By Mallory Mattingly
Steve Burns, the former host of hit ’90s children’s TV show BLUE’S CLUES, plans to release a new podcast all about being “human in a complicated world.”
He describes the podcast, called “Alive,” as a “cozy and delightful weekly series.”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Burns shared in a YouTube video. “So it’s basically a societal requirement at this point that everyone has a podcast. So why don’t we have one? You and I.”
“I mean, it could basically be what we’ve always done. You and I have always been about this deep and curious investigation of our world in search of these little bits of information that lead to greater understanding, right, and we would even sit somewhere always with the intention of being super thoughtful about it,” Burns added, referencing BLUE’S CLUES.
He continued: “I don’t know, sounds like a podcast to me. I mean it used to be about shapes and colors and letters and numbers and vegetables and stuff, but now it could really be about death and taxes and everything that makes it so weird and wonderful to be alive. I don’t know, I think it sounds pretty cool.”
BLUE’S CLUES ran from 1996 to 2002, and Burns collected a significant fan base. But it also took a toll on his mental health.
“I didn’t know it yet, but I was the happiest depressed person in North America,” he shared about his mental state while on the show. “I was struggling with severe clinical depression the whole time I was on that show. It was my job to be utterly and completely full of joy and wonder at all times, and that became impossible.”
After the show ended, he left the public eye and didn’t return until 2021. Since then, he’s been vulnerable about his mental heath struggles.
“People have been asking me how I’m doing, and honestly, I’m a little freaked by the world. It seems like lots of people are shouting, and really no one is listening,” he posted on Instagram soon after announcing his podcast.
That is what led Burns to create “Alive.”
“There are a thousand podcasts you can listen to, this is one that listens back. I really want to continue what we started decades ago,” he told CNN in a statement. “For us, it was all about curious investigation. It was about looking a little closer. About asking the right questions.”
Burns will interact in vulnerable conversations with different guests as he “continues to connect with both the generation who grew up with him and new audiences alike.”
The podcast is a “continuation of that same conversation — only now we’re grown-ups, trying to make sense of a world that’s a whole lot more complicated.”
“Alive” will debut this fall in partnership with Lemonada Media.
Read Next: Steve Burns Returns to BLUE’S CLUES After Battle with Depression
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