacy of a childhood buddy.
Episodes characteristic 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 “energetic silence” that permits listeners to really feel like individuals.
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 individuals need to be taught one thing new, others need to recap the information or get leisure,” Burns stated. “That is about being collectively within the weirdness of life, not about racing to the subsequent 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 need to interact with,” she stated. “Our job is to package deal that in a means that feels genuine to him and useful for them.”
Based in 2019, Lemonada has grown shortly into one of the vital outstanding impartial podcast networks, now boasting greater than 100 exhibits.
The corporate has constructed a fame on socially acutely aware storytelling, with titles that span psychological well being, politics, and tradition. Its in-house groups deal with all the pieces 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 also be coming from monetary companies corporations, meal equipment 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 will probably be to make sure Alive isn’t only a short-lived experiment however a repeatable franchise, in response to 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 progress in video consumption throughout its portfolio, and Burns’ TikTok experiments—quick clips the place he merely asks “What’s up?” after which listens silently—have already proven viral attraction.
That momentum displays a bigger trade shift. The road between podcasting and video has blurred as creators more and more assume when it comes to multiplatform distribution. A present may 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 through 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 embody Jamie Lee Curtis and Tig Notaro, in addition to a hospice nurse with whom Burns has a frank dialog about dying.
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 youngsters’ present, framing its host much less as a former TV star than as a companion navigating maturity.
The intention of the intimate really feel is to faucet into considered one of podcasting’s defining strengths: parasocial connection.
Listeners kind one-sided bonds with hosts, usually feeling like they’re in dialog with a detailed buddy. 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, assume, 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 easier.
“I simply need 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.”
