From Blue’s Clues To Big Questions: Steve Burns Is Back, This Time For Adults
By Erin Whitten
I have a confession to make. When I was little, I would shout the answers to the puzzles on Blue’s Clues. There was no groupthink or conformity from me. I would listen to Steve Burns patiently ask me “what makes it yellow?”, “what’s that sound?” or “what shape is that?” and I would yell, with fervor and speed, as if my life depended on it, “a yellow banana,” “a car!” or “a square!” I was a fan. I bought the merchandise. I wore the T-shirts and the socks. I carried a Handy Dandy Notebook and filled it with clues and puzzles alongside Steve and Blue. I learned to slow down with them. I learned to listen. I learned to wonder. I learned to be curious. And when he left, I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me.
I think most of my generation probably felt this way. There was no public statement, no epic send-off episode, no Facebook post. One day, Steve was gone. The clues were replaced with Joe, and that was that. We were growing up, and the world was getting louder and messier and faster. So we put Steve away, in that gentle place in our memories where we keep things that we used to know that made us feel safe.
Well Steve never left. In fact, he’s now back for the grown-ups we became.
This Fall 2025, Steve Burns is releasing a podcast, Alive, in partnership with Lemonada Media. A weekly podcast show that’s part guided meditation, part interview, part old friend dropping in for a visit, this new project is aimed squarely at us—the adults who shouted answers at our TVs as children, who are now silent, staring into space with questions no cartoon show prepared us to answer.
There are a thousand podcasts you can listen to. This is one that listens back
Steve says of the podcast, and no, that’s not good branding. That’s a promise. In a culture full of content and opinions and noise and pressure, Alive is offering something different. It’s offering us a chance to slow down. The way Blue’s Clues offered us the space to think as children, Alive is offering a chance to feel as adults. Topics like mortality, loneliness, identity, masculinity, sex, grief, and, yes, taxes will be covered in this way, far too human, to not be beautiful and messy and alive.
Steve’s Slow (Burns) Revolution
In the last 10 years, we’ve seen plenty of reboots and sequels and remakes of things we loved from our childhood. Shows. Movies. Characters. Some work. Some don’t. Steve’s latest project feels like something fundamentally different. It’s not a reboot of Blue’s Clues, not a retread of the old magic in hopes of lightning in a bottle once again. Instead, he is meeting us exactly where we are.
In 2021, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Blue’s Clues, Steve filmed a viral clip that brought all of us grown-ups to an abrupt stop. There was nothing there, really—a man in front of a blank wall, and a camera. And then he looked right at the camera and said the thing none of us thought we’d hear
“I never forgot you. Ever.”
Adults in the millions cried. It wasn’t because we had forgotten him. We hadn’t. But in that moment, we all realized how much we needed to be seen and heard the way Steve saw and heard us when we were children. Reddit threads exploded with testimonies. People saying they rewatched the clip whenever they were feeling sad. Others saying they never truly realized how much the ending had impacted them until that moment.
There is an indescribable power in a childhood figure resurfacing, not to hawk merchandise or to recreate what worked before or to remind us that it used to be like this but to simply say, “I’m still here. And it’s not easy, is it?” And that’s what Alive promises to be. It’s not an homage. It’s a lifeline.
The truth is, we never stopped needing Steve. We needed a calm guide. We needed a friend to be with us. We needed someone who would sit across from us and ask, “What do you think?” and then wait. We are the generation that came of age when we were all connected, and now we feel disconnected. We are fluent in internet culture but struggle to be vulnerable. We are well-informed but easily overwhelmed. We are ambitious, burned out, hopeful, and heartbroken all at the same time.
Well now? Here’s Steve again to remind us it’s okay to feel all of the above. It’s okay to not have everything figured out. He’s not coming back to lecture or to give us answers. He’s coming back to help us ask better questions.
Alive
In many ways, the podcast’s name tells you everything. This is what we’re all here to do. Not just survive. Not just exist. But really live. Awake and present. Feeling the heft and the wonder of just being here.
In a culture that asks us to constantly look away from what’s right in front of us, a show that centers listening, reflection, and human connection in all its forms feels radical and quiet. Who better to guide it than a man who used to ask you to find clues in your own living room?
I think the most comforting thing about all of this is the fact that this doesn’t have to be an ending. It’s a new beginning. The people who shaped us have space in their lives to continue to grow with us. Kindness and curiosity and presence aren’t just for children. They’re critical survival skills for adulthood. Who knows? Maybe Steve still has more to teach us. Maybe he just hasn’t started yet.
And so this fall, when Alive comes out, I will be there. Not to wallow in the past but to be in the present. To be a little more human. A little more heard. A little more alive. Maybe I’ll even crack open a notebook.
