LeVar Burton is making a return to children’s entertainment with Sound Detectives, a podcast debuting this spring from SiriusXM’s Stitcher.
Created by Burton in collaboration with Julia Smith and Joanna Sokolowski, Sound Detectives begins with the premise that sounds are starting to go missing in the world, and the culprit appears to be the so-called Sound Swindler. To solve the case, the characters Detective Hunch and Audie the Ear will lead kids on a narrative adventure that engages their listening skills as they compare and contrast sounds. Each episode will also take place in a different location in the world, showcasing different cultures, as young listeners try to identify what a sound is and where it is coming from.
Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday, Burton said that as a military kid growing up overseas, he often relied on the radio for entertainment when living in locations without English-language TV. “That is where I discovered that theater of the mind, listening to a story unfold and connecting to it purely in my imagination based on what I was hearing. It’s a real different experience,” Burton said. “I loved the opportunity to be able to tap into that aspect of ourselves, the aural nature of the human being and what it can bring to us in our lives.”
With Sound Detectives, Burton saw an opportunity to help direct kids away from screens and engage their brains in a different manner — a hallmark of children’s podcasts, a genre that has seen massive growth in recent years. “It’s really about satiating the curiosity of kids, giving them an opportunity to use a different part of their brains and different skillsets than we normally use in a very visually dominated world,” Burton said.
Sound Detectives will be Burton’s second podcast following LeVar Burton Reads, another Burton and Stitcher production that features the former Reading Rainbow host sharing works of short fiction. The series has been downloaded more than 25 million times, according to SiriusXM.
Sound Detectives is executive produced by Burton and Josephine Martorana (LeVar Burton Reads, Science Rules! with Bill Nye). SXM Media will have the exclusive global ad sales rights for the series.
