LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow, embracing chaos, adjusting expectations : Wild Card with Rachel Martin : NPR

LeVar Burton has portrayed the Black experience "from our enslavement to the stars" Enlarge this image toggle caption Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: So we all get this one life, right? Sponsor Message To me, LeVar Burton will always be Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge, the dry-witted chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise. But if you ask people in their 30s and early 40s who LeVar Burton is, odds are they're gonna smile and talk about what a big deal Reading Rainbow was to them growing up. As the host, LeVar Burton didn't just teach kids to love reading, he taught them to love themselves – to believe that they had their own voice in this beautiful but complicated world.